Troubleshooting Facebook connections

Having trouble connecting or refreshing your Facebook Page connection to Buffer? If you’re receiving an error or your Facebook Page doesn’t show up when you try to connect, here are steps to go through your Facebook settings and permissions to make sure your connection is successful.
In this article:
  1. Check/confirm you have a Facebook Page
  2. Checking your admin settings
  3. Checking your connection permissions on Facebook
  4. Reauthorizing the connection between Facebook and Buffer 

Check/confirm that it’s a Facebook Page:

We can only connect Facebook Pages and Groups. Unfortunately, we cannot connect Facebook personal profiles or Facebook Professional profiles due to API restrictions. You can learn about the difference and how to check what you have here.

Checking your admin settings in your Facebook Page

To connect or refresh your Facebook Page and/or Instagram channel in Buffer, you’ll first need to be set up as an Admin of the Facebook Page with Full Control. Depending on how your Page was created, you may need to check your permissions in both your Page’s Professional Dashboard and in Meta Business Suite > Business Portfolio.  

Start here:

  1. Are you troubleshooting your Facebook Page connection? Please continue in section A below.
  2. Are you are troubleshooting your Instagram connection? Please check if your Instagram account is connected to your Page by clicking here. 
    1. If it’s linked, your Page is in a Business Portfolio. Skip to Section B below. 
    2. If it is not linked, please continue to Section A below to check your admin status before linking your Instagram channel to the Page.

A) Checking settings in the Professional Dashboard

  1. Log into Facebook on your computer.
  2. Click your avatar in the top right-hand corner then click “See all profiles”. Here’s what that looks like.
  3. Click on the Page you want to work with. If you don’t see your Page, please see this guide.
  4. Now click here to get to your Page Access settings.
  5. Click your name and a popup will appear. It should say, "This person has full control.” (screenshot here)
  6. If you have full control, you are set up correctly here. 
  7. Next, check to see if you have a Business Portfolio listed on this page, like this (screenshot here). If you do, you must check these settings in Section B below.
  8. If you don’t see a Business Portfolio, and you don’t have Full Control, someone else on your team with Full Control will need to grant you permission on the Page. Here are those steps.

B) Checking settings in Meta Business Suite > Business Portfolio

⚠️ If at any point during these steps you cannot access a link or you do not see what is shown in the screenshots, this means you don’t have access and you should go to Step 6.

  1. Go to Meta Business Suite by clicking this link. 
  2. Choose the correct Facebook Page in the drop-down list in the left-hand navigation (screenshot here).
  3. Click this link to go to Settings. 
  4. Click on People under the "Users" section and ensure that Full control: Everything is next to your name under Business Portfolio Access. It should look like this. 
  5. Click Pages under the "Accounts" section and then choose the right page. Look for your name on the list. You’ll want to ensure the setting Full control: Everything is toggled on. It should look like this. 
  6. If you do not have access, you will need someone else on your team to grant you Admin access with Full Control in Business Portfolio. Here are those steps.

📝 Notes:

  • Facebook connections: Pages can be created both inside and outside of a Business Portfolio, which is why you may need to check both places.
  • Instagram connections: You may have Admin access with Full Control within the Facebook Page itself, but once an Instagram account is linked to the Page, it is automatically moved into a Business Portfolio by Meta and you must have the right permissions within that Business Portfolio.

Checking your connection permissions on Facebook

Sometimes you might be missing connection permissions between Facebook and Buffer. It's crucial that all permissions are granted for all Pages (even those that aren't connected to Buffer). If permissions are missing, it can prevent us from finding the Facebook and Instagram channels you manage. 
This video will walk you through the steps to check permissions, or you can follow the steps below:

Here are the steps to do this:

  1. Log into the Facebook personal profile that has admin access with Full Control on the Facebook Page.

⚠️ Please note that these settings are found on your Facebook profile and not within the Facebook Page settings, so you must be using Facebook as your profile to access them.

  1. Click on the small drop-down arrow at the top right of your screen and then click Settings & privacy > Settings.
  2. Head to Business Integrations in Facebook.
  3. Find Buffer in the list and choose View and Edit.
  4. Scroll down to the list of Pages and ensure that ALL boxes are selected (you may need to click See all pages to expand the list of pages and see the ones that need permissions to be granted). From here, tick all of the empty boxes.
Permissions area when connecting Facebook to Buffer

📝 If you don’t see any individual Pages listed in the following screens, it means that you’ve previously granted Buffer permissions to access all Pages, which is the ideal setup. In this case, you won’t need to check any Pages here, and instead, you’ll need to reauthorize the connection between Buffer and Facebook using the steps in the next section

  1. After selecting all of your accounts, click Save.
  2. Head back to Buffer and try connecting the Facebook Page or Instagram channel again. If it does not connect, please continue to the next section.

Reauthorizing the connection between Facebook and Buffer 

If the steps above didn’t work to connect or refresh your Facebook Page or Instagram channel, you may need to reauthorize the connection between Buffer and Facebook. Watch the video below or use the steps under the video to work through the process. 

Reauthorizing steps

  1. In Facebook, click on the small drop down arrow at the top right of your screen and then click Settings & privacy > Settings. From there, click Business Integrations on the left hand side (or click this link).

📝 Please note that these settings are found on your Facebook profile and not within the Facebook Page settings, so you must be using Facebook as your profile to access them.

  1. You should see Buffer listed in the integrations area. Click Remove.
  2. A window will pop up asking if you want to remove Buffer. Click Remove. Note: this will delete the Buffer app within Facebook, not your Buffer account.
  3. Head back over to to Buffer and try your connection again. When you are connecting or refreshing your Facebook Page or Instagram channel, please be sure to accept all permissions and all Pages (even Pages not connected to Buffer) during the authorization process.

📝 You'll notice an option to "Choose what you allow". This option is required to be shown in this step due to Facebook's guidelines, but modifying any of the permissions here will mean that we are not able to authenticate with Facebook and it will not be possible to connect your Facebook Page or Instagram channel.

Facebook pop-up - list of permissions Buffer has access to
  1. If you are trying to refresh an existing connection, please follow this guide to complete these steps.

Still having trouble? Reach out to us at hello@buffer.com and let us know the error you see and we’ll be happy to troubleshoot with you!

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