Facebook Scraper

Scrape Facebook public pages without an API key. Inspired by twitter-scraper.

Contributions

We are moving a bit slowly on updates, so if you want to help please check the TODO section below

Install

To install the latest release from PyPI (original version):

pip install git+https://gitflic.ru/project/paul2la/facebook-scraper.git

Usage

in order to get everything running right, follow these steps

1. Send the unique page name, profile name, or ID as the first parameter
2. Specify the base_url and start_url to use the mbasic page instead
3. Get the mbasicHeaders that you want to use and read them from a file in order to inject them into the scraper. you can get these headers from opening an example page and selecting a high-end device in the developer tools (such as samsung s20 ultra) . This will help with getting newer versions of posts and higher fidelity images.

from facebook_scraper import get_posts, _scraper
import json

with open('./mbasicHeaders.json', 'r') as file:
    _scraper.mbasic_headers = json.load(file)

for post in get_posts('NintendoAmerica', base_url="https://mbasic.facebook.com", start_url="https://mbasic.facebook.com/NintendoAmerica?v=timeline", pages=1):
...     print(post['text'][:50])
...
The final step on the road to the Super Smash Bros
We’re headed to PAX East 3/28-3/31 with new games

Optional parameters

(For the get_posts function).

• group: group id, to scrape groups instead of pages. Default is None.
• pages: how many pages of posts to request, the first 2 pages may have no results, so try with a number greater than 2. Default is 10.
• timeout: how many seconds to wait before timing out. Default is 30.
• credentials: tuple of user and password to login before requesting the posts. Default is None.
• extra_info: bool, if true the function will try to do an extra request to get the post reactions. Default is False.
• youtube_dl: bool, use Youtube-DL for (high-quality) video extraction. You need to have youtube-dl installed on your environment. Default is False.
• post_urls: list, URLs or post IDs to extract posts from. Alternative to fetching based on username.
• cookies: One of:
  • The path to a file containing cookies in Netscape or JSON format. You can extract cookies from your browser after logging into Facebook with an extension like Get cookies.txt LOCALLY or Cookie Quick Manager (Firefox). Make sure that you include both the c_user cookie and the xs cookie, you will get an InvalidCookies exception if you don’t.
  • A CookieJar
  • A dictionary that can be converted to a CookieJar with cookiejar_from_dict
  • The string "from_browser" to try extract Facebook cookies from your browser
• options: Dictionary of options.
  • Set options={"comments": True} to extract comments.
  • Set options={"reactors": True} to extract the people reacting to the post.
  • Set options={"reactions": True} to extract the reactions of the post. Similar to reactors but only extracts reactions and not the people who reacted. Makes only one request per post
  • Both comments and reactors can also be set to a number to set a limit for the amount of comments/reactors to retrieve.
  • Set options={"progress": True} to get a tqdm progress bar while extracting comments and replies.
  • Set options={"allow_extra_requests": False} to disable making extra requests when extracting post data (required for some things like full text and image links).
  • Set options={"posts_per_page": 200} to request 200 posts per page. The default is 4.
  • Set options={"image_hop_timeout": 2} to delay the image cycling by n seconds, this is useful to prevent pinging fb a lot.
  • Set options={"HQ_images_max_count": 2} to limit the max count of returned images.
  • Set options={"whitelist_methods": [<the method list you want to use for extraction>]} to extract only specific sections of a post, this is useful to not use up your requests when you don’t need to. Here is the list of methods you can use

CLI usage

$ facebook-scraper --filename nintendo_page_posts.csv --pages 10 nintendo

Run facebook-scraper --help for more details on CLI usage.

Note: If you get a UnicodeEncodeError try adding --encoding utf-8.

Practical example: donwload comments of a post

"""
Download comments for a public Facebook post.
"""

import facebook_scraper as fs

# get POST_ID from the URL of the post which can have the following structure:
# https://mbasic.facebook.com/USER/posts/POST_ID
# https://mbasic.facebook.com/groups/GROUP_ID/posts/POST_ID
POST_ID = "https://mbasic.facebook.com/<pageId>/posts/<postId>"

# number of comments to download -- set this to True to download all comments
MAX_COMMENTS = 100

# get the post (this gives a generator)
gen = fs.get_posts(
    post_urls=[POST_ID],
    options={"comments": MAX_COMMENTS, "progress": True}
)

# take 1st element of the generator which is the post we requested
post = next(gen)

# extract the comments part
comments = post['comments_full']

# process comments as you want...
for comment in comments:

    # e.g. ...print them
    print(comment)

    # e.g. ...get the replies for them
    for reply in comment['replies']:
        print(' ', reply)

Post example

{'available': True,
 'comments': 459,
 'comments_full': None,
 'factcheck': None,
 'fetched_time': datetime.datetime(2021, 4, 20, 13, 39, 53, 651417),
 'image': 'https://scontent.fhlz2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/58745049_2257182057699568_1761478225390731264_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=ygH2fPmfQpAAX92ABYY&_nc_ht=scontent.fhlz2-1.fna&tp=14&oh=7a8a7b4904deb55ec696ae255fff97dd&oe=60A36717',
 'images': ['https://scontent.fhlz2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/58745049_2257182057699568_1761478225390731264_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=ygH2fPmfQpAAX92ABYY&_nc_ht=scontent.fhlz2-1.fna&tp=14&oh=7a8a7b4904deb55ec696ae255fff97dd&oe=60A36717'],
 'is_live': False,
 'likes': 3509,
 'link': 'https://www.nintendo.com/amiibo/line-up/',
 'post_id': '2257188721032235',
 'post_text': 'Don’t let this diminutive version of the Hero of Time fool you, '
              'Young Link is just as heroic as his fully grown version! Young '
              'Link joins the Super Smash Bros. series of amiibo figures!\n'
              '\n'
              'https://www.nintendo.com/amiibo/line-up/',
 'post_url': 'https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2257188721032235&id=119240841493711',
 'reactions': {'haha': 22, 'like': 2657, 'love': 706, 'sorry': 1, 'wow': 123}, # if `extra_info` was set
 'reactors': None,
 'shared_post_id': None,
 'shared_post_url': None,
 'shared_text': '',
 'shared_time': None,
 'shared_user_id': None,
 'shared_username': None,
 'shares': 441,
 'text': 'Don’t let this diminutive version of the Hero of Time fool you, '
         'Young Link is just as heroic as his fully grown version! Young Link '
         'joins the Super Smash Bros. series of amiibo figures!\n'
         '\n'
         'https://www.nintendo.com/amiibo/line-up/',
 'time': datetime.datetime(2019, 4, 30, 5, 0, 1),
 'full_text':'Don’t let this diminutive version of the Hero of Time fool you, '
         'Young Link is just as heroic as his fully grown version! Young Link '
         'joins the Super Smash Bros. series of amiibo figures!', # !! This will only be present if the post_text and text is truncated
 'user_id': '119240841493711',
 'username': 'Nintendo',
 'video': None,
 'video_id': None,
 'video_thumbnail': None,
 'w3_fb_url': 'https://www.facebook.com/Nintendo/posts/2257188721032235'}

Notes

• There is no guarantee that every field will be extracted (they might be None).
• Group posts may be missing some fields like time and post_url.
• Group scraping may return only one page and not work on private groups.
• If you scrape too much, Facebook might temporarily ban your IP.
• The vast majority of unique IDs on facebook (post IDs, video IDs, photo IDs, comment IDs, profile IDs, etc) can be appended to “https://www.facebook.com/” to result in a redirect to the corresponding object.
• Some functions (such as extracting reactions) require you to be logged into Facebook (pass cookies). If something isn’t working as expected, try pass cookies and see if that fixes it.
• Reaction Categories (EN): [like, love, haha, sorry, wow, angry, care]

Comment & Reply example

{'comment_id': '1417925635669547', 
 'comment_url': 'https://facebook.com/1417925635669547', 
 'commenter_id': '100009665948953', 
 'commenter_url': 'https://facebook.com/tw0311?eav=AfZuEAOAat6KRX5WFplL0SNA4ZW78Z2O7W_sjwMApq67hZxXDwXh2WF2ezhICX1LCT4&fref=nf&rc=p&refid=52&__tn__=R&paipv=0', 
 'commenter_name': 'someone', 
 'commenter_meta': None, 
 'comment_text': 'something', 
 'comment_time': datetime.datetime(2023, 6, 23, 0, 0), 
 'comment_image': 'https://scontent.ftpe8-2.fna.fbcdn.net/m1/v/t6/An_UvxJXg9tdnLU3Y5qjPi0200MLilhzPXUgxzGjQzUMaNcmjdZA6anyrngvkdub33NZzZhd51fpCAEzNHFhko5aKRFP5fS1w_lKwYrzcNLupv27.png?ccb=10-5&oh=00_AfCdlpCwAg-SHhniMQ16uElFHh-OG8kGGmLAzvOY5_WZgw&oe=64BE3279&_nc_sid=7da55a', 
 'comment_reactors': [
   {'name': 'Tom', 'link': 'https://facebook.com/ryan.dwayne?eav=AfaxdKIITTXyZj4H-eanXQgoxzOa8Vag6XkGXXDisGzh_W74RYZSXxlFZBofR4jUIOg&fref=pb&paipv=0', 'type': 'like'}, 
   {'name': 'Macy', 'link': 'https://facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000112053053&eav=AfZ5iWlNN-EjjSwVNQl7E2HiVp25AUZMqfoPvLRZGnbUAQxuLeN8nl6xnnQTJB3uxDM&fref=pb&paipv=0', 'type': 'like'}],
 'comment_reactions': {'like': 2}, 
 'comment_reaction_count': 2, 
 'replies': [
   {'comment_id': '793761608817229', 
    'comment_url': 'https://facebook.com/793761608817229', 
    'commenter_id': '100022377272712', 
    'commenter_url': 'https://facebook.com/brizanne.torres?eav=Afab9uP4ByIMn1xaYK0UDd1SRU8e5Zu7faKEx6qTzLKD2vp_bB1xLDGvTwEd6u8A7jY&fref=nf&rc=p&__tn__=R&paipv=0', 
    'commenter_name': 'David', 
    'commenter_meta': None, 
    'comment_text': 'something', 
    'comment_time': datetime.datetime(2023, 6, 23, 18, 0), 
    'comment_image': None, 
    'comment_reactors': [], 
    'comment_reactions': {'love': 2}, 
    'comment_reaction_count': None}
 ]
}

Profiles

The get_profile function can extract information from a profile’s about section. Pass in the account name or ID as the first parameter. Note that Facebook serves different information depending on whether you’re logged in (cookies parameter), such as Date of birth and Gender. Usage:

from facebook_scraper import get_profile
get_profile("zuck") # Or get_profile("zuck", cookies="cookies.txt")

Outputs:

{'About': "I'm trying to make the world a more open place.",
 'Education': 'Harvard University\n'
              'Computer Science and Psychology\n'
              '30 August 2002 - 30 April 2004\n'
              'Phillips Exeter Academy\n'
              'Classics\n'
              'School year 2002\n'
              'Ardsley High School\n'
              'High School\n'
              'September 1998 - June 2000',
 'Favourite Quotes': '"Fortune favors the bold."\n'
                     '- Virgil, Aeneid X.284\n'
                     '\n'
                     '"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain '
                     'an artist once you grow up."\n'
                     '- Pablo Picasso\n'
                     '\n'
                     '"Make things as simple as possible but no simpler."\n'
                     '- Albert Einstein',
 'Name': 'Mark Zuckerberg',
 'Places lived': [{'link': '/profile.php?id=104022926303756&refid=17',
                   'text': 'Palo Alto, California',
                   'type': 'Current town/city'},
                  {'link': '/profile.php?id=105506396148790&refid=17',
                   'text': 'Dobbs Ferry, New York',
                   'type': 'Home town'}],
 'Work': 'Chan Zuckerberg Initiative\n'
         '1 December 2015 - Present\n'
         'Facebook\n'
         'Founder and CEO\n'
         '4 February 2004 - Present\n'
         'Palo Alto, California\n'
         'Bringing the world closer together.'}

To extract friends, pass the argument friends=True, or to limit the amount of friends retrieved, set friends to the desired number.

Group info

The get_group_info function can extract info about a group. Pass in the group name or ID as the first parameter. Note that in order to see the list of admins, you need to be logged in (cookies parameter).

Usage:

from facebook_scraper import get_group_info
get_group_info("makeupartistsgroup") # or get_group_info("makeupartistsgroup", cookies="cookies.txt")

Output:

{'admins': [{'link': '/africanstylemagazinecom/?refid=18',
             'name': 'African Style Magazine'},
            {'link': '/connectfluencer/?refid=18',
             'name': 'Everythingbrightandbeautiful'},
            {'link': '/Kaakakigroup/?refid=18', 'name': 'Kaakaki Group'},
            {'link': '/opentohelp/?refid=18', 'name': 'Open to Help'}],
 'id': '579169815767106',
 'members': 6814229,
 'name': 'HAIRSTYLES',
 'type': 'Public group'}

Write to a CSV file directly

The library also provides a write_posts_to_csv() function that writes posts directly to the disk and is able to resume scraping from the address of the last page. It is very useful when scraping large pages as the data is saved continuously and scraping can be resumed in case of an error. Here is an example to fetch the posts of a group 100 pages at a time and save them in separate files.

import facebook_scraper as fs

# Saves the first 100 pages
for i in range(1, 101):
    fs.write_posts_to_csv(
        group=GROUP_ID, # The method uses get_posts internally so you can use the same arguments and they will be passed along
        page_limit=100,
        timeout=60,
        options={
            'allow_extra_requests': False
        },
        filename=f'./data/messages_{i}.csv', # Will throw an error if the file already exists
        resume_file='next_page.txt', # Will save a link to the next page in this file after fetching it and use it when starting.
        matching='.+', # A regex can be used to filter all the posts matching a certain pattern (here, we accept anything)
        not_matching='^Warning', # And likewise those that don't fit a pattern (here, we filter out all posts starting with "Warning")
        keys=[
            'post_id',
            'text',
            'timestamp',
            'time',
            'user_id'
        ], # List of the keys that should be saved for each post, will save all keys if not set
        format='csv', # Output file format, can be csv or json, defaults to csv
        days_limit=3650 # Number of days for the oldest post to fetch, defaults to 3650
    )

Funny Graphics

To-Do

• CLI update to work with the latest script updates (NEEDS HELP)
• Async support
• Image galleries (images entry)
• Profiles or post authors (get_profile())
• Comments (with options={'comments': True})

Alternatives and related projects

• facebook-post-scraper. Has comments. Uses Selenium.
• facebook-scraper-selenium. “Scrape posts from any group or user into a .csv file without needing to register for any API access”.
• Ultimate Facebook Scraper. “Scrapes almost everything about a Facebook user’s profile”. Uses Selenium.
• Unofficial APIs. List of unofficial APIs for various services, none for Facebook for now, but might be worth to check in the future.
• major-scrapy-spiders. Has a profile spider for Scrapy.
• facebook-page-post-scraper. Seems abandoned.
• FBLYZE. Fork (?).
• RSSHub. Generates an RSS feed from Facebook pages.
• RSS-Bridge. Also generates RSS feeds from Facebook pages.