How many times has this happened to you? You are all excited about posting your favorite video on your Facebook timeline, you grab the link, paste it in your status update, anticipate the link will automatically display its thumbnail / video with title and short description but once again to your surprise you get nothing. Well, you get the title and description but without the thumbnail or video, and you know from experience that without seeing the thumbnail, the video will not display and will not be viewable directly from your timeline. You frantically look at the link and begin to console with Google as to how you need to Fix YouTube Video Thumbnail to show on Facebook.
I too have been in this situation and spent many hours looking for that one 100% cure to the Video Thumbnail not showing on Facebook issue but only until recently has it dawned on me that the cure was way too simple. In this post I will give you some of the common remedies most people are sharing with each other online and though they sometimes work, the final solution (Solution #4) I will present to you, will give you the relief you need every time.
Solution #1
This trick will help not only with videos but also with other website links you are trying to post in Facebook but are unable to see the thumbnail you were expecting to see. You will need to be logged into Facebook to use this solution then go to https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug. Add your YouTube video link in the Debugger box and hit Debug button. This will show you what Facebook has for a Thumbnail and other details about the link. Should the information Facebook has cached not be correct, hit the “Fetch new scrape information” button and Facebook will update its cache and in most cases will solve your issue with posting your video on your timeline.
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For a more detailed solution on fixing WordPress thumbnail issues, check out the post on 7 Steps to Fixing WordPress issue: No Thumbnail Image Showing on Facebook
Solution #2
Assuming your YouTube video link is correct, simply add the following code “&feature=related” to the end of the link then paste it back on your Facebook timeline and see if it does the trick. For some people this solution works but does not work for all.
Example
(Original Link)
(Revised Link with Extra Code)
Solution #3
This solution involves shortening your link using something like bitly.com link shortener. Simply take your original YouTube video link and paste it in Bitly which will give you a short link which you can add and post on your Facebook timeline instead of your original one. Some people claim this works, but again, not for everyone!
Example
(Original Link)
(Bitly Link)
Solution #4 (BEST)
This final solution is the only solution I have found after many hours of frustration. This works 100% of the time and if you have been through all the above solutions without any success, you will be glad you’ve read this far down the page. This is so simple your grandmother can do it! Simply go to the video in YouTube, under the video click on Share, then choose the Facebook logo and the share screen will pop up for you to add your comments that you want to go with the video. This is the simplest and easiest solution that works 100% of the time like a charm.
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Hope all these solutions have been helpful with your YouTube video / thumbnail posting on Facebook. If I can help with any questions please feel free to contact me directly and I will be glad to help out. 🙂
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123 Responses
Hello,
None of these four soulutions don’t work 🙁 Even fourth one. Facebook still uses my old thumbnail even if YouTube uses new one (I’ve changed it twice). What can be a reason? How can I changed that? Please help.
Thank you!
How can i use Youtube Share into a comment (not a post)…..?
I’m sorry, but none of these work for me because the problem is not posting the url on my own wall, or even on someone else’s. Nor is it posting in in a status update. That works just fine. The problem is that it is impossible to post a YouTube video url inside a FB COMMENT and have the preview appear. All that happens is the text of the link is posted. That’s the problem and there is NO fix for this. Maybe FB took away this feature but then someone needs to TELL the world at large, because at the moment, there is NO way of doing this.
None of it works. Even if #4 would work, it doesn’t apply to previews in comments, only original posts.
Number 4 solution doesn’t work if you’re posting in comments, however. It’s fine for an original post, but not in comments to a previous post.
Unfortunately #4 tricked me into believing it will work. It looked good in the preview, then when I posted it, the thumbnail was totally off. Totally misleading.
#4 didn’t work… Same issue presents.
Thank you!
Well, this article saved my bunch of time. URL shortener method works for me to post youtube videos on my FB page. Thanks for this worthy article.
none of the 4 solutions are working for me: the video appears with proper thumbnail and title but it cannot play inline inside facebook. Instead when you click on it it opens a new browser tab and plays on youtube 🙁
Hello,
I tried all the possible solutions in the world, on 3 browsers and 2 computers. Fact is I don’t seem to able to embed any video player into my FB Timeline when I share from YouTube. And this happens with all the videos. I have no idea why this happens and how to fix it. All I have is an image with a link that leads to YouTube. But no player button. Anyone can help me here, please? Thank you a lot!
For a couple of days I have the same problem as Melissa’s and nothing really helps. It’s extremely annoying because it only happens when I try to post a video from my phone …
I used solution 4 yesterday but it didn’t work, I still got no image. So it’s not 100% on #4, unfortunately.
Nope. Trying to share via Messenger. Thumbnails almost never show. I’m not trying to post to my timeline, just a PM. Didn’t work. Facebook sucks.
Can you help ?
Your grand mother solution does not display the thumbnail of youtube.
None of these work at all.
I was also the same problem. But this works for me fine and fix my problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5zLpsO5HIY
Hi,
any idea how to display wide screenshot on facebook when you share a youtube link? I’ve seen that some can do it but can’t find this piece of information anywhere 🙁
Hi – I use vidrise[dot]com for my youtube channel shares to facebook to get a wide thumbnail screenshot. Maybe check them out?
thank you !!
Puts the “best” solution that works “100% of the time” as the last one. Douche.
Hi Bogdan,
This is Shiva here.I have shared an youtube video on my wall yesterday night and made it as public.But the post is auto deleted today morning and i couldnt find it in the activity log too.I tried with all your solutions given here but still no luck.I lost all the likes and the comments that i received on my post and i am trying to recover it and still wondering how come it is gone.
I tried reaching out to your direct contact number and also left you a voice message.
Please help.Thanks.
Regards
Shiva
I wish you all would stop insulting grandmothers. (So easy your GRANDMOTHER could do it???? Please!) I’d wager money that THIS grandmother can do things you can’t do. Can you optimize an Apache server for caching? Do you contribute to main forks of opensource projects? Can you write rewrite rules that are terse and do exactly what you want and not what you don’t want? Can you write a worldwide scheduler that can create online meetings between any two people all over the world and align their time zones so they will ACTUALLY be online at the same actual time? Can you calculate distance in polar coordinates inside a SQL query? Can you also set bones, play Debussy’s Rhapsody, set up and run sound for a band and fix practically anything that breaks? Hell I bet your OWN grandmother can do things you can’t. Only an inexperienced fool underestimates grandmothers.
Making it Simple use createyoutube.com for creating big thumb for youtube videos
Wanted to add that I also tried all of them to no avail but like the previous commenter said, the last option looked like it wasn’t going to work but then the video and thumbnail appeared when it was posted. Thank you!
I appreciate your feedback Sally, glad it worked out. 🙂
Glad I found your article. nothing worked for me except the last BEST version. However when you are initially sharing, it still looks like it’s not going to work until you actually share it. Then it comes up on your page just fine. Thanks for your effort!
Mine looked like it would work initially, had a picture. But then when it posted, no picture.
That’s unfortunate Linda… don’t let that get you down, sometimes these things get ironed out on their own. I appreciate you leaving a comment. 🙂
I am a singer and when I upload my recording direct in FB I got soany views and likes because all notice my big picture thumbnail of video that I uploaded something but I though if I put it to youtube it will help me to get spread more but
I have tried all four options and the thing is I am getting very tiny size thumbnail of YouTube Link when I share to my FB page .My friends don’t even look to my videos because it’s not noticable.
I tried all 4 options. Unfortunately, #4 did not work. The title of my video is still the old title; I have had Youtube do a re-upload (by going in to enhancements and re-saving the video, I have cleared my browsing history, I have used the debug tool, and even though the debug page displays the correct title, when I try to actually post it, directly or via the Facebook share link on my youtube page, it still shows the old title. 🙁
Thank you very much! You are a life saver 🙂
The Grandmother solution was the door opener!
Best wishes
Johan
Sweet! Glad it worked out and love the music tracks on your YouTube Channel. Nice going! 🙂
Sadly, none of the solutions worked for me. Yet. I’ll check again tomorrow.
One issue I’ve faced often, is I’ll upload a video, link it to Facebook and everything will work fine. Then, for whatever reason, I’ll change the YouTube thumbnail later, relink it to Facebook and … damn it still has the old thumbnail. I’ll then go to the Facebook debugger and run everything and still, even then, the debugger picks up the old thumbnail. Basically, beyond this point I just send a message to Facebook and hope that eventually someone, somewhere resets the Facebook cache for that image. If you could figure that one out it would be awesome.
Thank you for your comment Richard. I have also experienced a similar thing, however I noticed that trying the debugger the next day the issue with the new thumbnail displaying correctly would have been resolved. Not an instant solution but sometimes all we need is a little more patience and all our issues will be resolved. 🙂
Hi Bogdan, I tried your solution and it worked well…but for the new posts only :(. Adding new post with the same YT link creates post with the new thumbnail, but the original post still remains with the old thumb.
Did someone find a way to make FB updating YT thumbnail image on an old existing post without deleting the post and posting it again?
Hello Michael, would you be inclined to send or post a link you’re having an issue with as an example. I’m sure we can fix the issue. 🙂
This is such a useful article!!! Thank you for writing it. It is a problem that gave me lots of headaches in the past. Thanks to you, all is fixed now 🙂