Facebook Sharing Debugger: How to Fix Link Preview Issues (2026 Guide)

TL;DR: Go to developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/, paste your URL, click Debug, then click Scrape Again. That forces Facebook to re-read your page and replace the cached preview. If the wrong image or title still shows, it is almost always a missing or undersized og:image tag, or Facebook serving a preview it cached earlier. Facebook keeps a link's preview cached and does not re-fetch on every share, so a change to your page will not appear until the cache expires or you Scrape Again.

On This Page

• Quick Fix in 30 Seconds
• Why Facebook Shows Your Old Preview
• How to Use the Facebook Sharing Debugger
• Common Link Preview Problems and Fixes
• Required Open Graph Tags
• Image Requirements
• Fixing Previews on WordPress
• Debugging Checklist
• Other Platform Debuggers
• Frequently Asked Questions

Quick Fix in 30 Seconds

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Pro Tip: If your site is reachable on both HTTP and HTTPS, scrape both versions of the URL. Facebook caches them separately, so a preview can look fixed on one and stale on the other.

Why Facebook Shows Your Old Preview

This is the single most common complaint, and it confuses people because the page clearly has the right image now. Here is what is actually happening.

When someone shares a link, Facebook does not read your page fresh every time. The first time a URL is shared, Facebook's crawler (facebookexternalhit) fetches your Open Graph tags and stores a copy of the preview: title, description, and image. From then on Facebook serves that stored copy. It will not re-fetch your page on the next share, or the one after that.

That cached preview sticks around. Facebook holds it until the cache expires, commonly reported as up to about 30 days, or until something forces a refresh. So if you fixed your og:image yesterday but shared the link a week ago, everyone still sees the old preview. Your page is not the problem. Facebook's cache is.

The Scrape Again button in the Sharing Debugger is the manual override. Clicking it tells Facebook to discard the stored copy, re-fetch your page immediately, and rebuild the preview from your current tags. That is why "just Scrape Again" fixes the vast majority of stale-preview reports.

The debugger also shows a Time Scraped line so you can see exactly when Facebook last read your page. If that timestamp is old, the preview you are seeing is old too.

How to Use the Facebook Sharing Debugger

Step 1: Access the Debugger Tool

1. Go to developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
2. Log in to your Facebook account (required)
3. You will see a single input field for URLs

Step 2: Enter Your URL

1. Paste the full URL you want to fix (including https://)
2. Click the Debug button
3. Wait for Facebook to analyze the page

Step 3: Review the Results

The debugger shows:

• Link Preview: how your link will appear when shared
• Warnings That Should Be Fixed: issues Facebook flags, such as a missing image or an image that is too small
• Open Graph properties: the exact og: metadata Facebook read from your page
• Time Scraped: when Facebook last cached your page

Step 4: Click "Scrape Again"

If the preview is outdated or you just changed your tags:

1. Click the Scrape Again button
2. Facebook re-reads your page and rebuilds the preview
3. The new title, description, and image should appear, and the Time Scraped stamp updates to now

Pro tip: if your site answers on both, scrape each version separately:

• https://yoursite.com/page
• http://yoursite.com/page

Facebook caches HTTP and HTTPS separately.

Step 5: Verify the Fix

After scraping:

1. Check the preview image, title, and description
2. Confirm they all look correct
3. Try sharing the link on Facebook
4. The preview should now show correctly

Common Link Preview Problems and Fixes

Wrong Image Showing

Problem: Facebook shows the wrong image or no image at all.

Causes:

• Missing og:image tag
• Image too small (see Image Requirements below)
• Image URL is broken or not publicly reachable
• An older image is still cached

Fix:

1. Check the og:image tag in your page's HTML
2. Use an image of at least 1200x630 pixels (recommended)
3. Use an absolute URL (https://yoursite.com/image.jpg)
4. Run the Sharing Debugger and click Scrape Again

Required code:

<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />

Wrong Title or Description

Problem: Facebook shows the wrong title or description.

Causes:

• Missing og:title or og:description tags
• Tags are present but empty
• Old content is still cached

Fix: add or update these tags in your page's <head>:

<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Your page description here" />

Then Scrape Again in the debugger.

No Preview at All

Problem: the link shows with no image, title, or description.

Causes:

• Open Graph tags are missing entirely
• The page is blocking Facebook's crawler
• The server is too slow to respond

Fix:

1. Add all required Open Graph tags
2. Confirm robots.txt is not blocking facebookexternalhit
3. Make sure the page loads quickly, ideally in a few seconds

HTTPS Image Not Loading

Problem: the image works on HTTP but not HTTPS.

Try these fixes:

1. Add a secure image URL with og:image:secure_url:

<meta property="og:image:secure_url" content="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg" />

2. Add dimensions explicitly:

<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />

3. Add the image type:

<meta property="og:image:type" content="image/jpeg" />

Preview Updates in the Debugger but Not When Sharing

Problem: the debugger shows the correct preview, but sharing still shows the old version.

Causes:

• Browser cache
• Facebook mobile app cache
• A CDN serving an old copy of your image

Fix:

1. Clear your browser cache
2. Force close and reopen the Facebook app
3. Give CDN caches time to clear, or purge them manually
4. Try sharing from a different device or browser

Required Open Graph Tags

For a proper link preview, include these tags in your page's <head>. Facebook treats og:url, og:title, og:description, and og:image as the core set.

Essential Tags

<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="A brief description of your page" />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/image.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://yoursite.com/page" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />

Recommended Additional Tags

<meta property="og:site_name" content="Your Site Name" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />
<meta property="og:image:type" content="image/jpeg" />
<meta property="og:locale" content="en_US" />

Facebook reads Open Graph tags from the first part of your document, so keep them near the top of <head>.

Image Requirements

Facebook renders your preview image based on its size, and this is where most "no image" problems come from.

Size Thresholds

• Recommended: 1200x630 pixels. This produces the large, full-width preview and looks sharp on high resolution screens.
• Large preview minimum: 600x315 pixels. At or above this, Facebook can show the big preview. Facebook recommends at least 600 pixels wide, and ideally 1080 pixels or more.
• Absolute minimum: 200x200 pixels. Below this, Facebook may refuse to show any image. Between 200x200 and 600x315 you typically get a small square thumbnail instead of the large card.
• Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 for the large preview.

File Requirements

• Format: JPG, PNG, or a non-animated GIF
• File size: under 8MB. Facebook flags images that exceed 8MB.
• URL: absolute and publicly reachable, with no login wall or redirect

Image Best Practices

• Use absolute URLs (https://yoursite.com/image.jpg)
• Host images on a fast, reliable server
• Avoid redirecting image URLs
• Set og:image:width and og:image:height so the image renders correctly the first time a link is shared

Fixing Previews on WordPress

Using Yoast SEO

1. Install the Yoast SEO plugin
2. Edit your page or post
3. Scroll to the Yoast SEO section
4. Open the Social settings
5. Set a custom Facebook title, description, and image
6. Update the page
7. Run the Sharing Debugger and Scrape Again

Using Other SEO Plugins

Similar options exist in:

• RankMath: Social tab in the editor
• SEOPress: Social Networks section
• The SEO Framework: Social settings
• All in One SEO: Social settings

Without a Plugin

Add Open Graph tags in your theme, for example via functions.php or a small custom plugin:

// In functions.php or a custom plugin
function add_og_tags() {
    if (is_single() || is_page()) {
        global $post;
        $image = get_the_post_thumbnail_url($post->ID, 'full');
        ?>
        <meta property="og:title" content="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
        <meta property="og:description" content="<?php echo get_the_excerpt(); ?>" />
        <meta property="og:image" content="<?php echo $image; ?>" />
        <meta property="og:url" content="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" />
        <meta property="og:type" content="article" />
        <?php
    }
}
add_action('wp_head', 'add_og_tags');

Debugging Checklist

Run through this when link previews are not working.

Check Your Tags

• og:title exists and has content
• og:description exists and has content
• og:image exists with an absolute URL
• og:url matches the current page
• All tags are in the <head> section
• No duplicate tags

Check Your Image

• The image URL opens in a browser
• The image is at least 600x315 pixels, ideally 1200x630
• The file is under 8MB
• The image is JPG, PNG, or a non-animated GIF
• The URL uses HTTPS

Check Your Server

• The page loads quickly
• robots.txt does not block facebookexternalhit
• No login is required to view the page
• The server is not blocking Facebook's crawler

Run the Debugger

• Tested the URL in the Sharing Debugger
• Clicked Scrape Again after fixing issues
• Tested both HTTP and HTTPS versions if both exist
• No red warnings remain in the output

Troubleshooting Persistent Issues

Facebook Will Not Recognize Changes

Try these in order:

1. Click Scrape Again a couple of times
2. Wait a short while and try again
3. Add a query string to bust the cache, such as yoursite.com/page?v=2
4. Give the cache time to clear on its own

Image Works Sometimes, Not Others

This usually points to CDN caching:

1. Purge your CDN cache (Cloudflare and similar)
2. Use a versioned image URL
3. Make sure the image returns proper headers

Tags Exist but the Debugger Cannot Find Them

Possible causes:

1. JavaScript is inserting the tags. Facebook's crawler does not execute JavaScript, so tags added client side are invisible to it.
2. Tags are placed after </head> or inside <body>
3. A server side rendering issue
4. A caching plugin is serving a different version to the crawler

Fix: make sure the tags are present in the static HTML inside <head>.

Other Platform Debuggers

Each network reads Open Graph tags, but some offer their own preview tool. Note that X (formerly Twitter) retired its standalone Card Validator, so there is no live Twitter preview tool anymore. X still reads twitter:card and Open Graph tags.

Open Graph tags work across most platforms, but X uses its own twitter:card tags when present. Test on each platform where you actually share content.

Related Guides

• How to make a Facebook post shareable if the Share button is missing entirely
• Facebook errors troubleshooting guide for login, token, and posting problems
• Facebook post visibility fix guide when posts are not showing to your audience
• Facebook business page categories to set your Page up correctly

You can also try our Facebook tools and Facebook caption generator.

Summary

To fix a Facebook link preview:

1. Go to developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
2. Paste your URL and click Debug
3. Click Scrape Again to refresh the cache
4. Fix any warnings shown in the results
5. Verify by sharing the link on Facebook

If issues persist:

• Confirm your Open Graph tags are in <head>
• Confirm the image meets the size thresholds (1200x630 recommended)
• Use absolute HTTPS URLs for images
• Remember the cache: nothing updates until it expires or you Scrape Again

Frequently Asked Questions