Question

Not showing preview image in Facebook Page post

  • 30 December 2022
  • 7 replies
  • 166 views

Hi Guys!

I would need a bit of help, please.

I want to create a Facebook Page post from the data gotten via a Google Form.

I have the data and I created the post with adding the URL both to the URL and the message field, but the preview does not show up. :( It says Page not found. :(

The link should be good, because when I edit the post, the preview shows up immediately.

Any idea?

Thanks in advance!

Mesmes 


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7 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @Mesmes

I’m not sure what’s happening here so I think we need some more information. Could you please share a screenshot of how the Facebook step is set up in your Zap? Don’t forget to remove or obscure any personal or private information in any screenshot you share in the community (eg full name, email address, etc).

That will help us to see what’s what and hopefully find an answer for you.

 

Thanks!

Hi @Danvers !

Here is the screenshot.

Thanks in advance! :)

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +8

Hi @Mesmes 👋, have you checked the permissions for both Facebook and Google Forms? The link seems fine from what I can see, so I would start there. 

Hi @chanelle , yes, they work fine. All the info needed is in the post. Just the preview does not show up.

Post by Zapier

 

Posted manually

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Thanks for sharing those screenshots here @Mesmes

Hmm, you mentioned earlier that the preview image appears correctly if you edit the post so it sounds like Facebook is able to pull the right preview image. So perhaps it needs a little extra time to pull the preview image if it’s posted but a Zap. I could well be wrong here but I don’t think that the Zap sends the preview image over to Facebook. I think the preview images are pulled by Facebook at the time of posting, or perhaps this is done a little while after. Which may explain why you’re able to see it after editing as that may force Facebook to grab the preview image for the post.

What’s sometimes helpful is to test the Link URLs in Facebook’s Debugger Tool before using them in the Zap to see if there’s any errors. 

Are you able to check the next, new URL in Facebooks debugger tool before its posted by the Zap? I’m hoping the debugger tool might help give some insight as to why the preview images aren’t appearing at first. Please do give that a go and let us know how it goes! 🙂

Hi @SamB,

Thanks for your answer, and your help to try to find a solution.

I tried to give the URL to the debugger tool, but it says it does not accept internal (FB) links. :(

Is there any way to give time to the zap by a delay or something? (with a free membership plan)

How can we find out that the anomaly is on the zap-side or on the FB API-side?

 

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @Mesmes! Hmm, this is a tricky one

I think what @SamB meant by it taking a bit of time for the link preview to appear is that after the post has been added to the Facebook page, it might take a few minutes for Facebook to catch up and show the preview. When you’ve been testing this, did you take a look at the post on the page immediately or have you found that the post still says page not found after some time has passed (and you have tried refreshing the webpage)? Could you also try testing the Zap with a link to a page that’s not a Facebook event/page?

To add a delay in the Zap, you’d need an extra step which would mean that you wouldn't be able to do it on the free plan. We might be able to find a way to workaround that if you don’t mind creating a second Zap. Before we get to that point, could I ask what information the Google Form is collecting? Do people add the url of their event in the form, and the form entry is what’s triggering the Zap?

Thanks!