Facebook link preview not showing or not updating

Facebook reads Open Graph tags with its own crawler and caches the result for up to 30 days. Fix the tags and image, then scrape the URL again.

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Check your URL

Refresh preview

Check image size

Quick fix

  1. Check the page with the meta tag checker.

  2. Use an og:image of at least 1200 x 630 px, under 8 MB, at a new file URL if you changed it.

  3. Add og:image:width and og:image:height so the first share shows the image.

  4. Open the Sharing Debugger and click Scrape Again.

Why the Facebook preview is missing or old

  • Facebook cached an earlier scrape. Meta updates link data automatically every 30 days.

  • It’s the first share. The crawler has to see an image once before it can render it, so the first person to share may get no image.

  • The tags sit too far down. The crawler reads only the first 1 MB of the page, so Open Graph tags must come before that.

  • The server is slow or blocks the crawler. The page has to load within a few seconds for facebookexternalhit, and the server must support gzip or deflate.

  • You replaced the image but kept the file name. Facebook caches images by URL.

How to fix it

  1. Run the page through the meta tag checker to see the tags it serves.

  2. Put og:title, og:description, og:image and og:url in the head.

  3. Upload a changed image under a new file name and point og:image at it. Keep the old file online for posts that still use it.

  4. Add og:image:width and og:image:height so Facebook can render the image on the first share.

  5. Open the Sharing Debugger, paste the URL and click Scrape Again. You need to be logged in to Facebook.

Tags Facebook reads

  • og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url

  • og:image:width and og:image:height for instant image rendering

  • og:type for the object type, which can’t change once the link is used in a post

Image size rules

  • Minimum 200 x 200 px

  • At least 600 x 315 px for the large link card

  • 1200 x 630 px or larger recommended

  • Keep close to 1.91:1

  • Maximum 8 MB

How to force a refresh

Use the Sharing Debugger and click Scrape Again, or POST to the Graph API with /?id={url}&scrape=true. New shares get the new data. Shares that already exist keep the old preview. Meta also notes the title can’t change after the link has 50 likes, shares or comments. The refresh tool links every platform’s tool in one place.

Sources

Häufig gestellte Fragen (FAQ) zum Meta-Tag-Generator

Why is there no image the first time I share a link?

Facebook has to fetch the image before it can show it. Add og:image:width and og:image:height, or run the URL through the Sharing Debugger before you share.

How often does Facebook refresh link previews?

Meta re-scrapes link metadata automatically every 30 days. The Sharing Debugger forces it sooner.

Does Scrape Again update posts I already shared?

No. It updates new shares of the link. Old posts keep their preview.

Check your page, then refresh the preview

Paste your URL into the free checker to see the exact tags each app reads. Once the tags are right, use the refresh tool to clear the old preview.

Check your URL

Refresh preview

Check image size

Related guides

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