Facebook Link Preview Wrong — How to Fix It
If Facebook is showing the wrong title, description, or image when you share a link, the cause is almost always one of two things: incorrect Open Graph tags on your page, or Facebook's cache serving outdated data. Both are fixable.
How Facebook Reads Link Previews
Facebook uses the Open Graph protocol it invented. When a URL is shared, Facebook's scraper reads:
og:title— headline (up to ~100 characters shown)og:description— body text (up to ~300 characters shown)og:image— preview image (minimum 200×200 px, ideal 1200×630 px)og:url— canonical URL for deduplication across shares
Facebook caches this data. After you fix your tags, you need to clear Facebook's cache using the Sharing Debugger to see the update.
Common Causes of Facebook Preview Problems
Wrong og: tags
The most common cause. Check that og:title, og:description, og:image, and og:url are all set correctly and spell the page's actual content.
Stale cache
Facebook caches link previews and can serve old data for days or weeks. If you changed your page content or og: tags, you must explicitly clear the cache.
og:image is too small or missing
Facebook requires og:image to be at least 200×200 px. For a full-width preview card, use 1200×630 px. Images under 200×200 px are silently ignored and no image is shown.
og:image URL is not publicly accessible
The image URL must load with a plain GET request and return HTTP 200. No authentication, no redirects requiring cookies.
Page content is JavaScript-rendered
Facebook's scraper does not run JavaScript. If your og: tags are set by a client-side JS framework (React, Vue, etc.), Facebook will never see them. The tags must be in the raw HTML response.
Multiple og:title or og:image tags
If your page has duplicate og: tags, Facebook may pick the wrong one. Validate with the Sharing Debugger and ensure each property appears only once.
How to Fix Facebook Link Previews
- Update your Open Graph tags in the HTML
<head>:
<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="A concise description under 300 characters." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/preview.jpg" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/your-page" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Your Site Name" />
Confirm tags are in the raw HTML — run
curl -s https://example.com/your-page | grep og:to verify the tags appear without JavaScript execution.Open Facebook's Sharing Debugger:
- Go to https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
- Paste your URL and click Debug
- Review the "OG Tags" section — confirm all tags are correct
- Click Scrape Again to force Facebook to re-crawl your page
- Click Scrape Again a second time to pick up the freshly crawled data
Verify the image — click the image URL shown in the debugger to confirm it loads directly. If it doesn't, fix the image URL.
Check for warnings — the Sharing Debugger shows warnings for common issues like missing tags, small images, or HTTPS problems. Address each warning.
Test a fresh share — post a new Facebook update with the URL. The preview should now reflect your updated tags.
How to Clear Facebook's Link Preview Cache
- Go to Facebook Sharing Debugger
- Enter your URL and click Debug
- Click Scrape Again (you may need to do this twice)
- Check the "Time Scraped" field — it should now show the current time
For links already shared in posts, Facebook does not re-render the preview retroactively. Only new shares will show the updated preview.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my Facebook preview still show the old image after I clicked Scrape Again?
Click Scrape Again twice. The first scrape updates the cache; the second fetch shows the newly cached data. If the image is still wrong after two scrapes, the og:image tag on your page may still point to the old image.
Can I change the Facebook link preview for a post I've already published?
No. Facebook bakes the preview into the post at share time. Once published, the preview cannot be changed. Delete the post and re-share with the corrected URL to show the updated preview.
What is the correct Facebook og:image size?
Minimum 200×200 px, recommended 1200×630 px. See the og:image size guide.
Why does my image show in the Sharing Debugger but not in a post?
This is a timing/cache inconsistency. After scraping, wait 5–10 minutes before creating a new share. The debug cache and the end-user cache are populated by separate systems.
Does Facebook read Twitter Card tags?
No. Facebook only reads Open Graph (og:) tags.
My page requires login — why can't Facebook scrape it?
Facebook's scraper cannot log in to your site. All pages whose Open Graph tags you want Facebook to read must be publicly accessible.