Why is your Facebook link preview not showing? Usually, one of two things is wrong. Either Facebook can't find the right Open Graph tags on your page, or it's still showing an old saved copy. Both are fixable, and you rarely need to rebuild anything.
Start by looking at what your live page serves right now. Our free Open Graph Checker shows your Facebook card next to WhatsApp, LinkedIn and X previews, and it lists every tag it finds. In one check, you'll know whether the problem sits on your page or in Facebook's memory.
Picture a small bakery in Ohio that shares its holiday menu in a local Facebook group, and the post shows a plain gray box. Or a blogger posts a new article, and the card shows last year's photo. The two problems look alike, but the causes differ. The fixes below run from fastest to slowest, so you won't touch code that was working fine.
| Quick answer | Details |
|---|---|
| What you need | The page link, access to your website settings or CMS (the system you use to edit your site, such as WordPress), and a Facebook login for Meta's Sharing Debugger |
| Time | Often a few minutes. It takes longer if a developer has to change your site's code. |
| Result | New shares show the right title, text and image on Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and X |
Why isn't Facebook showing your link preview?
Facebook builds each preview from tags in your page's code. When those tags are missing, broken or blocked, or when Facebook relies on an old saved copy, the preview goes wrong.
What Facebook reads from your page
When someone shares a link, Meta sends a robot called facebookexternalhit to visit the page. In this case, a robot is simply a program that reads web pages on its own. Meta's web crawler guide explains that it gathers the page's title, description and thumbnail image, saves them, and shows them in the post.
The robot looks for Open Graph tags, also called og: tags. These are short hidden lines in your page's code that tell Facebook which title, text and picture to use. When Open Graph tags aren't working, Facebook has to guess, and the guess is often wrong or empty.
Facebook also keeps a cache, a saved copy that helps things load faster. That's why a fix on your page doesn't always change the preview right away.
Symptom, cause and fix at a glance
| What you see | Likely cause | Fix to try first |
|---|---|---|
| No card at all, just the link | Missing tags, or Facebook's robot is blocked | Fix 1, Fix 2, Fix 6 |
| Small thumbnail instead of a big image | Image is smaller than 600 x 315 px | Fix 3 |
| Wrong image | No og:image tag, or two tags competing with each other | Fix 2 |
| Old image or old title | Facebook, plugin or CDN cache | Fix 4, Fix 5 |
| Blank white or gray box | Image link is broken, private or in a format the robot can't read | Fix 3 |
| Debugger looks right, but the post is wrong | Old post, or your browser or app cache | Fix 4 |
How to fix a Facebook link preview not showing: 7 fixes
Check what your page serves first. Then fix the tags and the image, and clear caches last. Following this order keeps you from changing settings that were already correct, which is how a small problem turns into a bigger one.
Fix 1: See what Facebook actually sees
Before you edit anything, find out whether the trouble is in your tags or in Facebook's saved copy. Two free tools answer that question together.
Step A: Check your live page with our Open Graph Checker
- Open the Open Graph Checker.
- Paste the full page link, including
https://. - Run the check.
- Compare the Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and X cards side by side.
- Read the tag audit. It lists every og:, twitter: and article: tag on the page and shows which ones are missing.
- Check the image result. It confirms whether your share image loads and shows its size and file type.
The checker reads the live page every time, so an old social cache can't mislead it. It only reads the public page you enter, and nothing is stored. There's no sign-up, and it works in your browser.
It does have one limit. The checker shows what your page serves now, not what Facebook saved earlier. If the checker looks right but Facebook still shows the old card, Facebook's cache is the cause, so go straight to Fix 4.
Step B: Run the link in Facebook's Sharing Debugger
The Sharing Debugger is Meta's free tool at developers.facebook.com/tools/debug, and you'll need to log in to Facebook to use it. Paste your link and click Debug.
Find the Time Scraped line, which shows when Facebook last read your page. If that date comes before your fix, you're looking at an old saved copy. The debugger also lists warnings, such as missing properties.
Fix 2: Add the four core Open Graph tags
The Open Graph protocol lists four required tags. If one is missing, the preview may break or pull the wrong content.
- og:title: the headline on the card.
- og:type: the kind of page, such as
websiteorarticle. - og:url: the page's main web address. It should match your canonical URL, the one official address for the page, so every share points to the same place.
- og:image: the full link to the share picture.
Add og:description as well. It's the short text under the title, and while it's optional, the card looks unfinished without it.
The image can carry a few extra tags. og:image:width and og:image:height tell Facebook the picture's size up front. og:image:alt describes the picture in plain words, and the protocol says any page that sets og:image should set this one too.
Two more are optional. og:image:secure_url gives the https version of the image link, and og:image:type names the file type, such as JPG.
A basic set looks like this:
<meta property="og:title" content="Holiday Cake Menu 2026" /> <meta property="og:type" content="website" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/holiday-menu/" /> <meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/holiday-menu-v2.jpg" /> <meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" /> <meta property="og:image:height" content="630" /> <meta property="og:image:alt" content="Three frosted holiday cakes on a wooden table" /> <meta property="og:description" content="Order custom holiday cakes for pickup." />
Watch for duplicates. Some themes add og: tags, and an SEO plugin adds a second set. Under the protocol, when a tag repeats, the first one from the top wins, so an old theme tag can override your new plugin tag. Turn off one of the two.
You don't have to write any of this by hand. The checker gives you paste-ready code for every missing tag.
Fix 3: Make the og:image meet Facebook's rules
When an og:image isn't showing on Facebook, the picture itself is often at fault. It may be too small, too heavy, in an unusual format or not public.
Meta's image rules for link shares set these limits:
- The smallest allowed size is 200 x 200 px.
- Use at least 600 x 315 px to get the larger image card.
- Use at least 1200 x 630 px for the best look on sharp, high-resolution screens.
- Keep the shape close to a 1.91:1 aspect ratio, meaning the width compared to the height. That shape shows the full image in Feed without cropping.
- The file can't be larger than 8 MB.
We suggest 1200 x 630 px as your safe default for every share image. Keep the file well below Meta's cap, too. Under 5 MB is a safe limit for all platforms, and a lighter file is quicker for the robot to fetch.
Our Image Resizer gets the exact dimensions, and the Image Compressor cuts the file size. Both are free online tools with no sign-up.
Stick to JPG or PNG, the formats our checker recommends for share images. If your site saves images as WebP, create a JPG copy with the WebP to JPG Converter and use it only for the og:image.
Two more checks clear up most link preview image problems:
- Use an absolute URL. That's a full address like
https://example.com/img.jpg, not a short path like/img.jpg. Facebook needs the full address. - Keep the image public. If it sits behind a login, a members area or a staging password, Facebook's robot can't reach it.
Fix 4: Click Scrape Again in the Sharing Debugger
Scrape Again tells Facebook to visit your page once more and replace its saved copy. Meta's crawler guide confirms you can force a fresh crawl through the Sharing Debugger.
- Open the Sharing Debugger and log in to Facebook.
- Paste your link and click Debug.
- Click Scrape Again.
- Confirm that Time Scraped now shows today's date and time.
- Review the preview at the bottom of the page.
If nothing changes on the first try, wait a minute and click it again.
Is your Facebook thumbnail not updating, even after a few scrapes? Facebook may still be holding the old image file. Upload the new image under a new name, such as menu-v2.jpg, and update the og:image tag. Adding a version to the link, like menu.jpg?v=2, works too, because Facebook reads either one as a new image.
Set realistic expectations for older posts. Fixing your tags helps new shares, but a post that's already live may keep its old card. If a post matters, sharing the link again after the fix is the safer route.
Fix 5: Clear your site and CDN cache
If your site keeps its own cache, Facebook may still receive an old copy of the page after your fix. Clear every cache you use, then scrape again.
- WordPress caching plugins: Open the plugin settings and use its "purge" or "clear cache" option.
- CDN or host cache: A CDN is a network of servers that stores copies of your site close to visitors, and Cloudflare is a common example. Log in and purge the cache for the page and its image. Your host's control panel may have a cache button as well.
- Then scrape again: Return to the debugger and click Scrape Again after the purge, not before it.
Fix 6: Let Facebook's crawler in
If Facebook's robot can't reach your page, you'll get no preview at all. Look at four things: robots.txt, your firewall, private pages and page speed.
robots.txt is a file that tells robots which pages they may visit, and one wrong rule can block facebookexternalhit. Meta notes that its crawler may skip robots.txt for security checks, such as malware scans, but don't rely on that for previews. Our guide on how to create a robots.txt file walks through the rules.
Firewalls and bot-protection settings can block the robot by mistake. A staging password or a "coming soon" page has the same effect, since Facebook can't preview a page that requires a login.
Speed matters, too. Meta's crawler guide says the page must be crawlable within a few seconds and the server must use gzip and deflate, two common ways to compress pages so they travel faster. Ask your host if you're not sure these are turned on.
The same guide says Open Graph tags must appear within the first 1 MB of the page, or they get cut off. Place them near the top of the head section, the hidden top part of your page's code.
Fix 7: Put the tags in the page's first HTML
Your og: tags belong in the HTML your server sends first, not in code a script adds later. Link-preview robots may not run JavaScript, so they can miss tags that appear only after the page loads.
Sites built as JavaScript apps run into this most often. To check yours, open the page, right-click and choose "View Page Source," then search for og:image. If it isn't there, the robot probably can't see it either.
On WordPress with an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO, update the plugin and open its social settings. Confirm the Open Graph option is on and a default image is set. On a custom site, ask your developer to output the tags on the server side, so they're in the first HTML response.
How does Facebook decide what your preview shows?
Facebook shows whatever its robot found and saved the last time it read your page. Any change after that stays invisible to Facebook until it reads the page again.
The process goes like this. Someone shares your link, and the robot visits, reads the og: tags, downloads the image and saves everything. Later shares often reuse that saved copy instead of making a fresh visit.
Up to four saved copies can sit between you and the reader:
- Facebook's own cache, which you refresh with Scrape Again.
- Your website's caching plugin.
- Your CDN or host cache.
- The reader's browser or Facebook app, which can show an old card even when the debugger looks right.
That's why the order matters. Fix the page first, clear your own caches second, and refresh Facebook last.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Most broken previews trace back to a short list of mistakes. Rule these out before you try anything harder.
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
Image link is a short path like /img.jpg | Use the full https:// address |
| Image is behind a login or staging password | Move it to a public folder on your live site |
| New image uploaded with the same file name | Rename the file or add ?v=2, then scrape again |
| Caching plugin or Cloudflare still serves old HTML | Purge both caches, then scrape again |
| Tags added only by JavaScript | Have the server output the tags in the first HTML |
| robots.txt or firewall blocks facebookexternalhit | Allow the crawler in your rules and security settings |
| Only the http or only the https version was checked | Check the exact link you share, with https |
| Share image saved as WebP | Use a JPG or PNG copy for og:image |
| Theme and plugin both add og: tags | Turn one off, since the first tag wins |
Quick checklist to prevent it next time
A short routine before and after you publish heads off most preview problems. It's far easier than fixing a post after people have already shared it.
Before you publish
- Make a 1200 x 630 px template in Canva or Figma and reuse it.
- Save each share image as JPG or PNG with a unique file name.
- Fill in the title, description and image in your SEO plugin or page settings.
After you publish
- Run the page through the Open Graph Checker.
- Open the Sharing Debugger and click Scrape Again once.
- Share the link on your Page, in groups or in ads.
Bonus: the same tags fix WhatsApp, LinkedIn and X
If your Facebook link preview is not showing in WhatsApp either, the cause is usually the same. WhatsApp builds its preview from og:title, og:description and og:image, and LinkedIn relies on og: tags too. X reads its own twitter: tags first and falls back to og: tags.
For the big image card on X, add twitter:card with the value summary_large_image. And if a Messenger link preview isn't working, start with the same checks above.
Do you share links in WhatsApp chats often? Our guide to the wa.me link format shows how to open a chat with a ready-made message.
Need a developer to fix it for good?
When previews keep breaking, the root cause usually lives in your theme, plugins or server setup. A developer can fix it once, so you stop repairing it post by post.
At TechnoSuffice, our web development team builds SEO and performance into every site from day one. That means clean meta tags, fast-loading pages and Core Web Vitals best practices. Core Web Vitals are Google's measures of how quickly and smoothly a page loads for visitors. We've delivered 491+ projects over 10+ years for clients worldwide.
Every project gets a dedicated team and project manager, with weekly demos so you always see progress. After a free discovery call, you get a fixed quote with milestones and no hidden costs. Once you launch, our maintenance plans cover updates, security patches, backups and performance monitoring, and our team replies within one business day.
Request a Free Quote and tell us what's going wrong with your site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my og:image not showing on Facebook?
The image is usually missing, too small, in an unusual format or not public. Confirm that og:image uses a full https link to a JPG or PNG file of at least 200 x 200 px, with no login in front of it. Then click Scrape Again in the Sharing Debugger.
How do I force Facebook to refresh a link preview?
Paste the link into the Sharing Debugger and click Scrape Again. Clear your site and CDN cache first, or Facebook may read the old page again. If nothing changes, wait a minute and try once more.
What does Scrape Again do in the Sharing Debugger?
It makes Facebook visit your page again and replace its saved copy. After you click it, Time Scraped should show the current date and time.
Why does Facebook show an old thumbnail after I changed the image?
Facebook is probably still using its saved copy of the old image. Upload the new image with a new file name, or add ?v=2 to the image link, then update the og:image tag and scrape again. Posts that are already published may keep the old card.
What size should an og:image be for Facebook?
Use at least 1200 x 630 px in a 1.91:1 shape. Meta's minimum is 200 x 200 px, and the large card needs at least 600 x 315 px. Meta allows files up to 8 MB, but staying under 5 MB is a safe limit for all platforms.
Why does the Sharing Debugger say the og:image properties are not yet available?
This message usually means Facebook hasn't finished processing the image, which can happen on a first share. Add og:image:width and og:image:height so Facebook knows the size up front. Then wait a moment and click Scrape Again.
Can Facebook show a preview if my page needs a login?
No. Facebook's robot can only read public pages and images, so a page or image behind a login, a paywall or a staging password will give a blank or wrong preview.
Get your link previews right every time
Most broken previews come down to missing tags, a weak image, an old cache or a blocked robot. Check your live page with the free Open Graph Checker, fix what it flags, clear your caches and click Scrape Again. If the problem keeps coming back, our team can fix it at the source and support your site after launch. Request a Free Quote to get started.
