I want to make an application that runs in the background on a server, and syncs ad information from Facebook to a database on my server periodically (say once per hour).
The application will have no user interaction at all, meaning there is no user to click "I'm okay with Facebook using my info" every time you need to authenticate.
I found this in their docs: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/access-tokens#apptokens
The problem is, it doesn't seem to work. I can generate an access_token just fine. Example here:
$ curl 'https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=123456789012345&client_secret=s3cr3tt0k3n12a4zz1345a6fgx5aa3f6&grant_type=client_credentials'
access_token=123456789012345|SomeRandomLettersAndNumbers
However, when I go to use it I just get permission denied errors:
$ curl 'https://graph.facebook.com/v2.6/me/adaccounts?access_token=123456789012345|SomeRandomLettersAndNumbers'
{"error":{"message":"An active access token must be used to query information about the current user.","type":"OAuthException","code":2500,"fbtrace_id":"DQ8ysX2mHCu"}}
Same thing happens when I make the request via their explorer tool found here: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/
Notes:
I have an app set up.
I am the admin.
I claimed the app on my business account.
I created one ad account.
It is not a Native / Desktop app.
Important one: I can get the info if I use a user token instead of an app token, but this requires me to be on a website, and click through a popup window, which obviously I can't do every hour for my server-side app.
I'm not sure if I have to set the permissions somewhere to allow me to use the access token, or maybe I need to set up a "platform" for my app (none of the available ones seem to fit).
UPDATE:
The answer to this question is to use a system user as documented here: https://developers.facebook.com/ads/blog/post/2016/04/05/system-user-rollout/
Well the title says it all. Does anyone have an idea what the code 190, subcode 490 means? (Error validating access token: The user is enrolled in a blocking, logged-in checkpoint) It does not appear in the official facebook developer error code documentation and not on the inofficial wiki page I dug up on SO.
The token in question is used to manage a fanpage for a user (post stuff, change title picture, etc.). For most users this error does not happen but for some it will show with no clue to where the difference might be.
The request that caused the error was a POST to pageId/feed.
We're using Graph API version 2.0
In my case it was solved simply by logging in to the Business Manager.
I had to be notified that some content was removed because of copyright violation and agree to be a good boy.
Couple of "continue" buttons - and the error disappeared.
Another suggestion if anyone gets this issue. I was messaging a user back from a page I own and I was seeing this very message. I had a Facebook Page with a Facebook App, created in the Facebook Developers area. The access token for the app needed regenerating.
I did this by going to Facebook Developer, selecting the app I was working with, clicking the Messenger tab for the list of enabled products for this app, and then selecting re-generate token. Copying the new token made it work first time.
Hope this helps.
As #CBoe mentioned,it means the user account is currently flagged by Facebookâs security algorithms. I got this message when logged in several times in different place. Once your account become origin and can login successfully, it will disappear.
I'm aware that there are many questions about Facebook access-tokens and the grief they cause, but despite much experimentation and reading many frustratingly vague blog articles (FB and otherwise), I'm still struggling to get a clear answer to my needs. Let me succinctly break down my process so far:
I am creating a site that, server-side, needs to pull the posts/statuses from a single Facebook Page
I am an admin of that Facebook Page
I have created a Facebook App
Using the Facebook Graph API Explorer, I've generated a short-lived key, connected to my app and my account, that grants permission to my account to view the access-tokens for my pages
I've converted my short-lived key to a long-lived key (60 days) ala scenario 4 from this
And here's where I am stuck. My 60 day key works fine for my server to pull the info needed from the page, but as far I can tell, there's no way to programmatically extend that 60 day key. I also do not know of a way to generate a new short-lived key without manually going to the Facebook Graph API Explorer and creating one.
Since it is my server making the requests to the Facebook API and not a user-based system (where I could easily request that a user authorize the Facebook app again), this creates a very clunky system. Since Facebook deprecated offline_access, is there really no permanent way to have my server pull info from my own page? Will I really have to create a new key by hand and manually update my server with it every 60 days?
Or is there something I'm missing?
Update:
The step-by-step guide that was previously found here has been migrated down into its own answer.
These are the steps that were previously in the question - they have been migrated to this answer.
Having found that it is possible to generate a Facebook Page Access Token that does not expire (with help from #Igy), here is a clear, step-by-step quide for all those looking to the same:
Make sure you are the admin of the FB page you wish to pull info from
Create a FB App (should be with the same user account that is the page admin)
Head over to the Facebook Graph API Explorer
On the top right, select the FB App you created from the "Application" drop down list
Click "Get Access Token"
Make sure you add the manage_pages permission
Convert this short-lived access token into a long-lived one by making this Graph API call:
https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/access_token?client_id=<your FB App ID >&client_secret=<your FB App secret>&grant_type=fb_exchange_token&fb_exchange_token=<your short-lived access token>
Grab the new long-lived access token returned back
Make a Graph API call to see your accounts using the new long-lived access token: https://graph.facebook.com/me/accounts?access_token=<your long-lived access token>
Grab the access_token for the page you'll be pulling info from
Lint the token to see that it is set to Expires: Never!
That should do it. You should now have a Facebook Page Access Token that doesn't expire, unless:
You change your Facebook account password
You lose admin access for the target page
You delete or de-authorize your Facebook App
Any of these will cause the access token to become invalid.
If you are getting (#100) Tried accessing nonexisting field (accounts) on node type (Page), go to the Access Token Debugger, copy the value of User ID, and use it to replace the "me" part of the URL in step 9.
This is covered in the Offline Access deprecation document
Use the 60-day token for the page admin to retrieve a Page Access Token (via /PAGE_ID?fields=access_token or /me/accounts) - the Page access token will not have an expiry time
An approach that works in 2019
I was recently trying to achieve something similar (to the use case described in this thread), but I wanted to make sure to respect Facebook's current policies, so I did a little research and here I'm sharing what I found.
My use case
So, as I said already, my use case is very similar to the one described here; that is:
I'm doing some work for a school district.
They are using a software tool to manage pretty much everything that relates to school transportation.
That tool allows them to send email notifications (to subscribers) when they publish bus delay alerts and school closure alerts.
A lot of people in the community follow the organization on their Facebook page, and that's the only place they look for those alerts.
So an employee of the organization has to manually publish each notification on the Facebook page (in addition to creating it in the transportation software). Moreover, those notifications eventually expire (or are simply deleted before they expire), so the employee has to go back later on to delete them manually as well.
It's a waist of time, so what we are trying to do here is to develop as simple system that periodically polls the software tool's database for new (and expired) notifications and update them (i.e. add and remove) on the Facebook page.
This is, in my view, a legitimate use case, but I wasn't sure how to implement it in a way that's in line with Facebook's policies.
The accepted answer
I followed the steps of the accepted answer and it worked, except that things appear to have changed: now, even though the generated page token does not expire, access to data does expire after around 60 days. You will see that as well if you follow the procedure and inspect the page token in the FB Token Debugger Tool.
Besides, the fact that the generated page tokens are tied to the user account is also unfortunate, because if the user updates his/her password, then the page token also gets invalidated.
How to do it in 2019
After several hours of research, I stumbled upon the following Facebook documentation article: Business Login for Direct Businesses.
It turns out that it is now possible, following the steps described in the above article, to generate a page token that is not associated to any particular Facebook user account and which will not expire (unless the FB App gets deleted or the underlying application token gets deleted, you know...)
So here are the steps and the most important parts:
You need a Business Manager account.
Verification will be required and a digital contract will have to be signed.
You need to add the target Facebook page to that account.
You need to create a Facebook App, and transfer that app to the same Business Manager account as well.
The app will have to go through Facebook's review process, because the following permissions will be needed: manage_pages and publish_pages.
Important note For the posts made using the generate page token to be visible to users other than the application administrators, that app will need to have been published and approved.
You may still experiment with the concept without submitting for review, but the posts won't be publicly visible.
In the Business Manager account (only after your app and page have been added to the account), you need to create what's called a System User, and give that user admin role (or permissions) to the target Facebook page.
A system user is owned by the Business Manager account, and isn't tied to a specific user. My current understanding is that one major use case for a system user is programmatic access to Facebook's Graph API (just what we need).
Then, for that system user, you need to generate a access token (which will be never-expiring). You will be prompted to select for which app. You will then select your target app.
You will then need to use the generated app token to generate a page token, which will also be never-expiring. The procedure is described in this article as:
GET /<PAGE_ID>?fields=access_token&access_token=<SYSTEM_USER_ACCESS_TOKEN>
That's it.
That token will never expire, and it won't be tied to a particular Facebook user, so it's exactly what we need!
The last part is to make sure that your Facebook app gets approved by Facebook. It's in fact the most important part, because the whole procedure is worthless if people don't see our posts.
I wanted to know for sure that I could rely on the above procedure to build something for my client without Facebook rejecting it in the end, so, beforehand (i.e. before starting to work on my client's project), I went through the whole process of creating a page, an app, a Business Manager account, etc. I verified my business. I submitted my app for review. In my request, I was very specific about my use case and emphasized that the app was for "self-use" (i.e. that the organization is developing an app for itself, not for other Facebook users). I got approved without less than 24 hours.
A few other notes about the app review process:
I had to select a platform for the app, so I selected website.
I had to indicate why the app needed the two permissions and how it was going to use them.
I had to indicate why the reviewer would not be able to sign into my app and try it (i.e. because the app will be used by a worker process).
For the mandatory screencasts, I simply presented manual operations in the terminal using the curl utility (to generate the page token and make posts to the Facebook page). I also showed how I was using Business Manager to link the system user to the page and generate a token, and so on.
Again, I was very specific about my use case, and I think that that helped.
I hope this information will be useful to people with similar use cases.
Many thanks to #redhotvengeance for step-by-step guide.
After some time, now there is clearly described in Facebook documentation:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/access-tokens/expiration-and-extension
Extending Page Access Tokens
Apps can retrieve a page access token from Page admin users when they
authenticate with the manage_pages permission. If the user access
token used to retrieve this page access token is short-lived, the page
access token will also be short-lived.
To get a longer-lived page access token, exchange the User access
token for a long-lived one, as above, and then request the Page access
token. The resulting page access token will not have any expiry time.
You can also copy and past from the app dashboard on facebook.
The steps:
Go to https://developers.facebook.com
Select your app in the top right corner of the page
(pic of what it looks like)
Click on Messenger from the options on the left (it will go to setting automatically) (pic of what it looks like)
Go to the "Token Generation" section in the page. Select what page you want to generate the token for. (pic of what that section looks like)
The copy and past your page token where ever you need it.
Keep in mind that while in theory your token won't expire, that it is directly tied to what ever facebook account your logged into. So say you change your password or you remove the permissions from between your account and your app then your token won't be valid any more.
I was creating a facebook application and a security prompt came up which asked me to verify my mobile number and email. Unfortunately the mobile number was an old one and the email was my old university one (bad foresight..) which has expired.
Facebook are suspicious of new accounts developing facebook applications because they believe people are making the accounts for the sole purpose, so my only opportunity is to use my friends account to re-register my app.
I have registered the app and taken the new app id and secret and put them into my application config.php file. However the below error is appearing:
"Fatal error: Uncaught OAuthException: An active access token must be used to query information about the current user. thrown in C:\xampp\htdocs\MY FOLDER NAME\fb\base_facebook.php on line 1028"
I have replaced every instance of where my app id and secret were used to I don't understand what could be difference between the two...
Any thoughts?
The access token error will be shown when you are trying to access certain information which is not readily accessible without getting access to that user's access token. Thus this does not look like a appid config issue. Try the graph api explorer tool to see if the request goes through
https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer
Also you seem to be using Facebooks test code , you can also test it with some basic Facebook javascript sdk code from here
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/javascript/
Also there is getting started code here for php
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/appsonfacebook/tutorial/#auth
Try and see if these work for you that will confirm whether the appid is issue or not.
EDIT from #avs099: I'm starting the bounty on this post as I have exactly the same issue. I summarize the problem here, and leave the post itself without any changes at the bottom for the reference.
What we have: Facebook page access token, obtained as described here: Authenticating as a Page and which live was extended to 60 days with new fb_exchange_token request.
What is the problem: this token works for some time - sometimes I can post hundreds of photos to my fan page in the period of several days; sometimes it's literally few photos - and then I start getting either
(OAuthException) Error invalidating access token: The session has been
invalidated because the user has changed the password.
or
(OAuthException) Error invalidating access token: Session does not
match current stored session. This may be because the user changed the
password since the time the session was created or Facebook has
changed the session for security reasons.
exceptions from the Facebook - but of course I did not do change password or deauthorized the app.
Additional information: Not sure if that matters but:
Sometimes I start using token few days after I request it from the Facebook
Token is requested (by the C# backend) from the server
which is located in a different geographical region from the desktop
app which posts photos to the fan page.
It happens sometime that several different desktop apps post photos from different PCs (i.e. different IPs I guess)
Anybody has a clue what's going on and how to resolve this?
Thank you.
I have a facebook app that serves two purposes:
1) Allows users to facebook connect with my site
2) Allows my site to post to my sites facebook fan page wall
What I'm concerned about is the 2nd usage. I used to be able to set the permissions for an app on a fan page to just allow posting (via the php sdk) without any concern about an access token. Now I've created some new fan pages and that functionality seems to have been removed. Alright, so I go through the whole process of getting an access token (successfully) for the user (always me or another admin of my facebook fan pages) and use that token to get the access tokens for the fan pages I manage (I have the manage_pages permission and so do the other admins for the pages I want to post to). However by the engine gets around to posting content to my fan pages the tokens have expired with one of two error messages:
Error invalidating access token: Session does not match current stored session. This may be because the user changed the password since the time the session was created or Facebook has changed the session for security reasons.
or
OAuthException: Error invalidating access token: The session has been invalidated because the user has changed the password.
But this isn't an access token dependent on outside users, only internal people (me and one other guy right now). We aren't changing our passwords or doing anything. I've even tested it by logging out of facebook after acquiring tokens and it works fine. It's just after a little while they expire for no reason that I can determine. When I get the tokens I can check them on the debugging tool and they are supposed to last 60 days (according to the doc) although the tool says they never expire.
I've set up the system so when it fails to post to the page I get an email with the link to my site to update the tokens.
Anyone have a clue what's going on?
As Mikhail pointed out, if you get an error reporting that the token is invalid cause user has changed the password. Odds are you are requesting a new token somewhere hidden in the code, when you already have a valid one.
Possibly related to this bug? https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/241373692605971?browse=search_4fb4832bcaf7b1549293950
I have the same problem in my app - sometimes tokens expiring.
One of the find reason: sometimes my app ask for new token while old token is valid and FB return an error or i couldn't save new token for some reason.
After that old token expire - only one token for pair user-app may be valid.
You can fetch the unauthorized token so a new token is requested (or whatever you like).
I can provide a nice explanation but you can read it all here:
https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2011/05/13/how-to--handle-expired-access-tokens/
A temporary solution is to ask the user to delete the application from it's profile, and allow it again.
I had same problem and resolved it "reinstalling the app to users facebook applications". it may help you if nothing answers to problem.
To do that:
facebook user who is facing the problem goes to its facebook page
he/she removes your app from his/her application list.
Retry to login via facebook sdk on android.