Getting the "real" Facebook profile picture URL from graph API

Question

Facebook graph API tells me I can get a profile picture of a user using

http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/picture?type=large

which works fine. However, when you type above URL into a browser, the actual address of the image is

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/profile-ak-snc1/v227/560/83/n517267866_1928.jpg

How can I get the second URL using the first one programmatically?

that way I can save the URL and call it directly without making the API request? — ericbae, Jul 28 '10 at 00:32
@ufk , but both give different results when user changes his picture. — Rana Deep, Sep 26 '13 at 18:00
I realise it's 10 years later (how amazing is stackoverflow ? ) but that URL returns the *cover photo* not the user's profile picture. — Marcello Romani, Sep 15 '20 at 15:30

score 72 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

The first URL gives a HTTP 302 (temporary redirect) to the second. So, to find the second URL programatically, you could issue a HTTP request for the first URL and get the Location header of the response.

That said, don't rely on the second URL being pemanent. Reading a little in to the HTTP response code (of 302 as opposed to a permanent 301), it is possible Facebook changes those URLs on a regular basis to prevent people from—for example—using their servers to host images.

Edit: Notice that the CDN URL the OP posted is now a 404, so we know that we cannot rely on the URL being long-lived. Also, if you're linking to the Graph API from an <img> on a SSL-secured page, ~~there's a parameter you have to add~~ make sure you use https://graph.facebook.com.

Update: The API has added a parameter – redirect=false – which causes JSON to be returned rather than a redirect. The retruned JSON includes the CDN URL:

{
   "data": {
      "url": "http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/...",
      "is_silhouette": false
   }
}

Again, I wouldn't rely on this CDN URL being long-lived. The JSON response is sent with permissive CORS headers, so you're free to do this client-side with XHR requests.

makes sense. this is what I expected. thanks for the response! — ericbae, Jul 27 '10 at 11:40
Does it makes sense to send down cdn urls from the server if you are doing a game leader board and only want to expose a users profile picture not their user ID? I'm not saying count on the CDN but just make the call server side to hide fbID details from client. — Russell Asher, Oct 02 '15 at 22:09
How to avoid the image file download? It seems that the image url, while returning 200 is downloaded by the browser instead of being displayed. Maybe because the response headers are `content-disposition: attachment` and `content-type: image/jpeg`. — loretoparisi, Mar 20 '19 at 11:38

score 36 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 10 '11 at 14:38

36

http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/?fields=picture&type=large

Would return the URL in JSON

answered Apr 10 '11 at 14:38

Adfsd

393
3
2

2

Returns the small picture URL. – Vaiden Aug 29 '12 at 12:56
7

Ditto - this returns the small image – slashwhatever Sep 13 '12 at 12:33
23

if you really want to fetch it this way, use https://graph.facebook.com/517267866/?fields=picture.type(large) – andi Nov 26 '12 at 14:47
1

@andi You should write this up as a separate answer: the specific syntax 'fields=picture.type(large)' was the only solution for me to get an URL to a large profile image as a JSON response from Facebook. – Visionscaper Mar 27 '13 at 23:29
/picture?type=large or ?fields=picture.type(large) both work for me... but the image returned is completely different from the profile image I see if I actually visit the page. – phpguru Feb 27 '16 at 17:21

score 16 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 04 '12 at 14:29

I realize this is late, but there is another way to obtain the URL of the profile image.

To your original url, you can add the parameter redirect=false to obtain the actual URL of the image you'd normally be redirected to.

So, the new request would look like http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/picture?type=large&redirect=false. This will return a JSON object containing the URL of the picture and a boolean is_silhouette (true if the picture is the default Facebook picture).

The picture will be of the size you specified, as well. You can test this additionally by adding dimensions: http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/picture?type=large&redirect=false&width=400&height=400

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 03 '13 at 06:30

For anyone else looking to get the profile pic in iOS:

I just did this to get the user's Facebook pic:

NSString *profilePicURL = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://graph.facebook.com/%@/picture?type=large", fbUserID];

where 'fbUserID' is the Facebook user's profile ID.

This way I can always just call the url in profilePicURL to get the image, and I always get it, no problem. If you've already got the user ID, you don't need any API requests, just stick the ID into the url after facebook.com/.

FYI to anyone looking who needs the fbUserID in iOS:

if (FBSession.activeSession.isOpen) {
    [[FBRequest requestForMe] startWithCompletionHandler:
     ^(FBRequestConnection *connection,
       NSDictionary<FBGraphUser> *user,
       NSError *error) {
         if (!error) {
             self.userName = user.name;
             self.fbUserID = user.id;
         }
     }];
}

You'll need an active FBSession for that to work (see Facebook's docs, and the "Scrumptious" example).

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 18 '17 at 09:22

6

If you want the JSON of a good quality profile picture with the URL you can use that:

http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/picture?height=1024&redirect=false

if you just need the picture use it without the parameter redirect:

http://graph.facebook.com/517267866/picture?height=1024

517267866 is the profile ID of one of the above examples. Put the facebook id that you need

I hope that helps

answered Jan 18 '17 at 09:22

Kasas

1,216
2
18
28

Not sure if this works for every Graph image objects. In some case for the url `https://graph.facebook.com/XXXXX/picture?height=1024` the browser will download the image instead of displaying it. Any idea why? – loretoparisi Mar 20 '19 at 11:42
I think that depends on the browser you are using. However, you can use the facebook image url in any image component of your framework (IOS, Android, HTTP Image...) – Kasas Mar 21 '19 at 06:41

score 3 · Answer 6 · edited Jul 03 '12 at 21:28

3

$url = 'http://graph.facebook.com/100000771470028/picture?type=large';
$rray=get_headers($url);
$hd = $rray[4];
echo(substr($hd,strpos($hd,'http')));

This will return the url that you asked, and the problem of changing the url by facebook doesn't matter because you are dynamically calling the url from the original url.

edited Jul 03 '12 at 21:28

kratenko

7,354
4
36
61

answered Jul 13 '11 at 11:31

KAS

790
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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 04 '12 at 02:52

2

function getFacebookImageFromURL($url)
{
  $headers = get_headers($url, 1);
  if (isset($headers['Location']))
  {
    return $headers['Location'];
  }
}

$url = 'https://graph.facebook.com/zuck/picture?type=large';
$imageURL = getFacebookImageFromURL($url);

answered Dec 04 '12 at 02:52

TheDayIsDone

323
5
11

picture?type=large was the only answer I needed here - thank you. – pedromillers Nov 10 '13 at 18:19
This was 'god send'. I've been trying to find how to do this for days, then I found the answer here. Thanks @TheDayIsDone – user801347 Aug 22 '14 at 13:11

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 19 '15 at 09:19

2

this is the only one that really works:

me?fields=picture.type(*YOURTYPE*)

where YOURTYPE can be one of the following: small, normal, album, large, square

answered Oct 19 '15 at 09:19

Fabio Napodano

1,210
1
16
17

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 26 '15 at 10:47

For Android:

According to latest Facebook SDK,

First you need to call GraphRequest API for getting all the details of user in which API also gives URL of current Profile Picture.

Bundle params = new Bundle();
params.putString("fields", "id,email,gender,cover,picture.type(large)");
new GraphRequest(token, "me", params, HttpMethod.GET,
        new GraphRequest.Callback() {
            @Override
            public void onCompleted(GraphResponse response) {
                if (response != null) {
                    try {
                        JSONObject data = response.getJSONObject();
                        if (data.has("picture")) {
                            String profilePicUrl = data.getJSONObject("picture").getJSONObject("data").getString("url");
                        }
                    } catch (Exception e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            }
}).executeAsync();

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 30 '14 at 18:55

1

Now , Facebook need SSL

-> Important added S, https -> https://graph.facebook.com/userId/?fields=picture&type=large

Works In June / 2014

answered Jun 30 '14 at 18:55

luizfelipetx

388
4
7

score 0 · Answer 11 · edited Oct 10 '12 at 19:17

Hmm..i tried everything to get url to user image.The perfect solution was fql use like this->

    $fql_b = 'SELECT pic from user where uid = ' . $user_id;
    $ret_obj_b = $facebook->api(array(
                               'method' => 'fql.query',
                               'query' => $fql_b,
                             ));


             $dp_url =$ret_obj_b[0]['pic'];

replace pic by big,pic_square to get other desired results. Hope IT HELPED....

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered May 18 '15 at 08:21

ImageView user_picture;
userpicture=(ImageView)findViewById(R.id.userpicture);
URL img_value = null;
img_value = new URL("http://graph.facebook.com/"+id+"/picture?type=large");
Bitmap mIcon1 = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(img_value.openConnection().getInputStream());
userpicture.setImageBitmap(mIcon1);

Where ID is one your profile ID.

Getting the "real" Facebook profile picture URL from graph API

12 Answers12

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