What can and can't PostSnag capture?

PostSnag captures the public posts on Facebook profiles, Pages, creator accounts, and groups, including the real playable video file behind every reel and video, along with each post's engagement, timing, caption, and media. It never captures private or friends-only posts, Messenger or direct messages, Stories, or live video, and it never captures anything behind a login you don't have.

What gets captured depends entirely on what's public and what actually loads on your screen as you scroll your own Facebook session.

What PostSnag can capture

• Public posts on profiles, Pages, and creator accounts. Anything you could already see by visiting that profile or Page yourself, PostSnag can capture.
• Posts from a Facebook Group, two ways. Scroll the group's own feed to capture posts from across every member who posts, or open one member's profile from inside the group to capture just that person's posts. See How do I capture posts from a Facebook Group?.
• Post type, classified as text, photo, video, reel, album, or link, based on the post's actual structure rather than a guess from the URL.
• Engagement, including the total reaction count, a breakdown by reaction type visible in the dashboard (like, love, haha, wow, sad, and angry; Facebook's Care reaction isn't tracked separately today), the comment count, the share count, and view counts on videos and reels.
• The real video file for videos and reels. PostSnag saves the actual playable video, not just a thumbnail, plus a cover image and the clip's duration.
• The exact date and time posted, read from Facebook's own post data where available, or converted from the relative time Facebook shows on screen ("2h," "3d," "Yesterday") when that's all that's available.
• The caption text, preferring the post's own message field.
• Images, including up to 20 from an album.
• The author's public name and profile link, and the original post's URL.
• Basic profile details when you capture a whole profile: display name, avatar, cover image, bio, follower, following, or friend counts, and verification status, wherever Facebook shows them publicly.

What PostSnag cannot capture

• Private or friends-only posts. If you can't already see a post on Facebook with your own account, PostSnag can't see it either.
• Messenger or direct messages. PostSnag never touches Messenger.
• Stories.
• Live video, while it's actively broadcasting.
• Non-profile sections of Facebook, like Watch, Marketplace, Events, Notifications, Settings, the top-level Reels tab, Friends, Jobs, and Fundraisers. PostSnag only activates on a profile, Page, or group page.
• Anything on another platform. PostSnag is Facebook-only today. See Does PostSnag work on Instagram, TikTok, or other platforms? and, for what's being built next, What is PostSnag building next?.
• Anything behind a login you don't have. If a profile or group requires membership or a connection you don't have, PostSnag can't see past that any more than you can.

Why some posts don't get captured on the first pass

Capture depends on what actually finishes loading on your screen while you scroll, so a few situations can cause a post to be missed the first time through:

• A fresh page load. The very first post on a profile can appear before PostSnag has fully attached to a freshly opened page.
• Media that's still loading. Photos, albums, and video files load separately from a post's text, and often more slowly, especially on a fast scroll through several videos or albums in a row. Scrolling slowly gives media time to finish loading before PostSnag reads that post.
• A very recent post. Something posted moments ago can still be settling into Facebook's own feed at the exact moment you scan, so it may not fully register until you refresh and scan again.
• Scrolling back upward. Facebook re-renders post cards you've already passed when you scroll back up over them. PostSnag recognizes a post it already has, so this doesn't create duplicates, but scrolling down through the whole profile again, not back up, is how you catch a missed post.

None of this is a bug. It's the normal, expected behavior of capturing content from a live, scrolling page instead of pulling from a fixed archive. Rescanning a profile from the top almost always fills in whatever a first pass missed. See How do I get the most complete and accurate capture? for the full set of best practices.

Edge cases worth knowing

• Reels count as their own post type, but a person's own Reels tab (yourusername/reels) is treated as part of their profile, so reels captured there show up alongside their other posts.
• Shared or tagged content on a profile's own feed gets captured under that profile. If a post appears on a profile's feed because it was shared or someone was tagged in it, PostSnag attributes it to whichever profile page you were actively scanning.
• A person's posts inside a Facebook Group are kept separate from their personal profile posts, whichever of the two group capture paths you used. Capturing someone inside a group tags those posts to that group; capturing their own profile page directly captures only their personal posts. See Why are group posts kept separate from personal posts?.

Common questions

Does PostSnag capture the video file itself?

Yes. For videos and reels, PostSnag saves the real playable video file plus a cover image and the clip's duration, not just a thumbnail.

Can PostSnag see private or friends-only posts?

No. PostSnag only reads what's already public and visible in your own Facebook session, the same as any visitor to that profile would see.

Does PostSnag capture Facebook Group posts?

Yes, two ways: scroll the group's own feed for every member who posts, or open one member's profile from inside the group for just that person. Either way, posts are tagged to that group and kept separate from personal profile posts.

Why is a post I remember missing after I scrolled past it?

It most likely hadn't finished loading, or its media was still loading, when PostSnag scanned that part of the page. Scroll back over that section or rescan the profile from the top.

Does an exported file include the reaction breakdown, or just the total?

Exported files carry each post's reaction total. The full like, love, haha, wow, sad, and angry breakdown is visible in the dashboard, not inside any exported file.

Related articles

• How does PostSnag work?
• What is the PostSnag panel?
• How do I capture posts from a Facebook Group?
• How do I get the most complete and accurate capture?
• Is PostSnag safe to use?

PostSnag is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Meta Platforms, Inc.