How to Use the Facebook Profile Scraper

Before you start

• Your Facebook account set to English.
  • The Phantom may not dismiss the cookie popup or scroll properly in other languages. Some additional languages are supported, but not all.
  • Contact us if you need compatibility for a specific one.
• Awareness of platform limits:
  • You can safely process up to 5 profiles per hour.

Step 1: Connect your Facebook account

To let the Phantom act on your behalf:

1. Install the PhantomBuster browser extension and connect your Facebook session in one click.
2. If you’re not using Chrome or Firefox, you can retrieve your session cookie manually (see our cookie guide).
   • Note that for this Phantom, you’ll need to retrieve two session cookies from Facebook and paste both values into the corresponding fields in your Phantom’s setup:
     • c_user cookie
     • xs cookie

Step 2: Provide profile URLs

Tell the Phantom which Facebook profiles you want to process.

• A single profile URL: Paste the Facebook profile URL.
• Provide a Google Sheet with Facebook profile URLs (make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link”).
• Upload a CSV file with Facebook profile URLs (make sure it’s publicly accessible, and note that CSV upload is only available on paid plans).

→ If you’re using a spreadsheet, the Phantom defaults to the first column (A). To use a different column, enter the column’s header name in the field “Name of column containing profile URLs.”

Step 3: Configure extraction settings

Fine-tune how many profiles are processed per run:

• Number of profiles to scrape per launch (optional):
  • Default = 5, and recommended maximum per launch.

Result file settings (dropdown in setup)

1. Name your results file (optional)

   • You can customize the file name.

     If you rename the file between launches, the Phantom will create a new results file and start processing inputs from scratch.

2. Fields to keep (optional)
   • Export only the fields you care about by listing them (comma-separated).
     Example: profileUrl, job, location.
   • This generates a second CSV file with just those fields.
   • Learn more in our guide: Customize how your Phantom results files are saved.

Step 4: Select launch frequency

Choose how often the Phantom should run:

1. Launch manually: Start the Phantom yourself whenever you need.
2. Launch once at a specific time: schedule a one-time run at a set date and time.
3. Launch repeatedly: schedule regular runs (e.g. once per day, several times during working hours).
4. Launch after another Phantom: chain automations together so this Phantom starts right after another finishes.
5. Advanced scheduling: customize the exact minutes, hours, days, or months when the Phantom should run.

→ For a complete walkthrough of scheduling options, see our guide to scheduling Phantoms automatically.

Step 5 (Optional): Advanced settings

Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Phantom runs, but by default they’re already optimized for most use cases.

We recommend leaving them as they are unless a guide specifically instructs you to change something.

→ For a detailed overview of all advanced options (like execution limits, retries, email notifications, proxies, webhooks, and file management), see our Advanced settings guide.

Proxies: highly recommended for Facebook

Our Phantoms run from the cloud, so they connect to your account from IP addresses worldwide. Without a proxy, this can sometimes trigger extra login checks or cause Facebook to see activity from unexpected locations.

You can configure proxies in the Phantom's Advanced settings, under the Proxies tab. From there, decide which proxy to use:

1. PhantomBuster proxy:
   • Select Maintain the same fixed IP for stability (as long as the proxy remains available).
   • Choose the proxy location closest to you (6 regions available).
2. External proxy:
   • If you need a location not covered by PhantomBuster, connect your own proxy in the same menu.
   • Configuration steps will differ depending on your provider.

You can also try running without a proxy at first. If Facebook asks you to confirm logins or results look inconsistent, enable a proxy to lock your location.

Launch and results

When you’re ready:

1. Click Launch to start your Phantom.
2. Once it finishes, open the Results tab in the Phantom console to see extracted data.
3. Download your results as a CSV or JSON file.

→ To learn how to export your data to Google Sheets, integrate with other tools, or reuse it in more automations, check our Access and Export your Phantom Results guide.

Export and input limits on the Free plan
If you’re on the Free plan or Free trial, some features are limited:
- CSV exports include only the first 10 rows of results.
- CSV download links (for dynamic viewing in Google Sheets or integrations) are not available.
- JSON exports are not available.
- CSV upload as an input method is not supported.
To unlock all features, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

What you give (Input) and What you get (Output)

This section gives you a detailed breakdown of everything you need to provide to run this Phantom, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.

What you give (Input)

What you get (Output)

Tips and troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Providing group or post URLs instead of profile URLs.
• Using a private spreadsheet (make sure it’s set to “Anyone with the link”).
• Language mismatch: If your Facebook account isn't set to English, the Phantom may return very limited data - including missing basic fields like the full name - and may not scroll beyond 10 profiles.
• Processing too many profiles at once → stick to 5 per hour for safety.
• Emails & phone numbers: Usually not available on Facebook. The Phantom will capture them only if the user made them public on their profile.

If you run into issues

• Check how to troubleshoot your phantom using Logs.
• Browse the Fix Issues & Troubleshoot Errors section for solutions to common problems.
• Review our Automation Rate Limits by Platform guide.
• Check our Best Practices for Social Media Automation guide.
• If the Phantom runs but returns little or no data, check your Facebook language setting (see above) and your session cookie → How to Fix "Expired" or "Invalid" Session Cookie Errors

Suggested automations

After extracting profile data, you can:

• AI Advanced Enricher → Analyze and segment scraped profiles (e.g., role, company, ICP tags).
• Facebook Group Members Export → Facebook Profile Scraper Phantom
  First export group members, then extract their profiles for richer details.
• LinkedIn Profile URL Finder → LinkedIn Profile Scraper Phantom (optional)
  Find likely LinkedIn URLs for your Facebook contacts, then extract LinkedIn profiles for professional enrichment.