Connect Meta

One Meta connection covers Facebook Pages, the Instagram accounts linked to them, and, when your administrator has switched it on, Meta Ads.

Connecting has two parts. An administrator sets up one Meta app for the installation, on the Meta app page. Then each person connects their own Facebook login, on the Meta connection page.

For the administrator: set up the app

The Meta app page lists these steps too, under What to collect, with the exact values for your installation. Keep it open beside Meta for Developers.

Create the Meta app

1. In Meta for Developers, create an app. Meta's own guide walks through it.
2. Add the use cases you will use. Every use case adds to what App Review checks, so leave out the ones you will not use.

Use case in Meta for Developers	Needed for
Manage everything on your Page	Facebook Pages: posts, comments, figures
Manage messaging & content on Instagram	Instagram: posts, comments, figures
Create & manage ads with Marketing API	Meta Ads
Engage with customers on Messenger from Meta	The inbox

The Meta app page lists a few more use cases. Add one only if you know you need it.

Add the permissions

In the Page and Instagram use cases (Customize, and for Instagram the Facebook login setup), add the permissions the server asks for when someone connects. The Meta app page shows the current list for your installation. With every optional switch off, it is:

pages_show_list
pages_read_engagement
pages_read_user_content
pages_manage_posts
instagram_basic
instagram_content_publish
read_insights
instagram_manage_insights
business_management

business_management is what makes a Page that belongs to a business portfolio appear at all. Without it such a Page is simply missing from the list, with no error.

If Meta's sign-in says Invalid Scopes, the permissions it names are the ones still missing from the app.

Register the redirect address

1. On Meta app, copy the Redirect URI.
2. In Meta for Developers, under Facebook Login for Business, Settings, add that exact address to Valid OAuth Redirect URIs.
3. Under App settings, Basic, make Meta recognise the address. The Meta app page says which of the two applies to you:
   • for an HTTPS address, add its host name to App Domains;
   • for localhost, use Add platform, Website, and give the address as the Site URL, because App Domains does not take localhost.

The redirect address is the address of your installation followed by /oauth/meta/callback.

The redirect address must be localhost or HTTPS

Meta accepts plain HTTP only for the name localhost, and only while the app is in Development mode. An installation that listens on this machine only is given to Meta under that name by itself: the page shows http://localhost:8765/oauth/meta/callback, and you do not have to change the public address for it. For any other address, set an HTTPS public address first: see Server settings.

Enter the app id and secret

On the same App settings, Basic page, Meta shows the App ID at the top. The App secret is hidden until you press Show.

1. Open Meta app.
2. Under Credentials, fill in App id and App secret.
3. Leave Graph API version as it is unless you have a reason to change it. A new installation uses v25.0.
4. Press Save credentials.

The heading then shows Set. A field you leave blank keeps what is already stored. If you change the app id later, everyone has to connect Meta again.

Meta also asks for these on App settings, Basic. The Meta app page gives you each one to copy:

• an App icon, which you can download from the page;
• a Privacy policy URL and User data deletion instructions, both on namasoft.com.

Development mode and App Review

While the app is in Development mode, it works only for people who have a role on the app. You add them under App roles in Meta for Developers. That is enough to try everything out.

For anyone else, the app needs Advanced Access to the permissions, which Meta grants through App Review, usually after Business Verification. Meta decides, and its pages say what it asks for.

Optional switches and the permission each adds

These switches are on Meta app. All are off by default.

Section and switch	What the sign-in also asks for	What it opens
Comments and moderation: Ask for the comment permissions when people connect	pages_manage_engagement, instagram_manage_comments	Reading Instagram comments; replying to and hiding comments on both. Reading Facebook comments works without it.
Deleting Instagram posts: Ask for the permission to delete Instagram posts when people connect	instagram_manage_contents	Deleting a published Instagram post. Deleting a Facebook post needs no switch.
Messages: Read and answer messages, and ask for the messaging permissions when people connect	pages_messaging, pages_manage_metadata, instagram_manage_messages	The inbox for Messenger and Instagram.
Meta Ads: Switch Meta Ads on, and ask for the advertising permissions when people connect	ads_read, ads_management, pages_manage_ads	Advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta Ads: Allow reading leads	leads_retrieval, while Meta Ads is on	Reading the leads of lead forms.
Hashtag search: Let people search Instagram hashtags	Nothing	Reading public Instagram posts under a hashtag.

Add the permission to the app before you turn its switch on

A switch makes the sign-in ask for its permissions. Asking for a permission the app does not have makes signing in fail for everyone. So add the permission in Meta for Developers first, and leave the switch off until the app has it.

What else to know before you turn one on:

• Everyone already connected has to reconnect to grant the new permission. Until they do, the tools that need it refuse and name the permission.
• Most of these permissions need Advanced Access through App Review before they work for people without a role on the app. For messages, until Meta grants it, a reply reaches only people who have a role on the app.
• Meta Ads on your own business's ad accounts needs the Marketing API product on the app, and Meta grants those permissions without App Review, on its Limited access tier. Advertising from anyone else's ad account needs Full access through App Review.
• Hashtag search is a feature, not a permission. Meta answers it only for an app that has the Instagram Public Content Access feature, which you apply for through App Review. Nobody reconnects when you switch it on.
• Instagram messages also need the account's owner to switch on Allow access to messages in the Instagram app.

Two more switches in the Meta Ads section, Allow sending conversions to a pixel and Allow customer lists as audiences, add no permission. They send customer records to Meta: read Contact data first.

Limits and switches describes every switch on the page.

For everyone: connect your account

You connect your own Facebook login. The AI client can then work on the Pages that login manages and the Instagram accounts linked to them, and everything it does is recorded under your username.

Before you connect

• You need a role on each Page. Your Facebook login has to be able to manage the Pages you want, directly or through Meta Business Suite.
• Instagram goes through a Page. The Instagram account must be a Business or Creator account, linked to one of those Pages. Meta explains how to link them.

Connect

1. Open Meta connection.
2. Press Connect Meta.
3. Sign in at Facebook.
4. Meta asks which Pages and Instagram accounts to share. Tick every one you want. Meta shares only those.
5. Accept every permission Meta asks for. Declining one leaves the related tools refusing until you reconnect and accept it.
6. Meta sends you back to a page that says "Meta account connected". Go back to the management page.

The status now shows Connected.

If a Page is missing afterwards

Press Reconnect Meta and choose it again in Meta's sign-in. If it is still missing, check your role on the Page.

Test the connection

Press Test connection. The page answers "Working" with the number of Pages, and lists each Page with its id, its linked Instagram account, and whether you may post to it.

If your connection lacks a permission that the installation asks for, the page lists each missing one and offers Reconnect Meta. If Meta does not ask for that permission while you sign in, the app has not been given it yet: tell your administrator.

When Meta Ads is on, the test also lists the ad accounts you can reach. The last column says whether an account is Ready for changes, or what an administrator still has to set, such as a spending limit for its currency.

You can also ask your AI client:

Which Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts can you post to?

The connection lasts about 60 days

Meta gives the server nothing that renews a connection. It ends about 60 days after you connect, and Meta connection shows the exact date.

• In the last 7 days, the status shows Expires soon and the server sends you a notification, once.
• To renew it, press Reconnect Meta. You can do that at any time.
• After it ends, Meta tools are refused and posts waiting in your queue for Instagram fail until you reconnect.

See Notifications for where that notification goes.

Disconnect

Disconnect removes your Meta connection from this server. It also deletes what was kept from that connection: what the server watched for you on Meta and the figures it kept, the stored reports that hold Meta figures, your alert rules on Meta accounts, and your lead feeds and export marks for Meta. Nothing changes on Facebook or Instagram.

For refusals after you are connected, see Troubleshooting.