How to Share a Video from Facebook to Instagram

Trying to share a video from your Facebook feed directly to your Instagram profile can feel surprisingly tricky. You’d think a simple “share” button would exist between two platforms owned by the same company, but it’s not that straightforward. This guide will walk you through exactly how to get your Facebook videos onto Instagram, covering the best methods for both your future and existing content.

Why You Can't Share a Facebook Video Directly to Instagram

First, let’s get this out of the way. The primary reason you can’t simply hit a share button for an existing Facebook video and have it pop up on Instagram is that Meta treats them as two distinct platforms with different formats, expectations, and user behaviors.

• Different Formats: Instagram is heavily optimized for a vertical format (9:16 aspect ratio), especially for Reels and Stories. Many Facebook videos are horizontal (16:9) or square (1:1), which wouldn’t look right on Instagram without some editing.
• Audience Expectations: Instagram content, particularly Reels, often relies heavily on trending audio, quick cuts, and platform-specific effects. A video originally made for Facebook might not connect with the Instagram audience in the same way without adjustments.
• Keep Users on Platform: Both platforms are designed to keep users engaged within their own ecosystems. A direct link that pulls users from Instagram to Facebook goes against this core design.

The good news is that while there’s no magic one-click button for videos that are already posted, you have solid workarounds. More importantly, you can set things up to automatically share future videos seamlessly.

Setting Up Automatic Cross-Posting for Future Videos

If you want to streamline your workflow moving forward, setting up cross-posting is your best bet. This allows you to publish a video, Reel, or Story on one platform and have it automatically post to the other. You only have to do this once.

Step 1: Connect Your Accounts in Meta Accounts Center

Before you can enable sharing, you need to make sure your Facebook and Instagram accounts are officially linked. The easiest way to do this is through the Instagram or Facebook mobile app.

1. Open your Instagram app and go to your profile.
2. Tap the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top right corner, then select Settings and privacy.
3. Tap on Accounts Center at the very top.
4. Under “Accounts Center settings,” tap on Profiles. Here you should see your Instagram profile.
5. Tap Add accounts and follow the prompts to log in to the Facebook profile or Page you want to connect.

Once you’ve added your Facebook account, they will be linked within the same Accounts Center, giving you access to cross-platform features.

Step 2: Enable Cross-Platform Sharing

Now that your accounts are linked, you can choose what kind of content you want to share automatically.

1. Return to the main Accounts Center screen.
2. Tap on Connected experiences, and then select Sharing across profiles.
3. You'll see your connected accounts. Select the account you want to share from (e.g., your Facebook account).
4. You’ll see options to “Automatically share.” You can toggle on sharing for:
   • Your Facebook story
   • Your Facebook posts
   • Your Facebook Reels

Now, when you go to create a new Reel on Facebook, you’ll see an option to also share it to Instagram before you hit "Publish." It's an efficient way to publish new content to both platforms simultaneously without extra work.

Note: This method only works for new content you publish after setting it up. For videos that are already live on Facebook, you’ll need to use the manual method below.

The Best Way to Repost an Existing Facebook Video to Instagram

When you have a great video on Facebook that’s performed well and you want to give it new life on Instagram, the most reliable method is downloading it from Facebook and re-uploading it to Instagram. It’s a simple three-step process.

Step 1: Download the Video From Facebook

How you download the video depends on whether it’s your own content or someone else’s.

If It's Your Own Video (on a Business Page)

Luckily, Facebook makes this very easy for content you own on a Business Page.

1. Navigate to your Facebook Business Page and find the video you want to share.
2. Click on the video to open it in the video viewer.
3. Click the three horizontal dots icon (...) next to your Page’s name.
4. From the dropdown menu, simply click Download video. The video will save to your computer or phone’s downloads folder.

If It’s a Video You Posted to Your Personal Profile

The process is nearly identical for videos on your personal Timeline.

1. Go to your profile and find the video post.
2. Click the three dots (...) in the top-right corner of the post itself.
3. Select Download.

If You Don't Own the Video (With Permission!)

This is where it gets a little trickier, and it comes with a big ethical responsibility. You should never repost someone else's content without their explicit permission and without giving them proper credit. Plagiarizing content is not just bad form, it can get your account penalized.

Once you have permission:

1. Ask the creator if they can send you the original video file. This is the best option because it preserves the video quality.
2. If that's not possible, you may need to use a third-party Facebook video downloader tool. There are many websites that do this, you just copy the video's URL and paste it into the site. Be cautious and use reputable websites, as some can be filled with ads or security risks.

Again, this should only be done after you’ve received permission from the original creator. When you post, be sure to tag them in the caption (e.g., “🎧 Video by @creatorname”) and in the video itself.

Step 2: Optimize the Video for Instagram

Simply re-uploading a Facebook video directly to Instagram is a missed opportunity. To get the best results, you need to format it to feel native to the platform. People can tell when content wasn’t made for the screen they’re watching it on.

• Crop to a Vertical 9:16 Aspect Ratio. Most Facebook videos are landscape (16:9) or square (1:1), but Instagram Reels and Stories are vertical (9:16). Use a simple video editing app (like CapCut, InShot, or even Instagram's own built-in editor) to crop your video to the correct dimensions. Make sure the important parts of the video are centered in the vertical frame.
• Check the Video Length. Instagram Reels can now be longer, but historically, the sweet spot for engagement is shorter than the average Facebook video. Consider trimming your video down to its most impactful moments. Stories must be under 60 seconds per clip (though Instagram will automatically segment longer videos).
• Add Native Text and Trending Audio. Make your video feel like it belongs on Reels. Instead of keeping baked-in Facebook text, add new on-screen text using Instagram’s editor. Most importantly, swap the original audio for a trending sound or song from Instagram's audio library. Using trending audio is a huge driver of discoverability on the platform.

Step 3: Upload it to Instagram

Once your video is downloaded and optimized, the final step is easy.

1. Open your Instagram app.
2. Tap the "+" icon at the bottom-center of the screen.
3. Select Reel from the options.
4. Access your phone's gallery from the bottom-left corner and select your edited video.
5. Add any final touches: trending audio, text, stickers, or filters.
6. Write an engaging caption, add relevant hashtags, and choose a cover image.
7. Hit Share, and your video is now live on Instagram!

Creating a Smarter Workflow for Repurposing Content

While the download-and-upload method works perfectly, it can become repetitive, especially if you manage multiple accounts or have a lot of video content. Over time, content creators and social media managers often adopt a content-first workflow instead of a platform-first one.

Instead of creating a video for Facebook, create the video itself first. Edit and save a high-quality "master" version without any platform-specific elements like text or stickers. From there, you can adapt that master video for each platform: an engaging vertical Reel for Instagram, a slightly longer version for Facebook, a Short for YouTube, and a clip for TikTok.

Social media management tools can be a game-changer for this process. They allow you to upload your master video once and then schedule it across all your platforms, customizing the caption, format, and post time for each channel from a single dashboard. This approach turns re-purposing from a chore into a core part of an efficient strategy.

Final Thoughts

While Facebook doesn't offer a direct "share to Instagram" button for existing videos, getting your content from one platform to the other is fairly straightforward. You can either set up cross-posting to automatically share future content or use the simple download-and-reupload method for your past videos, just making sure to optimize the format for the best results.

I know how tiring the manual download and re-upload cycle can be, especially when you're repurposing dozens of videos a month. It’s a lot of clicks and a lot of lost time. That's a huge part of why we built Postbase from the ground up to be a video-first platform. Our entire system is designed so you upload your content once, and then you can schedule it natively as a Reel, TikTok, or YouTube Short without the format headaches or quality loss. We believe your time is better spent creating content, not fighting with workflows.