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I'm interested in reading the posts in a private group that I'm a part of on Facebook.

Facebook's documentation shows that you can access a facebook group's feed with the following URL:

GET /v2.4/{group-id}/feed

However even after generating an access token with all permissions, this query always returns an empty array (and I know the group in question has posts in it):

{ data: [] }

One answer I have found suggests that this is because you need an access token for a user that is an administrator for the group.

Is this true? If so/otherwise, is there any way to access a facebook group's feed without admin access to the group?

Considering normal users have access to the group's feed, I would certainly expect there to be a way to do this.

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Migwell
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1 Answers1

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The docs at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/reference/v2.4/group/feed say:

Permissions

  • Any valid access token for a public group (i.e. the group's privacy setting is OPEN).
  • A user access token for a member of the group.
  • The user_managed_groups permission can be used to read the group content for a group in which the user is an admin. This permission also allows the app to post as the user in the group if the app is also granted the publish_actions permission. An app granted this permission can continue to use these capabilities even if the user stops being an admin of the group, although the user can remove the app from the group manually.
  • An app access token can read posts it published in app and game groups that belong to it.

Also, have a look at the changelog at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/apps/changelog#v2_4

  • the user_groups permission has been deprecated. Developers may continue to use the user_managed_groups permission to access the groups a person is the administrator of. This information is still accessed via the /v2.4/{user_id}/groups edge which is still available in v2.4.

So, if you're using v2.4 and the group is private, and you're not an admin of the group, I think you cannot access the group's feed.

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Tobi
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  • This doesn't help, though, since it requires admin access to view the feed: ` The user_managed_groups permission can be used to read the group content for a group in which the user is an admin.` – Migwell Sep 14 '15 at 07:19
  • That's not correct. It depends what kind of group you want to access the group's feed. It's clearly stated that **ANY** access token is ok for public groups, – Tobi Sep 14 '15 at 07:25
  • Right, but not for private groups, which is what I'm interested in. I'll edit the OP to mention that. – Migwell Sep 14 '15 at 07:34