Facebook API - How to Get a Facebook User'S Profile Image Through the Facebook API (Without Requiring the User to "Allow" the Application)

Facebook API - How do I get a Facebook user's profile image through the Facebook API (without requiring the user to Allow the application)

Simply fetch the data through this URL:

http://graph.facebook.com/userid_here/picture

Replace userid_here with id of the user you want to get the photo of. You can also use HTTPS as well.

You can use the PHP's file_get_contents function to read that URL and process the retrieved data.

Resource:

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/api

Note: In php.ini, you need to make sure that the OpenSSL extension is enabled to use thefile_get_contents function of PHP to read that URL.

Get user profile picture by Id

http://graph.facebook.com/" + facebookId + "/picture?type=square
For instance:
http://graph.facebook.com/67563683055/picture?type=square

There are also more sizes besides "square". See the docs.

Update September 2020

As Facebook have updated their docs this method is not working anymore without a token. You need to append some kind of access_token. You can find further information and how to do it correctly in the fb docs to the graph api of user picture

Requirements Change
This endpoint supports App-Scoped User IDs (ASID), User IDs (UID), and Page-Scoped User IDs (PSID). Currently you can query ASIDs and UIDs with no requirements. However, beginning October 24, 2020, an access token will be required for all UID-based queries. If you query a UID and thus must include a token:

use a User access token for Facebook Login authenticated requests

use a Page access token for page-scoped requests

use an App access token for server-side requests

use a Client access token for mobile or web client-side requests

Quote of fb docs

Getting profile picture with swift through Facebook Graph API return unsupported URL

Able to get it using this code:

    // Get user profile pic
    var fbSession = PFFacebookUtils.session()
    var accessToken = fbSession.accessTokenData.accessToken
    let url = NSURL(string: "https://graph.facebook.com/me/picture?type=large&return_ssl_resources=1&access_token="+accessToken)
    let urlRequest = NSURLRequest(URL: url!)

    NSURLConnection.sendAsynchronousRequest(urlRequest, queue: NSOperationQueue.mainQueue()) { (response:NSURLResponse!, data:NSData!, error:NSError!) -> Void in

        // Display the image
        let image = UIImage(data: data)
        self.imgProfile.image = image  

    }

Can't get facebook user's profile picture without access token

Depending on your platform, you can get the temporary access token

Android

 @Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    accessToken = AccessToken.getCurrentAccessToken();
}

iOS

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
  [super viewDidLoad];
  NSString *accessToken = [FBSDKAccessToken currentAccessToken];
}

Javascript

FB.getLoginStatus(function(response) {
  if (response.status === 'connected') {
    var accessToken = response.authResponse.accessToken;
  } 
} );

A much more detailed code snippet and explanation can be found here https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/access-tokens

After you get the accessToken, You can then get the user's Facebook profile picture from the Graph API using https://graph.facebook.com/USER_ID/picture?access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN , just as you said.

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