Why Facebook videos look blurry — and how to upload in HD
Facebook compresses every upload, and a couple of settings decide whether you get HD. What's happening and how to keep more quality.
2 min read · Updated
A video that looked crisp on your phone can look soft once it's on Facebook, and softer again when someone downloads it. Some of that is unavoidable compression. Some of it is a setting you can change.
Facebook compresses every upload
Like every large platform, Facebook converts uploads to its own formats so they stream smoothly for billions of viewers on every kind of connection. It typically keeps an HD version and a smaller SD version. The HD version is still more compressed than your original, which is most visible in fine detail, low light and fast motion.
Check your upload quality setting
The Facebook app has media settings that affect how videos are uploaded and played — including options that prioritise saving data over quality. Look under Settings & privacy › Settings, in the Media section, and choose the highest video quality option available. Uploading over Wi-Fi rather than a weak mobile connection also helps.
Menu names change between app versions; if you can't find it, search the app's settings for “video quality”.
Export before you upload
A few export choices give Facebook's compression less to damage:
- Use the platform's native shape — 16:9 for landscape, 4:5 for feed posts, 9:16 for Reels. Video aspect ratios explained has the details.
- Export at 1080p rather than 4K — the platform scales down anyway.
- Export at a generous bitrate, so Facebook's encoder starts from a clean file.
- Avoid heavy grain, noise filters and constant fast camera movement, which compress badly.
Why a downloaded Facebook video can look worse
Downloading gets you one of the versions Facebook stored — never your original. If only SD is available, Facebook never created an HD version, often because the upload itself was low resolution or sent at reduced quality. The Facebook downloader lists HD and SD side by side with sizes, so you can see which exist.
Downloading and re-uploading a video compresses it again each time. Why Instagram videos look worse after downloading shows how that generational loss adds up.
Keep your originals
The camera original is always the best copy. If you've lost it, Facebook's export gives you the stored versions at High quality — how to download all your Facebook videos walks through it.