Connect Facebook to Instagram

Before you start

• A Facebook Page you manage. Facebook only lets apps read posts from Pages, not personal profiles.
• An Instagram Business or Creator account. Instagram only lets apps post to professional accounts. Switch for free in the Instagram app under Settings, then Account type and tools.
• A Post Once account. The free plan includes 10 reposts, with no card needed.

How to connect Facebook to Instagram

1. Create a free account at app.postonce.com. After two short intro screens, Post Once asks where you post.

2. Under Where do you post first?, pick Facebook and press Continue.

   

3. Under Where else should it land?, pick Instagram. Add any other apps, or a backup, then press Continue.

4. On Connect your accounts., press Connect on the Facebook row. Sign in with Facebook. In Facebook’s permissions dialog, make sure the Page you post on is selected. Back in Post Once, pick it in the Repost from Page list on the Facebook row. With only one Page, it is picked for you.

   

5. Press Connect on the Instagram row. Sign in on Instagram’s page. If you have several accounts, choose the one Post Once should post to, then allow access.

6. When both rows say Connected, press Go to dashboard.

From then on, keep posting on Facebook as usual. Post Once checks it about every five minutes and reposts each new post to Instagram.

Already using Post Once?

If Facebook is already the source of your bridge, open Bridge and press Connect next to Instagram in the Destinations card, or press Add destination on the dashboard.

If your bridge reads from another account, add a second bridge with Facebook as its source from the bridge switcher. Free and Solo include 1 bridge, Studio 3 and Agency as many as you need. See bridges.

What each Facebook post becomes on Instagram

On Facebook	On Instagram
A Reel or video up to 3 minutes, vertical or square	A Reel, if it runs from 3 seconds to 3 minutes.
A video over 3 minutes, or a landscape one	Skipped, with “Instagram only takes short vertical videos”.
A photo	A feed post. A photo outside 4:5 to 1.91:1 gets white bars instead of being cropped.
A photo album	A carousel of up to 10 photos.
A text or link post	Skipped. Instagram needs a photo or a video.
A Page Story	An Instagram Story, once you switch Stories on. Stories need an Instagram Business account.

A skipped post shows the reason on your dashboard and still goes to your other destinations. See long videos for how Post Once tells short from long.

How your caption carries over

The post text goes with each repost. When a link post leaves the link out of its text, Post Once adds it. Events and check-ins are not reposted.

Instagram takes captions up to 2,200 characters. Stories have no caption.

Choose what goes to Instagram

On the Bridge page, the Instagram row has two settings.

• What to post has a switch for Videos, Photos and Stories. Stories start off, so they are not posted twice if you already share them another way. Switch a kind off and those posts skip Instagram, though you can still send one there by hand. Switching every kind off pauses Instagram.
• Rewrite caption changes the caption for Instagram only: Remove comment, DM and link in bio prompts, Remove hashtags and mentions, Rewrite with AI to suit Instagram, and Add your own text at the start or end. Each one is off until you turn it on.

Check that it works

Post something on Facebook as usual. Within about five minutes it shows up under Your posts on the dashboard (press Check now to look straight away), then goes to Instagram. Each post shows where it went, what was skipped and why.

If a repost fails, Post Once tries again up to 5 times over about half an hour. If it still fails, you get an email, and Retry sends it again to just the accounts it missed. See a post did not repost.

Only posts published after you connect are reposted on their own. Older ones are listed in Your posts, where you can send any of them by hand.