Facebook has so many settings it can be hard to keep track of them all. One that may come in handy is the ability to restrict or set the video quality Facebook videos play at. There are two settings – HD and SD. High and Standard Definition. The former is higher quality, while the latter uses far less data to load and play.
So, for users with metred connections or limited mobile data, it may well be worth making sure that any Facebook videos they play run on the lower quality setting.
To accomplish this, log into your Facebook account and go to your settings via the arrow in the top right corner.
SettingsTip: This option is only available on computers, not in the mobile version.
Within your settings, you’ll find an option for Video on the left-hand side, towards the bottom. Click on it and you’ll see several options regarding videos on Facebook.
Among them is also the ability to turn auto-play on or off – if you want to turn that off too so that videos don’t start playing until you manually start them, this is the perfect opportunity! Otherwise, use the dropdown option Video Default Quality and set it to your preferred option.
You have three choices – Default, SD only and HD whenever available. Pick the option you would like. Facebook saves your setting automatically, so that’s all you have to do!
Tip: You can’t force non-HD videos to be HD. It depends entirely on how high-quality the original file was. In other words, if your videos still aren’t higher quality after you set this to HD it’s probably that the uploaded videos aren’t high enough quality!
Fr. Christopher Pietraszko says
This setting hasn’t changed anything. My videos are uploaded on Youtube just fine at 4K , but on Facebook its only at a maximum of 720p . Very frustrating.
bill frank says
Doesn’t work. I still have to go to the gear icon every single time I watch any video and change it from sd to hd, and then back up the video.