This guide explains what Meta needs before your group or area can publish walk photo albums to a Facebook Page and an Instagram account directly from the website. It is written to be followed step by step, because the process is genuinely confusing the first time and Meta's own documentation assumes you already know how their pieces fit together.
\nNGX does the fiddly technical parts for you. You will never need to run an API call or copy an ID by hand — you paste one access token, choose your Page from a list, and NGX finds everything else.
\nYou do not need Meta's full App Review to start publishing to a Facebook Page and Instagram account that your group or area runs.
\nMeta has two levels of access:
\nMost of the pain people hit is from assuming the whole thing needs App Review from day one. It does not. Get it working with Standard Access first, prove it end to end, and only take on App Review if a wider rollout actually needs it.
\nflowchart TD\n A["Posting to a Facebook Page and Instagram account your group or area administers?"] -->|Yes| B["Standard Access"]\n B --> C["No App Review needed<br/>Verify the business, add the assets, generate a token"]\n A -->|"Need to post to Pages you do NOT administer"| D["Advanced Access"]\n D --> E["Business Verification + App Review<br/>with a screencast per permission"]\n C --> F["Paste the token into NGX and publish the album"]\n E --> F\n style B fill:#E8F5EE,stroke:#9BC8AB,stroke-width:2px,rx:12,ry:12,color:#404143\n style D fill:#FBEEDD,stroke:#E0B784,stroke-width:2px,rx:12,ry:12,color:#404143\nOnce connected, the album editor gains a Share album to social media panel: pick the images, write a caption, and publish a multi-photo post to the Facebook Page and a carousel to Instagram in one step. The images are already hosted on the website, which is exactly what Instagram's publishing needs.
\nYou will need all of the following. Gather them before touching the developer console.
\n\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the Instagram account showing as a professional account in the Instagram app settings.
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\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the Facebook Page "Linked accounts" screen showing the Instagram account connected.
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| \n | Standard Access | \nAdvanced Access | \n
|---|---|---|
| Use it for | \nPosting to a Page and Instagram account you administer | \nPosting to Pages and accounts you do not administer | \n
| App Review | \nNot required | \nRequired, one submission per permission | \n
| Business Verification | \nNot required to operate on owned assets, but recommended | \nRequired | \n
| Good for | \nGetting it working, one group or area, testing | \nA central rollout across many groups | \n
| Time to set up | \nUnder an hour | \n2–4 weeks per App Review submission | \n
This is the path to a working setup for your own Page and Instagram account.
\n\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the Create App screen with the Business type selected.
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In the app dashboard, add:
\n\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the app dashboard showing Facebook Login for Business and Instagram added as products.
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In Business Settings:
\n\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: Business Settings showing the Page, the Instagram account, and the app all present.
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This is the one value you copy out of Meta. NGX does everything else with it.
\npages_manage_posts, pages_read_engagement, pages_show_list, instagram_basic, instagram_content_publish and business_management).\n\n⚠️ Meta's exact permission names shift depending on which Instagram product it shows you. Tick the ones described as content publishing and manage Pages — the screenshot below will pin down what you see.
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\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the token generation screen with the permissions ticked.
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In the NGX admin site, go to System Settings → External Systems → Social Media:
\nThat is it. NGX reads back your Page and the Instagram account linked to it, and fills in everything behind the scenes — there are no IDs to copy and no API calls to run. Tick Publish walk albums to Facebook and Publish walk albums to Instagram, press Test Facebook and Test Instagram to confirm, then Save.
\n\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the NGX Social Media settings after pasting the token, showing the Page chosen from the dropdown and both Test buttons confirming green.
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Open a walk photo album in the album editor, use the Share album to social media panel, pick a couple of images, write a caption, and publish. Check the post appears on the Page and on Instagram.
\n\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the Share album panel with images selected and a caption written.
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\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the resulting Facebook post and Instagram carousel.
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When the feature is used across Pages that are not administered from one Business Portfolio, Meta requires Advanced Access, which means Business Verification and App Review. Allow at least a month, because each permission is reviewed separately and each review takes two to four weeks.
\nMeta will reject a submission that is missing any of these, so do them first:
\n\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the app's Basic Settings with the privacy policy, icon and category filled in.
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In Business Settings → Security Centre, start Business Verification. Meta checks the organisation is real, using registration details and, usually, a domain or a document. This has to pass before Advanced Access can be granted.
\n\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the Security Centre showing Business Verification status.
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For each permission (pages_manage_posts, instagram_content_publish, and the others), request Advanced Access and provide:
This is where most first attempts fail. The reviewer must be able to watch, in one recording, the whole flow of that specific permission being used in the live product:
\npages_manage_posts, that means recording the app posting to the Page; for instagram_content_publish, the app publishing a carousel.A screencast that only shows the settings screen, or describes the feature without demonstrating it end to end, will be rejected. Record the actual publish happening.
\n\n\n📸 Screenshot placeholder: the App Review submission screen for one permission, showing the use-case text and the attached screencast.
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| Permission | \nWhat it does | \nAccess level for your own Page | \nNeeds App Review? | \n
|---|---|---|---|
pages_show_list | \nLists the Pages you manage | \nStandard | \nNo | \n
pages_read_engagement | \nReads Page details | \nStandard | \nNo | \n
pages_manage_posts | \nPublishes posts to a Page | \nStandard | \nOnly for Pages you do not administer | \n
instagram_basic | \nReads the linked Instagram account | \nStandard | \nNo | \n
instagram_content_publish | \nPublishes to Instagram | \nStandard | \nOnly for accounts you do not administer | \n
business_management | \nManages business assets and system users | \nStandard | \nNo | \n
NGX does for you:
\nYou do once, on the Meta side:
\nMeta controls:
\nThe NGX side is built: pasting a token, choosing a Page, the automatic Instagram lookup, the Test buttons and the Share album panel are all in place. The remaining work is on the Meta side — creating the app, adding the assets, and generating the token for Route 1 so we can test end to end and fill in the screenshots above. Route 2 (Business Verification and App Review) only becomes necessary for a central rollout beyond the first group or area.
\nA future refinement will replace the paste-a-token step with a single Connect Facebook button, removing even that. It needs the Meta app to exist first, so it comes after Route 1 is working.
\nSources: Meta's own documentation on access levels, Instagram content publishing, App Review and System Users.
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