You open your reporting tool and the numbers haven't moved in days, or you get a message saying "reconnect your Facebook account". It happens with most tools connected to Meta accounts, and it usually isn't a bug in the tool. A Facebook access token expiring is a normal part of Meta's security model. What matters is knowing before it happens, not after your reports and alerts have gone quiet.
How tools connected to Facebook work
When you connect a tool through "Log in with Facebook", it receives an access token — a key that lets it read your ad account data within the permissions you approved. That token has a lifetime, after which it stops working until you reconnect. We covered permissions in detail in Permissions for Tools Connected to Your Ad Account: Read vs Edit, and Keeping Accounts Safe.
Why a Facebook access token expires
| Cause | When it happens |
|---|---|
| The token's lifetime ends | Long-lived user access tokens typically expire after about 60 days |
| A Facebook password change | Can invalidate old tokens for security reasons |
| Manual revocation | Removing the app from Business integrations in your settings |
| Changed access to the ad account | If the owner removes your access, the tool can no longer read that account |
| Security restrictions on the Facebook account | Such as suspicious activity requiring identity confirmation |
What stops when the connection expires
- Automatic reports: numbers stop updating, and your client may see an outdated report.
- Alerts: the most dangerous part. A monitoring tool won't know a balance is running low or an account was disabled.
- Analysis and exports: you can't pull fresh data.
The catch is that the ads themselves keep running normally, so nothing looks wrong in Ads Manager — while your "eyes" on the accounts have gone dark.
Signs the connection has expired
- The tool's numbers have been frozen for days.
- An error or a reconnect prompt inside the tool.
- Daily reports or usual alerts suddenly stop.
- An ad account disappears from the tool's account list.
Token expiry and your account's security
An expiring connection can feel like a nuisance, but it actually protects your account. If an access token stayed valid forever, any tool you connected once years ago and forgot about could keep reading your data indefinitely. Expiry forces a periodic review of connected tools and limits the damage if an old token ever leaks. So don't look for ways to "disable" expiry — organize renewal instead.
Review the tools connected to your account
In your Facebook settings, open Business integrations to see every app and tool you've granted access. Remove anything you no longer use, and make sure the remaining tools ask only for read permissions if their job is reporting or monitoring. A reporting tool doesn't need permission to create or edit ads, and asking for more than it needs is a warning sign.
Common mistakes when a Facebook access token expires
- Reconnecting with someone else's profile that doesn't have access to every ad account, so some accounts vanish from the tool.
- Not selecting every account on the approval screen, so the tool works on only part of them.
- Putting off the renewal because the ads are "running fine", then a whole week passes with no alerts.
- Assuming a frozen number means a quiet day rather than a broken connection.
How to reconnect
- Open the tool's settings and find the Facebook connection section.
- Click reconnect and log in through Facebook's official page.
- Approve the same permissions, and make sure every ad account you need is selected.
- After a few minutes, confirm the numbers have started updating.
Always reconnect from inside the tool itself. Don't click unknown links in messages claiming to be from Meta asking you to "verify your account".
Avoiding the surprise
- Log the date of the last connection for every important tool, with a reminder before it lapses.
- Use tools that warn you in advance rather than after the fact.
- Avoid changing your password before a big season without reconnecting tools immediately afterwards.
- When team access changes, make sure the person who connected the tool still has access to the accounts.
Connections in agencies and teams
In agencies, one person often connects tools through their personal account. If that person leaves or loses access, every tool linked to them stops. So record who connected each tool, and when the team changes, reconnect from the account of someone who's staying: Managing Dozens of Ad Accounts as an Agency or Team — Without the Chaos.
Reminders before the connection expires in Raqeeb Ads
Raqeeb Ads doesn't wait for the connection to break: you get a reminder 7 days, 3 days and 1 day before your Facebook connection expires, on Telegram or your phone, with a direct link to reconnect. The dashboard also shows a clear warning when the connection is about to expire or already has, so monitoring and alerts never stop without you knowing.
FAQ
Why does my Facebook access token expire?
Do my ads stop when a tool's connection expires?
How long does a Facebook connection last?
A media buyer running Meta campaigns for clients across Egypt and the Gulf, who built Raqeeb Ads to fix the account-monitoring problems he kept running into himself.