Why does Pidgin refuse to connect to Facebook Chat?

I have searched around the net for a solution to my problem. I gave myself an account user name for facebook so I could use the chat in Pidgin 2.10.3. However, no matter what I do, Pidgin refuses to enable the account and it gives me the same message:

[email protected]/Pidgin disabled Not Authorized

I used the tutorial on at this blog: http://poppleit.com/how-to-howto-use-facebook-facebookchat-facebook-chat-with-pidgin-instant-messenger-14-07-2012/#comments


The settings have changed recently.

open pidigin accounts and edit the facebook account to the following:

Protocol: XMPP

Username: xyz (This might not be the username that you enter at facebook login page - But the one which you see on your timeline link - https://www.facebook.com/xyz)

Domain: chat.facebook.com

Resource: Pidgin (this is what is missing most of the time)

Password: xyx

Local alias: xyz

On the advanced tab:

Connect port: 5222

Connect server: chat.facebook.com


Since nobody else has posted this as an answer...

As of May 2015, facebook chat no longer uses XMPP so you can't just use that to connect in pidgin.

Instead, try this plugin: https://github.com/jgeboski/purple-facebook/wiki


Facebook itself has a page to help set up several chat clients https://www.facebook.com/sitetour/chat.php (or Help search your chat client)

While signed in to Facebook, choose your chat client and you will get a pop-up window telling you the exact settings to enter based on your Facebook login. (for example, username is not the same as what you use to sign into Facebook...)

And just to restate the obvious, I got the "not authorized" after I did the above and realized I had missed a character entering my password...


I was finally able to find the missing step in solving this:

Apps needs to be enabled on: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=applications&section=opt_out

Be sure to go through all of this 'App' page and uncheck anything you don't need (i.e. everything).

For the record:

  • I have a '.' in my username.
  • Encrypt connection: Always.
  • Allow plaintext authentication: Over encrypted connection.
  • Resource: I have tested and it doesn't matter and does not need to match the name of the generated app specific password on the Facebook security page: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=security&section=per_app_passwords

Good luck!