Facebook is a popular social network to communicate with friends, family, and people of the same interest. If you want to know the location of a Facebook user, here are 5 effective ways to try. They are suitable for different scenarios and the results returned may vary.

Method 1 – Reverse lookup the username

When a Redditor was followed by a suspected fake Facebook account, she thought of tracing the Facebook IP address to unveil the identity of the stalker¹. While the IP address might provide some clues about the account owner, there’s a more straightforward way – reverse lookup the username to find out the owner and their address.

Option 1 – BeenVerified

BeenVerified is a top-rated people search engine, boasting robust ability to search for public records and social network data. By performing a reverse username lookup, you may find out the person behind a Facebook profile and learn about their physical address.

1. Go to the BeenVerified username search page.
2. Enter a Facebook account and click Search.
   
3. Wait until the process is complete. It will match the Facebook username with the correct person and gather relevant information such as the person’s real name, phone, email, address, workplace, and more.
   

Option 2 – Social Catfish

Social Catfish is a professional service for people verification and background checks. When entering an online username, whether Facebook or Instagram, you’re able to check out who owns the account and where they live.

1. Visit Social Catfish.
2. Choose your preferred search option, fill in the query as required, and click Search.
   
3. The scanning process usually takes a few minutes. Once done, unlock the full report and you’ll see the FB user’s name, location (living and working address), photos, and more.
   

The tool can also assist you in collecting the up-to-date addresses of your online and offline friends in diverse situations. For a user from the knot forum, it was for a wedding, and she preferred not to send each Facebook friend a message². In this case, people search engines can be an efficient solution to obtain information about individuals without asking.

Method 2 – Track the IP address

When it comes to tracking a person’s location on Facebook, many people think of tracing the IP address. An IP address is a unique virtual address that identifies devices on the Internet and may indicate a user’s general location in real-time. In a real user story, capturing the IP address helped him verify a Facebook friend’s location and discern possible scams³. 

It’s not possible to obtain an IP address directly through a Facebook post. Instead, you’ll need an IP logger like Grabify to do that.

1. Prepare a link to a post, a video, a meme, or anything interesting. 
   
2. Go to Grabify. Paste the link in the box and click Create URL.
   
3. Copy the New URL, or click View Other link shorteners to generate a link in other formats.
   
4. Send the link to the Facebook user. The tracking link works when it’s visited, so you may say something to lure the user to click it.
5. When they click, Grabify will record their IP addresses. 
   
6. Copy this IP address and look it up on WhatIsMyIPAddress. It may show you which city the IP address is located in.
   

It’s important to note that the tracking link is only effective when the individual in question clicks it. If you’re bothered by a stalking or impersonating Facebook account, the best action is to block or report it promptly.

Method 3 – Look for location tags

Facebook is a great place for sharing daily lives, and many users are willing to broadcast the places they visited and where they are. They may also add geo-tags to their home, workplace, or school. To find those addresses, you could 1) Launch Facebook; 2) Navigate to the profile you want to track; 3) Browse their posts carefully and see if they mention any locations.

Method 4 – Ask for location sharing

Facebook allows people to share live locations with others via Messenger. So if you need to find out the exact real-time location of your Facebook friends, consider asking them to enable the sharing feature. Both of you should download the Facebook Messenger app and set it up as follows.

On iPhone

1. Ask the user to open the chat conversation with you.
2. Tap the location icon   in the bottom left.
3. Tap Start Sharing Live Location.

On Android

1. Ask the user to open a chat conversation with you.
2. Tap in the bottom left.
3. Tap the location icon .
4. Tap START SHARING LIVE LOCATION.

Typically the location sharing will last for one hour. Whenever you want to turn it off, you could just tap Stop sharing location whenever you want to turn it off.

Method 5 – Monitor your child with a parental control app

Parental control apps like mSpy are an effective way for parents to keep track of their children’s whereabouts and protect them from cyber threats. In addition to grasping the target’s instant location, the tool gives you ultimate control over the target device, such as viewing texts, calls, internet browsing history, photos, videos, digital activities, and more.

1. Create an account with mSpy and opt into a subscription plan.
2. Check your email inbox. You’ll receive a welcome email that contains the login account, password, download link, and a step-by-step installation guide.
3. Download mSpy on your child’s device. After setup, it will become undetectable.
4. To track the device’s real-time location, just go to the mSpy Control Panel.
   

So that’s it – how to track a Facebook account. Note that it’s illegal to track someone’s live location on Facebook unless they permit you. However, if you’re simply looking up the user’s address, a reverse username search should get you there without hassle.

1. r/hacking [cakez_]. (2012, November 6). Tracking down an IP through a Facebook account. [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/hacking/comments/12om2o/tracking_down_an_ip_through_a_facebook_account/ ↩︎
2. [jennipea382]. (2012, October 27). Getting addresses from guests. [Online forum post]. The Knot. https://forums.theknot.com/discussion/246469/getting-addresses-from-guests ↩︎
3. Internet Marketing [Mo Goulet]. (2012, November 13). How to catch a scammer on Facebook. [Online forum post]. Warrior Forum. https://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/711475-how-catch-scammer-facebook.html ↩︎