Facebook Login problems: web browser settings

There is nothing more frustrating than unsuccessfully trying to access your Facebook account, and receive some kind of error message in return. Fortunately, some of these Facebook login problems are quite easily fixed by tweaking your web browser settings (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.) In this tutorial, we will show you two of the most common problems you may encounter which are not due to invalid credentials you entered or the Facebook servers themselves.

Facebook Login Problem # 1: JavaScript Disabled

If the JavaScript language is disabled in your web browser, Facebook will not give you a warning, which makes troubleshooting seemingly much harder. Here are some of the symptoms you may encounter when you are trying to sign in to your Facebook account without JavaScript enabled: depending on the web browser you are using, you should always be able to get to the login form, and enter your email address an password. Problems start once you have logged in successfully. You will see some of the content in your profile, or other pages and profiles on Facebook, but some of the functionality will be missing.

Here is, for example, a screenshot of the main Facebook page once you are signed in to your account, when JavaScript is disabled; notice that Facebook displays a blank page, that some of the buttons are missing or invisible, etc. The social networking site is then basically unusable:

While you can try to work your way through the limited functionality the site offers without JavaScript enabled, we recommend that you try fixing that simple issue first (see bottom of page). Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, some settings may be inadvertently changed or not saved.

Facebook Login Problem # 2: Cookies Disabled

Somewhat surprisingly, it is not even possible to use Facebook without cookies enabled; if you try to go through Facebook login, here is the error message you will receive (in other words, you will not even be able to go beyond this point until you have enabled cookies inside your web browser).


"Facebook Login - Cookies Required. Cookies are not enabled on your browser. Please adjust this in your security preferences before continuing" is the exact error message you will get.

Later tutorials will explain in details how to fix these two types of common problems for the most popular web browsers for Windows, Mac, and Linux. For now, you will know how to identify the symptoms of your Facebook login problem if it is related to either JavaScript and/or cookies (both could be disabled as well). The next step will be to contact the nearest geek for help, or your system administrator at work (perhaps omitting to specify that you are have problems accessing your Facebook account!)