How to Migrate your App Profile Page to a Facebook Page

January 9, 2012 By Tim Ware 54 Comments

UPDATED March 14, 2012: Facebook announced on the Developer Blog that they’re now including an “Add App to Page” option under the “gear” menu on App Page for the App (which you now set up via the Advanced Settings for your App).

Facebook’s December 9, 2011 announcement that as of February 1, 2012 they are removing App Profile Pages has confused a lot of users.

The problem is that Facebook doesn’t — at least at this time — create a link users can click to add an App to their Page which was the main purpose of the App Profile Page, a link that could be in the App Settings area.

In my previous article about the App Profile Page removal, I focused on how to code a link, using HTML, that when clicked provides the option for users to add an App to their Page.

In this article, I focus on how to migrate your App Profile Page to a Facebook Page so that all the Likes for the App Profile Page get transferred to the new Page, and how to add a custom tab on the new Page to allow users to add the App from that new Page.

Who actually NEEDS an App Profile Page?

If you’ve created your own iFrame Page Tab app, and you intend to just add it to your own Page, or perhaps to several Pages you admin, then you don’t really need an always-available “Add to My Page” link. I recommend following the instructions on my recent tutorial on adding Apps to Pages after February 1.

The need for a publicly available Page where users can go to add an App applies primarily to App developers who need to provide an add-to-my-page link, and I describe a way to do this, below.

Why did Facebook make this change?

This change is being done in order to reduce the number of Page types, as an App Profile Page was a sort of hybrid beast that served no purpose, really, other than to provide a place where users could go to add an App to their Page.

The migration option has been rolled out gradually and I only just recently saw the option at the top of the App Profile Page for TabPress:

I’ve now gone through the migration process and created this step-by-step tutorial to help others.

So how do you migrate your App Profile Page to another Facebook Page?

Actually, Facebook’s instructions on how to do this are quite clear.

If you are an admin of an eligible Facebook Page (must be of the Product/App category and match the app name), you will be prompted with the ability to transfer Likes to this Page. Transferring Likes will give you the ability to publish updates to these users from your new Facebook Page as you do today.

Please note that we will only transfer Likes, and not the content of these Pages. Before you go through the migration process, please ensure you have downloaded all photos, posts, Insights, and any other material that you want to keep. Once you hit the migrate button, the App Profile Page will be deleted.

App Profile Page Migration — Preparation and Requirements

The target Page for migration must have the same name as your App: Before migrating, you must make sure you already admin a Facebook Page (NOT a Personal Profile) that has the same Page Name as your App. Otherwise, you’ll have to create a new Page that meets Facebook’s criteria.

What exactly which name must the Page name match? In your App’s “Basic” settings, you’ll see there’s “App Display Name” and “App Namespace”:

I named the Page I created for the migration “TabPress” and had no problems. So it appears that it’s the “App Namespace” that you have to duplicate for the Page name.

NOTE: You can re-name an existing Page ONLY if the Page has fewer than 100 fans/likes. (See this Facebook Help Center article.)

Because my App Profile Page had 200 Likes, I had to create a new Page for the App Profile Page migration, a Page with the name “TabPress.”

NOTE: To create a new Page, go into the editing area of your Page. In the bottom footer links you’ll see “Create a Page” text link. Click to get started.
Category: Brands & Products / App: The Page that you target for the migration of your App Profile Page MUST be set to the category “Brands & Products / App” under “Basic Information” in your Page editing area:
IMPORTANT: As Facebook warns, ONLY Likes and the Vanity URL are migrated to the new Page. If you have any photos or other media on your App Profile Page you don’t want to lose, make sure you save them to your computer. AFTER THE MIGRATION IS COMPLETE, YOU’LL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE OLD APP PROFILE PAGE!
VERY IMPORTANT: IF your App Profile Page has a Vanity URL, it will transfer, along with the Likes, to the Page to which you migrate IF the Page to which you migrate doesn’t have a Vanity URL.

If the Page to which you migrate DOES have a Vanity URL, the Vanity URL for the App Profile Page will now go to the app. This is my understanding of the explanation provided by Facebook’s Cat Lee, as well as the blog post about App Profile Page migration on the Facebook Developer Blog.

How to migrate your App Profile Page to a Facebook Page

Once you’ve confirmed that the Facebook Page to which you wish to migrate your App Profile Page meets the above requirements, you’re ready to do the migration.

In your browser go to the Facebook Developers site where, if you’re logged into Facebook, you’ll see a list of the Apps for which you’re an admin.
Click the App name in the left navigation, then click “Edit Settings”;
Under “Related links” in the left column, click “View App Profile Page”;
In the yellow banner announcement at the top of your App Profile Page, click “Click here to migrate to an existing Facebook Page” which will spawn a popup dialog:

(NOTE: If you don’t yet see the yellow banner, then the change hasn’t yet rolled out to your particular app.)

You should see the eligible Page in the “Choose a Page” pulldown list in the popup dialog.

After selecting the Page and clicking the “Migrate” button, you should see this success screen:

Although it says “allow up to 7 days for the Like migration to take place,” my migration began immediately. Each time I reloaded the page, the number of likes increased until they were all migrated.
NOTE: The URL for your old App Profile Page will forward to your new Page after you’ve successfully migrated.

“No Eligible Facebook Pages to migrate to” Error

If you get the following error:

the problem is that Facebook detects no Page you admin that has the same name as your application name.

Make sure your “App Namespace” name matches the name you’ve given the Page to which you wish to migrate the App Profile Page.

How does this work for new Facebook Apps you create?

When you are setting up your new App, you will no longer automatically get an App Profile Page. Instead, you’ll have the option of setting up the App Page in the “Settings > Advanced > Contact Info” area of your Dev App.

However, you don’t have to set up a special Page for your App. As I mention above, if you’re just creating an iFrame Page Tab app, then you should just follow the instructions in my previous tutorial on creating the Add to My Page link.

How we set up the new TabPress App Page

After I created the new TabPress App Page and completed the migration process, I simply added the TabPress iFrame App to the Page, changed “Welcome” to “Add TabPress to My Page” for the left navigation, and pasted in the code to create an Add-to-my-Page link, into both the non-fan and fan-only screens.

NOTE: Your old App Profile Page URL will automatically forward to the new Page you set up.

Good luck!

Additional Resources

Filed Under: Facebook Programming, Platform Updates

http://twitter.com/devongilchrist Devon Gilchrist

I am so glad you guys are here. I create/manage many FB pages and apps and I absolutely don’t have time to monitor Facebook’s weekly changes. Thank you for keeping me in the loop. I appreciate it!!
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  Thanks Devon!
  - http://www.facebook.com/deboracornelius Debbie Cornelius
    
    I followed your steps on migrating apps and it was quite helpful. Thank you. Now I started a new app and received this error msg
    “This application does not support integration with your profile.” I have no idea what that means nor where to start. Any ideas?
    - http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
      
      I haven’t seen, nor do I understand, that error message. When action did you take to generate that message?
http://twitter.com/akorecki Andrew Korecki

What if you just have a page tab in an iframe, do you still need to create an app page? I just used the direct URL code in the browser and replaced the variables (YOUR_APP_ID as well as YOUR_URL) to add an app to a page and it worked – see code below. I used the https://… address of the canvas page as the URL. Do I still need to create a new page for just a tab which has a simple PHP page in an iframe? These FB changes are completely archaic, things should be easier not harder.

https://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&display=popup&next=YOUR_URL
http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware

No, you don’t need to create an App Page unless you want one. You can just use the other tutorial to create the link and then access it and add the tab to your Page.
As this article says, this change affects App developers more than Page Tab creators, although it does create the extra step of having to create the URL so that you can add the Page Tab to your Page.
I expect Facebook will insert an “Add App to My Page” link in the App-creation interface, sooner rather than later.
http://www.facebook.com/scottwayres Scott Ayres

Hey guys.. Great post on how to migrate an app page to a Facebook page. My only concern is the wording “You can migrate Likes and the Vanity URL of this Page to an existing Facebook Page”. Does that mean if I migrate an app page to one of our Facebook pages that our page takes on the vanity url of the app page? Or does the current Fan page keep the url it has?
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  Scott. You misread the post. I didn’t say that “You can migrate Likes and the Vanity URL.” I was just describing how I’d had a vanity URL “/tabpress” for a page that didn’t have the *name* “TabPress”, so I couldn’t use the Page with the /tabpress vanity URL for the migration, because the Page *name* wasn’t TabPress and thus didn’t meet the requirements.
  However, I see how that could be confusing, so I’ve deleted any reference to vanity URLs.
  To answer your question: No, only the Likes are transferred, NOT the vanity URL.
  - http://www.facebook.com/scottwayres Scott Ayres
    
    Tim.. I took that quote straight from the Facebook app page actually.. Not you. That’s how the warning type message reads before you migrate an app page.
    - http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
      
      Ah. Yes! It does say that, Scott. But then it seemed that Cat Lee backed off of it.
      I think perhaps we should take Facebook at its word. The App Profile Page I migrated didn’t have a vanity URL. So the issue didn’t come up.
      I’ll do some testing and modify this post accordingly. Thanks for the heads up, and sorry I missed that!
http://twitter.com/sanjaykhemlani sanjay

Nice update on that one, I’ve been waiting for these kind of articles on Facebook. One question, my pop-up share window doesn’t work anymore because of the update (app profile page). Do you have any idea why? I use the fb init.
http://bobschecter.com Bob Schecter

Just curious – is there a way to auto expand the iFrame. I’ve seen some posts, but they only apply to a canvas, not a tabbed iFrame
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  If you mean expand the iframe to full screen or any larger size, no way that I’m aware of.
  - Guest
    
    No, just that my iframes are limited to 800px. I can’t find any autosize setting, so I assume it’s a function of the canvas and not available for the tabbed iframes?
http://twitter.com/Maebellyne Maebellyne Ventura

“IMPORTANT: IF your App Profile Page has a Vanity URL, when you migrate it will overwrite the Vanity URL of the Page to which you migrate.”
Just to point out, I think you may have misunderstood Cat Lee’s explanation.
The app profile vanity URL will only be migrated to the target Facebook Page if no vanity URL exists for that page yet.
But, if you are migrating an app profile page with an existing vanity URL to an OLD Facebook Page with its own vanity URL, you will lose the vanity URL from your app page.
The migration cannot overwrite existing vanity URLs on Facebook Pages.

Hope that helps to clear up some confusion. I actually lost my app vanity URL this way.
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  Thanks for this explanation, Maebellyne. It sounds right. I’ll amend my post to add this.
  Tim Ware
  t1mware@HyperArts.com
  (510) 339-6084
- http://twitter.com/ronbentata ronbentata【ツ】
  
  so
  Maebellyne, you are saying the App Page Vanity Url will be lost. that means i need to create a new page, just to keep that name. that defies the whole purpose of the migration.
  - http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
    
    IF your App Profile Page has a Vanity URL — and many don’t — it will overwrite the Vanity URL of the target Facebook Page to which you migrate.
http://twitter.com/ankushgera ankushgera

I’m using the exact name for the new page as the namespace of the app but not seeing it appear as one of the pages I can migrate to. perhaps a bug? is anyone else seeing that?
http://twitter.com/ankushgera ankushgera

Tim, I’m following your discussions to the tee and using the exact name for the new page as the name space of our app but I still don’t see as the new page as a choice to migrate to. When I click the “Click here to migrate to an existing Facebook Page” from the yellow banner, I simply see the error “You are not the admin of any eligible Facebook Pages.” The page I’m trying to migrate to (one I just setup) is http://www.facebook.com/pages/jungleepoker/338998279458192 and the app/old app profile page can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=182272015145122&sk=wall

Is anyone else seeing this issue? Any idea on who we can reach out to?
http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware

When migrating the App Profile Page, you have to be logged in as the Facebook user who is an admin of the page and of the app. Facebook is simply looking for pages admin’d by the user who’s logged in. If you’re logged in as the admin of the Facebook Page, and you’re getting that error, I’m not sure what the issue is. Might be a Facebook bug.
Carla Menocal

Thanks for the great step-by-step on how to migrate the app page to a regular page.

I am wondering if there is a way to manually migrate the posts and comments we have on our app page to the new page. Or if there is an easier way to download the comments of our posts.
Thanks!
http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware

You can’t migrate anything but the Vanity URL and Likes. Any photos or whatever you’d have to just download.
http://twitter.com/Maebellyne Maebellyne Ventura

Hiya! I think the problem is that if you check under you Facebook Page’s category, it is under “Toys/Games”. You need to change it to “Brand/Products” > “Apps” before you can migrate it. Hope that solves your problem.
- http://www.facebook.com/ankushgera Ankush Gera
  
  You are a life saver! Should’ve read this more carefully and thanks for catching this in time ;>
http://www.facebook.com/dailybanners Fbanner Fbaio

Hello all,
I have an application with more than 50K fans, and sadely didn’t created a fanpage, please let me know how I can migrate all the likes and all the comments , I’ve keeped in touch with all my fans for more than one year , and there is a lot of special comments that I don’t want to lost.

Big thanks

Stephanie
http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware

As this article states, you can migrate ONLY the Likes and the Vanity URL (if your App Profile Page has one) to a Facebook Page. You better hurry, though. Facebook said it was disabling App Profile Pages after February 1!
Andy Johnston

Hi Tim,

I’ve got a job to produce an app that can be embedded in a users fan page, but it needs like gate functionality where the like gate needs to operate from likes attributed to the application page and not the page the tab is embedded into. I’m guessing I will have to get into some serious API action because the signed request only carries info about the page its embedded within. Have you seen anything that can help me along?
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  It would involve using the Facebook API to look up the fans of another Page, but I’m not sure how to do that, and haven’t seen anything like it.
Anonymous

In your app settings you can set the canvas height and width to Fluid (ignore the fact it says canvas – this works on tabs too) and in your code for your tab, once you’ve initialised the FB SDK, call this line of code:

FB.Canvas.setAutoGrow(true);
http://twitter.com/Ghislaindj Ghislain LdJ

Hi !
Sadly, I think I’ve read your article too late. I’ve got an application using Facebook, which is not on Facebook ( http://www.mojogroups.com ) and I have a fan page, which is different (http://www.facebook.com/mojogroups).
I have migrated the App profile page to this page, but now when my app post something on the wall, I have an error : http://apps.facebook.com/mojogroups/
Can I redirect or merge the two pages apps.facebook.com/mojogroups/ and the fb.com/mojogroups/ ?
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  The error is a misconfiguration error in your app settings, most likely. You should check those carefully. I doubt you’ll be able to merge the two pages.
http://www.jlapitan.com/ joell lapitan

i have this problem
This application does not support integration with your profile.
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  You can only migrate to a Fan Page, NOT to a Personal Profile.
  - http://www.jlapitan.com/ joell lapitan
    
    im linking it to fan page, i got some info on how to fix that problem, the app must have a page tab URL
http://www.facebook.com/casey.poier Casey Poier

Hi Tim and Joell,

I am having the same problem as Joell, trying to integrate an ‘app’ into a fan page that I administrate on. The app is just a simple html doc with an image background, really simple, but for some reason I keep getting this response “This application does not support integration with your profile.” I am using the code below to attempt to add the page tab/app to my fan page: could really use your help, thanks!

Casey

https://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID
&display=popup&next=YOUR_URL
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  You should check your app settings.
  - http://www.facebook.com/casey.poier Casey Poier
    
    I have optimized the settings. Is there anything in particular I should be adjusting that would cause me to get this message?
    
    Thanks for the help.
    - http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
      
      I’m not sure which setting, Casey. You should just review them all to make sure you haven’t selected any that would limit access to the tab.
      I assume your iFramed page (canvas page / index page) is hosted on a secure server?
http://twitter.com/rezgo rezgo.com

I think I’ve missed the window to merge my app profile page with my regular page. Are there any options available for still merging the pages together or am I out of luck?
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  No options I’m aware of.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=715727098 Muhaimin Abdul

how to transfer likes
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  The window to transfer App Profile Page likes has closed, I believe.
http://www.facebook.com/bcdg24 Bethany Soler

slightly unrelated: is it yet possible to migrate Places to Official Page?
http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware

Facebook makes your page a “place” page when you add a physical address in your About settings. Whether or not it will revert to a regular page if you remove the physical address, I don’t know. You’ll have to experiment!
http://twitter.com/naqville Ali Raza Naqvi

Hi Tim,

I am creating a new fb app, and I already have a page for it with 1k fans, categorized under Brands/Products >> App Page. Can I link the new app to that existing page?
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  Well, you should be able to *add* the app to your fan page. I’m not sure what you mean by “linking” the new app to the page.
  - http://twitter.com/naqville Ali Raza Naqvi
    
    Thanks for the feedback Tim.
    
    Here’s an example of what I mean: https://www.facebook.com/Branchout
    
    I want my existing page (https://www.facebook.com/Linkagoal) to have a ‘Go to App’ button.
    
    As you have mentioned in the ‘How does this work for new Facebook Apps you create?’ section, one can create a new page for a new app under ‘Contact Info’
    
    But is there a way to add an existing page there? Since my app’s page already exists.
http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware

Just use this link: https://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&next=http://www.facebook.com
Just change YOUR_APP_ID to your app ID. And the “next” value can be whatever URL you want to redirect the use to after they’ve added the app. Using the Facebook link for “next” is a good one.
Currently (June 5, 2012) there is a bug with the Add to Page URL method, which conveniently coincides with the removal of FBML, right when everyone is probably racing to add their iFrame page tab apps to meet the deadline! Here’s the Add to Page Bug Report.
artsoul

I’m trying to migrate a profile page to a Fan Page …but it doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve downloaded all content from my profile page…but when I begin the actual conversion/migration it asks for my password…I type it in and it says it’s “invalid” ..?!

It’s NOT invalid…I can clearly still log in and out of my profile page..but for some reason it won’t take once I get to this screen. I’ve tried doing this for a few people also within the last week – all with same results unfortunately…

I’ve tried it in Firefox, Chrome, and Explorer – I’m going to try it on another computer to see if that helps.

Does anyone have any ideas of what this could be? Does FB no longer allow this migration?

PLEASE help.
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  I think you’re too late to use this method of migrating.
artsoul

I’m trying to migrate a profile page to a Fan Page …but it doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve downloaded all content from my profile page…but when I begin the actual conversion/migration it asks for my password…I type it in and it says it’s “invalid” ..?!
It’s NOT invalid…I can clearly still log in and out of my profile page..but for some reason it won’t take once I get to this screen. I’ve tried doing this for a few people also within the last week – all with same results unfortunately…

I’ve tried it in Firefox, Chrome, and Explorer – I’m going to try it on another computer to see if that helps.

Does anyone have any ideas of what this could be? Does FB no longer allow this migration?

PLEASE help.
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  It may no longer be possible to do this migration. Facebook said they were removing App Profile Pages as of Feb 1.
- http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/ Tim Ware
  
  If you’re trying to migrate a Personal Profile to a Fan Page, you can’t do that.