Facebook integration with Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 7/8 disabled

Microsoft’s decision to move away from the integrated social media feature in Windows Phone 8.1 appears to be a wise decision as a change in the Facebook Graph API has rendered all built-in apps and services from Windows 8, 8.1, Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 inoperable. Microsoft made use of an some of the functionality of Facebook’s Graph API in other to plug in Facebook functionality to their apps and services in both Windows and Office, this functionality was referred to as Facebook Connect.

Unfortunately, a change in the Graph API now means that the Facebook Connect services will be rendered inoperable moving forward.

Here are the services that are affected by this:

• Outlook.com Contacts
• Outlook.com, Windows , Windows Phone and Office 365 Calendar sync
• Windows 8.1 People app
• Windows 8 People app
• Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 Calendar app
• Windows 8 Photo Gallery and Movie Maker
• Windows 8 Photos App
• Windows Phone 7 and 8 People app
• Windows Phone 7 and 8 OneDrive
• Windows Phone 7 and 8 Photos
• Windows Live Essentials Calendar and Contacts
• OneDrive Online
• Outlook Social Connector in Outlook 2013
• Office 365 Outlook Web App

In particular, Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7 users will suffer a massive drop of functionality in the People and photos hubs.

Windows Phone 7 and 8 People app

The People app newsfeed data will no longer be updated with data from Facebook. Facebook contacts and Facebook events in the Calendar app will no longer be updated with information from Facebook.

Windows Phone 7 and 8 OneDrive
Posting a picture or video to your Facebook wall or Facebook profile on Windows Phone 7.5/8 and Office will no longer work. As a workaround, post photos and videos via the Facebook website or Facebook app.
Windows Phone 7 and 8 Photos
Posting a photo or video to your Facebook wall or Facebook profile on Windows Phone 7 and 8 will no longer work. Also the integration of your Facebook photo into your Photo Gallery will no longer work.

As a workaround, post and view photos and videos via the Facebook website or Facebook app.

Due to Microsoft making use of  a newer framework (the social extensibility framework) in Windows Phone 8.1, devices running Windows Phone 8.1 or newer are unaffected.