One of the knocks I had against Facebook when I first started using it is that it’s a walled garden: it’s fun to play inside but there’s little sharing with the outside world. I didn’t want to invest all this time in Facebook without being able to take my work (or, um … should I say “play”) with me should I one day decide to part ways with Facebook.
It used to be that there was no good way to do this, but not any more! On a recent scan of my Facebook settings I discovered a feature I hadn’t seen before: a way to download Facebook information!
You click on the Account tab at the top right of your Facebook page and then choose Account Settings.
You’ll then be presented with your Account Settings page.
Near the bottom of this page is a line that says Download Your Information. To the right of this is a link that says “learn more.” Click on this link and you’ll be presented with the Download Your Information page:
Click on the Download button at the bottom and Facebook will begin assembling a ZIP file that contains your entire Facebook history, including photos, wall posts, comments: everything! You can even extract the file to your hard drive and surf it locally: what you’ll see is a replication of the Facebook interface in HTML flatfiles, only without the advertisements you see on the “live” Facebook page.
Because this file can be very large depending on how many photos, videos, etc., you’ve uploaded, Facebook doesn’t keep you waiting while it gathers it all up. Facebook does the work in the background. When your file is ready for downloading, Facebook sends you an email containing a link to the file.
I found the whole process easy and straightforward. I also now have some peace of mind knowing that my Facebook activity is no longer locked in Facebook.