What you should know
- You can back up and download almost all the information that Facebook has. This includes pictures, stories, reels, and messages too.
- You can select which to download from a list of information that Facebook has. A toggle will include them in your download file.
- Data can be backed up and downloaded either by using the web, Android, or iOS devices. The steps are included below.
- After you’ve requested the data, it will take some time to process it depending on how much data Facebook has and how much you requested. Once the data has been processed, you will get a notification to download it.
Facebook is no doubt, the most popular social media platform with over 1.9 billion daily active users. Non-surprisingly, Facebook runs with the help of the data collected from its yours.
Have you ever wondered how to back up Facebook?
As I said, it gathers a ton of data from its users for various purposes but downloading them can be a difficult task if you don’t actually know how to do it, obviously.
In this article, I will be sharing with you the best methods to back up your Facebook data including pictures, messages, pages, and almost everything that Facebook has collected from you, and download it to your local storage.
How to back up Facebook in 2022?
Facebook can be backed up using the website, Android, and iOS apps.
How to back up Facebook using Android and iOS devices?
- Open the Facebook app and tap your profile logo on the top right side.

- On the following page, tap the “Settings ⚙️” icon.

- Now tap the “Profile settings” to open all the settings related to your profile and personal information.

- Scroll down and tap “Download profile information” under “Your Facebook information“.

- Now select the information you want to back up and download. Tick each information you want the backup data to include.

- Once you have selected, choose the date range of the selected data. You can either select all the data that has been gathered till now or choose from the desired date range.

- Under format, select “HTML” or “JSON“, whichever you need.
HTML is best suited for downloading the data to your local storage and viewing it offline.
JSON is best suited for transferring the data to another provider. - The final step is to choose whether you want to data to in high, medium, or low. Remember, the higher quality tends to take more time for processing than the lower quality and will be of larger file size.
- Finally, tap “Create file”.

- You can now view the status of the process by going into the “Available copies” section. Once the data has been processed, you will get an option to download it. Moreover, you will also get a notification and an email.

How to back up Facebook using the web?
- Go to Facebook.com and click your profile pic on the top right.

- Now click “Settings & privacy“. This will future expand the options.

- On the next page, click “Settings“.

- Click “Privacy” on the life sidebar to open your privacy settings.

- Next, click “Your Facebook information and then click “Download profile information“.

- Select the format you want the file to be downloaded.
HTML is best suited for downloading the data to your local storage and viewing it offline.
JSON is best suited for transferring the data to another provider.

- And select the “media quality“. Remember, the higher quality tends to take more time for processing than the lower quality.
- Then select the date range of the data. You can either choose “All time” or “Custom”, depending on your needs.
- Now, you should select the information that needs to be included in the backup under “Popular downloads” or “Select information to download“. The “Popular downloads” section contains information that is widely downloaded by most people and if you want to be specific on what to include, you should go for “Select information to download“.

- Finally, click “Request download” under the “Start your download” section.

- Facebook will now process the data and once it is available, you can download it under the “Available copies” section. This might take some time depending on the data Facebook has and how much you have requested. You will also get notified by Facebook when the data is available.

How to back up Facebook photos?
Some people might only need to back up their photos instead of everything else. This section will guide them to do it.
- Follow the same process until you reach the step where you would be required to choose the information to include in the backup.
- Instead of selecting everything, select only “Posts“.

- This selection will include
– Photos
– Videos
– Opened news articles
– Archives
– And everything that relates to posts. - Finally, request the download.
How to back up or transfer the data directly to another service such as Google photos?
You can directly transfer the data from Facebook to 3rd party services such as Google drive, Google photos, Dropbox, and Koofr instead of downloading.
If this is what you need, then follow the steps below.
- Click your profile picture on the top right corner and click “Settings & privacy”.
- Now again click “settings” and go to “Privacy”.
- On the left sidebar, click “Your Facebook information”. Till now, the process is the same as you would download the data.
- Instead of going to “Download profile information“, Click “Transfer a copy of your information”.

- Now you can select anything from the suggested common destination or click “next” for more destinations and services.

- Depending on the selected service, the type of data will vary. For example, I have chosen Google photos, so only the photos and videos will be eligible to transfer. Moreover, you can select photos and videos from a specific time period or from specific albums.
- Click “Connect” and follow the process to link your destination account to Facebook. In my case, it’s Google.

- Finally, click “Start transfer“.

Conclusion
This is how you can back up your data from Facebook and download it. Moreover, you can also transfer them to another service which I also mentioned in this article. If you have a lot of data, the process might take some time, but not more than 30 minutes.