Good that there are tools to backup your Facebook data. But most of them are not free. However, if you are a Firefox user, then you can easily backup and archive your past Facebook updates with the help of an addon known as ArchiveFacebook. It allows you to save photos, messages, activity stream, friends lists, notes, events and groups from your Facebook account locally on your computer. You can access this data anytime in your browser. Note: Facebook doesn’t allow to upload the archived data by this addon. It means you cannot make a new Facebook account and upload all the data to get a clone of your present account. Here’s how it works. Install this addon. Restart your browser. Now go to Tools-> Addons. Click on the options button of ArchiveFacebook. There are many options distributed in various tabs. Go to the Organize tab. Here you can select the location where your Facebook data will be saved. You could store it in the default Firefox profile folder or select a separate location. In the screenshot given below, I made a folder in F drive and named it “Facebook Backup” so that I can easily distinguish it from other folders.
How to backup your Facebook account
- Login to your Facebook account.
- On the top Firefox menu bar, go to ArchiveFB-> Archive. You can also initiate the process by pressing the Ctrl+Shift+Y.
- It automatically opens the Facebook page. A JavaScript dialog box will appear. Click OK.
- Now the extension retrieves all activities one by one in the reverse order. It displays the notification on your screen as shown as you can see in the screenshots below.
- It automatically retrieves all the data from the day you made your Facebook account. You can stop the process anytime. After the completion of this procedure, the procedure of downloading data starts. Capture – ArchiveFB dialog box appears which shows the downloading status of Facebook data. This process is time consuming and depends upon the number of updates and other factors. It could take a few hours to download all the data.
How to browse Facebook data stored locally on your computer
Here’s how you can browse the local Facebook data. When you click on ArchiveFB option at the top, you’ll see the Facebook icon along with your profile name. Click on it and it will redirect you to the data stored locally. You can also select the second option “Show in Sidebar”. Click on your account name to see your full Facebook data. The opened page looks like your original Facebook page though it’s stored locally and not on the internet. The initial file:/// F: represents a file on your computer, stored inside the drive F. If you see the address as something like http://www.facebook.com/profile/49685685034 then it is not the local copy and you need to wait till the local copy is generated. Download ArchiveFacebook for Firefox for backing up your Facebook data. Also check 4 Cool Services To Backup Your Twitter Stream The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
