Friday, August 19, 2011

Archiving Facebook Content, Is there an App for that?


Well it’s not an App it’s a simple tool built right in to the Facebook Account Settings.
Ever wondered how you could go back to some of your FB posts from several months ago? Maybe you wanted to remember how you worded something or what you may have shared during a certain event. Well, I have always wished there was a way to go back or compile all my Facebook posts and content so I could access them any time I felt the need to.
This week I stumbled on to a tool in FB that allows you to archive your content and download it so you have a backup of it and an easy way to look back. I followed through a few simple steps and now have easy access to content I’ve posted, including all my pictures I’ve posted over the past few years.
Now I have an idea for an App (maybe there is one already) that would actually publish your Facebook content in to a booklet format, kind of like a scrapbook or journal that you could have printed. Ok, you want to say: ‘dream on Bonnie’ but I know there is one for “publishing your Blog content in to a book to print like a journal” so this could become reality if the App isn’t out there already. If you know of an App that does this for FB I hope you will share it with me.
I hope you find this to be a simple, useful tool that will help you be more productive.

After this step it will take you to a screen that tells you it is processing your download and that it will email you when the download is ready. From the email you click on the link to download a Zipped file of your content. You will need to have Winzip installed on your computer in order to unzip the file and access the folders/files that make up the archive. From there you can move the folders and files to where you would like them stored. It doesn’t take very long before your download is ready. So if you don’t receive a notification you may have to go to your account settings and make sure you receive FB updates in your email. This whole process took me less than 15 minutes.
Good luck.