FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
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Download your life story (according to facebook)
Tue, 1st Nov 2011
FYI, this story is more than a year old

It is now possible to download every single piece of data you have put on Facebook.You read that right: it’s now possible get your hands on all those posts, photos, events and messages in one fell swoop. If you’re worried that the Facebook servers might crash and lose all your data, if you want a permanent record of the silly things you’ve said, or decided it’s time to leave Facebook for good and just want to make migrating your info to a new social network more convenient, you can now do that in one convenient zip file download.So how do you do it?

  • First, log into your Facebook account
  • Click ‘Account’
  • Click ‘Account Settings’ from the dropdown menu
  • Scroll down to ‘Download Your Information’ and click ‘learn more’
  • Read the warning then click ‘download’
  • Click ‘Download’ again on the pop-up window.
An email will be sent to your email account (this may take a few moments). Soon you’ll receive a link to a zip file that contains all of the information you’ve posted to Facebook.Download your zip file and unzip it (if you need an unzipper, you can get one at www.7-zip.org). Everything you’ve posted is separated into several handy folders (video, photos and a giant html file with all of your status updates) that you can browse at your leisure.Not only is it a great way to check out the ludicrous things you’ve been posting recently; the new function is also a fantastic option if you’ve had enough of Facebook’s carelessness with your personal info, and want to take your stuff and leave. Note: This is not a way to delete your Facebook account. Your Facebook account will remain just as it always was. All your information will still be there and you’ll still be able to access it as usual. This is simply an easy way to make an offline copy of your online material.