Facebook’s “On This Day” feature, also known as Facebook Memories, allows users to look back on posts and photos from previous years on the same day. This can be a fun way to reminisce on meaningful events and memories with friends and family. But what if you want to see posts from a different date than today?
Looking at Memories from Other Dates
Unfortunately, Facebook does not have a built-in feature to view memories from days other than the current date. The On This Day feature is limited to only showing posts from the same day in previous years. So if today is October 10, you can only see memories from previous October 10ths.
There are a couple of workaround options though. Here are two ways you can try viewing Facebook memories from past days other than today:
Searching for Past Posts
The easiest way is to use Facebook’s search bar. Try searching for a keyword or phrase you think you may have posted in the past. For example, searching “beach day” will show matches from statuses you posted mentioning beach days.
You can also search for locations, like “Santa Monica” to pull up posts geotagged or mentioning that place name. Facebook’s search tool will scan through your previous posts and show relevant matches.
The downside is you need to know what to search for in order to find memories from a specific day. If you’re trying to view a random day’s memories, this method won’t work very well unless you have a particular post in mind.
Using Your Activity Log
Facebook also has an “Activity Log” feature that archives your old posts and interactions. You can access it by going to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Your Facebook Information > View Your Information > View Your Activity Log.
This will show you a timeline of your Facebook activity broken down by date. You can click on a past date to see your posts, reactions, comments, and searches from that day.
The Activity Log allows you to view memories from a particular date, even if it’s not the current date. However, it only shows a summary feed – you don’t get the full On This Day style reel of memories.
Why Facebook Memories Only Shows the Current Date
Facebook purposefully designed On This Day to only show memories from the current date, not random past dates. There are a few reasons why:
- It’s meant to be a nostalgic “throwback” to the same day in history, not necessarily a random trip down memory lane.
- Curating memories from all different dates would likely be too chaotic and disjointed of an experience.
- The current date focus ties in with Timehop and other apps that surface nostalgia from the same date across different platforms.
- Facebook wants to keep the feature simple and constrained, not open-ended.
The date limitation helps avoid choice overload and creates a more meaningful walk down memory lane. It focuses solely on the current date, though the workarounds above give you some options if you’re seeking memories from other dates.
How to Download Your Full Facebook Memories Archive
If you want to be able to browse through your Facebook memories and posts at any date in the past, you can download your entire Facebook data archive:
- Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Your Facebook Information
- Click “View” under “Download Your Information”
- Select date range for the download (your full history or custom shorter range)
- Click “Create File” to request the data download
- Facebook will assemble your archive and email you when it’s ready, usually within a few hours or days
- The download will be a zip file containing your posts, photos, messages, and more in organized folders
- You can search through this archive and view memories from any date!
Downloading your info gives you your entire Facebook history available offline. You can essentially recreate the On This Day memories experience for any date you want when searching through your archive.
Other Ways Facebook Surfaces Memories
While On This Day is limited to the current date, Facebook does show reminders of memories in other ways too:
“Rediscover This Day” Emails
Facebook may send you an email with a “Rediscover This Day” subject line containing memories from 1, 5, or 10 years ago on a particular date.
“Your Day” Recap Videos
The “Your Day” feature in the Facebook app creates short videos recapping memories from select dates in the past. However, it only highlights certain special occasion days, not everyday memories.
Friendship Anniversary Reminders
You’ll get notifications about the anniversaries of becoming friends with people on Facebook. This surfaces memories based on the friend anniversary date rather than the current date.
Memorialized Profiles of Deceased Users
Deceased users’ profiles can be memorialized, allowing friends to post memories that will show up in their own feeds on the anniversary of the user’s death date.
Tools to Export Your Facebook Memories
If you want to save your Facebook memories outside of Facebook’s platform, there are some tools you can use:
Social Book Poster Chrome Extension
This extension allows you to select posts from any date and save them as a PDF “book” or image album to preserve memories.
PastBook
PastBook is an app that creates printed photo books by importing your Facebook memories and photos from any timeframe.
Timehop App
Timehop showcases memories not just from Facebook but other services like Instagram and Twitter too. You can save memories to your camera roll or share to other apps.
Looking Ahead to More Flexible Memories Features
While limited to the current date for now, Facebook could potentially expand its On This Day memories feature in the future. More flexible date filters, an easier browsing archive, or expanded date options could allow reminiscing memories from the past date of your choosing.
For now, downloading your info archive is the best way to access your Facebook memories unconstrained by dates. Or use the search feature and Activity Log to surface memories from the past dates you have in mind.
Facebook’s “On This Day” walk down memory lane focuses on nostalgia around anniversaries and key dates. But with a full archive or using workarounds, you aren’t limited to just the memories Facebook serves up each day.