Facebook Stories allow users to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. However, there are ways to save your Facebook Stories even after they expire. Here’s what you need to know about finding your archived Facebook Stories.
What are Facebook Stories?
Facebook Stories are photos or videos that you post to your Facebook timeline that disappear after 24 hours. Stories appear at the top of your news feed and your friends’ news feeds in a horizontal scroll. You can add effects, filters, drawings, and text to make your stories creative and engaging.
Stories were introduced by Facebook in 2017 as a way to share more candid, spontaneous moments. They allow you to give your friends a glimpse into your everyday life without clogging up their news feeds. Stories also encourage more visual and interactive sharing.
When you post a story, it appears with your profile picture and username at the top. Friends can react to your stories with emojis and send you messages in response. However, stories are ephemeral – they disappear after 24 hours. This creates a sense of urgency for your friends to view your stories before they’re gone.
Why would I want to archive my Facebook Stories?
There are several reasons you may want to save your Facebook Stories even after they expire:
- Preserve memories – Stories capture spontaneous, fun moments you want to look back on.
- Access old stories – You may want to reshare an old story later on.
- Showcase your content – Archiving stories helps compile your best creative work.
- Portfolio – Photographers/artists can use archived stories in a portfolio.
- Remember reactions – You can look back on how many reactions and comments you got.
Archiving your stories allows you to reminisce, reuse content, and preserve memories even though each story disappears after a day. It gives your stories a longer lifespan beyond 24 hours.
How does Facebook archive stories?
Facebook automatically saves your expired stories for you. All your stories get archived in a private archive that only you can access.
When you post a new story, Facebook caches a copy on their servers. After your story hits its 24-hour expiration date, the archived version remains saved in your archive.
Facebook archives both photos and videos. The archived versions retain all functionality – you can still tap to play videos or swipe through multi-image stories. However, archived stories no longer appear publicly on your profile or your friends’ feeds.
Your archive contains all stories you’ve shared, dating back to when you first started using stories. Stories remain saved in your archive until you actively delete them. There is no expiration date for archived stories.
How do I find my Facebook story archive?
Viewing your archived stories is easy. Just follow these steps:
- Open the Facebook app on your phone or navigate to Facebook in a desktop browser.
- Go to your profile page.
- Tap on the Menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the top right corner.
- Select “Archive” from the menu.
This will open up your story archive. It contains all the stories you’ve shared, sorted by most recent first. From here, you can scroll through and view your old, expired stories.
On desktop:
If you’re on a computer, the steps are very similar:
- Go to your profile page.
- Click on the arrow on the top right (next to the Add Story button).
- Select “Story Archive” from the dropdown menu.
This opens your desktop story archive in the right panel. You can click through and view your expired stories.
On mobile:
On mobile devices, opening your archive is easy since the Menu icon is always visible in the app. Just tap the icon and choose Archive.
One thing to note – stories you view in your archive will be marked as “seen.” The visual indicator (pink background) shows you which stories you’ve already viewed before.
What can I do with my archived stories?
Once you access your story archive, you have a few options:
- View – Scroll through and watch your expired stories.
- Share – Repost old stories to your current story feed.
- Download – Save the videos and photos from your stories.
- Delete – Remove any unwanted stories.
Viewing your archived stories can bring back memories of exciting life events, fun trips, and creative photo shoots. If you want to reshare a meaningful or well-performed story, you can post it to your current story feed again.
You can also download any stories you want to keep forever. This saves the videos and photos to your camera roll or computer. Finally, deleting unwanted stories cleans up your archive and saves space.
How long do archived stories last?
Your Facebook story archive has unlimited storage. The archived versions of stories will remain saved forever unless you actively delete them. There is no expiration date for stories in your archive.
Even years later, you can still scroll back and view your earliest stories. Facebook never deletes or clears out your story archive. The only way stories disappear is if you manually delete them.
So feel free to build up a big library of saved stories that you can reminisce through for years to come!
Can other people see my archived stories?
Your story archive and expired stories are private. Only you can access your archive and view the stories stored there. Other people will not be able to search for or see your archived stories.
After a story expires from your profile, it no longer appears publicly anywhere. The archived version is solely for your personal use and records. No one else will receive notifications or indications that you re-viewed an old story.
What happens when I delete an archived story?
Deleting a story from your archive removes it permanently. Here’s what happens:
- The story will disappear from your archive.
- The views, reactions, and comments will be deleted.
- You cannot recover a deleted story.
Deleting clears up space and declutters your archive. But keep in mind – this deletes the story forever, so only delete stories you’re absolutely certain you don’t need.
Can I download my archived stories?
Yes, you can download your archived stories to store and save the files. Here’s how:
On mobile:
- Open your story archive.
- Tap on a story to view it.
- Tap the three dots in the bottom right corner while viewing the story.
- Select “Save Photo” or “Save Video” depending on the story format.
- This will save the file to your camera roll.
On desktop:
- Open your story archive.
- Right click on the story thumbnail.
- Choose “Save photo as” or “Save video as.”
- Select a save location on your computer.
Saving stories downloads the actual image/video files. You can then access them from your camera roll or computer files even without the Facebook archive.
Does deleting Facebook delete my archived stories?
If you delete your Facebook account entirely, your archived stories will be wiped out along with the rest of your information. Some things to note:
- Deleting Facebook deletes your entire account permanently.
- All your stories will be removed from the archive.
- You will lose access to all saved stories.
- You cannot recover deleted stories.
So if you may want to access any old stories in the future, make sure to download them before deleting Facebook. Once your account is deleted, your story archive disappears.
Can I auto-save stories before they expire?
Unfortunately, there is no native Facebook option to automatically save stories somewhere before they expire. Your only options are:
- Manually save each story as you post it using the download instructions.
- View and screenshot stories from your archive after expiration.
Facebook likely does not allow auto-saving as it goes against the ephemeral nature of stories. Your best bet is downloading favorites as needed.
Conclusion
Even though Facebook Stories disappear after 24 hours, you can still view your expired stories by accessing your personal story archive. Facebook saves all stories indefinitely unless you delete them.
To find your archived stories:
- On mobile: Tap the Menu icon and select Archive.
- On desktop: Click the arrow beside Add Story and choose Story Archive.
From there, you can scroll through your stories, re-share them, download them, or delete them. Your archive gives you access to your stories long after they expire.
So next time you capture a moment you want to remember, post it to your story! Even if it disappears from your profile, you’ll always have the memory saved and accessible in your archive.