Facebook stores billions of photos that users have uploaded over the years. While the social network makes it easy to access your recent photos, getting to your older Facebook pictures can be tricky. Fortunately, Facebook provides a few different ways to find and download old photos.
Why You Should Download Your Old Facebook Photos
Here are some key reasons to download your old Facebook pictures:
- Preserve memories – Facebook photos provide a visual history of your life. Downloading them prevents losing those memories if your account is ever disabled.
- Free up Facebook storage – Facebook limits how many photos each user can store. Downloading old albums frees up room for new photos.
- Own your data – When you download photos from Facebook, you take control of your data versus storing it on their servers.
- Enhance privacy – Removing old photos from Facebook limits what others can see about you.
- Back up photos – Storing Facebook photos on your computer or external hard drive acts as a backup in case they are ever deleted.
How to Download All Your Facebook Photos
Facebook makes it possible to download all your photos at once with just a few clicks:
- Go to Facebook.com and click on the down arrow at the top right. Select “Settings”.
- On the left sidebar, click “Your Facebook Information”.
- Under “Download Your Information”, click “View”.
- Click “Create File”.
- Deselect all categories except “Photos and Videos”.
- Click “Create File”. Facebook will prepare a download of all your photos.
- You’ll get an email when the download file is ready. Click the link in the email and it will download a ZIP file with all your photos.
- Unzip the file and you’ll have copies of all your Facebook pictures stored on your computer.
This process provides an easy way to backup your entire Facebook photo library. The downside is it takes time for Facebook to prepare the download file with all your images. It can take hours or even days if you have thousands of photos to download.
How to Find and Download Specific Facebook Photo Albums
If you only need certain old photo albums from Facebook, there is an easier way to get them:
- Go to Facebook.com and click “Photos” at the top.
- Click “Albums” on the left sidebar.
- Browse your albums until you find the specific photo album(s) you want to download. Click on the album.
- In the upper right, click the 3-dot menu button then select “Download”.
- Choose either “Download in High Quality” or “Download in Standard Definition”.
- The photo album will download as a ZIP file to your computer.
This method lets you quickly retrieve specific photo albums without having to download your entire Facebook photo library.
How to Find and Save Individual Facebook Photos
You can also save individual photos from Facebook one at a time:
- Go to the photo on Facebook and click on it to open the full size view.
- Right click on the photo and choose “Save image as”.
- Choose where to save the photo on your computer.
- Click “Save” to download the image.
While one-by-one downloading is more time consuming, it gives you maximum control to pick out certain special photos.
How to Download Old Photos from Your Facebook Profile
Photos you are tagged in on other people’s timelines can also be retrieved. Here’s how to get old photos of yourself that were posted on someone else’s profile:
- Go to your own Facebook profile and click “Photos” at the top.
- Click “Photos of You” on the left sidebar.
- Browse the photos of you that other people have posted over the years.
- When you find one you want to save, click on it then right click and choose “Save image as”.
- Save the photo to your computer.
This takes more time but enables you to recover old photos of yourself even if you weren’t the one who posted them.
How to Use Third-Party Apps to Download Facebook Photos
Manually downloading photos from Facebook can be tedious. Third-party apps streamline the process:
- Facebook Photo and Video Downloader – This free website lets you download multiple Facebook photos, albums or videos at once. Just copy the URL where the photos are located and paste it into the downloader.
- Social Book Post Manager – This Chrome extension saves all photos from a Facebook post with one click. You can use it to quickly back up photos before deleting a post.
- Album Saver for Facebook – This Android app downloads all photos from any Facebook album. It’s an easy way to save phone photos uploaded to Facebook.
- Exif Viewer – This iPhone app downloads entire Facebook albums and extracts EXIF data like location and date taken. The pro version costs $2.99.
Automated downloaders provide more convenience at the cost of giving third-party apps access to your Facebook account.
How to Download Facebook Photos on a Mobile Device
You can also save Facebook pictures directly on your phone or tablet:
On iPhone/iPad:
- Tap and hold on the photo until a menu appears.
- Tap “Save Image”. The photo will save to your Camera Roll.
On Android:
- Tap and hold on the photo until a menu appears.
- Tap “Download image”. It will save to your device’s Pictures folder.
Saving photos one-by-one on mobile takes patience but allows you to grab shots while scrolling through your feed.
Where Does Facebook Store Your Downloaded Photos?
When you download Facebook photos, where are they saved on your computer? The location varies by browser:
| Browser | Download Location |
|---|---|
| Chrome | Your computer’s “Downloads” folder |
| Firefox | Either your Downloads folder or Desktop |
| Safari | Your computer’s “Downloads” folder |
| Edge | Your “Pictures” folder |
You can move the downloaded photos to another location on your computer afterwards.
How to Re-Upload Facebook Photos to a New Account
What if you download your Facebook photo archive but then start a new account? You can migrate your photo collection to the new profile:
- On the new account, go to Upload Photos: https://www.facebook.com/upload
- Click “Select Photos and Videos” to choose photos from your computer.
- Navigate to the folder where your old photos are saved. Select all.
- Click “Open” to start uploading the historical photos to your new account.
This allows you to carry over your Facebook memories even if you no longer use the account where they were originally posted.
What’s the Easiest Way to Save All Facebook Photos?
If you want the full archive of your Facebook photos, the easiest option is downloading your complete Facebook data. Here’s a quick recap:
- Go to Settings > Your Facebook Information > View.
- Click “Create File” and select only Photos and Videos.
- Facebook will compile all your photos into a ZIP file for download.
While it takes time, this ensures you have all your Facebook pictures saved on your computer from over the years.
Key Takeaways
- Download your Facebook photos to preserve memories, free up storage, enhance privacy and back up your data.
- Use the “Download Your Information” tool to get your complete Facebook photo library.
- Selectively download specific albums or photos for a quicker targeted approach.
- Third party apps provide shortcuts to save Facebook photos.
- On mobile, tap and hold on an image then choose Save or Download.
- Move downloaded Facebook photos to another album or storage device to better organize and back them up.
Conclusion
Facebook hosts some of our most precious photo memories over the years. While the social network makes recent shots readily available, getting to your old Facebook photos presents a challenge. Thankfully, Facebook offers native tools to selectively export albums or your entire history. Third parties also provide shortcuts to rescue your memories. With a little time and effort, you can reclaim and backup your special life events stored across Facebook – and ensure they are preserved for the future.
What old Facebook photos would you most want to rediscover and preserve? Are there any photos so meaningful to you that you wish you had downloaded them before leaving Facebook? Let me know in the comments!