Facebook stories have become an incredibly popular way to share photos, videos, and other multimedia content with friends and followers on the platform. But after posting a story, many users wonder where exactly these ephemeral posts are stored and how long they remain visible.
How Facebook Stories Work
Facebook stories allow users to post photos, videos, and other content that disappears after 24 hours. Stories appear in a bar at the top of the News Feed. Followers can view and react to stories by tapping on a user’s profile photo in the stories bar.
When posting a story, users can customize it with filters, text, stickers, drawings, and more. Stories can be shared to a user’s entire friends list, or to a custom list of close friends. Facebook also allows users to reply to stories with text or emoji reactions.
Once a story expires after 24 hours, it disappears from the stories bar at the top of the News Feed. However, there are a few ways that Facebook continues storing story content behind the scenes.
Story Posts
Even though stories disappear from public view after a day, a copy of each story post is saved to the posting user’s Facebook account. These story posts can only be seen by the original poster.
To view your own story posts after they have expired:
- Go to your profile page
- Click on the Menu icon in the top right
- Select “Archive”
This will bring up your archive, which contains all of your past posts including expired stories. You can scroll through and view your old stories here. Keep in mind that only you have access to your personal archive.
Facebook Servers
Facebook stores all stories content on its servers, even after the stories have disappeared from public view. This allows the company to analyze the data for advertising targeting purposes, usage statistics, and more.
The length of time Facebook retains expired stories on its servers is not publicly known. However, it likely retains the data for months or years before deleting it. This extended storage benefits Facebook by providing more user data for its complex algorithms.
Download Your Information
If you want to see the stories you’ve posted for longer than the 24-hour expiration period, you can download an archive of your Facebook information. This will provide you with a copy of all the stories you’ve shared for a certain time period.
To download your Facebook story archive:
- Go to your Facebook Settings
- Click on “Your Facebook Information” in the left menu
- Select “Download Your Information”
- Choose your desired date range (e.g. last 6 months)
- Be sure to select “Stories” under the Media Types options
- Click “Create File” to start generating your archive
Facebook will compile all your stories from the selected time period into a downloadable HTML file. It may take up to a few days for Facebook to prepare the archive. Once ready, you can download it and view your stories offline by opening the HTML file in a web browser.
Shared Stories
If you share a Facebook story with friends, those friends can do a couple things that may allow the story to persist longer than 24 hours:
- Screenshot or screen record your story
- Download your story using a third party app or extension
There is no way to prevent this. If you share a story, you have to assume friends may save it outside of the 24-hour limit. So share thoughtfully!
Archiving Apps
Some third-party apps claim they can automatically save your Facebook stories for long-term archiving. Examples include Story Saver for Facebook and StorySavebox.
These apps may violate Facebook’s Terms of Service if they scrape data without user consent. We advise using the official Facebook archive download option covered above as the safest method for properly saving your stories.
Location of Stories
Now that we’ve covered how Facebook stores your stories, where exactly are they kept?
Active stories are temporarily housed on users’ devices and in the Facebook cloud servers. This allows stories to quickly load in the mobile apps and website.
For long-term storage, Facebook has massive data centers around the world that archive stories along with all other user data:
| Data Center Location | Size |
|---|---|
| Prineville, Oregon | 989,000 square feet |
| Altoona, Iowa | 2.5 million square feet |
| Fort Worth, Texas | 1 million square feet |
| Clonee, Ireland | 2.5 million square feet |
| Luleå, Sweden | 670,000 square feet |
So in summary, active stories are streamed from Facebook’s servers closest to you for fast performance. Then expired stories get transferred to long-term archives at Facebook’s massive data centers.
Accessing Stories After Account Deletion
If you decide to delete your Facebook account, your stories will be largely removed from visibility. However, Facebook likely retains the data in its archives for an undisclosed amount of time.
To regain access to your stories if you delete your account, you would have to go through the account recovery process. This involves confirming your identity to reactivate your account. Once your account is restored, you could then download your archive to retrieve the stories.
Removing Stories from Facebook’s Servers
Is there any way to completely erase your Facebook stories from the company’s databases? Unfortunately no. Facebook keeps all stories content on file even after accounts are deactivated. There is no option available to force Facebook to permanently delete your stored stories.
The best you can do is request account deletion and hope Facebook removes your data in a reasonable timeframe. Until then, the stories remain housed in Facebook’s massive data archives spread across facilities around the globe.
Story Privacy Settings
You do have some control over who can view your Facebook stories:
- Share to your entire friends list (default)
- Limit story visibility to only Close Friends
- Hide your stories from specific people
- Turn off story sharing completely
Adjust these settings in your story privacy preferences. This does not affect Facebook’s storage of your stories, but it can restrict visibility during the 24-hour period before stories expire.
How Long Are Stories Visible?
Facebook stories remain visible to the audience you shared them with for exactly 24 hours after posting. The 24-hour countdown begins the moment you hit the Share button.
After the first 24 hours:
- Stories disappear from the stories bar and shared spaces
- Stories remain saved in your Archive for only you to see
- Stories remain stored on Facebook’s servers
So in summary, stories vanish from public viewing after 24 hours but continue living in different forms behind the scenes.
Facebook Highlights
Facebook offers the ability to share certain stories to your Profile highlights. These highlights remain pinned to your profile until you remove them.
To share a story to highlights:
- Tap the share icon when posting a story
- Select “Add to highlights”
- Pick which highlight you want it added to
Highlights allow you to keep specific stories publicly visible for as long as you want. You can add and remove stories from highlights at any time.
Pro Tips
Here are some professional tips for managing your Facebook stories like a pro:
- Preview stories before sharing to check for mistakes
- Use highlights to pin your best stories to your profile
- Limit Close Friends access for more personal stories
- Download your story archive if you want to save stories long-term
- Avoid posting stories with sensitive information you wouldn’t want stored
Can You Retrieve Expired Stories?
As covered above, there are a couple methods to retrieve your expired stories after they have disappeared:
- View stories in your personal Archive
- Download a copy of your Information from Facebook
However, there is no way to restore expired stories to their original 24 hour placement in the stories bar. Once stories expire, they can only be viewed in your Archive or downloaded information.
Conclusion
Facebook stories provide a fun way to share ephemeral photos and videos. But it’s important to understand where this content is stored after you post it.
In summary:
- Active stories live temporarily on devices and Facebook servers
- Expired stories get archived on Facebook’s servers for an unconfirmed period of time
- You can access your expired stories via your Archive or by downloading your Facebook information
- Stories can be saved by others if shared publicly
- Use highlights to pin favorite stories to your profile indefinitely
Understanding how long your stories stick around and where they are stored can help you share in a mindful way!