Download my facebook file

Undoubtedly, the comments, messages, photos, and videos you post up end up accumulating into one big online scrapbook of your best and most memorable moments in life. Click on the Start My Archive button and confirm your download. This process may take a while depending on how much data you have.

Facebook will send you a link to download your archive file via email. After you've made a download request, it will appear as Pending in the Available Copies section of the Download Your Information tool. It may take several days for us to finish preparing your download request.

Once we've finished preparing your download request, we'll send a notification letting you know it's ready. To download a copy of data you requested:. Note: You can always view your Privacy Shortcuts to learn about the ways you can control your data and privacy on Facebook.

If you want to review recent activity on your Facebook account or want to review your Facebook account information, you can use the Access Your Information tool.

Can I pick and choose which information I would like to download? When you download a copy of your data on Facebook, you'll have control over which categories of data you want to include in the download, as well as which date range of data you want to include of the data you want to receive. These choices are available when you make the request for your information. Learn more about what's included. You'll receive a ZIP file that, once opened and extracted, will contain an HTML file named index that you can open like a web page on your web browser.

How to control other data was more straightforward -- like manually revoking the Facebook app's permissions that I once authorized to access my Facebook information. Same goes for advertisers. To take myself off customer lists for certain -- or all -- advertisers, I simply needed to "uncheck" them via the Preferences page.

The key is understanding all of the information that Facebook is gathering. In all this, I came to the realization that the act of Facebooking should not be a passive sport. How to find out what Facebook knows about you. CNNMoney Sponsors. As the title suggests: Things got weird, fast. And if you're understandably hesitant about downloading your own data, or just considering it, here's what you can expect -- and what the results mean.

When you first download a copy of your data archive and unzip it the compressed file here 's a quick how-to , it'll look something like this:. Open the general "index. Here's what the "profile" section of mine looks like, with a few sections removed for the sake of -- this old thing -- privacy. Granted, what was available on this page was largely information I voluntarily supplied to Facebook by way of putting it on my profile, like where I went to school or my birthday.

But it was in the other sections and file folders where things started to get weird -- and where I started wondering what potential advertisers or others might be doing with it. The "Ads" section of my data index file largely consists of an exhaustive list of ad topics that would be of interest to me.

Some of them made sense, as they were brands whose Pages I already Liked. But some of the topics were downright irrelevant and, therefore, befuddling -- like "fishing bait" and "organic compound.

But there was also a section for advertisers with my contact information, many of whom were brands and musical artists whose Pages I hadn't Liked. I had to wonder, why do the Smashing Pumpkins and Beck have my contact information? I hadn't listened to either, really, since my first year of college when -- at risk of dating myself -- Facebook didn't exist yet. It raises questions about just how accessible this information is, and how widespread the availability of our data might be.

While likely a bad actor, I'm inclined to believe that Cambridge Analytica isn't alone in the way it allegedly synthesized Facebook user data to get to the root of what sort of promoted content and messaging would resonate most with people.

It's also unclear how to selectively remove that data, if at all -- which could be a valuable next step for Facebook, says HubSpot Product Lead Daria Marmer. That became particularly salient when I discovered that my Facebook data includes a transcript of every Messenger interaction I've had, replete with any photo or video files I may have shared in those conversations.

It only takes a few minutes; how long depends on how big your data files are. Here are the steps to download your Facebook data. Go to your Facebook page and click on the downward-pointing arrow at the top right corner of the page. It is located next to the Quick Help? Select Settings.