The Art of Archive: Saving Your Fb Visual Stories

Facebook is a treasure trove of memories of you and your friends, so you may want to download Facebook photos and videos to your computer or phone.

We’ll show you the official methods as well as third-party photo downloader apps, allowing you to download your Facebook photos, your friends’ photos, and videos.

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How to Download Facebook Photos

If you want to save a single photo on Facebook, don’t bother with third-party apps or websites. Facebook itself offers an easyphoto downloader tool.

On desktop: Open the photo, click onMenu (the three-dot icon) > Download .
On mobile: Open the photo in the Facebook app, tapMenu (the three-dot icon) > Save to Phone (Android) orSave Photo (iOS).

You can use this method to download Facebook photos. It’s as simple as that.

However, to download your friends’ Facebook photos, theirFacebook photo privacy settings will need to allow this feature.

How to Download Facebook Albums

If you want to download a Facebook album from your own profile, Facebook has a simple method to do that. Again, you don’t need any third-party downloader apps for this. However, you’ll need to use Facebook on the web since mobile apps don’t let you download albums.

Follow these steps to download your Facebook album:

Navigate to your profile by clicking your own name.
Go toPhotos > Albums .
Open the album that you want to download.
In the top-right corner, click thethree-dot icon and selectDownload album .
Next, selectContinue .

Facebook will get to work creating a zipped folder. Depending on the size of the album, this can take some time. Once it’s done, you will get a notification telling you that the album is ready to download. Click the notification, enter your Facebook password, and selectContinue . Your album will immediately start downloading.

The downloaded album comes as a ZIP file. You’ll need to extract this ZIP file to access the pictures.

How to Download All of Your Facebook Photos

There is also a simple method to download all photos from Facebook that you have ever uploaded. You will even get them in the right sub-folders organized by album. But the names of the files can be a little strange.

Here’s how to use the easy built-in Facebook photo downloader to download all your Facebook photos:

Head to Facebook settings on your desktop browser or use the linkfacebook.com/settings .
ClickYour Facebook information in the sidebar.
SelectDownload your information .
ClickRequest a download from the pop-up.

5. Select your Facebook profile from theSelect accounts and profiles pop-up (if it hasn’t been selected already) and clickNext .

Select whether you want to download all or just specific information on the next page. Since we want to download Facebook photos only, clickSelect types of information .
On the follow-up page, selectPosts underYour activity across Facebook and clickNext .

3. To download all your Facebook photos clickDate range and selectAll time then hitSave to persist the changes.

Next, choose the quality of the image files by selectingMedia quality . We recommend changingMedium toHigh if you want full-resolution copies. The setting you choose will determine the size of the file. If you have a lot of pictures, this will increase the file size and the time Facebook takes to get it ready. Once done, selectSave .
After that, clickSubmit Request at the bottom.

After submitting the request, Facebook will take you back to theDownload your information page, indicating you have a pending request.

Facebook will take some time to get the ZIP file ready, depending on how many photos and videos you have on Facebook. Once it’s done, you will get a notification to download it fromAvailable Files .

Download and unzip the file to see all of your posts and images, with albums as sub-folders.

Which Is the Best Facebook Photo Downloader App?

As of July 2023, there’s no reliable Facebook photo downloader app that we can recommend. Most apps work for videos only, and they are filled with intrusive ads. Towards the end of 2022, Multi Downloader for Facebook was one of the best Facebook picture downloader apps out there. It was free, super easy to use, and it worked for videos, too.

However, like most third-party downloading apps (including our previous favorite, VNHero Studio’s Download Videos and Photos: Facebook and Instagram), the app is no longer available on Google’s Play Store. We, therefore, recommend using the built-in download feature to save your Facebook photos or those of your friends offline.

How to Save Facebook Videos to Your Computer or Phone

Pictures on Facebook have a simple Download button. But videos don’t have any such easy way to download them.FDown.net is one of the easiest web apps you can use to save Facebook videos. The site lets youdownload private Facebook videos and works on desktop computers and smartphones.

Here’s how to use it:

Open the Facebook video and copy its link.
Head to FDown and paste the link. Click or tap theDownload button.
ClickDownload Video in HD Quality orNormal Quality , and start downloading.
In case the video plays in your window instead of downloading, go back to the previous page. Right-click onDownload Video in HD Quality , chooseSave link as… , and download it to the folder of your choice.

It should work like a charm. The downloaded file will be in MP4 format, which should be fine for most people. The method works on mobile browsers as well. We’ve tested the website on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on Android and iOS, so pick any of the three.

FDown also has a handy extension for Google Chrome on desktop dubbed Video Downloader Plus. When you are playing a Facebook video, click the extension icon to download it to your computer.

Download: Video Downloader Plus forChrome (Free)

There are lots of other sites that work the same as FDown. Now that you can save Facebook videos, you might want to go back and search for old videos you liked.

Other Facebook Download Tools

Apart from photos and videos, Facebook has a ton of other information about you. The company is also notorious for its data collection.

The above methods let you download photos and videos easily, but you might want to consider backing up your Facebook history and learning about other download and data management tools.