Downloading your data from both Facebook and Google
I’ve been backing up my Facebook data for years this way, and since I’ve recently started using Google more, I decided it was time to start backing up that data too. Of course, even if you don’t care about backups, you might still be interested in what they actually have one you, this will give you a chance to review that.
The actual process is very simple for both, but you have to know were to start.
To download the whole of your facebook account, log in to it
Then go to Settings and Privacy > Your Facebook information. Then Click on Download your information
On the next page, select the Format, Media Quality, and the Date range. I always select All time
Then Select what you want to download. I select everything. And at the bottom of the page, Click on Request a download
Log into myaccount.google.com, and click on Data & privacy, then on Download your data down the page a bit
On the next page, click everything you want. Again, I just select it all. Then click on Next step
Then select Delivery method. I just go with email. The Frequency, since I do this every 3 months, I just select 1 export. I select tgz for the file type and the max size.
And finally click Create export
And that’s it …
What happens next?
Once the archives are ready, you will get an email with a link you can use to download them. Just click on the link and follow any instructions.
I actually have a reminder to do that once every three months. Depending on how much stuff you have, it shouldn’t take more than a few hundred megs to a gig or two of space for each archive.
Another thing to note: if you have anything flagged as copyrighted on youtube, it wont be included in your archive.
UPDATE 2016-03-30 Updated the instructions for Google as they’ve changed slightly.
UPDATE 2022-07-09 Updated the instructions for Google as they’ve changed Substantially.