Archiving Toolkit | Preserving Social Media

Your ability to preserve your social media accounts depends in large part on the decisions of the platform owners. We recommend that individuals and organizations with strong presences on social media regularly download their accounts. This page offers instructions on downloading your social media accounts.

Digital Archivist Kristen Whitson gives reason and instructions for downloading your records from Social Media platforms.

These instructions are based on 2021 best practices and may need to be updated, but they give you a good general idea of how to get started, See our Archiving Digital Content guide for a fuller discussion.

Online Platform Instructions

YouTube

The role of YouTube in preserving video content is considered one of providing access rather than long term preservation. When possible, maintain a local copy of videos that you have posted on YouTube.

Facebook

Note: this option is only available for individual pages or organizational/business pages, NOT Facebook Groups. Also check the download when it is finished to be sure you’ve downloaded your organizational or business page, not your personal Facebook profile.

Navigate to your organization’s Facebook page. In the menu at the top of the page, click on “Settings” on the far right side of the menu.
In the “General” tab, click “Download Page,” then the hyperlink that appears to “Download Page."
- Depending on how Facebook menu options change, this “Download Page” option may be in a different menu. In general, look for Settings or Privacy Settings.
The next page will give options for a date range, format, and quality level for download. Choose the date range going back to the previous download, HTML format, high-quality media.
Ensure all check-boxes on the right side of the screen are checked. This will download a record of all your Facebook page’s activity.
Click “Create File.”
When available, your download will be available under “Available Copies.”
Facebook will notify you once this file is available. Click “Download.”
Facebook will prompt you to re-enter your password for security purposes.
The file will then begin to download to wherever you have specified your computer downloads will go (usually a Downloads folder). Once complete, you can move the ZIP file to wherever you are keeping archive files.

What’s Included

A link to a static (unchanging) HTML page with an index of all your available downloaded information
Posts that you have created on your page
Photos and videos that you yourself have posted
Captions on your photos
Your events
Any groups your page belongs to
Any Stories you have posted

What’s Not Included

Anyone else’s engagement (likes, comments, or shares) with any of your information
Comments or shares on your posts - no one else’s comments will appear
Comments, likes or shares on your photos or videos
Original captions on your photos or videos
Original posting date on your photos or videos
Tagged people in your photos
People who attended or shared your events

Twitter, now X

Navigate to your organization’s Twitter page.
In the menu on the left side, click on “More,” then click “Settings and Privacy."
In the next page, click on “Your Twitter Data.”
Under “Download an archive of your data,” click “Download archive.” On the following screen, click “Download Archive.” The file will automatically download to wherever you have directed downloaded files to go.

What’s Included

A link to a static HTML page with a summary of your Twitter activity and information
That summary HTML page includes a link to more of your Twitter data
The HTML page also displays your own tweets, and how many shares/likes/comments your tweets got
Photos and videos you have tweeted

What’s Not Included

The usernames of anyone else who engaged with your tweets (likes or retweets)
Comments on your tweets
Original posting dates on your photos or videos
Any tweets or photos that tag anyone else on Twitter. This information is available by clicking on any of the tweets in the summary HTML page to go to Twitter, but not in the downloaded archive of information.

Instagram

Navigate to your organization’s Instagram page on your computer. (These instructions are similar but not identical for mobile devices.)
Click on the Settings icon at the top of the page.
Choose “Settings and Privacy.”
Click “Data Download.”
Enter the email and password associated with the account.
The archive file will be emailed to this email address, and can then be saved to wherever you are keeping your archive files.