Guide to archiving social media accounts

If you’re thinking of leaving a social media platform or want to regularly make an archive copy of your social media account, there are two ways you can do this:

• Using the download functions of the social media platforms themselves: This is the simplest way to save all the content from your account, and you don’t need to install any extra software. Depending on the social media platform, shared posts and comments from others may not be exported and will be missing from the archive. Export functions usually result in a ZIP file with HTML files. This can only be done by the account owner.
• Using ArchiveWeb.page: an extension that allows you to use Chrome or Edge browsers as an archiving tool. With ArchiveWeb.page, you can create web archives in the standard WARC format.

Method 1: social media platform download functions

The simplest way to archive your own social media accounts is through the the social media platforms’ own archiving functions. They allow you to archive your own content from your social media accounts. Third-party content, such as comments and shared posts, is removed from the web archive or anonymised. The resulting web archive is a ZIP file consisting of at least one HTML file, which you can view in a browser. HTML files can be opened with a browser, such as Chrome, Firefox and Edge.

Facebook

Facebook offers the ability to download all your own content. It’s the simplest and least time-consuming way to ensure you’ve downloaded all your own content. Only own photos, videos, posts, comments and stories will be downloaded. In the case of a Facebook page, you can also choose to download posts. The look and feel of the archive resemble Facebook but are not identical.

Step 1: log in to Facebook

Log in to Facebook with your email address and password.

Step 2a: request a copy of your account

• Go to Settings and Privacy (rightmost button in the navigation bar) > Settings

• You’ll see a new screen with settings. Click on the box with Meta Accounts Centre

You’ll land on a page where you can manage your Meta accounts. Choose ‘Your information and permissions’ and then ‘Export your information’.

• A new window opens. Press the ‘Create export’ button.

• Select the accounts you want to archive. If you also have an Instagram account, you can download its data via this window as well.

• Indicate that you want to download all available information.

• Select ‘Export to device’.

• Select HTML as the format and high as the media quality. You can set a period if you wish. Select ‘all time’ if you want to download all your data. The period is set to the past year by default. When you’re ready, press the Create files button.

• Facebook will now prepare a download. You’ll receive a notification when your data is ready to download.

Step 2b: request a copy of your page

• Go to your page and choose Settings under Manage Page in the left sidebar

• Under Your information, choose Export your information

• You’ll land on a new page. Tick the elements you want to download (at least: Posts, Photos and videos and Page profile information). If, for example, you’ve never organised an event via the page or never created stories, it’s not useful to download this data.

• Select HTML as the format and ‘high’ as the media quality. You can set a period if you wish. Then only the posts and photos and videos from that period will be downloaded. Press the Create file button when you’re ready to set up your download.

• You’ll receive a notification from Facebook once your download is ready.

Result

Once the archive is downloaded, you’ll receive a ZIP file containing various folders and a central index.html file.

You can view the contents of the archive via the index.html file.

Opening the overview page (index.html) in a browser gives you access to the Facebook archive.

Twitter/X

X, formerly Twitter, also allows you to request and download an archive of your own X data. It’s the simplest and fastest way to archive your own posts. Your X archive overview page includes a handy search and filter function that lets you quickly search through your own content. If your X archive is larger than 50 GB, you won’t be able to use the overview page. As with Facebook, the look and feel of the archive aren’t identical to X. Note that the archive may contain sensitive data, such as your contacts’ email addresses and phone numbers. You can remove these from the archive.

Step 1: log in to X

This workflow only works on the X website. Log in with your credentials on x.com.

Step 2: request to download your X archive

• Click on More in the left sidebar.

• Then choose Settings and privacy.

• Under Your account, choose ‘Download an archive of your data’.

• X will ask you to verify your identity. Re-enter your password and choose whether you want to receive a security code via email or SMS. After entering the security code, you can request your X data archive.

• X will gather the archive. You’ll receive an email and a notification on your smartphone when it’s ready to download. This can take more than a day – even for small accounts – so don’t worry if you don’t receive a message immediately. You can only download the archive from the website.

Result

Once the archive is downloaded, you’ll receive a ZIP file containing the folders assets and data, and a central Your archive.html file.

The assets folder contains all the scripts and content X uses to create the overview page; the data folder contains all the data X has stored about you. You can use the Your archive.html file to search your X archive (= the data folder) in a browser.

Tweets can be searched using a handy search and filter function.

Remove sensitive data

The X archive contains all your data and all third-party data collected during the time you were active on Twitter and X. If you want to transfer this data to an archive institution or make it available to third parties, it might be useful to remove it.

Remove the following files from the folder with your X data:

• account-creation-ip.js: this file contains your IP address;
• block.js: this file contains the accounts you’ve blocked;
• deleted-tweets.js and deleted-tweet-headers.js: these files contain your deleted tweets;
• device-token.js: this file may contain sensitive data;
• ip-audit.js: this file contains IP addresses;
• mute.js: this file contains the accounts you’ve muted.

Instagram

Downloading your Instagram data is quite similar to Facebook. All own posts, comments and stories (including captions) will be downloaded. The look and feel of Instagram are completely gone. It’s also possible that sensitive data from your contacts is present in the archive.

Step 1: log into Instagram

This workflow only works on the Instagram website. Log in with your credentials at Instagram.com.

Stap 2: doe een aanvraag om je Instagram-data te downloaden

• Ga naar 'Meer' en kies voor 'Instellingen'

• Klik vervolgens op het kadertje van het Meta Accountcentrum

• Je komt terecht op een pagina waar je je Meta accounts kunt beheren. Kies in het menu voor 'Your information and permssions' (Jouw gegevens en toelatingen) en vervolgens voor 'Download your information' (Download je gegevens).

• Er verschijnt een nieuw venster. Druk op de knop 'Download or transfer information'.

• Selecteer de accounts die je wil archiveren. Als je ook een Facebook account hebt, kan je de gegevens hiervan via dit venster ook downloaden.

• Duid aan dat je alle beschikbare informatie wil downloaden.

• Kies voor 'Download to device'.

• Selecteer als formaat/indeling HTML en als mediakwaliteit hoog. Eventueel kan je een periode instellen. Kies voor 'all time' als je al je gegevens wil donwloaden. Standaard staat de periode ingesteld op afgelopen jaar. Als je daarmee klaar bent, druk dan op de knop Bestand maken/Create files.

• Meta zal nu een download voorbereiden. Je krijgt een melding wanneer je je gegevens kan downloaden.

Resultaat

Als het archief gedownload is, ontvang je een ZIP-bestand met daarin verschillende mappen en een index.html-bestand.

Het is het eenvoudigste om het archief te bekijken via het index.html-bestand.

Manier 2: ArchiveWeb.page

Als je content van derden in het archief van je sociale media account wil opnemen, raden we het gebruik van ArchiveWeb.page aan. Dit is een software die een surfessie kan opnemen en vervolgens opslaan in een WARC-bestand. WARC is het standaardformaat voor de bewaring van webarchieven.

Deze methode is ook de beste manier om je Facebook-groep te archiveren. De archieffuntie van Facebook is immers niet beschikbaar voor Facebook-groepen. Let op: Zorg dat je ingelogd bent voordat je de archiveersessie start. Anders zullen je inloggegevens in het webarchief bewaard worden.

Beschikbare handleiding: Websites archiveren met ArchiveWeb.page

Auteur: Nastasia Vanderperren (Meemoo, Vlaams instituut voor het archief) m.m.v. Rony Vissers (Meemoo, Vlaams instituut voor het archief