Meta moved the Facebook data-download tool into the unified Accounts Center in 2024. The old Settings → Your Facebook Information path is gone, which means every older tutorial out there sends you down a wrong sidebar. Here’s the current 2026 flow.
Why you might want this backup
- You’re about to delete your account and want your photos, messages, and post history out before it vanishes.
- You’ve been locked out of an account before (Meta’s recovery flow is notoriously bad) and want a periodic export as insurance.
- You’re migrating to a different platform. The archive includes your photos at original quality.
- GDPR / CCPA-style data ownership. You just want a copy of what Meta has on you.
The current steps (2026)
- Sign into facebook.com in a browser. (The mobile app works too. The flow is similar but the menus are nested deeper.)
- Click your profile picture (top right) → Settings & privacy → Settings.
- In the left sidebar, click Accounts Center at the top.
- In Accounts Center, click Your information and permissions.
- Click Download your information.
- Click Create export (or Request a download on older account variants).
- Choose which accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Threads. If you’ve linked them in Accounts Center, you can export them together).
- Pick Some of your information if you only want photos / posts / messages, or All available information for a complete archive.
- Choose the destination: Download to device (most common), or transfer directly to Google Photos, Dropbox, Backblaze, or Koofr (this option has been here since 2022 and is genuinely useful for photos at scale).
- Choose the format: HTML if you want to browse it like a website, JSON if you want to parse it programmatically.
- Choose the date range and media quality (pick High).
- Click Create export.
You’ll get an in-app + email notification when the archive is ready. Usually a few hours to a few days depending on archive size. The download link is good for 7 days and is encrypted with your account password when you download it.
What you actually get
- Every photo and video you’ve uploaded, at original quality if you picked High
- Every post you’ve made
- Every comment you’ve left
- Messenger conversation history
- Friends list
- Events you’ve attended or were invited to
- Login history and active sessions
- Ads you’ve clicked on (sometimes more revealing than the rest combined)
For Instagram and Threads
If you linked your Instagram and Threads to the same Accounts Center, the “Download your information” flow lets you export them in the same archive. If they’re not linked, the Instagram-specific flow is at instagram.com → Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Download your information. Identical structure.
If you’re downloading to leave Facebook
Get the export before you initiate account deletion. Once you’ve started the deletion countdown, you can still log in to reverse it, but the download tool gets gated. Better to have the archive in hand first.