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Facebook Silently Removes Ability To Download Your Posts

Posted by Unknown on from the probably-best-to-forget dept.

dcollins writes "Facebook has a 'Download Info' capability that I've used regularly since 2010 to archive, backup, and search all the information that I've written and shared there (called 'wall posts'). But I've discovered that sometime in the last few months, Facebook silently removed this largest component from the Downloaded Info, locking up all of your posted information internally where it can no longer be exported or digitally searched. Will they reverse course if this is publicized and they're pressured on the matter?" It does appear that the archive of your wall posts is now only available through the not-very-useful Activity Log.

4 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I would ahve got a frosty by Aaron+B+Lingwood · · Score: 5, Informative

    Where is the link on slashdot to download all my comments?

    Here!

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    [Rent This Space]
  2. It has, indeed, been removed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTFA. You can download an archive of some of your data. While that archive used to include your wall posts (a substantial portion of the content you generate on Facebook), that content is no longer included. I have tried and verified this.

  3. Re:I would ahve got a frosty by pthisis · · Score: 5, Informative

    That page only has comments going back to December for me. My complete posting history goes back over a decade.

    --
    rage, rage against the dying of the light
  4. Re:I would ahve got a frosty by Aaron+B+Lingwood · · Score: 5, Informative

    That page only has comments going back to December for me. My complete posting history goes back over a decade.

    This is slashdot. News for Nerds.

    The Slashdot search function goes something like this:

    wget -U “Lynx/3.0 http://www.google.com/search?&start=1\&num=100\&q=27352+site:slashdot.org -O Search01.html
    wget -U “Lynx/3.0 http://www.google.com/search?&start=101\&num=200\&q=27352+site:slashdot.org -O Search02.html
    wget -U “Lynx/3.0 http://www.google.com/search?&start=201\&num=300\&q=27352+site:slashdot.org -O Search03.html

    Then

    lynx -dump -listonly Search01.html >> URL_list.ascii
    lynx -dump -listonly Search02.html >> URL_list.ascii
    lynx -dump -listonly Search03.html >> URL_list.ascii

    Then grep out the webcache and google URLs and trim off anything that prepends the URL you want with a Perl substitution

    s/(https?\:\/\/)(\w*\.)?(slashdot\.org\/.*)/$1$2$3/

    And finally, wget again

    wget -U "Lynx/22.0" -i ./URL_list.ascii

    It is at this stage you realize that you have just downloaded 200MB of javascript and are found 2 days later sitting under a cold shower in the foetal position

    --
    [Rent This Space]