5 Ways to Download and Save Your Facebook Photos
Believe it or not, Facebook has been around for over a decade. It started off as a platform exclusively for college students but has since grown into a social media giant that billions of people use worldwide.
As of the second quarter of 2018, Facebook has reached a staggering 2.3 billion monthly active users, making it the most popular social media site in the world. Almost 75 percent of the global population, which amounts to around 5.7 billion people, can create a Facebook account if they are 13 years old or older. This means that one-third of the entire world’s population has chosen to be a part of this platform, solidifying Facebook as one of the most influential companies in existence.
Like many others, you have probably been using Facebook for years. It has served as a tool to connect with friends, share thoughts, and showcase your photos. Over time, you may have lost the original copies of these photos – whether it was due to an old phone, a misplaced SD card, or simply deleting files to free up space. Perhaps you believed that Facebook had a backup of all your photos, and you were right. Thankfully, your memories are still preserved in Facebook’s ecosystem, and you can even download them back to your own device.
Now, you may have decided that it’s time to take a break from Facebook, or maybe even leave the platform entirely. Alternatively, you might just want to have direct control over your photos and have them saved somewhere other than the cloud. Whatever your reasons may be, you can retrieve your photos at any time. We have discovered five different methods to download and save all your Facebook photos, ensuring that you can access your digital memories in whichever way you prefer. Let’s explore these methods.
Method 1: Downloading Individual Image Files from Facebook
The simplest and most straightforward way to retrieve your image files is to download each photo individually. This method is ideal if you only want to save a few specific photos. However, it can be incredibly time-consuming if you wish to download your entire library, especially if you have numerous albums. Nonetheless, if you prefer to download a few images at a time rather than your entire collection, this method is the easiest for you. Let’s walk through the steps.
To access your Facebook profile, simply go to their website and click on your name in the top-left corner. Once you’re on your personal profile page, locate the “Photos” tab along the top navigation bar. By default, this tab displays all the images you’ve been tagged in, categorized under “Photos of You.” Now, keep in mind that not all of these photos are exclusively of you. Many of them might have been uploaded by other users, including your friends, or may feature tags from other photos.
Since your objective is to download your own photos, click on the “Your Photos” tab within the image gallery. This will bring up all of the photos you have uploaded yourself, organized according to their respective albums.
Alright, let me walk you through how to download your favorite images from Facebook. First, you need to know that your images will be sorted by the date you uploaded them. So, take your time and scroll through until you find the ones you want.
When you spot an image that catches your eye, simply click on the icon to open it in your browser. At the bottom of the picture, you’ll see a few options. Click on “Options” and a menu will pop up with various choices. Look for the “Download” option and select it.
Now, here’s the catch. Unfortunately, Facebook resizes and compresses the photos you upload. So, if you were expecting the same high resolution as your original 12 or 16MP photo, you might be disappointed. Depending on the size and shape of the image file, Facebook will resize it to either 720px, 960px, or 2048px. Keep that in mind.
Another thing to note is that when you download the photo, it will have a not-so-helpful file name like ‘38749281_3010302_o.jpg’. Sadly, Facebook doesn’t give you the option to rename it before downloading. So, you’ll have to quickly find it in your Downloads folder and give it a more friendly name that makes sense to you.
Once you’ve downloaded the image, it will be saved in your computer’s Downloads folder. You can easily find it there and enjoy viewing your wonderful content.
So here’s the deal: I’ve heard from some people that they’re having a real tough time trying to download photos from Facebook when using Chrome. Basically, every time they hit that Download button, the page just reloads and spits out an error message. And you know what the message says? It basically tells them that something went wrong and that they should close and reopen the browser. Not exactly helpful, right? But guess what? That solution never seems to work!
Now, I’m not entirely sure whose fault this is. Is it Google’s fault? Or is it Facebook’s? One thing’s for sure though, these two don’t seem to play nice together. If you happen to stumble upon this problem – and a quick search tells me it’s quite common for Chrome users – I’ve got a suggestion for you. Just temporarily switch over to Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Safari for your downloading needs. Trust me, it’s a much better bet than using Internet Explorer. Oh, and by the way, as of August 2018, it seems like they’ve ironed out this issue. But hey, don’t forget, it could rear its ugly head again.
If you’re using a mobile device like Android or iOS and you want to download your photos from the app, don’t worry, it’s pretty simple. Just follow these steps:
1. Open the app and go to your profile. You can do this by tapping on your photo on the main screen of your device.
2. Once you’re on your profile, tap on “Photos” and then scroll over to “Your Photos.”
3. Look for the photo you want to download and open it in full-screen mode.
4. Now, tap on the menu button on your phone. On our Android test device, it’s the triple-dotted menu icon in the top right-hand corner.
5. From the menu, choose the option to download the photo. It will be saved directly to your phone’s camera reel or downloads folder.
But here’s something interesting: When we tried to save a photo on our Galaxy S7 with a high-resolution display, we discovered something unexpected. Taking a screenshot of the photo actually gave us a higher resolution image than downloading it directly. The downloaded image was about 1100 pixels, while the screenshot was even larger at around 1440 pixels. However, please keep in mind that the image will still have the same quality and artifacts because Facebook’s own service downsizes your image. It’s like a twist in a movie by M. Night Shyamalan!
Getting Albums from Facebook
When it comes to quickly grabbing individual pictures for projects like photoshop edits or collages, downloading single photos is the way to go. But what if you want entire photo albums or collections? Well, that takes a bit more effort. Downloading albums strikes a nice balance between snagging individual images and your entire photo library, making it the most convenient method for most users.
As long as you don’t need all your photos at once, or if you haven’t organized them into albums, this is the best way to download pictures from Facebook. It’s fast, easy, and gives you the ability to archive your own content whenever you want. Let me show you how.
If you want to download an entire album from your Facebook profile, here’s what you need to do. First, go to your Facebook profile and click on the “Photos” section, just like we showed you before for individual photos. However, this time, instead of choosing “Your Photos,” you should select “Albums.” Once you do that, a list of all your albums will appear, including ones that were created automatically like Videos, Profile Pictures, and others. Now, you need to locate the specific album you want to download. To help you with that, the number of photos in each album is displayed at the bottom of each one. Once you have found the desired album, click on it to open it and proceed with the download.
So, here’s what you need to do to download your albums and photos on Facebook. First, when you’re looking at your own albums and the photos inside them, find the settings cog icon up in the top-right corner of your album. Give it a tap.
Next, a little message will pop up on your screen from Facebook, saying that it’ll take a few minutes to process your photos before you can download your album. Just click “Continue” to move forward. Depending on how big your album is, you might have to wait a bit for your files to be ready.
Once everything is good to go, you’ll get a notification in the bottom-left corner of your screen. You’ll be given a .zip file with all your photos. Remember, you have to unzip the file to actually use your photos. No worries though – both MacOS and Windows 10 can handle uncompressing files without any extra software.
If you’re using a Mac, simply double-click on your folder to get an uncompressed version. For Windows 10, right-click on the folder and choose “Extract All.” And that’s it! You’re ready to access your newly-downloaded files.
Hey there! Let’s talk about those images you upload to Facebook. You know, the ones that always look a little different than the original? Well, that’s because Facebook compresses them. What does that mean? It means that when you upload an image, Facebook automatically makes it smaller and reduces its quality to save space.
So, what does this compression mean for you? Unfortunately, once your images have been compressed, there’s no way to get the original, uncompressed versions back from Facebook. You’re stuck with the smaller, slightly lower-quality versions that you uploaded. That’s just how it works.
So, next time you’re uploading images to Facebook, keep in mind that they will be compressed. It’s just a part of the process. But hey, at least it saves space, right?
Hey there! So, here’s the deal: if you want to download albums from Facebook on your mobile phone, things get a little tricky. See, it’s not as simple as just tapping a button on the Facebook app. Nope, you’ll have to go through a couple of extra steps.
If you’re using a desktop computer or laptop, you can download albums easily. Just visit the desktop version of Facebook and you’ll find the option to download albums. But when it comes to smartphones, it’s a different story.
The reason for this is that iPhones can’t unzip compressed files, and Android phones usually need an additional app to do so. It’s a way for Facebook to make sure the experience is simple and consistent for everyone.
Android app to the rescue!
Alright, let’s talk about using an Android app to download your Facebook photos. Now, I gotta be honest with you, some of these apps aren’t as great as the official Facebook app. But still, it’s worth exploring what’s available on the Play Store. Just keep in mind that any download app you use will require you to log into your Facebook account. And remember, after using the app, change your Facebook password to keep things secure.
Hey there! I’ve got a great suggestion for you – check out this awesome app called Photos Downloader for Facebook. With this app, you can easily download multiple photos all at once. It’s super convenient, whether you want to grab a few images, entire albums, or even your entire album in one go.
Now, I gotta be honest with you. The app hasn’t received an update in over a year, so it might be a little outdated. And let’s talk about the interface – it’s not the greatest, I have to admit. It could definitely use some improvement. And just to give you the full scoop, the app crashed on our test device twice while we were trying to download photos. Not the smoothest experience, for sure.
But hey, don’t discount it just yet! Despite its flaws, the app has actually received some decent review scores. So, while it may not be mind-blowingly amazing, it’s still worth giving a shot if you’re in need of a photos downloader for Facebook.
When it comes to downloading multiple images at once, the app really shines. After reading through user reviews, the main issue I came across was some minor bugs and the inability to download photos from other users. If you’re looking to export your Facebook photos and you don’t have access to the desktop site, Facebook Photo Saver is one of the best solutions out there.
Download Facebook photos using a Chrome extension
If you don’t have an Android phone or you’re not downloading photos on your phone, one of the methods we recommend is using DownAlbum. It’s a fantastic Chrome extension that allows you to quickly and easily export your Facebook photos without any confusion or wasted time. Keep in mind that you’ll need to be using the Chrome web browser to take advantage of this extension. However, if you’re already using Google’s browser on your Mac or Windows PC, you’ll have no problem using this handy tool.
So, let me tell you about DownAlbum: it’s a handy tool that works with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Ask.fm, Pinterest, and more. Basically, it helps you gather all your images from these different social media apps. Once you install it, using DownAlbum is a breeze. It’ll sit in your browser’s taskbar and light up whenever you visit a page where it can download images from. That way, you can easily grab your photos. Just make sure you load the album or albums you want to download with DownAlbum. If you only load Facebook’s homepage, you’ll get an error when you try to use the app.
Once you’ve opened up an album, just click on the web extension in your toolbar. There are a bunch of choices here, and honestly, the app can be a bit tricky to figure out. Most people will probably just want to use the “Normal” export option, but if you want to save your captions or choose specific images, there are tools for that too. DownAlbum offers a series of tutorials that are linked on their own page in the Chrome Web Store, and if you’re curious about how those other options work, we definitely suggest checking out those links. But for now, let’s stick with the “Normal” option we mentioned earlier—it’s the simplest way for most people to download their albums.
When you choose the settings to export your content, a screen will appear that shows a loading bar while your album is being prepared. You might have to click “Continue” when prompted. After a short wait, your download will open in a new tab in DownAlbum, not in Facebook. You will see all the images, along with comments and captions if you chose to include them. You can open and preview the images, view your photos, change file names, merge folders, and turn tags on and off. When you’re ready to save your photos from this page, press Ctrl+S on Windows or Cmd+S on Mac to save the page.
Even though you’ll be prompted to save the page as an HTML file, you will actually receive two separate files when you download your content: one is a proper HTML link that loads the page with your photos, and the other is a folder in your Downloads that contains each individual photo. You can use this add-on as many times as you want to download your content, and it’s completely free to use. It’s a fantastic tool to have, especially because it supports other social sites as well.
Use Facebook’s “Export Info” Option
This might seem like a last resort, especially since exporting your data from Facebook doesn’t only include your photos and videos, but also all your personal information, all in one folder. However, if you need to gather all the images and video clips you’ve uploaded to Facebook, this is the easiest way to get everything at once.
Facebook created the “Export Info” option for users who want to download all their Facebook data, such as posts, comments, photos, videos, and even information about the ads that have targeted them. The “Export Info” feature allows you to specify what information you want to export and what information you don’t need.
Not surprisingly, Facebook doesn’t make this option very obvious to most users since downloading full albums or individual images is usually enough. Nevertheless, this is the best way to download every photo at once. Let’s take a look at Facebook’s export options.
To get started with exporting your Facebook information, head over to the desktop version of Facebook. Once you’re there, look for a small triangle-shaped menu button in the upper-right corner of your screen. Give it a tap, and then select “Settings” from the menu that appears.
When the Settings page loads, you’ll see a lot of different options. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but don’t worry. Just ignore all of that and click on “Your Facebook information” and then “Download your information.” This will take you to a page that shows everything that will be included in your download.
Now, when it comes to choosing what information you want to export from Facebook, you have a lot of options. Here are some of the main categories of data that you can export:
- Your Facebook “About me” section
- People you’ve identified as family members in your profile
- The Facebook Groups you’ve joined
- Every IP address you’ve used to log in to Facebook
- Any credit cards you’ve used to make purchases through Facebook
- The places you’ve checked into on Facebook
- Your privacy settings
- Facebook Pages you manage
- Topics that you were targeted with for ads based on your interests
As you can see, there’s a huge range of information that you can export from Facebook. So, if you want more than just your photos, I recommend using Facebook’s Export Info tool. Here’s how you can do it on your desktop or laptop computer:
- Click on the “Settings” option in Facebook
- Choose “Your Facebook Information”
- Select “Download Your Information”
- Click on “View”
- Check or uncheck the boxes for the categories of information you want to include or exclude from your export
- Choose the format, photo and video quality, and other options for your download
- Click on “Create File”
Wow, there’s a ton of data here! And that’s not even including your photos and videos. If you’ve been using Facebook since it became available to non-college users in 2006, you could have over ten years’ worth of data to go through. That’s a whole lot to handle!
If you decide to go ahead with this, you’ll be asked to enter your password for security purposes. Once that’s done, your archive will start being gathered. Don’t worry though, you can choose to exclude anything you don’t want to download. So if you only want your pictures, you can simply deselect everything else.
Once your folder is prepared, you’ll receive a notification letting you know that your content is ready to be downloaded. But hold on, this is going to be a big file. Even though it’s been compressed, it’s still going to take some time to download. So be patient and get ready to wait.
Oh, and one more thing to remember: you can only do this on a laptop or desktop computer, not on your phone or tablet. It may not be the most ideal method for getting access to and copies of all your photos and videos on the platform. The data export includes a bunch of extra, unnecessary information for your photos. But if you want to download absolutely everything from your account, this is the quickest way to do it. Just keep that in mind.
Once you’ve exported your images from Facebook, you have the freedom to do whatever you want with your .jpeg files. From creating collages to making quick edits in Photoshop, from engaging in art projects to giving framed gifts, the possibilities are endless. It’s all up to you.
If you’re searching for an alternative platform to store your photos in the cloud, one that isn’t as social as Facebook, Google’s Photos service is highly recommended. It has gained popularity and critical acclaim for its exceptional image quality and wide range of features. Additionally, Dropbox and Flickr are excellent cloud services that offer options for both photos and videos, with or without social features. So, whether you’re only interested in downloading a single image or you’re considering leaving Facebook for good, the options mentioned above are guaranteed to meet your needs.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you might also find our guide on How to Search for People on Facebook Without Signing Up interesting.
Do you have any suggestions on the best way to download your photos from Facebook? If so, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
