Have you ever thought about the volatility of the storage of your digital memories? I mean, what if your current storage method failed? That would be tragic! Sadly, I have to admit I’ve gotten lax in this myself over the years. I mean I used to print my pics off in big batches a few times a year. Then it became less and less often. And now its been a few years since I’ve printed any batches at all.
One thing I have done though is keep a couple of digital copies of everything. You know, a copy on my computer, with one or two additional copies on a second computer, external storage device, or a thumb drive. While having physical pictures are nice, a digital copy is just as valuable.
Ultimately, copying documents and pictures is pretty simple. And, I venture to say, that most of us are familiar with copy and pasting a file from one folder to a folder on another device. And then there are considerations to be made for things we have shared on social media sites.
In this post I’ll cover making copies of your most valued digital memories. As per the social media backups, I’ll cover Facebook because it seems to be the most popular. But, I will also include links to a couple of other popular sites to back up your precious memories.
Let’s get started saving those memories!
Saving a copy of your Facebook data
- On a computer, login to your Facebook profile.
- Click the “down arrow” in the top right corner of Facebook.
- Select Settings & Privacy, then click Settings.
- In the left column, click Your Facebook Information.
- Next to Download Your Information, click View.
- To add or remove categories of data from your request, click the boxes on the right side of Facebook per your preferences.
- Select other options, including:
- The format of your download request, HTML or JSON.
- HTML: An easy to view format of your data on Facebook. You’ll receive a ZIP file that, once opened and extracted, will contain an HTML file named index that you can open like a web page on your web browser. The ZIP file will contain folders with files, including any images and videos you’ve requested.
- JSON: A machine readable format of your data that could allow you to transfer your information more easily when uploading it to another service.
- The quality of photos, videos and other media.
- If you choose a higher quality version of your media, your download will be larger and take up more space.
- A specific date range of information.
- If you don’t select a date range, you’ll request all the information for the categories you’ve selected.
- The format of your download request, HTML or JSON.
- Click Create File to confirm the download request. (This simply “creates” a file that you will be able to download at a later time.)
- After you’ve made a download request, it will appear as Pending in the Available Copies section of the Download Your Information tool. (It may take several days for Facebook to finish preparing your download request.)
- Once your download request is completed, Facebook will send a notification letting you know it’s ready.
- (The last time I did this, the process took about 30 minutes. Consensus among friends was consistent on the timing. I think the longest I’ve heard was an hour. But, with the current state of things online, there may be more people requesting their info. Which could possibly increase this timeframe. So, definitely give Facebook plenty of time to complete the task.)
Once the File is ready, you will need to download a copy of the data you requested.
- Go to the Available Copies section of the Download Your Information tool.
- Click Download, enter your password, and follow the instructions.
- Your file should now be downloading.
- You can also click Show more to view information about your download request to see additional information such as the format and when it will expire.
- Once the download is complete you’re done!
Saving files from other social media platforms
They’re all pretty much the same process as Facebook. So, once you’ve done one, then the rest shouldn’t be much of an issue. Here are links to recovering your data from the next two most popular social media sites.
Now that you have all this data, make sure you make an extra copy of those memories. You know, just in case anything may happen to your first copy. (You’re Welcome.)
You can also use the following process to create extra copies of anything important to you. I keep an extra copy of all pics, videos, letters, documents, and other things I’ve created on the computer. Yes, I’ve had computers crash and the data become non-recoverable, even by a computer geek. I’ve learned the hard way. Hence, my passion for having multiple copies of everything I save. Therefore I always advise others to do the same. So, here is how to make backups of all your files.
Copying from one folder to another for multiple backups.
- Have the device with the files you want copied ready.
- Decide on the location/device where you want to create the copied docs/pics.
- Connect the two devices via USB or Bluetooth. (If one is not a computer, you will need to connect both devices to a computer.)
- Make note of the drive you are going to copy “from” and “to”. (C:/, D:/, etc)
- On new backup drive location, right click, then select “New”, then select “Folder”.
- Name the Folder. Then double click it to open it. (You are now ready to “drop” or “paste” pics and docs to this folder.)
- Now, in a separate File window, go to the Folder location of the files you want to copy. (Phone, computer, flash drive, etc.) (You should now have TWO file location windows opened on your computer.)(Tip! Minimize and position both windows so they can be viewed side by side concurrently.)
- Once both folders are open, you can simply highlight a few items in the “from” folder.
- On the mouse, right click and select “COPY”.
- Now move the cursor to the “to” folder, right click and select “PASTE”.
- The files will appear in the new folder. (You should now have the items in both folders.)
- Done! (Repeat the copy/paste functions until all your desired files are duplicated.)
Additional Tips and Tricks…
- If you want to completely remove the items from the original folder, simply use the “CUT” option, then paste. This will leave you with only one copy, located in the new folder. This is handy when you need to clear up space on your phone, computer, or storage device.
- An alternative to “copy and paste” is the “drag and drop” function. Simply highlight the desired items. Place cursor over the highlighted item. Click the Left mouse button and HOLD. While “holding” the “left click” simply drag/move the cursor to the new file location, then release it. Done! Your items should now be duplicated in the new folder.
- TIP! The more items selected at a time, the longer the copying will take. Therefore, I recommend copying small batches of items more frequently. Plus, this will give you more break points in the process in the event you have to stop the task and finish it at a later time.
That’s it! Hopefully, I’ve helped you preserve your memories. And you can now enjoy them any time you’d like, without concern of them disappearing from the internet in the blink of an eye.
And now that this task is taken care of, you can get out there and create more memories!
Go on! Enjoy Life!!!
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