Your online social media content is not always secure and there are no guarantees that you will forever be granted access to any social networking account you manage. Many users face timeouts on Facebook for liking too many pages or trying to friend too many people. While they are periodically given this timeout from participating in specific activities, they should consider what would happen if they lost access to their Facebook account altogether.

There are reports on occasion where Facebook users are scrambling for answers to why they can’t see their photo albums or friend lists. Although this content usually comes back after an hour or a day or so, many have considered what would happen if it didn’t? Whether you use Facebook for personal use or to promote a business, you should consider periodically backing up your account to save important information that at this time only exists on Facebook.

Typically, the content that Facebook downloads includes:

Timeline data
- Contact info
- Interests
- Content and comments you post to your timeline
- Content and comments posted on your timeline by others

Uploaded content
- Photos
- Videos

Groups you’ve joined

Notes you’ve made

Events you’ve RSVP’d to

Sent and received messages

Friend List

Chat history

Check-ins

About info
- Name on your account
- Current City
- Date of Birth
- Education
- Favorite Quotes
- Gender
- Hometown
- Political Views
- Religious Views
- Work History

You cannot pick and choose which content gets selected for download. Whatever data Facebook has scheduled in the download feature at the time you use it, is what the account holder gets. Considering they didn’t have this feature for a while, it is a welcome feature no matter how it works if an account user can at the very least download their friends list.

To download your Facebook information, click on your account menu dropdown arrow in the upper right hand side of the Facebook page you are on and choose Account Settings. Select Download a copy of your Facebook data from the menu and click Start My Archive. Facebook discloses that over time they may store different types of data so depending on when you download your content, it is possible it might not be all the content you expect.

Take the necessary precautions to ensure you don’t lose your Facebook friends or business contacts and download your Facebook information today.