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BACK UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PHOTOS
Most people share their photos and videos directly to social media, but don’t have backups of all these memories. We show you how to download your own personal copies.
In a survey by Seagate and Harris Interactive, 72% of people consider their photos and videos as their most valuable digital assets, yet only 27% have them backed up to an external drive. And according to the Washington Post, Facebook is now the world’s largest repository of photos, but most Facebook users don’t keep copies of their photos anywhere else.
There are lots of reasons to have a backup of your photos. What if you want to print a copy or email a photo to someone, but don’t have immediate access to your social media account? What if you need to change or cancel an online account? Or you want to move your photos to a different website? Even forgetting a password might lock you out of accessing your own photos.
For most websites, it only takes a few steps to download a copy of your photos. Even if you are always taking a lot of pictures, you can quickly store backups on easy-to-use portable drives, like Ultra Touch. Then, no matter what happens with your web accounts, you’ll always have copies of your own photos.
To download all the photos you’ve ever posted on Facebook, you need to make an account archive:
You’ll be asked to verify your account and then the site will create a .ZIP file of all the photos and videos you’ve ever uploaded. While you can’t select individual items to download, the .ZIP file, when expanded, contains multiple folders of your posts, photos, and videos—all in the original size and quality that you uploaded them.
To download your Flickr photos and videos, follow the instructions they have laid out and you’ll receive a link to a .ZIP file with all your content ready to archive.
Instagram doesn’t offer an archive service, but there are third-party tools you can use to export and backup your Instagram photos.
In your SmugMug gallery, select Tools then Download All. That will start bundling your gallery into a .ZIP file. When it's ready, SmugMug will send you an email link to download your archive for your own backup. This file is good for two weeks.
If you really love taking photos and video, consider bigger backup storage like One Touch for your computer. With its small, portable size and supreme compatibility, you’ll have a drive ready to back up your photos as easily as you can take them.
