How to Save Your Social Media Data

by Sherri Mastrangelo, 31 December 2024

As you switch from X (formerly Twitter) to BlueSky or Threads, you may wish to download a history of your posts and conversations. And with the possible TikTok ban looming in the U.S., you may be aware that your content and saved video collections may not be available much longer. Whether you move on from a social media platform first, or the platform itself ghosts you - its probably a good idea to back up your valuable media every now and then.

All icons and logos are copyright of their respective companies.

Skip ahead to learn how to backup: TikTok / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Snapchat / X (Twitter)

Social media is a record of your personal life, events, thoughts, and connections. As an elder millennial, my early social media was AOL chatrooms and instant messenger, followed by LiveJournal (which is still up, surprisingly!) and Myspace, then the early days of Facebook. These days I mostly doom scroll TikTok and Instagram, post cute photos of my kids on my small family Facebook group, and follow friends on Threads. But I also use social media for genealogy! When not self-promoting Start Researching or reaching out to contacts, I also look utilize Facebook groups to help with genealogy research, such as the Abruzzo and Molise (Italy) Genealogy Group, or one of my personal groups of extended relatives that we use to share pictures of family members and ancestors. And think about how amazing it is - or would be - to find one of your ancestor’s diaries! Future generations may look back on social media the same way, with hopes of finding your profiles.

Here’s why you should save your media:

  • Your images, videos, and content are valuable to you! While you may look back and cringe at old photos or captions, you may also cherish those memories.

  • Content you have saved, not just created, is also valuable to you (do you also have a million recipes saved on TikTok like I do?).

  • Your personal contacts and connections are important to you. You like social media for the reason it was intended, to stay in touch or follow the lives of your friends and family, and want to stay in touch.

  • You value other content creators and have grown attached to them (even if you do not personally interact with them) and wish to follow them on another platform.

  • You can’t trust the platform to be reliable:

  • Your own profile or page could be hacked or deleted without warning. You may also be subject to an account suspension or deactivation.

  • The platform may have an outage or lose data without warning (like when Myspace lost all of my photos).

  • The platform may shutdown, with or without warning.

So what does “saving” look like? The majority of social media platforms have an option to export your data as an archival zip file from your account settings, but this may not include everything you want to save. For example, in Instagram and Facebook this may not include any photos that belong to other people, including photos you are tagged in. Another option is to save each image or video individually. Be sure to download high-res if possible. You can also take screenshots or image captures, especially if you want to capture the comments on a photo together with the image. Saving also looks like downloading your contacts so you can reach out to them or find them on another platform.

What about the WayBack Machine?

Above: How “thefacebook” looked on February 12th, 2004, according to a backup from The Wayback Machine.

The WBM does not work for pages that were never indexed, or for most social media platforms that require a login. You’ll most likely be able to find the main login screen, which is still fun to look at!

Can you use the Wayback Machine to back up your information now? If you have a public blog or website, absolutely give it a try by pasting the link to your site in the “Save Page Now” feature. Give it a try with any of your public social media, but keep in mind it will not work for anything private that requires a login to view. Having just tried this again with Facebook, I can confirm it will not work and just saves a login screen. Another note: the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine is also subject to outages, as we recently had. If it works, be sure to use a secondary backup form as well.

You may also try your hand at ArchiveWeb.page to back up your sites.

There also cloud services that run automatic backups of certain social media sites for a subscription fee, but be sure to check they cover the platforms you need before purchasing.

What can you do with this all this information and media you have backed up?

  • You may be able to transfer some of your data, including your contacts, to a new platform.

  • Store backups in your computer, or however you choose to organize your photos and videos.

  • Create a photo book as a way to showcase your images.

  • If you run a business, you may want to keep the data for legal archives or records.


Note - when you request a download from these platforms below, It may take a day or two (sometimes up to a month!) to process the request before you receive notification that your download is ready. Then the link is usually only good for 4 days so proceed as soon as possible.

TikTok

With TikTok, follow the steps to download your data below, but also be sure to save your videos - either individually or in bulk with a tool.

Your data download can include your account info, your direct messages, your posts on TikTok, your follower information and accounts you follow, and your activity. Within the app:

  1. Profile > Settings and Privacy > Account > Download your data

  2. Select data to download. If you chose “All data” you will get more information than “custom”.

  3. Select file type.

  4. Request download.

  5. When your download is ready, access it from the second tab, and download.

As you are likely doing this from your phone app, you will want to download it to your phone’s files. I prefer to then email it to then save off my phone.

You can also download videos individually, by “saving video” to your phone, which will keep the TikTok watermark. If you wish to save without the watermark, use a tool like SnapTik.

For batch downloading, there are other tools you can try from browser extensions to apps (EaseUS Video Downloader may work, though I have not tested). There is also a recipe organizer called ReciMe that allows you to import tiktok video recipes, though I believe it just scrapes the recipe itself.

Keep in mind these tools are not likely to work on private accounts you follow. TikTok’s terms of service also say not to download copyrighted content without permission, but the important thing is not to share or reupload the content you download from others.

Instagram

  1. Settings > Account Center > Your information and permissions > Download your information

  2. Choose accounts and profiles

  3. Choose all or some information

  4. Download to device (choose date range, email, format, and media quality) or transfer to destination (Google Drive, Dropbox).

If you are doing this from your phone, find the download and email to yourself or upload to a secondary storage, like Google Drive (preferably more than one location as backup).

This data download will not include photos you are tagged in, nor will it include other people’s photos.

While you can save to your collections within Instagram, this does not save to your camera roll. The only real option to save photos is to take screenshots of images you wish to save.

Third-party tools like SaveInsta or Toolzu may be helpful, but use at your own risk.

Facebook

Note that mobile devices might differ from web, and that Facebook is often moving this navigation and link menu around.


1. Menu > Settings > Account Center > Your information and permissions > Download your information

2. Download information > Facebook > Available information (or Specific types) > Download to device (choose date range, email, format, and media quality) > Create files


Again, your download will not include any photos you are tagged in, or other people’s photos. You might also be missing captions, or text you included with photo albums. I also recommend saving video files directly from Facebook, as their video archive playback is a little wonky.

Don’t forget to save information directly from any of your groups, or any of your friends photos you wish to save.

YouTube

You can use YouTube Studio to download videos that you have uploaded to YouTube, or Google Takeout.

This does not work to download other people’s YouTube videos. You can watch them offline with a premium membership, or try third-party tools to download videos (with permission).

If your account is suspended, you cannot download your own data.

Looking for a deleted video? Try the Wayback Machine or on reddit, ask in r/DHExchange

See also: yt-dlp on github

Snapchat

  1. My Data > Select data, email address, date range, and submit

Snapchat’s export service works best on a computer, rather than a mobile device, as it can be a big file.

Snapchat also has features like Memories and Smart-Backup, which you should ensure are enabled. You can also save individual snaps and stories by downloading to your phone.

Snapchat does not include chats in their archiving service, but have been known to send chat archives through support requests.


X (formerly Twitter)

  1. Profile > Settings and privacy > Your Account > Download an archive of your data > Download archive > Download

You may have to sign in again with your password at the download stage.

People have had the most success backing up thousands of their “tweets” with various third-party apps (Circleboom, Tweet Binder) or chrome extensions (TwExportly). Note that some, like Tweet Binder, have a cost.


As a bonus, here’s how friendster’s login page looked on June 1, 2005, more than 24 years ago:

Screenshot from the Wayback Machine.



New blog post series: "Surname Searches"

25 May, 2024 (Updated 11 July, 2024) by Sherri Mastrangelo

There’s a new blog post series on Start Researching, called “Surname Search”. Each post will feature a quick study of one surname at a time, providing links to resources available related to these surnames - found mostly online, but all available for free.

The goals for these posts include: providing a singular location for researchers to connect with those interested in the same surnames; sharing resources that may be difficult to find; highlighting resources available to all; and preserving aging and decaying internet websites for future researchers.

Currently there are twenty-two surnames studied:

  1. Allen / Allan

  2. Anderson

  3. Brown

  4. Clark

  5. Davis

  6. Evans

  7. Gentry

  8. Haggard

  9. Hall

  10. Hodge / Hodges

  11. Johnson

  12. Jones

  13. Kavanagh / Cavanagh

  14. Miller

  15. Moore

  16. Robinson

  17. Sharp

  18. Smith

  19. Taylor

  20. Upham

  21. Warren

  22. Wilson

Our goal is to hit 100 by the end of summer!

The categories of these resource links are as follows:

  • Related surnames or alternate spellings

  • Notable ancestors

  • Genealogy websites

  • Message boards

  • Social media groups & societies

  • Photographs

  • Local historical or genealogical society web clippings

  • Online news clippings or blog posts

  • Artifacts

  • Correspondence & letters

  • Homes & historical markers

  • Oral histories

  • Books (online & in print)

A few categories, like Books (online & in print), may refer to a work that is not available online, with the hopes you are able to find the material in other ways, like at your local library or used book store.

Also, the internet can be a fickle place. Occasionally links may reference sites that are no longer active, such as a family genealogy blog on rootsweb, and may instead include an archived link from the Wayback Machine. As I find these resources I archive them on the WBM as well, helping to preserve these resources for as long as the WBM is active. However, items found on auction sites like eBay may disappear when the listing is sold or removed.

Resource links are provided as a stepping stone to your own individual research, and are not vetted for accuracy or authenticity.

Please also remember that there are many individuals throughout time that share the same name, and possibly the same birth year or other attributes, and it is up to you to determine whether or not it is actually your ancestor. Not every ‘Jane Doe’ is your ‘Jane Doe’.


What these posts are NOT:

  • No individual database records. No census records, vital records, newspaper records, etc. or links to such, from sites such as Ancestry.com or Findmypast.org.

  • No links behind pay walls or anything that requires membership (other than an occasional registration with sites like FamilySearch.org to read an online book, for example).

  • No references to living individuals, to the best of our knowledge, for privacy.

  • No uploads of your research, family trees, or files (we will link to a public website of your work, however).

  • No research done within the blog post.

  • No database of surnames to search at this time.


These posts will also be updated in real time when new information is available.

Which surnames should be featured next?

The cat that didn't belong - could you tell these historical photos were edited?

24 March 2024, by Sherri Mastrangelo

A local historical association member has been adding a picture of their adorable cat to the historical photos they post on Facebook, as the official Palo Alto Historical Association, without any mention that the photos have been edited. Did anyone notice? And should we care?

Palo Alto, California, established 1894, is located south of San Francisco, on the bay area peninsula. It is the self-declared “birthplace of Silicon Valley”, as the founding location of many well-known tech companies, and is home to Stanford University. On their homepage, pahistory.org, the Palo Alto Historical Association says “Our mission is to collect, preserve and make available to the public information about the history of Palo Alto.” Their Facebook page has 1.4k followers.

Recently, when browsing Facebook, I noticed something odd about their images….

At first glance, would you think this cat was original to this photo?

Honestly, I didn’t think anything was strange about the above photo of the feline in the pharmacy, until I saw a few of the other “historical” photographs - like the well-dressed kitty in the below image:

This one made my six-year old laugh. A joke to be sure - but at the time of the event, or when it was posted here?

As you can see, these images are part of a Facebook post. Does the post mention anything about the cat? Well, yes and no.

1929?

In this example to the right, the Facebook post describes the images in the post. With regards to the photo shown above, the post mentions “a cat in an off-the-rack, untailored suit, 1929…”

Obviously this is meant as a bit of humor. When reached for a comment, the poster, who stated he is a board member of the Palo Alto Historical Association, replied that “Adding my cat to selected photos is a fun pastime that I hope draws viewers in to explore what the photo represents to our local (Palo Alto) history.”

He also says “I've placed my cat Kiara in photos for a year now since adopting her from a rescue.”

It’s unclear if those in the group are even aware of the adorable additions, aside from one or two comments about noticing a cat in the image. What do you think?

If historical photographs are edited in any way, should that be disclosed to the audience? Even if it’s meant to be amusing?

Furthermore, how can we as researchers trust any historical images we find online these days? And what counts as a reputable source?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’ve included a few more photos of Kiara the time-traveling cat below. These images can also be accessed on the Facebook page of the Palo Alto Historical Association.

Matching hats of the time.

The cat appears in the doorway in the center of the image above.

Kiara, not afraid of heights.

At first glance I didn’t see her in this one…

The sepia-toned cat going for a ride.

Share your thoughts below.

Reader Question: What does "do7" mean on this record from 1749?

27 January 2024 (updated 28 Jan), by Sherri Mastrangelo

Today’s reader question is: “What does “do7” mean on this record from 1749?”

In this book of U.S. Dutch Reformed Church Records from Albany, New York (as found on Ancestry.com, linked below) from the mid 18th century, there are pages of baptism records. There are three handwritten columns per page. The first column has the infant’s name, and a date. The second has the parent’s names, and the third has the names of the witnesses.

In place of some of the surnames is an abbreviation that appears to be “dol” with the “o” character raised superscript and the last character perhaps a number “7”, or the letter “I”, or letter “L”, as seen in the examples below:

The example above is from the “U.S. Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639 - 1989” on Ancestry. under New York, Albany, Albany Vol. II, Book 2.

It appears that this abbreviation is replacing some surnames, but not all - only the surnames that are the same as the person above has the abbreviation. I think it is safe to assume that this abbreviation, whether it is do7, doI, or doL, means some form of “ditto”, or same as above.

Can we take it further? We’ve seen “do” as an abbreviation for “ditto” in the past, but not usually with any extra letters or numbers.

We know these are based on Dutch records, and a quick google translator search tells us “ditto” in Dutch is “Idem Ditto”, meaning the same. Therefore I believe the abbreviation is of “doI” meaning “idem ditto”, or this person has the same surname as the person above.

Looking back a few years, the earliest example of the use of this abbreviation seems to be in 1725 (page 238 of Albany, Vol 1.) though the records seem to jump from 1700 to 1725. While the records of 1700 continue in Volume II, page 82, they are written after the 1740s records so it makes me question the time frame when they were actually written down. The 1700s recorded in the second volume may have been copied from an earlier record, but actually written in the book in the 1740s.

POST UPDATE Jan 28: A comment brought up a great point - this is a collection of transcribed records by “The Holland Society of America”, which you can see if scroll to the beginning of the collection with the book cover image and interior stamp. I don’t see a creation date, but a quick search for The Holland Society of America tells me they were created in 1885 and most likely added the ditto at the time of transcribing sometime after that date. We’d have to look at the original records to be sure.

Of course all this sent me down the rabbit hole on the origins of the phrase “idem ditto” as well as the use of “ditto”. It seems “idem” is a Latin word, though “ditto” is Italian (Tuscan) based on an earlier Latin word, and the phrase “idem ditto” is specifically Dutch. The latin verb “dicere” (to say) became “dire” in Italian , conjugated as “detto”, which then became “ditto” in Tuscan dialect, when referencing the same month as written before.

Early uses of “ditto” in English writing include:

In fact, I found it even earlier than 1625 - which I’ll post in a follow-up to this!

What’s the earliest written example of “ditto” or “idem ditto” you’ve found? Might these Dutch records from New York be the first example in the US?

Have you seen this use of “doI” or “idem ditto” on records elsewhere? Share with us!

Sources and Further Reading:

How to do a "Binary Search": Applying Computer Science Algorithms to Genealogy Research

6 January 2024 by Sherri Mastrangelo

Let’s take the ideas and concepts from certain computer science algorithms, break them down into simpler terms to understand them better, and learn how we can apply them to our genealogy research. No tech skills or coding required! In fact, you may already utilize some of these methods without even recognizing them.

The first algorithm we’ll discuss is called a “Binary Search”.

A binary search reduces the search to half at each step, to save time. Think of it as “divide and conquer”.

If you’ve ever tried to go to a certain page number in a book, say you are looking for page 343, you may have implemented a form of binary search by opening the book in the middle. You’re at page 201, so you know you need to go higher. Instead of turning the pages one by one, you estimate another chunk of pages and now you’re at 356, so you need to go lower. This is basically the concept behind a binary search. You would continue dividing the sections into smaller and smaller results until you find the target page.

Instead of working in a linear pattern, i.e. starting at the beginning of a list and reading the values all the way through the end, a binary search would start in the middle and either ascend or descend the list depending on if the resulting value is greater or less than the target value, repeatedly dividing each new search area, until it either finds the target or determines it is not there. Of course there is more to it when it comes to the writing the formulas to make the algorithm work, and the computer algorithm may be more precise in terms of dividing each resulting search array in half while you have roughly estimated, but I think this explains the general concept we need to implement.

It’s important to note that a binary search will only work with an ordered set of data, like an alphabetized list or a set of files organized chronologically. The list can be sorted ascending or descending, as long as its ordered. If the set of data is compiled randomly this method would not work successfully.

Image above generated with in part with AI tools.

Another example I’ve heard to describe binary search would be that of a detective watching security footage tapes (as pictured above), trying to figure out when a car was stolen overnight. This example might be a bit outdated with today’s technology but the same idea applies. Let’s say there is perfect high resolution video, aimed directly at the car, that disappeared sometime between when the owner parked it at 8 pm and when they noticed it was gone at 7 am. Instead of sitting down and watching eleven hours of video footage from start to finish, which would take all day, even sped up, the detective is going to implement a form of binary search. He will fast forward the video halfway to 1:30 am. If the car is still there, fast forward half of the remaining time to 4:45 am. If the car is no longer there, go back and divide the previous time between 1:30 am and 4:45 am, and so on until the target time is discovered. This method of searching would take significantly less time than watching hours of video footage!

So how can we apply the concept of binary search to our genealogy research?

The best case scenario for applying this method to genealogy research, would be when you have to look through records that are not indexed, or not transcribed correctly (but are still in some order - alphabetically, chronologically, or otherwise) and you need to narrow down your scope quickly.

Some examples of this and additional scenarios:

  1. A large set of record images in a database online, like FamilySearch, that is not indexed (therefore not searchable by name) where you need to find the year in order to narrow down the hunt for your record. I know it can seem overwhelming when you come across these huge image-only datasets to browse - but using the binary search method will help save a lot of time! First confirm there is an order within the collection - are the surnames alphabetical? Or is the information organized by date? Look at the first few pages to give you an idea, then skip ahead to half. Depending on what you need, either skip ahead by another half or backwards by half. Note your page numbers to remember where you have searched. Just be aware often these collections have other, smaller collections within them, and there is usually a small note on the microfilm image when a new section starts.

  2. An alphabetical City Directory where you need to find a certain surname. Maybe it’s a physical book in your hands, or a digital copy you found on Internet Archive or Google Books. You wouldn’t start with “A” and flip page by page if your surname started with an “R”, you’d skip ahead, and then back, as needed. And once you got to the “R’s” you would do the same for the full surname.

  3. You don’t have a date of death for your ancestor, but you know their address and can look them up in City Directories. You know she must have died sometime between the birth of her youngest child in 1931 and the 1940 Census, where her husband is widowed. Instead of looking at all the city directories in a linear fashion, 1932, 1933, 1934, and so on, you can start with 1936 (about halfway), and you’ve likely just cut your search time in half. If she’s alive, you only have 4 more years. If she’s not alive, you work backward - cutting each new search in half.

    Of course you could “get lucky” when searching in a linear fashion, if the information you needed was in first City Directory you checked, for example. This is just an example to illustrate the search method. And remember to check the printing date on City Directories to be precise.

Can you think of another case scenario where this might come in handy?

More computer science algorithms coming soon!

Sources & Further Reading