Facebook is making it easier to export your photos and media off the site

Facebook
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Facebook users will be able to move their data off the site easier than ever before thanks to a new partnership signed by the social media giant.

The company has announced a deal with storage experts Dropbox that will allow users to send data via encrypted transfers - meaning you can now export all the photos and videos you had saved on Facebook.

The service is live now, and will also be available to users of similar storage platform Koofr.

Facebook photos

Users who have signed up to the service can import their Facebook photos and videos directly into Dropbox with just a few clicks. 

You'll need to connect Facebook to your Dropbox account, by going to the ‘Your Facebook Information’ menu and select ‘Transfer a copy of your photos and videos’. 

Once this is confirmed and you've re-entered your password, the files will transfer over in the background. The photos will be stored in a new “Photo Transfer” folder in your Dropbox folder, grouped by album and ready for you to organize.

Dropbox says that due to its own security protection policies, you'll have control over exactly who can see your photos and videos, which will be set private by default, although you can tweak this setting to share them with anyone, a few select people, or keep them private.

"We’re excited to partner with Facebook on a data portability tool that gives users the ability to import their Facebook photos and videos into Dropbox with just a few clicks," said Jamie Perlman, VP of Business Development at Dropbox.

"People no longer accept being locked into one service or product, and want the freedom to use the tools they love. We’ll continue to look for ways to seamlessly integrate with best-in-breed products so that we can serve as the connective platform for all of today’s leading productivity tools and devices.”

Facebook has offered users the opportunity to access and download the data they have shared with the site since 2010 via its Download Your Information tool. In 2018, the site signed up to the Data Transfer Project alongside fellow tech giants Apple, Google, Microsoft and Twitter in order to build a single, uniform way for users to access and transfer their data across these services.

In December 2019, Facebook showed off the first landmark in this project, unveiling a way for users in Ireland, where it has its EU HQ, the opportunity to export media to Google Photos.

Via TechCrunch

Mike Moore
Deputy Editor, TechRadar Pro

Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.