Your Facebook Data File: How to Download It and Read It
Dan Saltman9 min read
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To their credit, Facebook will give you a copy of almost everything it keeps on your account for free, and it'll come to you as a ZIP file. What it doesn't give you is a way to read the file. The export is hundreds of raw data files with names like logged_information, and a decade of Messenger chats arrives as thousands of text files with the newest message at the top. They're JSON files, so there's a lot of weirdo text symbols and stuff that looks like gibberish.
That's what the reader app recommendations further down this post are for. Four free ones turn the export into message counts, searchable notes, a timeline or a set of charts, and none of them uploads your file. They're ranked below by how well they protect your privacy. Here's how to request the file so those apps can read it, which app to use for what, and where the privacy answers sit for the questions the apps don't cover.
First, How to Request Your Facebook Data
Facebook calls the tool Export your information. Here's the way in on a computer.
- Click your profile picture in the top right.
- Click Settings & privacy.
- Click Settings.
- Click Meta Account. Yours may still say Accounts Center, since Meta is renaming it gradually.
- Click Your information and permissions.
- Click Export your information.
- Click Create export.
- Pick your Facebook profile, then choose Export to device.
- Set the format to JSON, the one every app below reads. The table below covers the other options.
- Click Start export, and enter your password when Facebook asks.
In the Facebook app, tap Menu in the top left and start from step 2. The app adds a Next button before step 8. Meta's own shortcut skips the menus.
| Setting | What it changes | Pick this for the apps below |
|---|---|---|
| Information | Everything, or only the sections you tick. Data logs, the fine-grained record of things you've viewed and clicked, only come if you choose Customize information and add them | Everything. Leave data logs for a second export, since they can take up to 15 days |
| Date range | How far back the export reaches | The widest range it offers. A timeline of the last month isn't much of a timeline |
| Format | HTML is a set of pages you click through in a browser. JSON is raw data built for other programs | JSON. It's the format the apps take, and each export comes in one format only |
| Media quality | How big your photos and videos come out | The lowest, unless this export is also your photo backup. High-quality video is what makes these files huge |
| Notification email | Where the "it's ready" email goes | An inbox you'll check in the next few days |
Download It Within Four Days
Meta says most exports are ready within a few hours (data logs, if you added them, arrive separately and can take up to 15 days).
You'll get an email and a Facebook notification, and the file then waits under Available downloads in the same Export your information tool, for 4 days only. Miss the window and you're requesting a new one.
Save it to your computer, because that's where the reader apps run. A big account can arrive as a whole batch of ZIP files, and some of them hold nothing but the photos and videos from your chats, so unzip every one of them into the same folder before you point an app at it.
The Apps That Make Your Facebook Export Readable
Your export holds your phone number, your contacts, your login history and years of private messages, so what matters most about a reader app is where that data goes. Nothing below uploads it. We read through each app's code, where it's published, and scored everything else it does out of five. Five stars means it never goes online. A star comes off for each outside company it talks to, and for code nobody can check. Where two apps tie, the easier one ranks first.
| # | App | Privacy | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Counter For Messenger | Never goes online | Counts messages for every chat and person, over any date range you pick | Seeing who you really talk to |
| 2 | Jimmy | Never goes online | Turns your posts and one-to-one chats into Markdown notes, one per conversation, from a command line | A searchable archive in Obsidian or Joplin |
| 3 | Timelinize | Its map loads from Mapbox, which sees the places you view | Puts your posts, photos, check-ins and chats on one timeline, with a map and a gallery | Your whole Facebook history in one view |
| 4 | Excel | Closed source. Keep the file off OneDrive | Opens any one file as rows you can sort and filter, through Data > Get Data > From File > From JSON | The small files in the next section |
| 5 | FBMessage Explorer | Sends your clicks to Google Analytics, and a web page can change on any visit | Charts who you message, when and how much, right in your browser | A quick look with nothing to install |
The Small Files Worth Opening Yourself
The apps handle the big, unreadable parts of the export. The sharpest privacy answers sit in small files that open in any spreadsheet or text editor, and no app goes looking for them.
| The question | Open this | What you'll see |
|---|---|---|
| Has anyone else been in my account? | security_and_login_information/account_activity.json | Every login and logout, with its date, IP address and browser |
| What does Facebook think I'm into? | logged_information/other_logged_information/ads_interests.json | The topics Meta files you under for ad targeting |
| Which companies gave Meta my details? | ads_information/advertisers_using_your_activity_or_information.json | Advertisers who sent Meta a customer list with your email or phone number on it |
| Which businesses report my visits? | apps_and_websites_off_of_facebook/your_activity_off_meta_technologies.json | One entry per shop, app or site that told Meta what you did there |
| What have I searched for? | logged_information/search/your_search_history.json | Every search you've typed into Facebook, with a timestamp |
| Who did I drop, and who turned me down? | connections/friends/removed_friends.json | The people you unfriended, each with a date. Sent and rejected requests sit beside it |
| Did I ever upload my phone's contacts? | personal_information/other_personal_information/contacts_uploaded_from_your_phone.json | Names and numbers from your address book, if contact syncing was ever on |
| What have I logged into with Facebook? | apps_and_websites_off_of_facebook/connected_apps_and_websites.json | Every app and site you've signed into with your account, including the forgotten ones |
Three of those are worth doing something about.
- A device you don't recognize. Sign it out under Password and security > Where you're logged in.
- Advertisers holding your details. Tell them to stop in Meta's audience-based advertising setting.
- Off-Meta activity. Keep this file, because Meta said in June 2026 that the setting for disconnecting it is going away.
Two things are never in the export, by Meta's own account. Anything you deleted, and anything someone else posted, including their photos you're tagged in.
Facebook isn't the only one. The Instagram, Snapchat and Discord exports each have a guide of their own.
Facebook Data Download FAQ
Which app should I start with?
Counter For Messenger if you're on Windows. It tops the privacy ranking because nothing in it ever goes online, and it's an ordinary app rather than a command-line tool. On a Mac or Linux, Timelinize gives you the most for an evening's setup, with your posts, photos and chats on one timeline, as long as you don't mind its map loading from Mapbox.
How long does it take to download your Facebook data?
Meta says most exports are ready in a few hours. Data logs are the slow part, at up to 15 days, and they arrive as a separate export. Once a file's ready you have 4 days to download it.
Does requesting my data change anything on my account?
No. It's a copy, and nothing comes off your account when you make one.
Why are some of my Messenger chats missing?
Chats that switched to end-to-end encryption aren't in the main export. You'll find the part of each one from before the switch in the e2ee_cutover folder, and the rest comes through Messenger's own download of your message storage, which only works on a computer. FBMessage Explorer and Counter For Messenger both read that second download alongside the first.
Can I get back posts or messages I deleted?
No. Meta says deleted content comes off its servers as well, so the export can't include it, and no app can show you what isn't there.
Is it safe to upload my Facebook data to an analyzer site?
Think twice. The export holds your messages, your contacts, every place you've logged in from and years of your activity. The four apps above get the same answers without that file ever leaving your hands.
