A local, privacy-first tool to extract, archive, and beautifully browse all your Facebook Saved posts — including text, images, comments, reactions, and more. Runs entirely on your own machine. No data ever leaves your computer.
This application is built strictly for local usage (localhost / 127.0.0.1). * No Authentication: The backend endpoints do not require a login username or password.
- Network Risk: Do NOT host or deploy this application publicly on the open web (such as AWS, Heroku, Render, or an exposed home server ip) without adding an authentication layer. Doing so would allow anyone on the internet to trigger scraper tasks, upload files, or view/wipe your data.
| Dashboard | Viewer (Dark Mode) |
|---|---|
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| Post Card with Images | Stats Panel |
|---|---|
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- Features
- How It Works
- System Requirements
- Installation
- Finding Your Firefox Profile Path
- Usage
- Offline Export
- Project Structure
- Known Limitations
- Privacy & Security
- Troubleshooting
- Contributing
- Support the Project
- License
- Disclaimer
- 🔐 No password required — borrows your existing Firefox login session by reading your local browser cookies
- 📥 Bulk DYI import — upload your Facebook "Download Your Information" JSON export to import thousands of saved post URLs at once
- 🖼️ Full image extraction — follows photo album links to collect all images, not just the first 5 shown in the collage
- 💬 Comments & replies — extracts up to 50 top-level comments with nested reply threads
- 🌐 RTL language support — right-to-left scripts (Hebrew, Farsi, Urdu, and others) are fully supported with correct text direction and alignment
- 🌙 Beautiful dark/light viewer — Facebook-style post cards with image lightbox, pagination, and smooth transitions
- 🏷️ Tags & collections — auto-tagged from your Facebook collections, fully editable per post
- ⭐ Favorites — star any post to find it quickly later
- 🗑️ Recycle bin — soft delete with restore; permanently delete when you're ready
- 📊 Statistics — top authors, tag cloud, collection breakdown
- 📷 Screenshot — save any post as a PNG image
- 📦 Offline export — generate a single self-contained HTML file with all posts and images embedded (no internet or server needed)
- 🔍 Search & filter — search by text or author, filter by collection, tag, favorites, or unavailable posts
- ♻️ Safe resume — if interrupted, the scraper picks up exactly where it left off on the next run
- You provide the path to your Firefox profile folder on your computer
- The tool reads your Facebook login cookies from that profile (it never asks for or stores your password)
- A headless (invisible) Firefox browser opens and visits each saved post URL using your existing login session
- Post content (text, images, comments, author, date) is extracted and saved to a local JSON file
- You browse your saved posts in the built-in viewer at any time
- Secure Local Session Copying: To simulate a logged-in browser without asking for or storing your actual Facebook email or password, the scraper safely queries your local Firefox browser database (
cookies.sqlite) for authorizedfacebook.comcookies. This process happens entirely locally on your own machine.
| Component | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 10 / macOS 10.15 / Linux |
| Python | 3.10 or higher |
| Firefox | Any recent version, logged into Facebook |
| RAM | 4 GB (8 GB recommended for large libraries) |
| Disk Space | Depends on image count (~1–5 MB per post with images) |
| Internet | Required during extraction only |
Performance note: The scraper takes approximately 1–3 minutes per post due to image collection and comment loading. For a library of 5,000 posts, expect multiple overnight runs. The tool saves progress after every post so you can stop and resume safely.
- Go to python.org/downloads
- Download the latest Python 3.x installer for your operating system
- Windows users: On the installer's first screen, tick the box that says "Add Python to PATH" before clicking Install
- Complete the installation
To verify it worked, open a terminal and type:
python3 --versionYou should see something like Python 3.11.4.
Option A (easier): Click the green Code button at the top of this page → Download ZIP → extract the folder anywhere on your computer
Option B (if you know Git):
git clone https://github.com/Rainy-Window/fbsave.git
cd fbsaveWindows: Open the extracted folder → click the address bar at
the top → type cmd → press Enter
macOS: Right-click the folder → "New Terminal at Folder"
Linux: Right-click inside the folder → "Open Terminal Here"
pip install -r requirements.txtWait for it to finish. You should see a success message at the end.
playwright install firefoxThis downloads a version of Firefox that Playwright uses for automation. It does not affect your regular Firefox installation.
python3 app.pyYou should see:
Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000
Open your browser and go to: http://127.0.0.1:5000
The tool needs the path to your Firefox profile folder so it can read your Facebook login cookies.
- Open Firefox
- In the address bar type
about:profilesand press Enter - Find the profile that says "This is the profile in use"
- Copy the path shown next to Root Directory
(looks like
C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default-release)
- Open Firefox → type
about:profilesin the address bar - Copy the Root Directory path
(looks like
/Users/YourName/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default-release)
- Open Firefox → type
about:profilesin the address bar - Copy the Root Directory path
(looks like
/home/yourname/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default-release)
⚠️ Make sure Facebook is open and you are logged in in that Firefox profile before starting extraction.
This is the best method if you have hundreds or thousands of saved posts.
Step 1 — Request your Facebook data
- Go to Facebook → click your profile picture → Settings & Privacy → Settings
- In the left sidebar click Your Facebook Information
- Click Download Your Information
- Click Select types of information
- Deselect everything, then tick only Saved items and collections
- Set Format to JSON
- Set Date range to All time
- Click Request a download
- Facebook will email you when the file is ready (can take minutes to hours)
Step 2 — Import into FBSave
- Download and extract the ZIP Facebook sends you
- Look inside for
your_saved_items.jsonand/orcollections.json - Open the FBSave dashboard at http://127.0.0.1:5000
- Paste your Firefox profile path into the Firefox Profile Path box
- Click Select File(s) and upload one or both JSON files
- Click Start DYI Extraction
For extracting a few specific posts:
- Copy the URL of a Facebook post you saved
- Open the dashboard at http://127.0.0.1:5000
- Paste URLs into the text box (one per line)
- Click Start Manual Extraction
The dashboard shows a live progress bar. The scraper saves each post as it goes, so it is safe to close the browser tab — extraction continues in the background. Refresh the page to check progress.
Click Open Beautiful Viewer on the dashboard. Your posts appear as cards with images, comments, tags, and more.
Viewer features:
- 🔍 Search bar — search by post text or author name
- 📁 Collection filters — filter by your Facebook collections
- 🏷️ Tag filters — filter by any tag
- ⭐ Favorites filter
⚠️ Unavailable filter — posts Facebook has since deleted or restricted- 📊 Stats button — see top authors, tags, and collection breakdown
- 🌙 Dark/light mode toggle
To generate a self-contained HTML file with all posts and images embedded (works without internet or running the server):
python3 export_viewer.pyThis creates a file named fb_export_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.html in the
project folder. Open it in any browser. Share it or archive it.
Note: Large libraries with many images will produce large files. A library of 1,000 image-heavy posts may produce a 500MB+ HTML file.
fbsave/
├── app.py # Flask web server and all API routes
├── scraper.py # Playwright scraper engine
├── export_viewer.py # Offline single-file HTML export tool
├── reset_data.py # Utility to wipe all extracted data
├── requirements.txt # Python dependencies
├── templates/
│ └── index.html # Extraction dashboard UI
├── static/
│ ├── viewer.html # Post viewer interface
│ └── images/ # Downloaded post images (auto-created)
├── data/ # Your extracted data (auto-created)
│ ├── results.json # All scraped posts
│ ├── recycle_bin.json # Soft-deleted posts
│ └── config.json # Saved Firefox profile path
├── uploads/ # Temporary DYI file uploads (auto-cleared)
└── screenshots/ # Screenshots for this README
These are known issues that exist in the current version. Contributions to fix any of them are very welcome.
| Issue | Details |
|---|---|
| Relative timestamps in comments | Some comment timestamps appear as "6y" or "2w" instead of the full date |
| Reactions bar shows raw text | On some posts the reactions label shows redundant text like "See who reacted to this" |
| ~5% of comments not captured | Comments using non-standard Facebook HTML anchors are missed |
| Inconsistent reactions count | The reactions number is missing on some post types |
| Relative post dates | Some post dates show as "2 hours ago" instead of an absolute date |
| Non-member group posts | For Facebook groups you haven't joined, the author name is captured but their profile link is not available |
| Video posts limited | Video thumbnails are captured but the video itself is not downloaded |
| Memory usage on long runs | Firefox uses increasing memory over time; the scraper automatically restarts the browser every 75 posts to mitigate this |
| Offline export file size | Exporting thousands of image-heavy posts produces very large HTML files |
| Old posts missing group link | Posts scraped before v1.1 will not have a clickable group name link (rescrape to fix) |
- ✅ Runs 100% locally — no data is ever sent to any external server
- ✅ No credentials stored — reads Firefox cookies only, never your password
- ✅ Local-only web interface — only accepts connections from
127.0.0.1 - ✅ No tracking, no analytics, no telemetry of any kind
- ✅ Your data stays yours — everything lives in the
data/folder on your own machine
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| "Facebook session expired" | Make sure you are logged into Facebook in the Firefox profile you entered |
| Script stops mid-run | Safe to restart — it automatically resumes where it stopped |
| Images not loading in viewer | Check that static/images/ exists and contains .jpg/.png files |
| Profile path not accepted | Open about:profiles in Firefox and copy the Root Directory path exactly |
pip command not found |
Try pip3 instead, or reinstall Python with "Add to PATH" ticked |
playwright install fails |
Try running the terminal as Administrator (Windows) or with sudo (Linux/macOS) |
| Port 5000 already in use | Another app is using port 5000 — change the last line in app.py to use port 5001 |
| Viewer shows "No data found" | Extraction has not run yet, or data/results.json is empty |
Contributions are what make open source great. All skill levels welcome.
- 🐛 Report bugs — open an Issue describing what went wrong
- 💡 Suggest features — open an Issue with the label
enhancement - 🔧 Submit a fix — fork the repo, make your change, open a Pull Request
- 📖 Improve docs — spotted something unclear? Fix it and PR
- 🌍 Test on your setup — report whether it works on your OS/Facebook region
These are known problems that would benefit from a fix:
- Fix relative timestamps in comment text (strip "6y", "2w" prefixes)
- Improve reactions extraction consistency across post types
- Add a progress percentage to the offline export script
- Support downloading video thumbnails at higher resolution
- Add a "copy post text" button to the viewer card
- Click Fork at the top of this page
- Make your changes
- Open a Pull Request back to this repo with a clear description of what you changed and why
FBSave is free and open source. If it saved you time or helped you archive something important, consider supporting its development.
Every contribution — large or small — helps keep the project maintained and improved.
| Platform | Link |
|---|---|
| 🎁 Patreon | patreon.com/RainyWindow |
- ⭐ Star this repository — it helps others find the project
- 🔀 Share it — tell others who might find it useful
- 🐛 Report bugs — detailed bug reports are genuinely valuable
- 💬 Leave feedback — open an Issue and tell me what you think
This project is licensed under the MIT License.
You are free to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose as long as you include the original license notice. See LICENSE for the full text.
This tool is provided for educational and personal archiving purposes only.
- You may only use this tool on your own Facebook account and your own saved posts
- Automated tools may violate Facebook's Terms of Service — use at your own responsibility
- The authors are not responsible for any account restrictions, suspensions, or other consequences
- Do not use this tool to scrape other people's data or any content you do not personally own
- Facebook's website structure changes regularly — some features may break without notice
Made with ❤️ — if this tool helped you, consider giving it a ⭐