Facebook is about to mass delete a lot of old live streams

Facebook will start deleting users’ live broadcast recordings after 30 days starting on February 19th. Users who go live after that date must download the videos to save them from getting deleted before their 30-day expiration period ends. Alternatively, you could share the recordings to your profile as Reels, although that means fitting clips into that format’s 90-second time limit.

Meta says it’s making the change because “most live video views occur within the first few weeks of broadcasting” and to “align our storage policies with industry standards and help ensure we are providing the most up-to-date live video experiences for everyone on Facebook.”

All previously recorded live videos that are older than 30 days will also be removed. However, there will be email and app notifications that go out before your archive is completely deleted. Once you get the notice, you’ll have 90 days to download or transfer the videos. Facebook plans to delete old broadcast recordings in waves over the coming months.

Facebook also has several download tools to help you save your videos, either individually or all at once. Once you get the notification, you can request a bulk download of all your videos within a custom date range. You could also choose to transfer the videos directly to a cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive.

You can save individual videos that matter to you by going to your Activity Log, filtering for “Your live videos,” and then selecting the dates to see the videos you can download. Alternatively, you can go to the Videos tab or Live tab on your profile, Page, or in Meta Business Suite, select the video you’d like, play it in fullscreen, then choose download video from the three-dot menu.

Finally, if you don’t have time to execute any of these, there will also be a postpone request option, giving you six months to save your videos. Do that by opening the notification, tapping “learn more,” and then selecting “postpone.”