Why Facebook stories disappear after 24 hours

A Facebook story is a full-screen photo or short video that sits in a row above the news feed and disappears 24 hours after it is posted. Friends, pages and groups use stories for things that feel too small or too temporary for a regular post: a coffee on a terrace, a sale that ends tonight, ten seconds from a concert.

The app has no save button for somebody else's story. You can react, reply or send it on to the author, and that is about all. When the day is over, the story is gone for everyone except the person who posted it. FDOWN fetches the video from a public story link while it is still live, so a copy ends up on your own device.

Downloading a story, step by step

The routine is the same on a phone and on a computer, and it takes under half a minute.

  1. Open the story you want. On a phone, tap the profile circle in the stories row and let the clip start playing.
  2. Copy its link. Tap the three dots on the story screen and look for Copy link. If your version of the app does not show that option, open the story in a browser instead and copy the address from the address bar, which contains the word stories.
  3. Paste the link into the field at the top of this page. The Paste button reads it from your clipboard if you allow that.
  4. Press Download, wait a couple of seconds and pick a file from the list.

Mind the clock. A story lives for 24 hours from the moment it was posted, so a link that worked at breakfast may be dead by dinner. If a story matters to you, save it the same day.

When a profile has several stories at once

People often post five or ten clips in a row. If your link leads to such a set, the page does not hand you only the first one. The stories are laid out in a slider with numbered thumbnails underneath. Swipe through them, check how long each clip runs and download just the ones you need. Every story has its own list of formats, so you can take the first in HD and the fourth as audio only.

Quality, size and sound

Stories are shot upright in a 9:16 frame, and Facebook keeps several copies of each clip at different sizes. FDOWN shows what it finds: usually an HD file and an SD one, sometimes a lighter version for weak connections, and an MP3 that holds only the sound.

HD is the sensible default. It fills a phone screen, and a short clip rarely goes past a few megabytes. SD makes sense when storage is tight or you are on mobile data. The MP3 is handy for a voice message or a bit of music you want without the picture. Nothing is re-encoded on our side, so the file keeps the quality Facebook stored.

Phones, tablets and computers

Everything happens in a browser tab, on any device with a current browser. On Android, Chrome, Firefox and Samsung Internet drop the file into Downloads, and the gallery picks it up shortly after. On an iPhone or iPad, use Safari with iOS 13 or newer: the file lands in the Files app, and from there you can move it to Photos. Windows, macOS and Linux are covered by any current browser.

Why people save stories

Some reasons come up again and again. A shop posts a discount code that is valid until midnight. A friend films the toast at a wedding and you would like to keep it. A trainer shares a workout set, a cook shares a quick recipe, and you want either one on your phone when you reach the gym or the kitchen. Now and then it is your own story that you need back, because the archive was never switched on.

Only public stories can be downloaded. When the author limits the audience to friends or a custom list, the link opens nothing, because FDOWN does not sign in to Facebook on your behalf. To check a story before you try, open its link in a private browser window. If it plays there, it is public.

A story still belongs to the person who made it, and it often shows other people in an ordinary moment of their day. Keeping a copy for yourself is generally accepted. Reposting it, cutting it into your own video or using it in an advertisement needs the author's permission. FDOWN does not host or store any files and only passes along what Facebook already serves. What you do with the download is up to you, as the Terms of Service spell out.