Facebook’s photo and video porting tool was launched in December 2019, and it was only available for the users in Ireland to port their media directly to Google Photos. It rolled out for global users in June 2020. Now, Facebook has added two more third-party cloud storage providers, Dropbox and Koofr to this portability tool. So, now the users will be able to port their media through encrypted transfer to Google Photos, Dropbox, and Koofr.
Apart from these three options, Facebook says that it is looking out to add more partnerships for users all over the world, however, it is not known which other services Facebook is looking into.
This media portability tool is based on a code that was developed when Facebook participated in the Data Transfer Project. This project was a collaboration that involved several tech companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter, etc.
To access this portability tool, users have to go and tap into the ‘Your Facebook Information’ menu. From the options, they have to select ‘Transfer a copy of your photos and videos’, and they will be prompted by Facebook to re-enter their password before transferring begins. Once that is done, Facebook will ask them to choose the destination service for their media out of the three options, Google Photos, Dropbox, and Koofr. Once they choose their service, they will be asked to enter their password again for that third-part service, and this is how the media portability through encrypted transfer will happen. Once the transfer is complete, the users will receive an email and a notification on Facebook.
This feature works for Facebook on desktop versions and Facebook on mobile apps. This feature was hinted on by a Facebook spokesperson a month ago. Facebook says that it is working on expanding the scope of this portability tool, and just like it works well for media, Facebook is looking into ways to integrate direct transfers of more content formats in the future, like events, forwarded posts that the users’ deem meaningful and want to keep them safe and secure in a cloud storage service. However, these are the directions that Facebook will bring in the future. For now, it is only providing the portability of photos and videos uploaded to Facebook.
Also, whether Facebook will extend this portability tool to the media on Instagram or not is still not known.
While Google Photos and Dropbox are huge names, Koofr is a smaller European based cloud storage provider.
Read next: Facebook Is Reportedly Paying Users To Deactivate Their Facebook And Instagram Accounts Ahead Of The Election
Apart from these three options, Facebook says that it is looking out to add more partnerships for users all over the world, however, it is not known which other services Facebook is looking into.
This media portability tool is based on a code that was developed when Facebook participated in the Data Transfer Project. This project was a collaboration that involved several tech companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter, etc.
To access this portability tool, users have to go and tap into the ‘Your Facebook Information’ menu. From the options, they have to select ‘Transfer a copy of your photos and videos’, and they will be prompted by Facebook to re-enter their password before transferring begins. Once that is done, Facebook will ask them to choose the destination service for their media out of the three options, Google Photos, Dropbox, and Koofr. Once they choose their service, they will be asked to enter their password again for that third-part service, and this is how the media portability through encrypted transfer will happen. Once the transfer is complete, the users will receive an email and a notification on Facebook.
This feature works for Facebook on desktop versions and Facebook on mobile apps. This feature was hinted on by a Facebook spokesperson a month ago. Facebook says that it is working on expanding the scope of this portability tool, and just like it works well for media, Facebook is looking into ways to integrate direct transfers of more content formats in the future, like events, forwarded posts that the users’ deem meaningful and want to keep them safe and secure in a cloud storage service. However, these are the directions that Facebook will bring in the future. For now, it is only providing the portability of photos and videos uploaded to Facebook.
Also, whether Facebook will extend this portability tool to the media on Instagram or not is still not known.
While Google Photos and Dropbox are huge names, Koofr is a smaller European based cloud storage provider.
Read next: Facebook Is Reportedly Paying Users To Deactivate Their Facebook And Instagram Accounts Ahead Of The Election
