It isn't always easy to find what you're looking for on Facebook. Confusing menu items and poor search results hide some of the stuff worth looking at. Videos are one of the biggest victims. With that in mind, here's how to find videos on Facebook.
Video on Facebook is a confusing beast. There are live videos, videos you uploaded, videos you were tagged in, public videos, saved videos, old profile videos, and more.
Facebook being Facebook, there's not one central hub that lets you view all of this footage in a straightforward and logical manner. Depending on what type of video you want to find, there are a series of different steps you need to work through.
We're going to work through each type of Facebook video in turn, providing detailed instructions along the way.
At the start of 2019, Facebook unexpectedly killed its Facebook Live map feature.
We're not sure why. Sure, it wasn't going to win any design awards, but the map let you quickly find streamers from specific locales; it was a perfect way to see raw footage of developing news stories and public events.
Facebook Live videos have now been rolled up under Facebook Watch. In our opinion, Facebook Watch tries to be too many things at once, and that is to the detriment of Facebook Live videos.
Nonetheless, it is still possible to find Facebook Live videos. There are a few routes open to you:
To learn more about the specifics of the methods, read our article on how to watch Facebook Live.
If you've had your Facebook profile for several years, there's a good chance that you've amassed hundreds of videos on the platform.
Indeed, Facebook might have the only copy of some of your most treasured memories.
To find videos you have uploaded to Facebook, open your profile and go to Photos > Videos. Unless you were organized and categorized your videos into albums at the time, be prepared to get a sore scrolling finger.
Perhaps an easier option is to download all your videos from Facebook in one sitting. To do so, head to Settings > Your Facebook information > Download your information > View and ensure that the checkbox alongside Photos and Videos is marked. When you're ready, hit Create file.
If you ever watch a video---either from a person, page, or group---that you think you might want to re-watch at a later date, you can save it.
Saving a video on Facebook acts as a bookmark. It will not download the video onto your computer's hard drive. Instead, it places all your saved videos into a folder on your Facebook account.
If you want to find your saved videos on Facebook from the web app, follow the step-by-step instructions below:
Since mid-2016, Facebook users have been able to add a seven-second looping video to their profile. It displays at the top of your page, just like your profile picture.
You can see your old profile videos by going opening your Photos library, clicking on the Videos album, and scrolling through the entries. Sadly, there isn't a more accessible way that doesn't involve endless scrolling; the Photos > Videos approach is Facebook's official recommended method.
Note: You can only add profile videos from Android and iOS, and the feature is not available in all countries.
There are a couple of alternative ways to find public videos on Facebook.
We'll start with the most obvious approach. If you know the person, page, or group that uploaded the original video, just head straight to their profile.
If the video is recent, you will be able to find it by scrolling through the wall posts. However, if the content is a little older and has been buried by newer stuff on the wall, click on the Photos tab below the cover image and select the Videos album.
If you cannot find the video, one of two things has probably happened. Either a) the person or page has made the video private and you can no longer view it, orb) the person has moved the video into a new album.
There's not a simple button you can click to see all the videos you have ever been tagged in.
The easiest way is to find the videos is to use the Activity Log. Head to your profile and click on the Activity Log icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your cover photo.
From the Activity Log, select Photos and Videos in the left-hand panel.
By now, you're probably fed up of reading all the different steps to find Facebook videos. To alleviate some of the stress, remember you can use the Facebook search bar to help you locate the footage you want.
The search bar is "smart." It means you can type in terms such as "Videos I am tagged in," "Videos from my birthday," or "Videos from my holiday in Rome" and see the results.
The danger of using the search bar is that you might overlook the video you want due to the sheer scale of results on some search queries, but it's got to be better than trawling through endless menus.
Hopefully, you now understand all the different ways that you can find videos on Facebook. Let us know in the comments about any methods we overlooked.
And if you would like to learn more about using videos on Facebook, make sure you check out our articles on how to watch Facebook videos on your TV and how to download private Facebook videos.
Facebook is many things to many people but a video hosting website it is not. Videos seem to be quite disorganized on the social network. You can upload your own videos, watch videos you appear or are tagged in, watch videos for the sake of videos, promotional videos on Pages, profile videos and videos just because. How to you find specific videos on Facebook?
Where you might find a particular video depends on what kind of video it is and who uploaded it. If an individual loaded it then it could be anywhere. If a business uploaded it to a Page or supporting site, it will be more logically ordered.
Either way, organization has never been a strong suit at Facebook and this is a case in point.
There are a couple of ways to find videos in Facebook depending on what you’re looking for. The easiest way is to use search, either a search engine or through Facebook itself. You can also browse timelines if you have the time or just use the Video filter.
If you’re looking for random videos or something someone random has uploaded, search is the easiest way to find them. Facebook search is the logical place to begin.
This works best if you’re just looking for something to watch rather than a particular video. If you are looking for something specific, you could try to add as much information into the search field as possible and see what comes up.
You can also use a search engine to find Facebook videos. As Facebook video content is indexed by the search engines, you can use your favorite to locate it. You can use two specific operators, ‘SUBJECT video :Facebook’ to search only recent videos on the site or ‘SUBJECT video Facebook’ to widen the search a little. Just change SUBJECT for whatever it is you’re searching for.
Both search methods will get you what you want and the returns will be playable directly from the search engine.
Since the changes to Live, it has been more difficult to see what has been uploaded in your area. That was always a source of entertainment, seeing what the neighbors had been uploading. You can still see general uploads if you use the ‘#live’ search operator in Facebook search.
If you know the uploader or are looking for a video from a company or brand, your life is made a little easier.
All you need to do is navigate to the respective page and select the video tab or video from the left menu. This will show you a list or grid of their videos so you can watch as you need.
What if you already watched a really cool video and want to watch it again but cannot remember where you found it? There Facebook does have your back and makes it easy to see what you have been up to.
You will see a timeline page of everything you have done since starting Facebook. Scary huh?
There should be every page you visited, every photo you checked out and every video you watched. If you have watched something, it should be there. Depending on how much you use Facebook, that Activity log could be huge so there’s a search box at the top. Add ‘video’ to that and search to refine the log results only to videos.
If you’re trying to find a video you uploaded rather than someone else’s, you can. Just go to your own page, select Photos and scroll down to videos. Those listed in the grid will be those you uploaded yourself.
You can also select your Facebook profile and select More. Under there should be a Video entry. Select that to bring up your own videos.
Finally, there is a wider video search in Facebook that works quite well. Just type video into the Facebook search box and you get a bunch of options. They will be ‘videos by me’, ‘videos I watched recently’, ‘videos shared by me’ and so on. There should be several of these so you can choose the most relevant.
You can also refine that by adding another word. For example, use ‘video tag’ to access ‘videos tagged by me’ or ‘videos I’m in’. You get the idea. Change the second operator from tag to anything you like and have Facebook try to find it.
Facebook servers store a lot of media files. It is difficult to imagine such a volume of data - over 100 petabytes of photos and videos. However, Facebook search is clear and coherent, despite such a large amount of information.
To find the desired video. a few minutes is enough. However, the steps to take may differ. It all depends on the type of device you are using.
Contents:
If you log into your Facebook profile through a computer, the search bar will be located at the top left of the screen.
There are two ways to search for a desired clip: by title and by username.
Procedure:
The system will offer a list of possible matches.
The username provided is the person who posted this video.
To search, do the following:
The search bar, if you logged in through the smartphone app, is located on the top of the Facebook home page.
Procedure:
If you want to search for a video by knowing the username, then follow these steps:
It happens that the search is complicated if there are a lot of results.
To narrow your search, you can use the filters that are available on Facebook. So you can specify the request and spend less time searching.
When the system returns results for a query, a column will appear on the left showing the filters. If you use the mobile version, then the filters are located under the search bar in the form of a horizontal bar.
Types of filters:
If you correctly use these filters, you can easily find the desired video file.
Important : if you still can't find the video, then most likely the answer is simple. The author has restricted access to the video in the privacy settings or removed it from Facebook.
Everything you enter into the search box is stored in the search history. The system assigns the highest level of privacy to each request. That is, restricts viewing for other users. No one will be able to find out what you were looking for on Facebook.
There is also a way to remove queries from the search history. To do this, do the following:
There is also a way to remove a query directly from the query list.
To do this, click on the search bar. In the list that opens, find the required request and click on the cross in front of it.
If you delete a query while logged in from a computer, it will also no longer appear on the mobile version of Facebook.
It's not always easy to find what you're looking for on Facebook. Confusing menu items and poor search results obscure some things to watch out for. Videos are one of the biggest victims. With that in mind, here's how to find videos on Facebook.
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Facebook videos are a confusing beast. There are live videos, videos you've uploaded, videos you've been tagged in, public videos, saved videos, old profile videos, and more.
Facebook, being Facebook, doesn't have a centralized hub that allows you to view all these frames in a simple and logical way.
Depending on the type of video you want to find, there are a number of different steps you need to go through.
We will work on each type of Facebook video in turn, providing detailed instructions.
In early 2019, Facebook unexpectedly killed its Facebook Live map feature.
We are not sure why. Sure, it wasn't going to win any design awards, but the map allowed you to quickly find streamers from specific regions; it was the perfect way to see raw footage of news and public events.
Facebook Live videos are now minimized under Facebook Watch. In our opinion, Facebook Watch tries to be too many things at the same time, and this is detrimental to Facebook Live video.
However, you can still find live video on Facebook. Several routes are available to you:
To learn more about the specifics of the methods, read our article on how to watch Facebook Live
If you have had your Facebook profile for several years, there is a good chance that you have collected hundreds video on the platform. Indeed, Facebook may have a single copy of your most cherished memories.
To find the videos you have uploaded to Facebook, open your profile and go to " Photo»> «Video» . If you weren't organized and categorized your videos into albums at the time, be prepared to have a sore scrolling finger.
Perhaps an easier option is to download all of your Facebook videos in one sitting. To do this, go to Settings > Your Facebook Information > Upload Your Information > View and make sure the box next to Photos and Videos is checked. When you're ready, press Create file .
If you ever watch a video - from a person, page, or group - that you think you'll want to watch again later, you can save it.
Saving a video to Facebook acts like a bookmark. This will not download the video to your computer's hard drive. Instead, it puts all of your saved videos in a folder on your Facebook account.
If you want to find your Facebook saved videos from the web app, please follow the step by step below:
From mid-2016, Facebook users can add a seven-second video to their profile. It appears at the top of your page, just like your profile picture.
You can view your old profile videos by opening the photo library, clicking the videos album, and scrolling through the entries. Unfortunately, there is no more accessible way that does not involve infinite scrolling; approach « Photo" and "Video" is the official method recommended by Facebook.
You can only add profile videos from Android and iOS, and this feature is not available in all countries.
There are several alternative ways to find public videos on Facebook.
Let's start with the most obvious approach. If you know the person, page, or group that uploaded the original video, just go straight to their profile.
If the video is recent, you can find it by scrolling through the posts on the wall. However, if the content is a bit older and has been buried by new material on the wall, click the Photos tab below the cover image and select the Videos album.
If you can't find the video, one of two things may have happened. Either the person or page has made the video private and you can no longer view it, or b) the person has moved the video to a new album.
There's no simple button you can click to see all the videos you've ever been tagged in.
The easiest way to find videos is to use activity log . Go to your profile and click the Activity Log icon in the lower right corner of your photo.
In the activity log, select Photos and Videos in the left pane.
By now, you're probably tired of reading all the different steps to find a Facebook video. To relieve stress, remember that you can use the Facebook search bar to help you find the footage you need.
Smart search bar. This means you can enter terms like " Videos I'm tagged in", " Videos from my birthday " or " Videos from my holiday in Rome " and see the results.