UKC

Another random question from me. I can find no real support on Facebook itself and so as usual in these times of need I refer to the best bunch of random minds on the internet.

I need to save an entire conversation from the chat/messenger section of Facebook. I know this would appear not to cause much of an issue, just copy and paste it into a doc or something and keep updating as the conversation goes on right? Wrong. The conversation is over a year long, quite long and so it will not copy and paste for some reason, even if I could select right back to the beginning which it sometimes struggles to.
To erase this conversation would be an absolute disaster and so I am hoping someone knows Facebook well enough to know how I can go about saving the conversation as a file and just copying that file onto a USB.
Just on a side note, does anyone know how long these conversations will be held on Facebook, how far back they will go

Thanks.

In reply to Dominicandave:

It'll be a ball ache, but if all else fails. A series of screenshots would work

In reply to Dominicandave:

I hate to seem like I'm suggesting the obvious...but could you copy and paste it bit by bit if it only sometimes struggles to go right back to the start of the conversation?

In reply to Timmd:

there are 10,000 messages.

In reply to Dominicandave:

You could cut and paste 100 a day?

In reply to Dominicandave:

Have you tried scrolling back to the start, highlighting a small section of text and then using the Ctrl+A key combination to select the whole thing before trying to copy and paste?

In reply to EddInaBox:

Yes, the Control + C selects everything on the entire page.

In reply to Dominicandave:

Have you considered recalibrating your definition of "disaster"?

Am very surprised that the conversation isn't just a file somewhere that holds that conversation and I can't just copy that into word of something. I've been trying for ages to do the copy and paste thing, and it is impossible to keep the place where you just finished highlighting. Besides that could take literally forever. Not much help on FB, am surprised.

In reply to Dominicandave:


Ha ha - funny guy.


There's a chrome extension that does this. Refer to:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-chat-downloader/kflkdhmi...

It works pretty well (for me anyway), and stores a conversation as an html file. Obviously you need to install the chrome browser (if you aren't already using it).

There's a similar firefox add on (called something like FB chat history manager) however it's pants and doesn't work. Just mentioning it so that you don't waste time.

WC

In reply to Dominicandave:

I guess it depends why you want to do it.

If it's just for the memories then take a video as you scroll through the conversation.

If you want your record of the conversation to carry any legal clout then I'm not sure what the answer is.

In the long term it's worth noting that Facebook chat is pretty poor for important correspondence where you need a record of what has been agreed.

In reply to timjones:

Or you could simply use the chrome extension that does exactly what the OP wants, as I suggested? Oh I don't know, I give up!

In reply to Dominicandave:

As another idea, once you've scrolled through the whole history, can you view the source of the page and get it from that? Can't test it for you, as don't have anything that long in my chat history.

CTRL+U in Firefox.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

No - wouldn't work, the messages are dynamically loaded into the DOM via Ajax, so you simply get the source of the initial page. The OP could simply use the extension to chrome I suggested that does exactly what is required. But as anything I submit to this website seems to be invisible to other users, I give up. You can solve your own IT problems. Just glad I didn't waste my time solving the other guys Ubuntu issues (for which he got a whole bunch of poor advice). Tired, and emotional. WC.

In reply to Willi Crater:

As I said, it depends what you want the record for. The OP hasn't revealed why he wants a record of the conversatio n.

If it's for any sort of legal dispute I can't see a random HTML file standing up to scrutiny.

In reply to Willi Crater:

Calm down I did read your response, but, as it relied on the OP already using or installing Chrome, I was trying to suggest an alternative, generic possibility.

I tried using Chrome once - it brought my laptop to it's knees and kept insisting on messing around with my proxy settings, so I went back to Firefox.

In reply to Willi Crater:

Stop posting blank spaces, it's very confusing.

Surprised no-one has mentioned the Archive feature. Somewhere in the bowels of the menus is an option to download your entire online activity - including all messages. Just do that, then cherrypick the message once it has downloaded.

In reply to Willi Crater:
''The OP could simply use the extension to chrome I suggested that does exactly what is required.''

----------TAKE NOTICE OF THIS ADVICE PEEPS!----------

Hope to help.

In reply to SenzuBean:

https://www.facebook.com/help/131112897028467/

No addons needed

In reply to Dominicandave:

There's a Chrome add-on that should do the trick: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-chat-downloader/kflkdhmi...

Surprised no one else posted it yet.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:


They have: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=631384&v=1#x8202604

In reply to Paul Phillips - UKC and UKH:


He knows!

In reply to Dominicandave:

I don't know if you've seen this; https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-chat-downloader/kflkdhmi...