Facebook Introduces New Policy for Storing Live Videos, Reduces Retention to 30 Days

Meta-owned social media platform Facebook has made a significant change to its policy regarding the storage of live videos. From now on, Facebook will store live videos for only 30 days, after which they will be automatically deleted from the platform.

In a blog post, Facebook announced that live videos will now only be stored for 30 days, as opposed to the previous indefinite retention period. This new policy took effect on Wednesday (yesterday). As part of this change, any live videos older than 30 days will be removed from the platform. Users will be notified before their videos are deleted and will have 90 days to decide what to do with their older live content.

Users will have the option to download their videos to their devices, transfer them to cloud storage, or convert them into new reels. Facebook has also introduced new download tools to help users keep their old live videos. The users can select “Download Live Videos” from the notification about videos that will be deleted, and they can choose to transfer the videos to linked cloud storage services such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

If users need more time to download their videos, they can choose to delay deletion for up to six months. After this period, if no action is taken, the old live videos will be permanently deleted, and users will no longer have access to them.

Facebook stated that the changes are aimed at aligning its storage policy with industry standards and ensuring a fresh and updated live video experience for all users.

As for other social media platforms, Twitch, a major competitor to Facebook, stores past broadcasts for 60 days for Prime streamers and 14 days for regular streamers. YouTube, on the other hand, converts live streams into regular videos and stores them indefinitely.