As of February 19, 2025, any new Facebook Live live videos will only be available for 30 days before being automatically deleted from the platform.

This is a dramatic departure from Facebook’s historical default of storing all content until a user chooses to delete it.

If you regularly livestream onto any Facebook property — Groups included — this change affects you! While Facebook’s announcement specifically mentions Profiles and Pages, all live videos are technically attached to either your Profile or Page — even those streamed directly into groups.

What This Means for Your Content

Here’s what you need to know:

• New live videos (streamed after February 19, 2025) will only be stored for 30 days
• Existing live videos (streamed before February 19, 2025) will be selected for deletion in waves.
• Facebook users will be notified by email and within the app when their live videos are due for deletion, with approximately 3 months to take action
• All live videos on the platform are affected. This includes those in Groups, since they’re attached to your profile or page

Facebook is likely making this change to clear server space, which is expensive for any company to maintain.

How to Download Your Facebook Live Videos

Fortunately, downloading your videos is fairly straightforward:

1. Go to your Facebook profile
2. Click on your profile picture
3. Navigate to “Activity Log”
4. Filter by “Live Videos”
5. For each video you want to save, click the three dots and select “Download”

The video will download to your device with an automatically generated filename (not the original title), so you may want to rename files as you save them to keep track of your content.

This method is preferred because every livestream video you’ve hosted will be included in your Activity Log, no matter where you streamed it to. Alternatively, you can download the videos you want directly from each Group, Profile and Page. But that process will take longer. 

You Activity Log will list all of your live videos, no matter where they were hosted.

What to Do With Your Downloaded Videos

Once you’ve downloaded your videos, you have several options:

• Upload them as pre-recorded videos on Facebook — There’s no guarantee how long these will be stored
• Convert shorter clips into Reels — Facebook seems to be encouraging this
• Host them on another platform like YouTube or Vimeo
• Store them in your own archives for future use

Your decision will be based on the role live video played in your overall Facebook and business strategy.

Stay Updated on Platform Changes

Social media platforms are constantly evolving their policies, especially regarding video content. If you’re regularly hosting live videos as part of your community building strategy, you’ll want to stay informed about these types of changes.

For more tips on building and maintaining thriving online communities despite platform changes, join my Facebook group, The Secret to Thriving Online Communities. We regularly discuss strategies for navigating platform changes while keeping your community engaged and growing.

Have you received notification about your live videos? What’s your plan for saving your content? Feel free to share your approach in the comments.