Facebook Download in Several Zip Files: Where Are the Messages?
Reviewed by Jacob Reed, founder of Verity ·
When a Facebook download is large it arrives in pieces, and the pieces are not labeled by what is in them. People open the biggest zip, find thousands of photos and no messages, and conclude the download failed. It did not. The messages are a very small part of the whole, and they may all be sitting in one of the other files.
How to find the zip with the messages
1.Download every part
Get all the zip files Facebook lists for the request, not only the first. Each one repeats the same folder structure and holds a different share of the contents.
2.Look inside without unzipping
On Windows or a Mac you can double-click a zip to browse it. Open your_facebook_activity, then messages, then inbox, then any person’s folder.
3.Look for message_1.json
If the folder contains message_1.json (or message_1.html), this zip has that conversation’s text. If it contains only photos, videos or gifs folders, the text is in another zip.
4.Or unzip them all into one place
Unzip every part into the same folder and let them merge. The combined folder then has each conversation’s messages and media together.
What a split looks like
One download we examined was split into two zips, about 2.0 GB and 1.7 GB. Every one of its 186 message files was in the first. The second held more than 7,000 photos and a few hundred videos, in the same conversation folders, with no message text in it at all. Opened on its own, the second zip looks like a download with the messages missing.
There is no rule that the messages are always in the first file. Check each one.
Why it is split at all
Photos and videos are large and messages are small. In that download the message text for 185 conversations was about 15 MB, well under one percent of the total. A download with years of shared photos is big because of the photos, and a download that big is delivered in several files.
The same thing happens if you have Facebook send the download to Google Drive and then download the folder from Drive: Drive packs it into zips of about 2 GB each and names them with a number at the end.
Getting a smaller download next time
- Tick only Messages. Facebook offers dozens of categories and most people do not need the rest.
- Choose the JSON format.
- Set the media quality to low, which shrinks the photos and videos.
- Limit the date range to the period you need.
The full steps are in How to Export Messenger and Instagram DMs for Court.
Recent messages are in a different download
Even with every zip in hand, a conversation may stop earlier than it does in the app. Messenger’s end-to-end encrypted chats are kept in a separate download. See How to Download End-to-End Encrypted Messenger Chats.
Using the zips with Verity
You do not need to work out which zip is which. Select all of them at once and drop them on the upload box. Verity opens each one in your browser, ignores the ones that hold only media, and lists the conversations it finds. A zip of 2 GB opens in a couple of seconds because only the message files are read. To understand the folders yourself, see Facebook Download Your Information: Find One Conversation.
This is general information, not legal advice. Verity is not a law firm, and requirements for authenticating a digital record vary by court — talk to an attorney about what your case specifically needs.
Have the zips?
Drop them all together and pick the conversation. They are read in your browser and never leave your device.
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