Tips on managing and recovering your facebook message and chat history

In the UK, 20 percent of divorce filings include the
word "Facebook." You may think you're being slick by
using the site to chat with your ex, but the problem
is that Facebook saves everything, and I mean
everything. All someone needs is your login
information and they have access to everything
you've ever said on Facebook, public or private.
On the flip side, many people have years of their lives
stored in conversations and photos on their accounts.
So, what happens if you accidentally delete a
message that you really wanted to save, or want to
delete a message that you don't want popping back
up later?
Here are some of your options for managing your
messages and chat history.
Deleting Messages and Chat History
If you're worried about having a record of some of
your more sensitive conversations, you can easily
delete them from Facebook. Just log in to your
account and go to the Messages icon.
Both regular messages and chat messages are stored
here. Just select a thread you'd like to edit and
mouse over to the gear icon labeled Actions. Click
on it and a drop-down menu will appear.
If you're looking to hide a message or thread from
your page, but not get rid of it completely, just
Archive it. Archiving removes the items from your
messages, but they can still be accessed at anytime.
If you want that message gone for good, you can
delete the entire conversation (all messages within
the thread) or just a particular message. You will be
warned that any deletion will remove the message
from this realm and the next.
On Facebook's mobile app, the process is more or
less the same. If you have the most recent version,
your messages and chats will come in the form of
Chat Heads. If you click on a Chat Head, it will bring
you into the standard messaging screen, but you
can't delete a message from within a Chat Head
conversation.
Next to your Chat Heads is the standard messages
icon (a square dialog box with a mini lightning bolt
inside). Click on this icon to see a list of all your
conversations and chats. All you have to do is select
a message or thread and slide your finger to either
side. You'll be given the option to Archive or Delete
the conversation.
If you're using the Facebook Messenger application,
the process is nearly identical. The only differences is
in the Messenger app, you must slide to the right to
bring up the Archive and Delete options. Sliding to
the left reveals the chat list and settings.
Recovering Deleted Messages
So, can you recover a deleted message or
conversation from your inbox or chat history? The
simple answer is no. Facebook makes it pretty clear.
If you're trying to hack your way into retrieving your
chat history, it ain't gonna happen. After so much
pushback from users scared of their information
being available forever, Facebook implemented the
new settings that make it very easy to delete your
content—forever.
But, not all hope is lost.
Check Your Archives
Before doing anything else, check your archived
messages and make sure the conversation you're
looking for isn't there. You may think clicking on the
'X' next to a message would delete it, but it doesn't—
it just removes it from your inbox and sends it to
your archive. So, unless you're absolutely certain you
hit delete, check there first in case it's just hidden.
You can find archived messages by typing the other
participant's name or some keywords from the
conversation into the search box.
To view your entire archive, under Messages click
on More, then choose Archived from the drop-down
menu.
Friend Request
If you did manage to delete an important message or
thread from your account, the other person(s)
involved in the conversation will still have access to
it. While they can't send you the thread via Facebook,
they can copy and paste the conversation into a
Word document or take a few screen grabs and get it
to you that way.
Save Your History
To prevent losing messages in the future, there are a
few extensions that can help store your history off-
site. For Firefox users, there's an add-on called FB
Chat History Manager. It lets you to save and
export your chat history so you never have to worry
about losing it on Facebook.