Meta to purge Facebook of live stream recordings – now they will be deleted after 30 days

Meta✴ has made changes to how Facebook✴ stores users’ live broadcasts — they will now be deleted after 30 days. Starting February 19, users who go live will have to upload the video to prevent it from being deleted after 30 days.

Image source: Christin Hume/unsplash.com

Users will be able to share recordings on their Reels profile, but they must comply with the 90-second limit of this section of the Instagram social network✴.

Meta✴ explained the changes by saying that “the majority of live stream views occur within the first few weeks of a live broadcast” and a desire to “align our retention policies with industry standards and ensure that we provide the most relevant live streams to all Facebook users✴.”

All previously recorded live broadcasts that are more than 30 days old will also reportedly be deleted. Users will be notified via email and in-app before the archive is permanently deleted. Once notified, they will have 90 days to download or move the video. Old recordings of broadcasts are expected to be deleted in “waves” over several months.

Facebook✴ also offered users several tools to download videos, either individually or all at once. Once notified, users can request a bulk download of all videos posted on specified dates, or transfer them directly to a cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive.