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Show HN: Textile – Return Facebook photo exports back to nicely-named galleries
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- eddyg 9y agoThis is an open-source project, in case you don't feel like dropping your zip file in to your browser (even though it does run _in_ your browser): https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook
- sachleen 9y agoThat was the first thing I looked for. Cool that it runs in browser instead of uploading all of my data to their server.
- andrewxhill 9y agoIf you're into that, check out our core project, https://www.textile.photos/ https://www.textile.photos/. The idea is to give you control of all your data (starting with photos) doing backup not on our servers but on a decentralized service called IPFS, so you can maintain control and ownership of your data, always.
- gavino 9y agoThat link doesn't work for me, but this one does https://www.textile.photos/ https://www.textile.photos/ :)
- andrewxhill 9y agothanks! updated in comment too
- timb07 9y agoPlease also check your waitlist signup form processing -- I've tried it multiple times, but haven't received an email yet. (Yes, I've checked I've typed it correctly, and it's not in my junk folder.)
- carsonfarmer 9y agoWere you able to register timb07? If not, let me know and we'll tweak things on our end.
- timb07 9y agoI just tried again, but still no email. Don't your metrics on sign-up rate show a problem? Or is it just isolated to me somehow?
- andrewxhill 9y agoOh! Glad you commented about that, happy you found it though. Thanks.
- carsonfarmer 9y agoFor those wanting to run this locally: git clone https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook cd textile-facebook/ python -m http.server # Python 3.x, or python -m SimpleHTTPServer # Python 2.x
- teleclimber 9y agoJust to clarify: the python bit is to run a local webserver. You do not need python to run this project. If you're on the node/npm bandwagon, you may find it easier to use this: https://www.npmjs.com/package/http-server https://www.npmjs.com/package/http-server
- carsonfarmer 9y agoYes good point, I should have been more clear! Thanks for the clarification :)
- franciscop 9y agoAlternative if you feel extra paranoid: - Load the page - Disconnect from the internet - Drop your zip - Get your files - Clear all page info
- carsonfarmer 9y agoYup this will work. You can also check out the actual JS code to make sure we're not doing anything sneaky with your data: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/What_are_browser_developer_tools https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questi...
- tmwed 9y agoKeep in mind that, just because it's open source, and possibly hosted on github pages doesn't mean that the hosted copy is the same as the open-source. Referring to the IOTA seed generator hack that happened earlier this year. (https://thatoddmailbox.github.io/2018/01/28/iotaseed.html https://thatoddmailbox.github.io/2018/01/28/iotaseed.html) (not my site).
- carsonfarmer 9y agoYup, take a look at the page source to be as sure as you can :)
- carsonfarmer 9y agoWe made sure it wasn't uglyfied or minified, so folks who want can see what's up
- ucaetano 9y agoDoes it fix Facebook's removal of exif/metadata from images?
- andrewxhill 9y agoOh no! I saw that FB put the metadata into the html but didn't realize they ALSO removed them from the images. I'll look into what's possible!
- tantalor 9y agoYou can scrape it from the original photo page. I made an extension that does that: https://github.com/tantalor/fb-photo-meta https://github.com/tantalor/fb-photo-meta
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- michaelrkn 9y agoThere's also https://www.fbexporter.com/ https://www.fbexporter.com/, which uses the Facebook API to get the metadata and put it back in the EXIF data, but unfortunately it will only export photos you are tagged in, not all photos you've uploaded.
- mohsen1 9y agoI made one with EXIF https://github.com/mohsen1/fb-photo-fetch https://github.com/mohsen1/fb-photo-fetch
- djangowithme 9y agoAfter hearing people talk about finding very personal things in their archive like audio recordings, I tried downloading mine. I was almost disappointed to find that it essentially just outputted my public facebook profile. Nothing remotely unusual about the data, but i'm sure there's much more that they wont admit to or hand over.
- Symbiote 9y agoI wondered about that. Facebook know what I visit a site with an embedded tracker. This isn't in my data dump, but things like "interest in X" are. Do they really use the tracking to influence those scores, then throw away the data?
- crtasm 9y agoI'd assume they keep every ping from the tracker but simply class it as "their" data instead of "your" data.
- Symbiote 9y agoIf that were the case, then they are not complying with the existing European rules giving "data subjects" (me) the right to see data about them. They would be allowed to remove all identifying information from the ping, e.g. retain a date, approximate location and so on, but not an identifier than links to my account. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/principle-6-rights/subject-access-request/ https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protectio...
- djangowithme 9y agoBased on my archive and the fact that its the most strategic move, this seems to be the case.
- headsoup 9y agoThings like this are what might actually turn the trending #deletefacebook statements into actions. Maybe. While it's nice that 'alternative Facebooks' are gaining visibility, those I don't think will really get people out. Simple tools on the other hand, to give people their data in a usable format, will. Next, perhaps a nice 'export registered groups with Admin and user list,' or 'list of sites I've used Facebook login for,' or, 'export Facebook pack: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp...
- andrewxhill 9y agoheck yeah! thanks for the comment. we're down to do nice exports of some of the other data types. we'll look into it for sure.
- carsonfarmer 9y ago"Watch this space" for some of those other tools ;)
- zamalek 9y ago> alternative Facebooks I signed up for Mastodon a few minutes ago and... it's not Facebook. It's Twitter. My mother of 80 isn't interested in sending Tweets or Toots. Marketing and recommending these things correctly might be a good first step.
- mikenew 9y agoAnd speaking of marketing... Toot? Seriously?
- askvictor 9y agoIndeed, but for this kind of thing to make a serious dent in Facebook, it would need to include a photo hosting and sharing service. Which, unfortunately, cost money to hold the data, so you either need to charge for hosting, or collect revenue through ads or selling data (self-hosting would be nice, but difficult to get your grandma to do it) But, maybe even a simple photo sharing service _that lets you share those photos back to facebook users_ might be the first crack in the dam wall
- andrewxhill 9y agoWe also put it on ProductHunt in case any of you want to share with others over there, https://www.producthunt.com/posts/facebook-gallery-recovery https://www.producthunt.com/posts/facebook-gallery-recovery
- roadbeats 9y agoThis is awesome, it makes me wish I had my Facebook data. I deleted my account without downloading it :/
- andrewxhill 9y agoBummer. There is a grace period, I forget how many days, where you can undo it before it's gone forever. You could sign back in, undo, export, and then redo. Unless you did it too long ago.
- mohsen1 9y agoI made one a few years ago that support EXIF and correct dates https://github.com/mohsen1/fb-photo-fetch https://github.com/mohsen1/fb-photo-fetch
- typpo 9y agoI hacked together something similar (not CLI) at https://www.fbexporter.com/ https://www.fbexporter.com/
- jaza 9y agoAbout six years ago I wrote about the perils of using Facebook as your primary photo store (among other things) - http://greenash.net.au/thoughts/2011/10/dont-trust-facebook-with-your-data/ http://greenash.net.au/thoughts/2011/10/dont-trust-facebook-... . Sad to see that so few people have followed my advice, that a tool such as this is necessary.
- pmilot 9y agoName conflict warning: There is already a software project named Textile. Here's the homepage: https://txstyle.org/ https://txstyle.org/
- etskinner 9y agoAlso github's textile: https://github.com/textile https://github.com/textile
- gk1 9y agoNot working for me. The output is the same as the input. Any ideas?
- andrewxhill 9y agoVery odd. If you drag the zip onto your laptop and the drop event listener doesn't pick up on it, your browser would likely just "download" the zip you dropped. Which explains what you see I'm guessing. What I'm not sure about is why the JS doesn't pick up on the drop event and process the file. Do you have any settings that would block JS? What browser are you using?
- forcer 9y agoI tried in latest versions of FF and CH and it does not work (on Windows10). When I drag the ZIP archive to the area it does not do anything. Do all people just try on MAC or why it does not work for me?
- carsonfarmer 9y agoHi forcer, when you drag it over the 'drop zone' does the little zip image/icon disappear?
- carsonfarmer 9y agoOk, this looks like this issue: https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook/issues/4 https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook/issues/4 We'll try to update this soon!
- carsonfarmer 9y agoFixed on github, should be live soon(ish)
- carsonfarmer 9y agoShould have a fix in the latest code on github, should be live soon(ish)
- markk 9y agoyou could integrate with people's existing dropbox (i.e. copy the photos into it) and provide a super simple web viewer
- carsonfarmer 9y agocool idea, though for this small project, we're trying to keep everything self-contained... so no data leaks possible...
- fimdomeio 9y agoWow... So people who have issues with how facebook handles privacy should dump their data in some other third party service? And probably some people will because well... "dumb f*s". Well it might actually be all good intentions (probably just read below is all client side readable code) but if non coders use this service it just means they learned nothing.
- rootlocus 9y ago> All the data processing happens right in your browser. Your photos will be reorganized without ever being sent off of your device, your data remains yours :) Don't know how exactly that works, though.
- carsonfarmer 9y agoYes that's right. Also, the code can be inspected here: https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook. For non-coders, if you are concerned about us using your data (we won't!) you can a) trust us, b) ask someone to check for you, or c) go to the page, turn off your wifi (so you aren't connected to the internet), generate your archive and download, close the page, and then click back on wifi... easy peasy :)
- carsonfarmer 9y agoThe way it works, is that all the Javascript code runs in your browser, that way, there's need for any data to leave your computer... safe and spy-free!
- s_clemens 9y agoI'm getting all my zip archives with x-zip-compressed MIME type. Any way to convert it to application/zip or make it work with x-zip-compressed?
- carsonfarmer 9y agoWe just pushed some changes to fix this. If you want quick access, take a look at the code over at: https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook. Those fixes will go 'live' later. To get it running on your own system right away, you download the zip (click clone or download) and run it locally.
- s_clemens 9y agothanks ;)
- chatmasta 9y agoIf a social network wants to take over for Facebook, an “import your data from your Facebook export” tool would be a killer growth hack. Also, there’s really no reason Facebook couldn’t organize photos this already. I feel like they make that data dump as obfuscated as possible to discourage you from doing anything useful with it.
- notimetorelax 9y agoI actually thought that they went much further then they were required with the exports. I know of services that dump RAW JSON archives.
- edjw 9y agoAbsolutely. One of the big issues with GDPR is going to be how to practically use the right to port your data. Export functionality is one thing. It's the import bit that's often not there or isn't practical. Some standards would help.
- chatmasta 9y agoI was expecting someone to mention GPDR, but as an obstacle more than a benefit. It seems importing your Facebook data, which includes messages and connections with other people, into a new service, may run afoul of GPDR. That’s not even to mention the legal hellstorm Facebook would rain down on any startup using such a tool successfully. It’s interesring that GPDR forces Facebook to allow export, but may cause problems with importing that data elsewhere. The hand giveth, the hand taketh away.
- creo 9y agoIt would be so funny if Textile gathered all the data. So much irony.
- carsonfarmer 9y agoHaha, that would be pretty hypocritical of us! Check out the source to be sure we aren't: https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook https://github.com/textileio/textile-facebook, and if you really want to be sure that's what we're deploying, use your browser's dev tools to inspect the code (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/What_are_browser_developer_tools https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questi...).
- pattisapu 9y agoThis is just a small issue (if it is an issue at all) -- maybe do something with the name to distinguish it from Textile the markup language?
- alentodorov 9y agoDoes anyone know other offline or online tools that allow you to visualise data better from the FB export?
- jepras 9y agoI am currently doing a CS101 course and was thinking about building exactly that as my final exam. What type of visualization were you imagining to fit your needs? What feature would be the most important of your dream tool to achieve the purpose?