How to Save Pictures from Messages & Facebook on Your iPhone

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The images you receive on your iPhone don't automatically save to your Photos app. Fortunately, you can easily save pictures from iMessages or Facebook to your iPhone. You can even bulk save photos from a Messages conversation! Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to transfer photos in these scenarios.

Related: How to Transfer Photos from Your iPhone to Your Computer

Learn How to Save Pictures to Your iPhone

iPhone users have wondered how to download Facebook photos, how they can bulk save all their Facebook pictures, and how to save images from Facebook Messenger. We'll show you how to save photos from each of the following locations:

• Messages App
• Facebook App
• Facebook Messenger App

Save Photos from the Messages App

Do you want to save photos that you've sent in a text message or that someone sent you? You can save pictures by scrolling to find them and tapping to download them. However, you can also view everything sent in every conversation and quickly download multiple images at once.

How to Save Photos from Text Messages on Your iPhone

Newer versions of iOS make it particularly easy to save a photo from your text message history. You can long-press (touch and hold) on the picture and reveal a menu of options, including saving and sharing.

1. Open the Messages app and navigate to the conversation with images you want to save.
   
   
    
2. Locate the image you want to save.
   
   
    
3. Long-press (touch and hold) the image until options appear.
4. Tap Save to download your image to your gallery.
   
   

If you have an iPhone 6s or earlier you'll need to:

1. Tap the photo.
2. Tap the Share icon at the lower left of your display.
   
   
    
3. Choose Save Image to save your photo to your iPhone.
   
   

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How to Save Multiple Images from Messages on Your iPhone

You can download all the images you've ever exchanged with a single contact. Neat, don't you think?

1. Open the text message conversation with the images you want to save.
   
   
    
2. Tap the person's name at the top of the text thread.
   
   
    
3. Tap the info icon.
   
   
    
4. You'll see a contact information card.
5. At the bottom, you’ll find a set of recent images. Tap See All.
   
   
    
6. Tap Select in the top-right corner of the page.
   
   
    
7. Now you can select as many of the images as you’d like. Tap each image you want to save. After tapping, there will be a blue circle with a checkmark in the corner to indicate an image is selected.
   
   
    
8. Tap Save to download the photos to your iPhone.
   
   

Now you know how to save photos from iPhone's Messages app to your gallery!

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Save Photos from the Facebook App

Do you want to save photos that you've posted on your Facebook page? You can save them individually by tapping to download them. However, you can also download all the photos you've posted in a particular date range. You may also choose to save photos from Facebook Messenger.

How to Save Photos from Facebook to Your iPhone

When it comes to Facebook, you can save individual images with the Facebook app on your iPhone. If you need to save ALL of your Facebook pictures, you’ll have to download a zipped folder and open it in the Files app to transfer the contents to your photos.

1. From the Facebook app, locate the photo you'd like to save. Tap on the photo.
   
   
    
2. Tap the three dots in the upper-right corner.
   
   
    
3. Select Save Photo.
   
   
    
4. There will be a confirmation that the photo was saved.
   
   

Now you know how to do an iMessage download!

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How to Download All Your Photos from Facebook to Your iPhone

Facebook gives you the option to download all of your data, and this includes your photos. Images retrieved this way won't be as high-quality as those you shoot with your iPhone because Facebook doesn't store them with all the detail of an original image.

Here's how to download all Facebook photos at once:

1. Open the Facebook app.
   
   
    
2. Open your Facebook menu tab by tapping the menu icon, which looks like three stacked horizontal bars at the screen's bottom right.
   
   
    
3. Scroll down to tap Settings & Privacy to expand that section of the menu.
   
   
    
4. Tap Settings.
   
   
    
5. Scroll down to find the section called Your Facebook Information.
6. Tap Access Your Information.
   
   
    
7. Scroll down and tap Download Your Information.
   
   
    
8. Now you'll have a choice of which data you'd like to archive. Make sure to select only Photos and Videos. If you choose to, you can tap DESELECT ALL and then select just the Photos and Videos you want to save!
   
   
    
9. Scroll down and choose the date range, format, and quality for your photo file. I recommend setting media quality to High.
   
   
    
10. Tap Create File. If you select a larger range, it may take some time.
    
    
     
11. Next, Facebook will inform you that it's working to archive your photos and make them available for download.
    
    
     
12. Eventually, you'll get a Facebook notification informing you that your download is ready. Tap the notification.
    
    
     
13. Tap Download.
    
    
     
14. You'll be transferred into your default web browser to complete the download, and you may have to log in to Facebook.
    
    
     
15. Tap Download.
    
    
     
16. Tap the down arrow in the top-right corner of your browser.
    
    
     
17. Tap on the zip file. This will take you to your Downloads folder on your iPhone.
    
    
     
18. Tap the folder to unzip it. This decompresses the files and makes them accessible.
    
    
     
19. Open the folder.
    
    
     
20. Go to photos_and_videos. You will see several folders with your album names.
    
    
     
21. To save the photos in a folder, you need to tap the folder.
    
    
     
22. To save one photo at a time, you can tap the image and use the share icon at the bottom left to save it to your gallery.
23. To save multiple images, you need to tap the three dots in the top-right corner.
    
    
     
24. Tap Select.
    
    
     
25. Tap Select All.
    
    
     
26. Tap the share icon in the bottom-left corner.
    
    
     
27. Tap Save [#] Images.
    
    

Whew! You've done it, you've saved pics from Facebook! Facebook may not make it easy to download all of your photos at once, but now you know how to do it! This is an excellent way to recover pictures you might not have anywhere else.

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Save Photos from the Facebook Messenger App

When you do the Facebook photo download of everything you've uploaded, it saves everything you've posted. Unfortunately, this will not include the photos you've sent on Facebook Messenger. To do that you need to follow these steps:

How to Save Photos from Facebook Messenger on Your iPhone

1. Open Facebook Messenger and find the conversation containing images you want to save.
   
   
    
2. You can tap an image and then skip to step four if that's the only image you want to save.
3. Otherwise, if you don't want to scroll through your whole message history looking for photos, tap the name of your contact at the top of the screen.
   
   
    
4. You'll be presented with a contact information card.
5. Tap View Photos & Videos. 
   
   
    
6. Tap on the image you want to save.
   
   
    
7. Tap on More in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
   
   
    
8. Tap Save.
   
   

Unfortunately, you cannot select and save more than one photo at a time. Hopefully, Facebook will add this feature in the future! Until they do, you can at least see all your photos in the same place with this tip.

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Now you know how to download all photos from Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Messages App on your iPhone! Learning how to transfer photos can be helpful if you accidentally lost some images that you've sent in Messages or published on social media. Next, learn how to screen share via Facebook Messenger.