# Is there a way to retrieve a facebook chat?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-retrieve-a-facebook-chat/506414>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 14, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-retrieve-a-facebook-chat/506414 "2009-08-14T16:00:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-retrieve-a-facebook-chat/506414/1 "2009-08-14T16:00:07Z")

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I was chatting with a friend using facebook’s built-in chat interfacet the other day and he gave me his phone number. I can’t find where I wrote it down. Is it possible to retrieve that chat transcript somehow?

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**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-retrieve-a-facebook-chat/506414/2 "2009-08-14T16:26:29Z")

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It doesn’t really help, but if he’s ever online again you can click his name and see your chat history. Which means it’s saved somewhere on your hard drive or on a Facebook server. I can’t tell you which way to go from there, but it’s a start.

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**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-retrieve-a-facebook-chat/506414/3 "2009-08-14T16:31:49Z")

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And upon searching Facebook for answers, I came across these relevant groups:

We Want History of Chat!  
Petition to Save Facebook Chat History  
We Definitely Need Facebook Chat HISTORY!!!

Like I said, though, it has to be saved somewhere, because when I click on somebody’s name to chat, I can see what we talked about last time, even if it was several days ago.

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**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-retrieve-a-facebook-chat/506414/4 "2009-08-14T16:47:28Z")

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[The official word from Facebook:](http://www.facebook.com/help/search.php?hq=How+do+I+delete+or+look+through+my+Chat+history%3F+Is+it+saved+permanently%3F&ref=hq)

> [@](#):
>
> You can view recent conversation history by opening a chat window with your friend. You cannot view older conversations at this time or conversations with friends who are not currently online.
> 
> To clear your chat history just click the “Clear Chat History” link at the top of your Chat window. While message history is saved from page to page, and even between login sessions, please note that it is not logged permanently.