# facebook-chat-downloader
> Facebook Chat Messages Downloader
Latest version **0.1.6** (published 2024-07-16) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads
## Install
```sh
npm install facebook-chat-downloader
pnpm add facebook-chat-downloader
yarn add facebook-chat-downloader
bun add facebook-chat-downloader
```
Provides the command `facebook-chat-downloader`.
## Health
**Score 15/100 (F)** — status: abandoned.
Positive: no vulnerabilities.
Warnings: low downloads; no types; no esm support; pre 1.0.
Negative: abandoned; low maintenance score.
## Facts
| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.1.6 |
| Published | 2024-07-16 |
| First published | 2018-11-20 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | MIT |
| TypeScript types | none |
| Module format | CommonJS |
| Node | * |
| Dependencies | 4 |
| Unpacked size | 22.8 KB |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| GitHub stars | 7 |
| Author | Alexandre Bento Freire |
| Maintainers | a-bentofreire |
| Keywords | facebook, chat, messenger, download |
## Links
- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/facebook-chat-downloader
- Repository: https://github.com/a-bentofreire/facebook-chat-downloader
- Homepage: https://www.devtoix.com/en/projects/facebook-chat-downloader
- Issues: https://github.com/a-bentofreire/facebook-chat-downloader/issues
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/facebook-chat-downloader
## Dependencies (4)
- [moment](https://npm.io/package/moment.md) ^2.30.1
- [prompts](https://npm.io/package/prompts.md) ^2.4.2
- [commander](https://npm.io/package/commander.md) ^12.1.0
- [facebook-chat-api](https://npm.io/package/facebook-chat-api.md) ^1.8.0
## Recent versions
- 0.1.6 (latest) — 2024-07-16
- 0.1.5 — 2024-06-14
- 0.1.4 — 2024-06-12
- 0.1.3 — 2018-11-20
- 0.1.2 — 2018-11-20
- 0.1.1 — 2018-11-20
## README
# Description
[facebook-chat-downloader](https://www.devtoix.com/en/projects/facebook-chat-downloader) is an unofficial facebook chat messages downloader command line utility.
It's designed to simplify the retrieval of the chat messages of a list of users.
It uses [facebook-chat-api](https://www.npmjs.com/package/facebook-chat-api) library to retrieve the data from facebook.
`facebook-chat-downloader` can login from an email and password from command line options, user prompt,
or from a state-file (generated if requested after the first successful login),
allowing to connect multiple times without requesting multiple times the email/password.
The file storage is done per chat name, usually the username, where the filename is the chat name with the symbols removed,
supporting the following file formats:
- raw `json` - the data is stored as it's retrieved from the `facebook-chat-api`.
- formatted `json` - the output is processed, according to the supplied field names.
- `txt` - a text file with one message per line.
## Installation
`[sudo] npm install -g facebook-chat-downloader`
## Usage
`facebook-chat-downloader [options]`
Where the options are:
| Short Name | Long Name | Description |
| ------------- | ------------- |------------- |
|-e|--email|email
if email and input state file aren't present, it will request by user prompt|
|-p|--password|password
if password and input state file aren't present, it will request by user prompt|
|-s|--state-file|state filename
if `-S` isn't present, it will read state from this file
replacing the need of an email and password|
|-S|--write-state-file|if present, it will write the state to this file after successful login|
|-t|--threads-file|chat threads filename
if `-T` isn't present, it will read threads from this file
replacing the need of an extra request|
|-T|--write-threads-file|if present, it will write the threads file|
|-l|--limit|maximum number of chat threads
use this value, only if the chats to download are recent|
|-g|--tag|list of chat types by tags
Possible values are `INBOX`,`ARCHIVED`,`PENDING`,`OTHER`|
|-n|--chat-name|list of chat names to download|
|-R|--raw|if present and output is in raw `json`, otherwise is in formatted `json`|
|-O|--output-folder|output folder
location where all the chat files will be stored|
|-N|--output-field-name|list of fields names for non-raw storage
Possible values are: `date`, `sender`, `message`|
|-F|--output-file-format|output file format. Either `txt` or `json`|
|-D|--output-date-format|output date-time format. see [moment.js](https://www.npmjs.com/package/moment)|
|-c|--convert|converts from raw chat file into another format
If it's present, it will bypass login,
and it will read from previously stored raw json files|
## Examples
`facebook-chat-downloader -n 'My lunch group' -n 'Miss 王' -R`
It will prompt for the email and password associated with your facebook account,
and store the chats in the files: `my-lunch-group.raw.json` and `miss-王.raw.json`.
`facebook-chat-downloader -e myfbemail@northpole.com -s state.json -S -O chats`
It will prompt for the password, store the state in `state.json` after successful login,
and store all the chats in the folder `chats` in json format.
`facebook-chat-downloader -s state.json -t threads.json -T -n 'Hiking (weekend)' -F txt`
It will read the login from `state.json`, write the thead list in `threads.json`,
download one chat and store it in text format on the file `hiking-weekend.txt`.
`facebook-chat-downloader -t threads.json -c -n 'My lunch group' -F txt -N date -N message -N sender`
It will read the previously stored `my-lunch-group.raw.json` and convert it into text format,
with the message before the sender.
## Caveats
To prevent connection timeouts, facebook-chat-downloader downloads a 50 messages package,
and then it uses a recursive function to retrieve the next one package.
If a certain chat has too many messages, it could reach a stack overflow.
## License
MIT
## Copyrights
(c) 2018-2024 [Alexandre Bento Freire](https://www.a-bentofreire.com)
---
_Source: https://npm.io/package/facebook-chat-downloader · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._