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3

I'm trying to find a post I made on my timeline (aka wall) several months (or even years) ago, but can't find a way to search for it. I see there's a way to download my entire content, but that's very heavy.

Currently, I open the activity log (e.g., https://www.facebook.com/username/allactivity) and start scrolling down to get some info on the page. Then I use my browser to search for the text. But this is slow and, depending on how far back I want to go, tedious. Clicking on the earliest month/year in the filter only loads those periods specifically.

Anyone know of a better way that will find the search words anywhere on your activity log quickly?

Edit: There's a "bug report" (not really a bug, but lack of a feature) related to this on Facebook's developers forum.

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4 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

I wrote an app that will let you perform a text search for your Facebook photo albums, videos, notes, status posts and recent events:

http://www.facebook.com/appcenter/searchforposts

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Excellent app! I appreciate the limited number of permissions that you required (1). And it worked pretty easy. – Dez Dec 16 '12 at 2:44
Please don't post identical answers - particularly ones just advertising your application. Astroturfing is not allowed. – ChrisF♦ Dec 16 '12 at 9:40
+1 for getting the job done with limited number of permissions (and being transparent about it) – Fuhrmanator Dec 16 '12 at 18:04
up vote 1 down vote

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it. There is currently no better way to do this via Facebook UI.

At the maximum what you can do is keep pressing the end key instead of Scrolling down, that would make it a little quicker.

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2  
Sorry.. wrong answer! There is always a way to do this.. I'm working on it now and will have something available soon.. either my own app or an already available one. I'm thinking about using either Google search as an engine or OpenGrok. – user24650 Sep 20 '12 at 0:06
1  
@Johana Keyword: currently. There is currently no better way, that's not to say something cannot be done in the future. – phwd♦ Sep 20 '12 at 0:25
@phwd Is saying it can't be done really a good way to answer on SE? "Currently" means nothing in internet time and seems the answer is not constructive (apart from using the END button, the only reason I didn't down-vote it). – Fuhrmanator Nov 23 '12 at 16:16
   
@Fuhrmanator If nothing can be done within the UI then yes, "currently" seems completely reasonable. You can build an application but that's outside the scope of this site. – phwd♦ Nov 23 '12 at 16:26
up vote -2 down vote

Check out this link which is still fairly new but has some potential.

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2  
-1 this is just like searching Google with site:facebook.com if I'm not mistaken. Am I missing something that applies to my activity log? – Fuhrmanator Nov 23 '12 at 16:13

We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer: please explain why you're recommending it as a solution. Answers that don't explain anything will be deleted. See Good Subjective, Bad Subjective for more information.
up vote 3 down vote
+100

You should be able to search your timeline with Qsearch

Enter your query after authorizing the application and you should see something like the following

Search query "swag"

There is also the option to search other timelines

Search Friends Timelines

It searches the metadata as well so you can search for YouTube videos like

Youtube videos in search

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2  
Like so many Apps on Facebook, QSearch (if you choose to allow use it) requires you grant it access to your confidential information. This includes: your email address and your likes. Neither of these is needed to search your wall, so it's clear you have to "pay" for this service. QSearch doesn't say what it uses these things for, despite stating in their privacy policy "Before or at the time of collecting personal information, we will identify the purposes for which information is being collected." – Fuhrmanator Nov 24 '12 at 17:54
I don't know why I cannot find this app on Facebook App Center by searching for facebook qsearch ? – Nam G. VU Feb 1 at 10:09
@NamG.VU, in the blue bar, I can find "QSearch". Because QSearch is too powerful, facebook doesn't want anyone to find this? – Shih-En Chou Feb 5 at 2:28

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