How do I find an old Wall posting on Facebook?

This is going to sound dumb, but a few days ago I posted a joke and got a ton of great responses (comments) from my friends. Now I want to show my girlfriend and can't find it because all I see is my most recent status update on my Wall. So, what the heck? How do I find my older stuff?

Dave's Answer:

Facebook is like a lot of modern social media sites, where it keeps changing, reflecting all that's new and current. Wait sixty seconds and the newer stuff will appear on the top of the page and push the older content down. At the bottom of the page, things just "vanish" into the ether. Sure you can click on "Older Posts" but what if it's something from days or weeks ago?

What makes this even more puzzling is that generally when you're looking at Facebook, you're seeing what everyone else is writing about and talking about, not your own stuff, so your updates probably aren't even visible at all.

So where's it all going?

It's on your Wall is where your status updates - and the subsequent comments from your friends - are ending up, and to find them you need to do a little bit of exploration.

Go to Facebook and look on the top left. You'll see this:

Click on "View my Profile" and you'll then see generally what others would see if they looked at your profile and were already friends with you. Click on the "Wall" tab:

Now you should be able to scroll down and find your witty joke and all the comments your friends left. If there are a number of comments, it'll look kinda like this:

Instead of clicking on "View all X comments", click on the date and time information. Surprise! It takes you to a page that has your original Wall status update and all the comments that everyone else has left. I find this trick darn useful when I want to archive the commentary for later reference, btw.

Oh, and if you find that your status update isn't on your Wall, scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see our friend "Older Posts". Click on it and scroll down again.

Hope that helps you out and I hope your girlfriend finds your joke witty! If you need more Facebook help, do spend the time to poke around here on the site.

More Useful Facebook Help Articles:

✔ How can I block event invites on Facebook?

I have a friend who keeps inviting me to webinars where he pitches his make-money programs. I really like the guy, but hate...

✔ Shortcut for blocking games on Facebook?

I saw your article from a while back about blocking Coasterville notifications on Facebook and was wondering if you had a shortcut or...

✔ Update Facebook profile picture without notifying friends?

Hey Dave! Whenever I change my profile picture on Facebook all my friends are notified of this change. Not good. How do I...

✔ How do I permanently block CoasterVille on Facebook?

My brother is really into Facebook games and the latest that he seems obsessed with is called CoasterVille. I think it's all about...

✔ Disable audio notification sound in Facebook?

This is something new: When I'm logged in to Facebook I now get an annoying audio beep every time someone posts something new...

Let's stay in touch!

Sign up for my weekly AskDaveTaylor Newsletter and you'll receive even more tech and gadget help right to your inbox, along with exclusive news and industry updates. It's good stuff. I promise!

Categorized: Facebook Help (Article 9342, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: facebook, facebook comments, facebook wall posts
Previous: How Can I Comment On My Facebook Fan Page As Myself?
Next: How can I debug a Japanese-language Google search?

Reader Comments To Date: 26

Dave Kliman said, on December 4, 2010 11:05 AM:

actually I would like to find an OLD wall post... if i follow your technique here, I'd have to keep clicking on "older posts" about a ZILLION times... how do i search for an older post that would be on let's say "older posts" click number 483 without clicking on it 483 times?

Dave Taylor said, on December 4, 2010 11:28 PM:

Dave, I've poked around and can't see any way to search by date or otherwise zip back a long way. Oh! One possibility: export everything, then search locally on disk for the wall post in question, then see if there's a link back to Facebook's actual update. That might well work. See this:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_to_download_personal_information_facebook.html

amol said, on December 6, 2010 2:38 AM:

this way can wee see our very post on our wall? I guess it must be 3 year old...

Paul J. said, on December 10, 2010 11:11 AM:

Another way could be this app: http://apps.facebook.com/get-my-life-back

It's a beta but works fine.

Kathy Stutzman said, on January 14, 2011 6:23 AM:

Facebook has changed and the "view my profile" is no longer there. Now what?

Dave Taylor said, on January 14, 2011 8:06 AM:

Instead of "View my Profile", Kathy, just click on your name and you'll see the profile everyone else sees AND you can delete Wall postings, etc.

Deanna said, on February 24, 2011 1:54 PM:

When I go to my Wall, I see all of my postings. I want to specifically see what others have posted to my wall. Yes I can scroll down, but all I see is the stuff that I posted.

Before the new profile, there was a way to see "just what I posted", "just what others posted", and "both". I want the "just what others posted" option. I know what I have posted to my wall, but would like to weed it out to see specifically what others have posted.

Is there a way to do this any longer?

Lupita Dominguez said, on July 1, 2011 5:50 AM:

I'm try to view my old Dallas cowboy message I received a couple of days ago on Facebook and now I can no longer find it.

Greg said, on August 16, 2011 8:41 PM:

You can also use Archivedbook (http://archivedbook.com) to review old status, wall messages, and some other things from your profile and also your friends' profile.

Vishal Rana said, on August 21, 2011 11:40 AM:

You may like to checkout this cool application:

http://apps.facebook.com/topstats/

Kevin said, on September 6, 2011 11:15 PM:

These are old updates, FB developers are working hard on app, just wondering why they are not creating some tools like searching your old post from the wall.

Flaming Tips said, on January 5, 2012 10:51 AM:

Looking for advice on this topic, I came to this site via google, and for one shining moment, based on the caricature of Mr. Taylor, I thought it was an "Ask Wayne Coyne" site. I'm slightly disappointed, however grateful for the info herein.

Tracy said, on March 17, 2012 4:44 PM:

My trouble is happening with my other Facebook Pages (not my personal one). I get some notifications (all notifications page) for most things happening on that wall, but not happenings on other walls. My comments to other walls only rarely show up in "recent activity", most of the time not, and I also don't get any notification if someone replies to my comment on another wall. This is really ridiculous cuz there's no way of keeping track of my activity on other walls?!! Yet, I do receive notification if someone likes my comment on someone else's wall.

My notification settings are set to ALL in ALL categories.

azadeh said, on March 30, 2012 5:59 AM:

I can't see my old post on my wall !

Vickie McClung said, on April 10, 2012 5:45 PM:

When I go to read my post where different people sent me something it only show's 5 or 6 and I can't get my "old post". Please help!!!

H. Taylor said, on May 7, 2012 8:14 AM:

I got a post on my wall from a friend, but my friend said they did NOT send it. How can this happen ?

Sue T said, on August 24, 2012 8:03 AM:

Hi, I am trying to find posts on a group I administrated over a year ago. The group was a private business group. Is it possible to retrieve? Thank you

Ran Geva said, on September 19, 2012 11:45 AM:

There is a Facebook application called "Search My Feed":
https://apps.facebook.com/search-my-feed/

That let you search you old statuses and a some of the posts made on your news feed.

kevin said, on September 28, 2012 7:42 AM:

go to your profile see activity log and there you can choose show either posts of others, your posts, and so on

Dems said, on November 19, 2012 8:43 AM:

I've been using "Facebook Search My Posts" for a while now, and it works really great.
It's a Facebook application, so you don't have to leave Facebook, and it doesn't ask too much permissions: https://apps.facebook.com/searchmyposts/

Raphael said, on December 14, 2012 3:11 AM:

I wrote an app just to solve this problem:
http://www.facebook.com/appcenter/searchforposts

heythere said, on January 5, 2013 6:29 AM:

+1 for Search My Posts
https://apps.facebook.com/searchmyposts/

Mahnoor bee said, on February 25, 2013 3:16 AM:

I actually posted a poem about my self in 2011 i guess and now i can't find it....i forgot about the poem i wrote and now i need it really bad.P.S i tried it your way...it didn't work.

AnnDoson said, on March 14, 2013 1:08 PM:

I need my old facebook page with yahoo!

Mike said, on April 14, 2013 9:20 PM:

This works great ! Thanks

1st get this app

https://www.facebook.com/appcenter/searchforposts?fb_source=appcenter

Then click on the time , where is says "your name here" commented on this post X hours ago.

It will take you to your post.

Grandma Debi said, on April 19, 2013 11:11 AM:

my son and his family are living in fear, a man assaulted my son in March, the cops are dragging their feet, they claim they need more proof. I have learned there were posts on facebook that may be the evidence we need to take to the cops but I am not friends on facebook with the guy so how do I search for these posts? My son reported the posting to facebook abuse when he discovered them on his face book page but all they did was remove the posts. Any ideas on how to get a screen shot or the archived posting?

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

How do I find an old Wall posting on Facebook?

Reader Comments To Date: 26

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

Check This Out Too...