Looking to search for a specific post on Facebook by date. In this guide, you will get a step-by-step guide on how to search Facebook posts by date i.e. day, month, or year.
Facebook is one of the most popular social networking platforms having more than 2.6 billion active users. Recently, Facebook has done a lot of changes, giving you the option of a more modern-looking interface apart from the classic look.
Facebook has also been changing the features to find information across Facebook including the ability to search for posts by date, or posts from a particular page or group, friend, etc.
So let’s answer the main question.
How do you search for a specific post on Facebook by date? You can search for Facebook posts by date by typing in the relevant keywords in the Facebook search bar and using the filter of Posts and Date (Year) to show only the specific posts for a particular time period.
But it’s not as easy as it looks. There are some factors to consider.
Let’s look into this in more detail-Step by Step
Before we start on the steps, there are some factors that impact the search options available to you on Facebook.
The important consideration here is – Your ability to search for a Facebook post by date changes depending on how you are accessing Facebook i.e. from Desktop or Mobile. If you are using mobile, it depends on which Facebook app you are using.
The Facebook Classic Interface on Desktop and Facebook Lite App on Mobile gives you more advanced search options.
If you are using Facebook on a desktop, switch to Facebook Classic Look by clicking on Down Icon on Home Page-Right Side. (Update: The option to switch to the Classic look has been recently disabled by Facebook for most users. So this method won’t work now)
If you are using Facebook on a Desktop, you will be able to filter results only up to a specific year. While the older Facebook Classic interface gave you more specific options to filter further up to month and year.
On the other hand, if you are using mobile, the Main Facebook App again allows you only to filter dates up to a year. But if you use the Facebook Lite App (not available for Apple App Store), you can filter the post actually up to a specific day or custom time span say between 2 dates.
In Short, summary of “Search Posts By Date” drill-down options on Facebook:
Desktop
- Facebook Desktop Classic Interface (no longer supported by Facebook)- Allowed to search posts up to a month and year
- Facebook Desktop New Interface- Allows to search posts only up to a year
Mobile
- Facebook Lite App- Allows to search posts up to a custom date range i.e. between any two dates
- Facebook Main App- Allows to search posts only up to a year
So the best practice is to use Facebook Lite App if you are looking to run a very specific search i.e. up to a specific day. But if you want to filter only up to a month/year use Facebook Desktop with Classic Look Option (again the Classic Look option may not work now)
Recent update- Now in the Facebook Main App, you have been given the option to search the Posts, which you have created, by going to the 3 dots below your Facebook Profile Picture which opens up the “Profile Settings” and then goes to “Manage Posts”. This gives you the option to filter posts on a particular date, but this seems to filter only those posts created by you (details are covered in Note 2 below)
Now with that information, let’s jump to the specific steps involved.
How to Search Facebook Posts by Date
(Screenshots from Facebook Lite App– the process is the same for Facebook Desktop or Main App, but these allow you to filter only up to a year)
- Step 1- Tap on the search bar, run a search by typing relevant keywords for the post in Search Bar and press enter to run a universal search across Facebook
- Step 2- On the next screen, apart from search results, you get a bunch of tabs to narrow down your search results like Posts, Photographs, People, Videos, etc. Tap on the Posts tab and you will be able to see only posts in search results with a bunch of options to filter your results further.
- Step 3- Now you have specific filters to narrow down the search results like Recent Posts, Posts you’ve seen, Date Posted, Posts From, Posted in Group, Tagged Location, and Date Posted. If you are using Facebook App on mobile, these options are displayed horizontally and on a laptop, it is displayed vertically.
- Step 4- Select the “Date Posted” tab. Using this filter, you can filter on a particular year or select “Choose Date” to enter a custom date range e.g. between 2 dates. If you are using Facebook Lite App, it allows you even more specific options to select a particular date or custom time span between 2 dates
How to Search Facebook Posts by Date on Facebook Main App
Note 1: As mentioned earlier, you can use the same steps as mentioned in the section above i.e. Run a search using the search bar feature for keywords and then filter on “Posts”.
After Step 2, to get to the “Date Posted” option, tap on the filter symbol on Facebook Main App (See images below). However, Facebook Main App gives you options to filter only up to a Year and not on a particular date.
Note 2: Facebook Main App now also has the option to filter Posts under the “Manage Posts” Section. However, this seems to work only for the posts created by you, although it gives options to select Posted by “Anyone” or “Others”.(See screenshots below)
Using the Manage Posts option to filter your own Posts on Facebook Main App [Screenshots below]
- Go to the three dots below your FB Profile Pic which opens the Profile Settings
- Select “Manage Posts” from the list
- Filter Date using the “Go To” Field
Search Options in Facebook Desktop Mode (Classic Look)
Let’s talk about the other filters and search options:
Posts From -This gives you the ability to search the posts from a specific person, page, or group.
You can filter posts from you, from your friends, from your groups or pages, or other public Posts
If you want to narrow down the result to a specific page or a group, click on “Choose a Source”
Posts Type – This is pretty straightforward. You can filter all posts or only those posts which you have seen earlier
Posted in Group- Filter results to include only results from a particular group or groups
Tagged Location- You can also filter posts by the location where the posts are tagged to a particular location.
Now, although the filter is for posts on a date, it is not specific to a month or specific date.
Wrap Up:
So you see while it is easy to run a search for finding posts by date, the important consideration is the ability to filter down depending on whether you are using the Facebook Desktop or Mobile and also the app used. Here’s the summary:
- Use Facebook Lite- to search for posts by date i.e. on a specific day or between 2 dates
- Use Facebook Desktop (Classic Look)- to search for posts up to month and year
- Use New Facebook Desktop or Facebook Normal App- to search posts if you only want to filter up to a year
Hope you liked this article and share it with your friends who may find the information useful.
Some other useful posts on Facebook :
- Complete guide to setting your Facebook Profile Picture -Size, Skip Cropping
- Facebook Avatars Guide – Learn all about this new cool feature
- How to Find Liked Posts on Facebook
