How to find videos on Facebook

Finding the desired video on Facebook can be a quest in itself. It isn’t organized, it’s confusing and the search results are poor. Therefore, it can be a challenge to get the video you have in mind.

There are several kinds of videos - Live videos, tagged videos, shared and uploaded ones, public videos, etc. Facebook lacks an option where you can sift through each in an easy manner. Instead, each type of video has a different procedure. Let’s look at what steps to follow for each kind.

Live videos

Previously, Facebook had Live Map using which you could find steamers based on the locality. Everything now has been grouped under Facebook Watch. To watch live videos you can type the live hashtag ‘#live' into the search bar. If that's too broad, you can visit the person's page/video library. As a last resort, there's always the notification system.

Personal videos

All your uploaded videos on Facebook can be found under Videos in Photos section. But unless you've spent considerable time organizing everything, you'll have to look for them manually. Instead, what you could do is download all of them at once. Head to Settings and click on Your Facebook Information. You can download that once you've checked Photos and Videos. Hit Create File to download.

Saved videos

These are videos you would've saved to watch later. They don't download onto your phone, but act as bookmarks to view later. You can view them by visiting Facebook.com/saved. Alternatively, you can log into Facebook and go to Saved under the Explore menu.

Old profile videos

About two years ago, Facebook rolled out an update that lets you add a small looped video to the profile. You can view them by going to the Photos section and opening Videos. However, the same issue persists - you have to manually search by scrolling. There isn't a better method.

Finding public videos

The most obvious way to do this is to visit the profile/page of the person, group, i.e., if you know their name, group, or page. If the post you remember is relatively new, you'll be able to spot it within a few scrolls. Otherwise, you'll have to go to Videos through Photos and search.

Tagged videos

No doubt that you'd be tagged in at least a few videos, and these are easy to find. But if you are tagged in several, it gets tough because there isn't an option to view them all with a click of a button. What you can do is head over to Activity Log where you can click on Photos and Videos to view.

Finally, an alternative to all this is the search bar. It's a smart bar, and therefore, can understand what you type. Such as: "videos I'm tagged in." But be weary, since you'll definitely be inundated with several videos and it's easy to lose sight of what you're looking for.