Category Archives: Facebook Tricks

Download Facebook Albums, Facebook, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Free Software

Download Facebook Albums

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Please Note: Since we wrote this review, ‘Download FB Album mod’ has changed its settings and asks form more permissions than we feel is safe. Here are the permissions it is asking for now: 

Photo of FB Album permissions.
Too many permission for a Facebook downloading app.

There is no reason why this extension has to access ALL of your data on websites, that would include passwords, by the way. Nor is there any reason for it to access your other tabs or browsing activity. It seems that the creators are involved in data mining, selling your information to advertisers, etc. Beware! We’re going back to Fotobounce. 

If you want to download whole photo albums on Facebook, you don’t have too many choices. The old ways, Fotobounce and others, only work sometimes, if at all now. We’ve discovered a brand new system that will download whole albums quickly and easily. Yay us! Here’s the scoop:

1. You have to be using Google Chrome as a browser. We suggest Chrome should be your default browser anyway so go to Google and download it, it you aren’t using it now.

TIP: When you are downloading software, make sure you go to the source. We’ve noticed that fake Chrome sites exist. We can only assume that these sites will install a modified version of Chrome, probably filled with some kind of malware. Go to google.com and take the link from there.

2. Once Chrome is installed, head over to the Google Web Store, everything is free so don’t worry about the word ‘store’. What you’re going to do is install an extension, a little bit of software that is added to Chrome which will download full Facebook photo albums. Here’s the link: Google Web Store

3. What you’re looking for is: Download FB Album Mod. This is an ‘extension’, not an app. Here are a couple of links to the download page for this extension:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/download-fb-album-mod/cgjnhhjpfcdhbhlcmmjppicjmgfkppok?hl=en

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search-extensions/Download%20FB%20Album%20mod?hl=en

4. Download and install the mod. You don’t have to reboot your computer or even restart Chrome.

5. Now for the fun part. Head over to Facebook and find an album that you want to save. Here is the process in pictures:

Photo of Facebook Album 1
Up on the top right of your URL bar, look for this symbol. Click it.

TIP: Please note that this icon only appears when you are on a Facebook page.

6. After you click the icon, this menu appears:

Photo of Facebook Album 2
Choose Normal. You can also choose to download the captions with each photo.

 

7. A new tab opens when you click Normal. The album will load on that page and a message will be shown at  the top. It flashes on and off so be prepared to read it. Here it is:

Photo of Facebook Album 3
Use the CTRL + s keys to save the album to your computer.

 

8. The save menu comes up next. It will give the name of the album and save it as an htm file, in other words as a complete web page. Click OK to save the file.

Saved as a Web Page, an htm file.
Saved as a Web Page, an htm file.

9. Once the file is saved, and for a large album this could take a while, head over to your download folder. The photos will be in a folder, as opposed to a single set of files, so look for the folder icon with the correct name.

Photo of Facebook Album 5
Look for the folder icon with the name of the album you just saved.

 

10. Double click on the folder. Inside that folder will be all of the photos in the album. You’re done!

Photo of Facebook Album 7
Here are the photos in this album.

 

As of February 5th, 2013, this system works. None of the others ways that we have written about in previous posts seem to work now. Why? Probably because of new privacy settings that Facebook is using. Fotobounce will still work with some albums but it’s much more difficult to use and it still stops working on large albums. This system, using Download FB Album Mod, works perfectly. Let us know if you have a problem with it.

Thanks for reading

NOTE: For this post we used https://www.facebook.com/Riddlesmessywardrobe  page. Riddle is one of our favorite cosplay stars. Stop by and like her page.

 

 

 

 

 

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Controlled sharing, Facebook, Facebook page likes, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Hide Game Updates, Hide Likes from Timeline

How to Hide Anything on Facebook

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It seems we’ve been writing about Facebook for longer than Facebook has been around. Judging from the popularity of our “Hiding Likes on Facebook” posts, everyone has something to hide. In this post, which will be a long one, all we’re going to do is post screen captures of as many Facebook menus as we can find. In some photos you won’t see a menu but in the next one, we’ll show you where to find it.

Before we begin, there are two caveats here. First, while we’ll show you how to hide almost everything on Facebook, some of those things may pop up in other areas. Consider the fact that liking a page is different from showing that like later on in a series of your ‘likes’. Liking and showing likes are two different things. For this reason, we suggest that you don’t do something on Facebook that would cause you grief later on in your life or your career.

Secondly, there are two things that you cannot hide on Facebook. First, photos that you post cannot be completely hidden. You can selectively choose who can see the photo but you can’t completely hide it. Think about it. Facebook employees can see the photo, right? Even if the privacy settings for that photo are set to ‘Only Me’, someone at Facebook can see it.

Lastly, you cannot hide mutual friends from anyone. Yes, you can partially hide your friend list but you can’t hide the fact that you have a mutual friend with someone. If being friends with someone will cause problems in your life, especially if that person is a friend of a friend, you can’t hide it. We can see many situations where this would cause a problem so keep this in mind when you’re ‘friending’ someone.

TIP: Why did we say that you could partially hide your friend list? Read this post and you will see why. You can set your friend list’s privacy to ‘Only Me’ but that won’t prevent Facebook from suggesting every one of your friends to someone else. Here’s the link to the post: Stalking Friends on Facebook

Here we go with the screen caps:

Photo of HIde 1
Most things that you’ve done are shown on your Activity Log, available from your Timeline.

 

Photo of HIde 2
On the right side of almost all items shown, there is an edit icon which allows you to hide that activity from your Timeline.

 

TIP: Remember that you can’t hide comments that you make on something that you did not post. Keep that in mind. If you like a photo that someone else posted, you can’t hide it. Same thing for a comment on a photo. You can’t hide that either. All of those things are controlled by the privacy settings that the other person used. Make sure you understand this before you go randomly clicking ‘Like’ on photos or making comments on things posted by other people.

Photo of HIde 3
On your Timeline, you can find the edit icon up on the top right of most boxes.

 

Photo of HIde 4
You can check on story types that you have hidden. Seems we haven’t hidden any…yet.

 

Photo of HIde 5
Here, we’ve hidden three types of activity.

 

Photo of HIde 6
Click the arrow to open up all the boxes in your Favourites. Only then can you edit them.

 

Photo of HIde 7
You can swap positions or remove the box from your Favorites.

 

 

Photo of HIde 8
If the box menu isn’t open, you can’t edit any of the Favorite boxes. Click the arrow just to the right of the 4.

 

 

Photo of HIde 9
See? Now the Places or Maps box can be edited.

 

Photo of HIde 10
You can check what posts you’ve hidden by looking at your Activity Log and choosing the correct link on the left.

 

Photo of HIde 11
Here is the full list of activities that you can check by clicking More down near the bottom (shown as Less here).

 

Photo of HIde 12
Hide all of your game posts here. Click the Stop Publishing Activity. Please do this for your friends!

 

 

Photo of Hide 13
Hide all Friending activity here.

 

Photo of Hide 14
Here’s where you can hide your friend list from everyone or from some people, Choose ‘Custom’ to select specific people or lists.

 

This has been a long post, we know that, but we think you’ll be able to find most of what you’re looking for here. If not, let us know! We love questions.

Thanks for reading! Follow us on Facebook. Just click Like and you’ll get our updates and tech tips as soon as we post them: Computers Made Simple on Facebook

Facebook, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks

Stalking Friends on Facebook – a privacy glitch is revealed.

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Facebook has had many privacy glitches in the past. We’ve just discovered another one, a fairly significant privacy breach that allows a new user to stalk a friend’s friends. If you want to find out who is friends with one of your friends, even if their friend list is set to be seen by only the user, here’s what you have to do:

1. Sign out of Facebook first, of course, then open a new account. We just did this and found that if we tried to sign up using Firefox, we needed a phone number to register for Facebook. Using Explorer, we didn’t. While we don’t generally recommend using Explorer, it seems that it’s easier for this particular stealth operation.

2. Knowing that you are going to add one particular ‘friend’, try to use a name for your new profile that would seem attractive to that friend. Could be a sports star, could be a movie star, doesn’t matter. The key is to get that friend to accept you as a friend.

3. Once you have the profile set up and have confirmed the registration email, invite your friend to be friends with you. This plan gets confusing if you have more than one friend but it’s up to you how you handle it. You can always add a few friends then delete them but we’re not sure this works.

4. We all know that Facebook is all about adding people as friends, they even suggest names for you. If you are a new user, guess who they use as suggestions? Right, people from your one and only friend. Once your friend confirms you as a friend, Facebook immediately suggests that you add every single friend that this person has, even if their friend list is set to the ‘only me’ privacy lock. 

Sometimes Facebook lists the friend as a ‘mutual friend’ with the person you are already friends with, other times they simply show the friend as a suggestion. The cool or uncool thing is, every one of that group of suggestions is a friend of your real friend. You can see how this would get confusing if you add a few people at once. Right now it works perfectly.

Here’s how Facebook suggests friends:

Photo of Friend Suggestions `
To see the full list, click on See All.

In order to see the full list, click on ‘See All’ to bring up page after page of suggestions, depending on how many friends your single friend has. This is the full list:

Photo of Friend Suggestion List
Here they are, all of your friend’s friends.

 

There you have it. Another glitch in Facebook’s privacy settings, all ready to be used and abused by savvy Facebook users. We can’t believe that this simple trick works, but it does. Imagine how this Facebook exploit could be used? Next to facepiles, we see this as the second biggest threat to your privacy on Facebook. We’re outlining it here just in case Facebook hears about it and changes their policy. Who would dream that their locked down friend list could be wide open like this?

Thanks for reading! Comments and questions are welcome. Join us on Facebook by liking our page: https://www.facebook.com/ComputersMadeSimple?ref=hl

Avoid Facebook Email Scams, Facebook, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Scams

Facebook Scams: How to spot them

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When any social media ‘comes of age’, there are certain to be scammers who want to take advantage of the people who use it. Facebook has been around for a long time, we all know that, and there are hundreds of scams out there which are set up to trick you out of information and/or your password(s). Here’s how to spot some of them:

1. The most important thing to remember is this: If it’s sounds too good to be true, it probably is. No one is offering anything for free. You can’t get a free iPhone, a free Walmart gift card or any other thing by clicking on a link on Facebook. Use your head! Has Walmart or Apple ever given anything away for free?  Don’t fall for any free gift links, any free vacation links or anything that even resembles this. Nothing is free, certainly not anything that you find on Facebook.

2. If you take a link that leads you outside of Facebook, you’re on your own. While you are in Facebook, certain secure conditions exist. If you click on a link that takes you out of Facebook, specially one that asks you for your Facebook password or your email password, close the browser window and move on.

3. If you get an email that looks like it’s from Facebook, it almost certainly isn’t. First, Facebook knows your name and would use it in any email that they might send you.  Second, your privacy settings can be set so that Facebook can only contact you via your mobile phone or another email account besides the one you log in with. If your account has been hacked, there are ways to know this. Again, use your head. Don’t randomly click on links that you get in emails.

4. There are two sites that you can use to check things out. OK, three, if you count this site.

Snopes.com is where you can check out urban legends, rumors and myths of all kinds. If you’ve seen photos of ‘sick children’ on Facebook, Snopes will tell you how long that particular scam has been around. Bookmark this site and use it to check out things that seem suspicious on Facebook.

Photo of Snopes logo.
Use Snopes to check out scams, myths and rumors.

Thatsnonsense.com (here is their Facebook page: That’sNonsense.com) is something that we discovered when we were checking out a Facebook scam.

Photo of Nonsense logo
Check out Facebook scams here.

You have to wade through many posts but there is lots of info here about all current Facebook spoofs. The latest is this one:

Quoted from a post on Facebook:

Hello, my FB friends: I want to stay PRIVATELY connected with you. I post photos of my family that I don’t want strangers to have access to!!! However, with the recent changes in FB, the “public” can now see activities in ANY wall. This happens when our friend hits “like” or “comment” ~ automatically, their friends would see our posts too. Unfortunately, we can not change this setting by ourselves …because Facebook has configured it this way. PLEASE place your mouse over my name above (DO NOT CLICK), a window will appear, now move the mouse on “FRIENDS” (also without clicking), then down to “Settings”, click here and a list will appear. REMOVE the CHECK on “COMMENTS & LIKE” and also “PHOTOS”. By doing this, my activity among my friends and family will no longer become public. Now, copy and paste this on your wall. Once I see this posted on your page I will do the same. Thanx

End of quote.

This paragraph is being spread all over Facebook. As you know, if you have followed us for a while, this doesn’t work. The only way you can limit posts and comments is to control your privacy settings NOT by adjusting a friend’s news feed. How would you know this? Most likely because your friend, unless they are a computer expert and a pretty good writer, would not be able to write something like this. Second, if you uncheck photos and comments, how would you be able to see those photos and comments anyway? The person who posts this obviously doesn’t know how to set their privacy controls. We do! Follow our posts and we’ll keep you up to date on all everything to do with Facebook, scams, spam and phishing. We try to simplify your life as much as we can.

If you have questions about something that you see on Facebook, let us know. We’ll track down the answer for you.

Thanks for reading!

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Controlled sharing, Facebook, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks

Facebook Privacy Shortcuts

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Facebook recently introduced a new interface (the thing that you see when you check out your Timeline). You may not have noticed the new privacy shortcuts, however. Here’s a quick guide to how to use them.

1. Click on your profile photo from anywhere in Facebook to get to your Timeline. Up at the top are some new icons. Here is what they look like:

 

Photo of Facebook Privacy Shortcuts 1
Look for the gear and padlock icons.

The gear icon hasn’t changed much. It leads to your account and privacy settings. The ‘Advertise’ link is new, we’ll explain that another time, but the links are pretty much the same as before. Here they are:

Photo of Facebook Privacy Shortcuts 2
Same old, same old except for ‘Advertise’. What the heck is that? Details later.

 

2. To the left of the gear, look for the padlock icon. It’s the one that we’re dealing with today. Instead of going to a completely different Facebook page, you can adjust your settings from your Timeline. Here’s a rundown of the different menus:

Photo of Facebook Privacy Shortcuts 3
Three icons with a down arrow to the right.

Here’s where you can change ‘Who can see my stuff?’ and ‘Who can contact me’ as well as ‘How do I stop someone from bothering me?’

 

3. One by one :

Photo of Facebook Privacy Shortcuts 3
Adjust your post setting here. There are two links to other tools, your Activity Log and the View As feature.

 

4. Next we have the ‘Who can contact me?’ settings:

Photo of Facebook Privacy Shortcuts 5
This setting is quite odd, isn’t it?

If you can tell us why Facebook uses such nebulous English, we’d love to know. It seems to us that ‘Basic Filtering’ would let your friends contact you but prevent strangers from sending you messages. Instead, neither setting makes any sense. Why would you want to receive messages from some friends and not others? How can you determine who can send a message?

As for the ‘Strict Filtering’, why would you miss messages from some friends? The ‘Mostly just friends’ line seems to say that only certain friends can get through the filter. This is, bluntly, absurd.

Lastly, choose who can send you friend requests.

5. If you have blocked someone on Facebook, you’ll remember that the process was fairly difficult. With the new shortcuts, it’s substantially easier.

Photo of Facebook Privacy Shortcuts 6
Start typing a name, then click Block when you find the right person.

 

6. The See More Settings link down at the bottom leads to this page:

Photo of Facebook Privacy Shortcuts 7
These are more settings that you can adjust. We’ll do another post specifically on this page at a later date.

 

That’s enough for today. Play with the settings here to control who sees what and who can contact you, etc. Again, Facebook has made this more confusing than necessary but, at least, the controls are easier to find. Let us know if you have a problem with any of this.

Thanks for reading!