How to back up your Facebook data, pictures and videos in case of social network meltdown

The world's most popular social network with 1,230 million monthly active users crashed and posted an error message 'Sorry, something went wrong'

Millions of Facebook users were left fearing they lost priceless photographs and data this morning after the social networking site crashed.

At around 6.30am GMT those who tried to log on were unable to access their account or any personal data stored on the site's servers for around 45 minutes.

Despite Facebook priding itself on its reliability, the site has gone offline several times in the past two years for a similar amount of time.

Facebook has yet to confirm the cause of the outage but it appeared to be back up around 7:00am UK time.

Specific details as to what went wrong have not been released yet - but luckily in case it happens again there are ways you can back up your personal data, messages, wall posts, pictures, videos and contact details.

Firstly you'll need to log in to your account, click the arrow button in the top right of the page and select settings, then click Download a copy of your Facebook data.

This will take you to the Download your information page where you should select Start My Archive.

A pop up will display on the screen titled Request My Download and the message: "It may take a little while for us to gather your photos, wall posts, messages and other information.

"We will then ask you to verify your identity in order to help protect the security of your account."

You will then need to click Start My Archive where you will be prompted to reenter your password before downloading a Zip file containing all of your pictures, messages, wall posts and videos.

This will be stored on your computer but you can later back this up through cloud storage, on a CD or on a memory USB stick, which you can pick up online or at your local electronics store for several pounds.