What is Permanent Media Backup?
When you save a post from Instagram, Threads, TikTok, or Facebook, the images and videos in that post are served through the platform's CDN (Content Delivery Network). These CDN links are temporary — they expire after hours, days, or weeks depending on the platform.
Without backup
The Problem: Expiring Media Links
Social media platforms rotate their CDN URLs regularly as a security measure. This means:
- Instagram and Threads — captured CDN URLs can expire
- TikTok — captured playback URLs can be short-lived
- Facebook — captured image and video URLs can stop working over time
The current backup pipeline targets Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and Facebook. Media from other sources is displayed from the URL saved for that post and is not copied by this feature.
The Solution: Permanent Media Backup
With Permanent Media Backup enabled, Savebase copies eligible images, videos, and author profile pictures to Backblaze B2 object storage. Playback uses access-controlled, time-limited URLs generated after Savebase verifies the signed-in user.
The backup happens in the background. You save posts exactly as before; eligible media is queued and the dashboard reports pending, processing, completed, and failed items. The stored object remains under Savebase's control even though each playback URL expires after four hours and is regenerated as needed.
Supported Platforms
| Platform | Media Backed Up | Expires Without Backup? |
|---|---|---|
| Images, videos, carousels, author avatar | Can expire | |
| Threads | Images, videos, carousels, quote post media, author avatar | Can expire |
| TikTok | Videos, thumbnails, author avatar | Can expire |
| Images, videos, carousels, author avatar | Can expire | |
| Other sources | Not handled by the current media-backup pipeline | Depends on source |