Finding an old post on your Facebook timeline can be hard and may involve a lot of scrolling. You might even resort to using third-party apps and tools for this purpose. However, there is an easy way of searching through your timeline, and you don't need to compromise your privacy by using external apps.

Third-party apps and tools can potentially breach your privacy by gaining access to everything on your account. Only use apps that you trust to avoid getting hacked.

Here's how to use Facebook's search function to find old posts on your timeline, plus a few tips to get the best out of the tool.

How to Find Your Old Posts on Your Facebook Timeline

You can use Facebook's default search function to look for your old posts. If you've missed this functionality, it is understandable, as it is somewhat hidden in the options. You can follow along on your PC or phone to find stuff on your timeline.

The first thing to remember is that if you search for "My Posts", the search results that pop up are either the ones you've posted yourself or the ones posted by others that you've seen in the past. But you can add a keyword after this search term to refine the results further. For example, we searched for "My Posts Rumi", and the following old posts appeared as a result.

Search Results for My Post Rumi on Facebook

This is just a very basic search, though. In order to refine it more, you have to tinker with some filters. First, you might want the search results to show only the posts published by you, and to do that, go to Posts under Filters. Then click on Posts From and select You in the dropdown menu. Now, all the posts it shows have been posted by you.

Selecting the You filter to refine Facebook search

If you still can't find the post you are looking for, you can further refine the search results by year. To do that, again go to Posts under Filters, and click on Date Posted. Here, you can choose the year of that post, and it will show results from that particular year only.

Facebook posts search result by year

Apart from Posts From and Date Posted, you also have the option to filter results by Recent Posts, Posts You've Seen, and Tagged Location. If you're looking for a recently published post, you can select Recent Posts to narrow down the search results. If the post was published by someone else, you can try selecting Posts You've Seen. And lastly, you can refine the search results based on the location by selecting Tagged Location.

If you want to find a photo or a video on your timeline, you'll find those options under Filters. The method of searching for photos and videos is pretty much similar to the method mentioned above. However, these two options have fewer filters as compared to Posts, modified according to the requirements of the content type. Here, you might also want to check out how to download Facebook photos and videos.

Search Result for Photos on Facebook

By experimenting with these options and filters, you can pretty much search for any post on your timeline. Try out different filters to optimize and personalize the search results.

While performing these searches, we have found out that it is always better to post stuff with a caption or description. These captions and descriptions are really helpful while searching for old posts on your timeline, as the search algorithm looks for keywords in these sections of the post. Moreover, you can stop others from posting on your timeline to keep it clean.

Easily Search for Your Old Facebook Posts and Photos Using This Method

The methods mentioned above can help you find anything on your Facebook timeline, whether it's a plain text post, photo, or video. You can apply the filters, if required, to further narrow down your search results.

The only difficulty you'll face is when you search for posts without captions or descriptions. For example, if you had posted a photo without any accompanying text, it might be challenging to find. However, you can search by year to increase your chances of coming across that particular photo.