How to download a backup copy of your Twitter data (or deactivate your account)

Massive improvements are underway at Twitter as we speak—including new leadership—and some people today are nervous about what the long term may possibly deliver for the social network. Factors might stop up entirely high-quality, but even in tranquil moments, it truly is fantastic to know how to get a copy of your Twitter info for area safekeeping—or to deactivate your Twitter account if you pick. This places control of your data in your arms.

Ahead of we start off, it really is important to know that the system of finding a duplicate of your Twitter details can get 24 hours or a lot more. Twitter does this the two for safety good reasons and ostensibly to give its servers time to collect the in depth data it will send out you.

Also, you will require an e-mail handle or cellular cellphone quantity registered to your Twitter account so the website can send you a distinctive affirmation code to full the approach. Once you have the details, you can get a area copy of all of your tweets that you can shop indefinitely without needing to log in to Twitter.

How to ask for your Twitter details on desktop or mobile

To get a copy of your Twitter knowledge, you initially have to have to comprehensive a ask for system. To get started, log in to Twitter.com or open the Twitter app making use of the account for which you would like to request an archive.

If you’re on the Twitter web site, click on “Far more” in the sidebar, then simply click “Configurations and Support.” On the cellular Twitter app, just faucet “Options and Guidance” in the sidebar. When that menu expands, click or faucet “Options and Privateness.”

Beneath “Configurations,” choose “Your account,” then click or tap “Obtain an archive of your data.”

Just after verifying your password, Twitter will mail a verification code to either your e mail address or a cellular phone variety by means of a text information, relying on what you pick.

Soon after you get the code, form it into Twitter, and you can be again on the “Down load an archive of your facts” website page. Less than “Twitter data,” simply click the “Request archive” button.

Twitter will get started getting ready your archive, which can get 24 hours or much more to complete.

When the archive is prepared, you are going to get a notification by way of email and/or a pop-up notification in the Twitter application. On the Twitter internet site or in the app, navigate to “Options and privacy” > “Your account” > “Obtain an archive of your data” to obtain the ZIP file that has your information.

What is in the Twitter data you get?

At the time you’ve downloaded the ZIP file, extract it into a folder on a Computer, Mac, or Linux. In that folder, you can open “Your archive.html” in a conventional website browser and glance as a result of your Twitter facts domestically, which is now hosted on your personal computer in that folder.

The Twitter account knowledge you can obtain arrives as a ZIP file, viewable in a local website browser on a Computer system or Mac, which incorporates your tweets and direct messages, account data and historical past, applications and units you’ve utilised, accounts you’ve got blocked or muted, and advertising and marketing profile details.

A observe about immediate messages

From our experimentation, we’ve recognized that Twitter direct messages (DMs) will be retained in Twitter’s servers as extended as a single particular person in the chat does not delete them. So even if you delete your DM heritage with a particular person, the other individual you chatted with will nonetheless have a copy of your shared DM historical past. But if the two men and women in the DM chat delete the direct message conversation, it disappears from your Twitter archive (and very likely from Twitter’s servers) endlessly. So if you have sensitive DMs you’d like to erase, talk to the other celebration to delete their DM chat record with you as properly.

How to deactivate your Twitter account

If you have by now downloaded your Twitter info and experience like you’re ready to choose the additional dramatic move of deactivating or deleting your account, then log in to Twitter.com or open the Twitter application utilizing the account you’d like to deactivate.

Making use of the sidebar, navigate to “Configurations and privacy” > “Your account” > “Deactivate your account.” On that site, you will see a several disclaimers about how deactivation works, but they aren’t crystal clear about deletion. Consulting Twitter’s support web pages reveals much more depth about the course of action: Deactivation can be reversed for up to 30 times. Just after that, your Twitter account and all linked knowledge will be forever deleted.

If you are all set, simply click “Deactivate.”

Even following clicking “Deactivate,” you may need to enter your Twitter password and go through a different confirmation prompt.

When entire, your Twitter account will deactivate, and your tweets will vanish from the site within a couple of minutes. If you alter your intellect, log in again in just 30 days and your account will reactivate. But if you will not log in once more in just 30 days, your account will be deleted permanently.