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

Big changes are underway at Twitter as we speak—including new leadership—and some persons are anxious about what the foreseeable future may possibly provide for the social community. Items might conclusion up absolutely fantastic, but even in tranquil periods, it is really very good to know how to get a copy of your Twitter information for nearby safekeeping—or to deactivate your Twitter account if you pick out. This puts control of your info in your palms.

Right before we start off, it is crucial to know that the method of finding a copy of your Twitter information can just take 24 several hours or a lot more. Twitter does this both for safety factors and ostensibly to give its servers time to get the in depth data it will mail you.

Also, you’ll want an e mail handle or mobile cellular phone amount registered to your Twitter account so the web page can mail you a particular affirmation code to total the approach. The moment you have the knowledge, you may get a area duplicate of all of your tweets that you can shop indefinitely with out needing to log in to Twitter.

How to ask for your Twitter data on desktop or mobile

To get a duplicate of your Twitter data, you very first will need to full a request method. To get began, log in to Twitter.com or open up the Twitter app working with the account for which you would like to ask for an archive.

If you happen to be on the Twitter website, click on “More” in the sidebar, then simply click “Settings and Help.” On the mobile Twitter application, just faucet “Options and Help” in the sidebar. When that menu expands, click on or tap “Settings and Privateness.”

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

Just after verifying your password, Twitter will send a verification code to possibly your e-mail address or a mobile cellphone amount via a text message, depending on what you choose.

After you get the code, type it into Twitter, and you may be again on the “Obtain an archive of your data” page. Below “Twitter facts,” simply click the “Ask for archive” button.

Twitter will get started preparing your archive, which can get 24 hours or a lot more to complete.

When the archive is all set, you can expect to get a notification by means of electronic mail and/or a pop-up notification in the Twitter application. On the Twitter site or in the app, navigate to “Configurations and privateness” > “Your account” > “Obtain an archive of your facts” to download the ZIP file that incorporates your data.

What is in the Twitter information you get?

At the time you’ve downloaded the ZIP file, extract it into a folder on a Personal computer, Mac, or Linux. In that folder, you can open up “Your archive.html” in a typical net browser and search through your Twitter info locally, which is now hosted on your computer in that folder.

The Twitter account facts you can obtain comes as a ZIP file, viewable in a neighborhood world wide web browser on a Personal computer or Mac, which features your tweets and immediate messages, account data and background, apps and devices you’ve applied, accounts you’ve got blocked or muted, and promotion profile information and facts.

A note about immediate messages

From our experimentation, we have discovered that Twitter immediate messages (DMs) will be retained in Twitter’s servers as extensive as 1 human being in the chat does not delete them. So even if you delete your DM heritage with a man or woman, the other human being you chatted with will still have a copy of your shared DM heritage. But if both of those people today in the DM chat delete the direct message dialogue, it disappears from your Twitter archive (and probably from Twitter’s servers) permanently. So if you have sensitive DMs you’d like to erase, talk to the other celebration to delete their DM chat heritage with you as perfectly.

How to deactivate your Twitter account

If you’ve previously downloaded your Twitter facts and experience like you might be completely ready to take the a lot more remarkable phase of deactivating or deleting your account, then log in to Twitter.com or open up the Twitter app using the account you’d like to deactivate.

Applying the sidebar, navigate to “Configurations and privacy” > “Your account” > “Deactivate your account.” On that page, you will see a few disclaimers about how deactivation is effective, but they aren’t crystal clear about deletion. Consulting Twitter’s assistance pages reveals much more depth about the procedure: Deactivation can be reversed for up to 30 times. Just after that, your Twitter account and all connected knowledge will be permanently deleted.

If you might be prepared, click on “Deactivate.”

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

When comprehensive, your Twitter account will deactivate, and your tweets will vanish from the internet site in a few minutes. If you modify your thoughts, log in once more in just 30 days and your account will reactivate. But if you will not log in once more within just 30 days, your account will be deleted for good.