Benj Edwards
Big changes are underway at Twitter as we speak — including new leadership — and some people are nervous about what the future holds for the social network. Things can turn out perfectly fine, but even in quiet times, it’s good to know how to get a copy of your Twitter data for local storage—or deactivate your Twitter account if you want. This puts control of your data in your hands.
Before we get started, it’s important to know that the process of getting a copy of your Twitter data can take 24 hours or more. Twitter does this for security reasons and ostensibly to give its servers time to collect the detailed data it will send you.
You’ll also need an email address or mobile phone number registered to your Twitter account so that the site can send you a special confirmation code to complete the process. Once you have the data, you’ll get a local copy of all your tweets that you can keep indefinitely without having to sign in to Twitter.
How to search your Twitter data on desktop or mobile
To get a copy of your Twitter data, you must first complete a request process. To get started, sign in to Twitter.com or open the Twitter app using the account you want to request an archive for.
If you’re on the Twitter website, click More in the sidebar, then click Settings and Support. In the Twitter mobile app, just tap Settings & Support in the sidebar. When that menu expands, click or tap Settings & Privacy.
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Under Settings, select Your Account, then click or tap Download an archive of your data.
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After verifying your password, Twitter will send a verification code to either your email address or a mobile phone number via text message, depending on what you choose.
Once you get the code, type it into Twitter and you’ll be taken back to the “Download an archive of your data” page. Under “Twitter Data,” click the “Search Archive” button.
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Twitter will begin preparing your archive, which may take 24 hours or more to complete.
When the archive is ready, you will receive an email notification and/or a pop-up notification in the Twitter app. On the Twitter website or app, navigate to Settings & Privacy > Your Account > Download an Archive of Your Data to download the ZIP file containing your data.
What’s in the Twitter data you receive?
After downloading the ZIP file, extract it to a folder on a PC, Mac or Linux. In that folder, you can open “Archive.
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The Twitter account data you can download arrives as a ZIP file, viewable in a local web browser on a PC or Mac, which includes your tweets and direct messages, account information and history, and the apps and devices you have used, accounts you have blocked or muted, and advertising profile information.
A note about direct messages
From our experimentation, we’ve noticed that Twitter direct messages (DMs) will be stored on Twitter servers as long as a person in the chat does not delete them. So even if you delete your DM history with one person, the other person you chatted with will still have a copy of your shared DM history. But if both people in the DM conversation delete the Direct Message conversation, it’s gone from your Twitter archive (and likely from Twitter’s servers) forever. So if you have sensitive DMs that you want to delete, ask the other party to also delete their DM chat history with you.
How to deactivate your Twitter account
If you’ve already downloaded your Twitter data and feel like you’re ready to take the more dramatic step of deactivating or deleting your account, then log in to Twitter.com or open the Twitter app using the account you want to deactivate.
Using the sidebar, navigate to Settings & Privacy > Your Account > Deactivate Your Account. On that page, you’ll see disclaimers about how it works. It explains that the deactivation process can be reversed in up to 30 days. After that, your Twitter account and all associated data will be permanently deleted. If you’re ready, click Disable.
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Even after you click “Disable,” you’ll still need to enter your Twitter password and go through another confirmation prompt.
When it’s done, your Twitter account will be deactivated and your tweets will disappear from the website within minutes. If you change your mind, log in again within 30 days and your account will be reactivated. But if you don’t log back in within 30 days, your account will be permanently deleted.
