How to download your Twitter archive and delete your account
April 22, 2022
Twitter can be a trove of information. It can also enable endless doomscrolling.
If you’d rather get your news and debate people on the latest hot take elsewhere, or have any other concerns about the platform, here’s a guide to doing that. But first:
Download your Twitter archive
Want to have a copy of your Twitter data before leaving the app for good? Here’s how to do that from your browser:
- Click on more on the left-hand side of your Twitter homepage.
- Hit settings and privacy > your account > Download an archive of your data.
- Enter your password and hit confirm > Send code to your email address or phone number.
- Once your identity is confirmed, you’ll be redirected to a page where you can click Request data.
Here’s how to download your Twitter archive from the app on your phone or mobile device:
- Click on the profile icon, then go to settings and privacy > your account > Download an archive of your data.
- Enter your password and hit confirm > Send code to your email address or phone number.
- Once your identity is confirmed, you’ll be redirected to a page where you can click Request data.
It can take up to 24 hours to receive an email with a link that will let you download your data, Twitter says. See more information from Twitter here.
How to delete your Twitter account from your browser
- Once you’re logged in, click on more on the left-hand side of your Twitter homepage.
- Click on settings and privacy > your account > deactivate your account > deactivate.
- Enter your password and hit confirm.
How to delete your Twitter account from your phone
- Click on the profile icon, then go to settings and privacy > your account > deactivate your account > deactivate.
- Enter your password.
Is deactivating the same as deleting Twitter?
The deactivation period lasts for 30 days. If you don’t log into your account during that period, your account will be permanently deleted. See more information from Twitter here.
With our lives so online, our digital space can get messy with inactive and unnecessary accounts — and forgetting about them can pose a security risk. You’ll be off to a good start with our one-stop shop for deleting online accounts, but it’s far from exhaustive. So here’s a bonus tip: Sign up for Firefox Monitor. It alerts you when your data shows up in any breaches, including on websites that you’ve forgotten giving your information to.
