How to delete your Twitter account (and protect your data)

When your deactivated Twitter account reaches the 30-day or 12-month mark (whichever you choose), all of your data will be deleted from the social network’s servers, permanently. However, if you’d like to retain your data, Twitter provides a way to download an archive of everything tied to your account that remains on its servers. 

It may not seem like your Twitter data will be too valuable in the long run. But, if you ever need to access a link that you shared (or was shared with you), you need proof of some previous exchange, or you just want a way to take a trip down memory lane, you might as well go through this easy step to ensure that your data is available to you in the future. 

Also: Pay-to-play Twitter verification? No thanks, but here’s what I would pay for

For this bit, you’ll need to use the Twitter website. None of its mobile apps offer this option. The process is almost identical whether you access the website via desktop browser or mobile browser. The steps of the process follow:

1. Open your desktop or mobile browser. 

2. Navigate to Twitter.com and click on More on the left side. 

3. Then click on Settings and privacy.

4. Once inside, click on Your account, then click on Download an archive of your data.

5. You may need to enter your password at this point, then you’ll be able to click Request archive.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll receive a notification that the process can take up to 24 hours for processing. Once the archive is ready, you’ll receive a mobile push notification via your Twitter mobile app, and an email. 

Both notifications will provide a link that will automatically take you to your Settings page on the Twitter website. There you can download the prepared archive of your data. 

What you’ll actually download is a Zip file that you can unzip/uncompress into a folder with two important items inside: an HTML file titled Your Archive and a Data folder that contains all of the media you posted to Twitter, such as uploaded videos, images, and animated .gifs. 

Also: How to delete yourself from internet search results and hide your identity online

The HTML file will open in your browser, where you’ll be able to navigate through it much like you would the Twitter website. 

The Data folder can be navigated like any folder on your desktop or smartphone. Within it, you can play/view your media locally, assuming the media type is supported by your current device. 

Once this is done, you’ve got your data and you can proceed to the final step. If anything within that data is precious to you, we’d highly recommend that you back it up, either locally, or to a cloud storage service of your choice. 

Next, let’s finally get rid of that account.