Migrating your mastodon account from one server to another
When most people start using mastodon, they’ll join one of the larger public servers like mastodon.social
. Over time, though, you may want to start a server for yourself or move to a more specialized server. Here we talk through the best way to move your account.
Mastodon does have a built-in process to migrate between servers, which does a lot of the work but has some limitations. Here’s a rough overview of what it does currently:
The first step is to create the new account on your chosen server. If you’re stuck finding a new home, fedi.garden and joinmastodon.org/servers are great resources; we can also create and manage a mastodon server for you!
You’ll need to use the Preferences
page on the server you’re moving to, so make sure you’re using it from the web instead of an app.
Preferences
page, click on the Account
tabMoving from a different account
and click the create an account alias
linkCreate alias
While your new server sets up the alias, go to the Preferences
page on your old server and use it to export some other data.
Preferences
page, click on the Import and export
tabCSV
links listed in the table to download files (you can skip any files where the total is zero)Preferences
page, click on the Account
tabMove to a different account
and click Configure it here
Now that your old and new server are syncing your followers, you can import those CSV files that you downloaded from your old server into your new server.
Preferences
page, click on the Import and export
tabCSV exports
step above - be sure to choose the import type from the list; it’s probably best to use Merge
instead of Overwrite
.Have a look at your new account to see how things look - you’ll also see that your old profile is now grayed out and showing the redirection.
Your old and new server will each have some work to do as part of the move, so it’s best not to delete the old account, for a little while at least. The process of moving across your followers might also take some time, so it’s best to be patient.
Migrating your mastodon account from one server to another
When most people start using mastodon, they’ll join one of the larger public servers like mastodon.social
. Over time, though, you may want to start a server for yourself or move to a more specialized server. Here we talk through the best way to move your account.
Mastodon does have a built-in process to migrate between servers, which does a lot of the work but has some limitations. Here’s a rough overview of what it does currently:
The first step is to create the new account on your chosen server. If you’re stuck finding a new home, fedi.garden and joinmastodon.org/servers are great resources; we can also create and manage a mastodon server for you!
You’ll need to use the Preferences
page on the server you’re moving to, so make sure you’re using it from the web instead of an app.
Preferences
page, click on the Account
tabMoving from a different account
and click the create an account alias
linkCreate alias
While your new server sets up the alias, go to the Preferences
page on your old server and use it to export some other data.
Preferences
page, click on the Import and export
tabCSV
links listed in the table to download files (you can skip any files where the total is zero)Preferences
page, click on the Account
tabMove to a different account
and click Configure it here
Now that your old and new server are syncing your followers, you can import those CSV files that you downloaded from your old server into your new server.
Preferences
page, click on the Import and export
tabCSV exports
step above - be sure to choose the import type from the list; it’s probably best to use Merge
instead of Overwrite
.Have a look at your new account to see how things look - you’ll also see that your old profile is now grayed out and showing the redirection.
Your old and new server will each have some work to do as part of the move, so it’s best not to delete the old account, for a little while at least. The process of moving across your followers might also take some time, so it’s best to be patient.