Mastodon Migration Lists: How to Recreate at Target Instance

When you move your Mastodon account from one instance to another, your followers and settings follow the migration handshake. Lists, however, do not transfer automatically. This leaves you with a blank Lists panel on the new instance, even though your followed accounts have arrived. In this article, you will learn the exact steps to export your existing list memberships from the old instance and import them into the new instance using Mastodon’s built-in tools.

Mastodon stores lists locally on each instance database. The Move account procedure only migrates your profile, followers, and followed accounts. Lists are treated as private organizational data that the platform does not carry over. Recreating them manually for dozens of accounts is tedious and error-prone. The method described here uses CSV export and import to rebuild your lists in under ten minutes.

This guide applies to Mastodon version 4.0 and later. The export and import features are available on both the web interface and most mobile apps. You need access to both your old account and your new account during the process. No third-party tools or API access are required.

How Mastodon Lists Work and Why They Do Not Migrate

Mastodon lists are private groupings of accounts you follow. They let you filter the Home timeline to show only posts from specific groups, such as “Team” or “News.” Each list is stored as a record in the instance database tied to your user ID. When you initiate a Move from a different account in Preferences > Account, the old instance and the new instance exchange data through the ActivityPub protocol. This handshake transfers your profile, display name, bio, avatar, header image, and all accounts you follow. Lists are excluded from the protocol because they are not part of the public profile. They are considered local preferences that each instance manages independently.

The export feature in Mastodon produces a CSV file that contains your lists and the accounts in each list. The file uses three columns: List name, Account address, and Account URL. This file is the key to recreating your lists on the new instance. The import feature on the new instance reads the same CSV format and creates the lists automatically.

Step-by-Step Guide to Export, Edit, and Import Lists

You need to perform three stages: export the CSV from the old instance, edit the CSV to remove incompatible headers, and import the edited CSV into the new instance. Complete all stages before logging out of the old account permanently.

Stage 1: Export Lists and Follows from the Old Instance

1. Log in to your old Mastodon account
   Open the instance URL where your account currently resides. Enter your email and password to access the Home timeline.
2. Open the Preferences menu
   Click the gear icon in the right column of the web interface, or navigate to the Preferences link from your profile dropdown menu.
3. Select Import and export
   In the left navigation pane, click the Import and export option. This page contains both the export and import sections.
4. Click the Export button for Lists
   Locate the section labeled Export. Click the button labeled Lists. Your browser downloads a file named lists.csv.
5. Verify the CSV file contents
   Open the downloaded lists.csv file with a text editor or spreadsheet application. Confirm that the first row shows List name,Account address,Account URL. Each subsequent row contains a list name and the corresponding followed account address.

Stage 2: Edit the CSV File for Import Compatibility

1. Remove the header row from the CSV
   Delete the first row that contains List name,Account address,Account URL. The import feature on the new instance expects only data rows without a header.
2. Remove duplicate account entries
   If the same account appears in multiple lists, the import process will create multiple rows for that account. This is acceptable because Mastodon’s import handles duplicates without errors. However, if you prefer to avoid redundant processing, delete duplicate rows now.
3. Save the edited file as a new CSV
   Use the Save As command in your editor. Name the file lists-import.csv. Ensure the file extension is .csv and the encoding is UTF-8.

Stage 3: Import the Edited CSV into the New Instance

1. Log in to your new Mastodon account
   Open the instance URL where you created your new account. Enter your credentials to access the Home timeline.
2. Open the Preferences menu on the new instance
   Click the gear icon in the right column, then click Import and export in the left navigation pane.
3. Choose the import type Lists
   In the Import section, locate the dropdown menu labeled Import type. Select Lists from the dropdown.
4. Select the edited CSV file
   Click the Browse or Choose File button. Navigate to the lists-import.csv file you saved earlier. Select it and confirm.
5. Click the Upload button
   Press the Upload button to start the import. Mastodon processes the file and creates the lists on your new account. A confirmation message appears when the import completes.
6. Verify the lists on your new account
   Navigate to the Lists panel from the Home timeline. Click the Lists icon in the left sidebar. You should see all your original lists with the correct account memberships.

Common Mistakes and Limitations When Recreating Lists

CSV file contains a header row that causes import failure

The Mastodon import function for lists expects data rows only. If the first row contains column headers, the import will skip that row and treat it as a list entry. This can create a list named “List name” with no valid members. Always delete the header row before uploading.

Accounts not yet followed on the new instance

The list import only adds accounts that already exist in your following list on the new instance. If you migrated your account using the Move procedure, your followed accounts transfer automatically. If you created a fresh account without migration, you must follow the accounts first before the list import can assign them to lists. Use the standard Follow function or import a follows CSV before importing lists.

List names with special characters cause parsing errors

Mastodon list names can contain letters, numbers, spaces, and underscores. Names with commas, quotes, or line breaks break the CSV format. If your original lists contain such characters, rename them in the CSV file before import. Replace commas with spaces and remove quotation marks.

Mastodon List Export vs Manual Recreation

Item	CSV Export and Import	Manual Recreation
Time required	5 to 10 minutes	30 minutes to several hours depending on list size
Error risk	Low if CSV is correctly edited	High due to missed accounts or accidental duplicates
Requires access to old instance	Yes, to export the CSV	No, but you must remember all list memberships
Supports multiple lists	Yes, all lists are exported at once	Yes, but each list must be created individually
Handles account renames	Uses account addresses that remain valid after migration	Requires manual search for renamed accounts

The CSV method is significantly faster and more reliable for users who maintain more than three lists. Manual recreation is only practical for users with one or two lists containing fewer than ten accounts total.

You can now recreate your Mastodon lists on any new instance using the export and import tools built into the platform. The entire process takes under ten minutes and preserves the exact grouping structure you had before migration. Next time you move instances, run the export before initiating the Move procedure to ensure you have the latest list data. For large lists with over 100 accounts, consider splitting the CSV into smaller files of 500 rows each to avoid timeout errors during import.