How to Import a Mastodon Following List Into a New Account

When you create a new Mastodon account, you lose all connections from your old account. Manually searching for and following each person is time-consuming and error-prone. Mastodon provides a built-in tool to export and import your following list as a CSV file. This article explains how to export your follow list from your old account and import it into your new account in just a few minutes.

What the Mastodon Following Import Feature Does

Mastodon lets you export your following list as a CSV file from your old account. A CSV file is a plain-text spreadsheet where each row represents one followed account. You can then upload that same CSV file to your new account. Mastodon will send follow requests to every account in the file. The import does not require the target accounts to accept the request unless they have manual approval enabled. The import also preserves two optional settings per account: whether to show boosts from that account and whether to enable notifications for new posts.

Before you begin, make sure you have access to both Mastodon accounts. You need the login credentials for the old account to export the file. You need the login credentials for the new account to import the file. The export and import features are available on all Mastodon instances, including mastodon.social, mastodon.online, and any self-hosted instance running Mastodon version 3.0 or later.

Steps to Export Your Following List From the Old Account

1. Open your old Mastodon account in a web browser
   Log in to the Mastodon instance where your original account exists. Make sure you are on the profile page or the home timeline.
2. Go to Preferences > Import and export
   Click the gear icon in the right sidebar to open Preferences. Then click Import and export in the left navigation menu.
3. Click the Export tab
   Under the Export tab, you see a list of data types you can download. Click CSV next to Follows. Your browser downloads a file named follows.csv.
4. Save the file to a safe location
   Keep this file on your computer. Do not edit it unless you want to remove specific accounts before importing. The file contains three columns: Account address, Show boosts, and Notify on new posts.

Steps to Import the Following List Into the New Account

1. Log in to your new Mastodon account
   Open a new browser tab and sign in to the Mastodon instance where you created your new account.
2. Go to Preferences > Import and export
   Click the gear icon and select Import and export from the left menu.
3. Click the Import tab
   You see a file upload area. Click Choose File and select the follows.csv file you exported earlier.
4. Select the import type as Follows
   From the dropdown menu labeled What do you want to import?, choose Following list. This tells Mastodon to treat each row as a follow request.
5. Choose the merge mode
   Below the dropdown, select Merge to add the imported accounts to your existing follow list. Select Overwrite to replace your current follow list with only the imported accounts. For first-time imports, use Merge.
6. Click Upload
   Mastodon processes the file. Depending on the number of accounts, this takes a few seconds to a minute. A confirmation message appears when the import completes.

Common Mistakes and Limitations When Importing Follows

CSV file format errors cause import failure

If you manually edit the CSV file, keep the three-column structure intact. The first column must contain the full account address in the format @username@instance.domain. Do not add extra columns or change the column order. If the import fails, download a fresh copy and try again without editing.

Imported accounts do not appear immediately

Mastodon sends follow requests asynchronously. Large imports can take up to 30 minutes to complete. Check your following list after 30 minutes. If some accounts are still missing, refresh the page and check again.

Private accounts require manual approval

If an account you imported has locked their profile, Mastodon sends a follow request instead of an instant follow. You cannot speed up this process. The account owner must approve each request manually.

Blocked or deleted accounts are skipped silently

Mastodon skips accounts that no longer exist or that have blocked your new account. The import process does not show an error for these skipped accounts. To confirm, compare your old following list with your new following list after the import completes.

Mastodon Follow Import vs Manual Follow

Item	CSV Import	Manual Follow
Time required for 100 follows	2 minutes	15 minutes
Risk of missing accounts	Low with correct CSV	High due to typos
Supports boost and notify settings	Yes	No (set individually)
Works across different instances	Yes	Yes
Requires file transfer between devices	Yes	No

You can now transfer your entire Mastodon following list to a new account in under five minutes. Use the Export and Import tabs in Preferences to move your connections without manual work. For large lists, check the Import log in Preferences to see which accounts were skipped. As an advanced tip, edit the CSV file before importing to remove accounts you no longer wish to follow, saving time on both sides.