You want to save a complete copy of your Mastodon account before leaving an instance, switching servers, or simply protecting against data loss. Mastodon offers a built-in export tool that creates a downloadable archive of your posts, media files, follower lists, and account settings. This article explains how to request and download your Mastodon data … Read more
You request an export of your Mastodon data, but the download status stays on “Download pending” for hours or even days. This problem usually occurs when the background job queue on your Mastodon server is overloaded or stuck on a failed task. The server never generates the export file, leaving you with no way to … Read more
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 … Read more
When you request your Mastodon data archive, you receive a compressed file containing your posts, media uploads, follower lists, and account settings. The size of this archive can range from a few megabytes to several gigabytes depending on how long you have used the instance and how much media you have shared. Understanding what influences … Read more
Moving to a new Mastodon account often means rebuilding your block and mute lists from scratch. Without these lists, you risk seeing content from users you previously filtered out. Mastodon provides a built-in tool to export and import these moderation settings as CSV files. This article explains how to export your block and mute lists … Read more
You bookmarked posts in Mastodon to read later. Now you need to move those bookmarks to a new instance or keep a local backup. Mastodon does not sync bookmarks across instances automatically. This walkthrough shows how to export your bookmarks as a CSV file and re-import them into another Mastodon account so you keep every … Read more
When you move a Mastodon account to a new instance, your follower list is not the only thing that needs to be migrated. Lists that you carefully organized to filter posts from different communities or topics do not transfer automatically. The Mastodon API does not include a built-in export for lists, so you must use … Read more
When you request a full data export from Mastodon, the platform delivers a ZIP file containing CSV files. Many users open these files and see columns with unfamiliar names such as id, uri, or reblog_of_id. Without understanding the schema, it is difficult to extract useful information or use the archive for backup purposes. This article … Read more
If you run a self-hosted Mastodon instance, losing the database means losing all user accounts, posts, follows, and settings. The database is the central component that stores every piece of data except media files and custom emoji. Without a recent backup, an accidental deletion, server crash, or software update failure can destroy your community. This … Read more
You uploaded a CSV file to Mastodon to import followers or blocks, and the server rejected it with an Invalid CSV error. This error usually means the file structure does not match what Mastodon expects. The problem often lies in incorrect column headers, extra quote characters, or stray text outside the data rows. Mastodon requires … Read more