How to Download Your Data from Twitter

Your entire history on X (formerly Twitter) is a click away, packed into a single downloadable file. Whether you want a backup of every tweet you've ever posted or a deep dive into your account analytics, requesting your data archive is a simple but powerful process. This guide will walk you through exactly how to download your Twitter data, why it’s worth doing, and what you’ll find inside that mysterious .zip file.

What Exactly Is a Twitter Archive? Understanding What You'll Get

When you request your data from X, you're not just getting a list of your tweets. You're getting a comprehensive snapshot of your entire account history since you first signed up. Think of it as your personal digital diary for the platform. You get everything from your earliest messages to the more obscure advertising data X has associated with you.

The archive arrives as a compressed .zip file. Once you open it, you’ll find a neatly organized collection of your information, typically including:

• Tweets and Retweets: Every post, retweet, and reply you've ever made. This is the core of the archive.
• Direct Messages: A complete history of your private conversations, including any media shared within them.
• Media Files: All the images, videos, and GIFs you've attached to your tweets.
• Account Information: Your profile info, creation date, linked email addresses, and phone numbers.
• Engagement History: Lists of tweets you've liked and a record of the accounts you have blocked or muted.
• Follower and Following Lists: A list of everyone who follows you and every account you follow at the time of the request.
• Advertising Data: Insights into the interests X believes you have (based on your activity) and a list of advertisers who have targeted you with their campaigns.
• Device and Login History: A long list of the IPs, devices, and browsers you've used to access your account.

The best part? This data is presented in a user-friendly format. The main file inside the archive, Your archive.html, can be opened right in your web browser. It presents your data in an interface that looks and feels a lot like using Twitter itself, making it easy to search, browse, and reminisce.

Why Bother Downloading Your Twitter Data?

Beyond simple curiosity, there are several practical and strategic reasons to request and save your Twitter archive. For casual users, it's a personal keepsake, for marketers and creators, it's a valuable dataset for building a stronger brand.

1. Create a Personal Backup and Safety Net

Social media platforms are not permanent. Accounts can be suspended by mistake, hacked, or even locked without clear recourse. In a worst-case scenario where you lose access to your account, your data archive is the only way to have a personal, permanent record of your content, connections, and conversations. It’s a digital insurance policy against the unpredictable nature of online platforms.

2. Discover and Repurpose Your Best Content

As a creator or brand, your Twitter history is packed with hidden gems. Manually scrolling back through years of content is impractical, but your archive makes it simple. You can easily search for:

• Old viral tweets: Rediscover posts that generated massive engagement and repurpose them as new graphics or "best of" threads.
• Valuable threads: That brilliant 10-part thread you wrote last year can now be instantly found and expanded into a full blog post, a YouTube video script, or an email newsletter.
• Customer feedback: Search your DMs and mentions for authentic testimonials, repeated feature requests, and pain points shared by your audience.

Your archive isn't just old content, it's a library of proven ideas waiting for a second life in another format.

3. Analyze Your Performance and Strategy

For social media managers, the raw data inside the archive is invaluable. While platform analytics show recent performance, your full archive gives you a long-term perspective. The included tweet.js file contains a raw, machine-readable log of every single tweet, complete with timestamps and favorite counts. With some basic spreadsheet work, you can analyze things like:

• Your most active posting times over the years.
• Your most frequently used words or hashtags.
• Growth patterns in engagement over specific campaign periods.

This deep historical data helps you understand the evolution of your voice and strategy, revealing what truly resonated with your audience over time.

4. Prepare for an Account Deactivation

Thinking of taking a break from X or leaving the platform for good? Don't hit that "Deactivate" button until you've secured your archive. Many users regret losing years of data, from precious memories to valuable professional discussions. Grabbing your archive is the most important final step before closing your account, making sure you don't lose that history forever.

How to Download Your Data from Twitter (X): The Step-by-Step Guide

Requesting your data is straightforward, though the interface can change slightly over time. The process is very similar whether you're using a desktop browser or the mobile app.

On a Desktop or Laptop Browser

1. Log in to X.com. Start by heading to the X website and logging into the account you want to archive.
2. Navigate to Your Settings. In the left-hand navigation menu, click on More, then select Settings and privacy from the pop-up menu.
3. Select "Your account." This menu is usually the first option in the Settings panel. It's where your core account controls live.
4. Find the Archive Option. In the "Your account" section, click on Download an archive of your data. You can’t miss it.
5. Confirm Your Identity. X will ask you to re-enter your password to prove it's really you. After that, you may need to complete a verification step. Click Send code to have a verification code sent to your registered email address or phone number. Enter the code when prompted.
6. Make the Request. Once you've been verified, you'll see a blue button that says Request archive. Click it. The process has now begun, and all you have to do is wait.

On the Mobile App (iOS and Android)

The steps on your phone are nearly identical to the desktop process.

1. Open the X App. Launch the app and make sure you're logged into the correct profile.
2. Open the Side Menu. Tap your profile picture in the top-left corner to slide open the main navigation menu.
3. Go to Settings. Tap on Settings & Privacy at the bottom of the list, then tap Your account on the next screen.
4. Select "Download an archive of your data." It's located in the same spot as the desktop version.
5. Verify Who You Are. Just like on desktop, you'll be asked for your password and then to enter a verification code delivered via email or SMS.
6. Tap "Request archive." Once you’re verified, simply tap the request button to get the process started.

What Happens Next: Waiting for Your File

Requesting your data isn't an instant process. After you hit the button, X has to compile all of your information from its servers, package it up, and prepare it for download. The platform officially states this can take 24 hours or longer. For very old or extremely active accounts with millions of tweets, it might take a few days.

When your archive is finally ready, you’ll receive a notification in two places:

• An email sent to the address associated with your account, containing a direct download link.
• An in-app push notification alerting you that your data is ready to be downloaded from the same settings page where you requested it.

It's important to act fast. According to X, the download link does expire after a few days, so be sure to download and save the file to your computer or cloud storage as soon as you get the notification.

Unpacking the Archive: How to View Your Data

Once you’ve downloaded the .zip file to your computer, right-click on it and choose "Extract All," "Unzip," or a similar command to open it. This will create a new folder with the same name, containing all your data.

When you open the folder, you'll see several sub-folders (like data and assets) alongside a handful of files. Don't worry about the mess of files with a `.js` extension unless you're a developer who wants to work with raw data.

For 99% of people, the key to the whole archive is one file:

Your archive.html

Double-click this file, and it will open in your default web browser (like Chrome, Firefox, or Safari). Instantly, you'll be treated to a local, offline, and searchable replica of your Twitter account.

A left-hand navigation bar will let you jump between sections: Tweets, Likes, Direct Messages, and more. The central display shows your content, complete with images and dates. There's even a search bar that lets you find specific keywords or old posts instantly. You can now browse your entire account history without an internet connection, safe in the knowledge that you have a complete copy all to yourself.

Final Thoughts

Downloading your Twitter archive is a simple and highly valuable practice for anyone active on the platform. It provides a permanent backup of your digital history, unlocks a trove of content for repurposing, and gives you full ownership over the data you created, allowing for curiosity, nostalgia, and strategic analysis.

Once you've analyzed your best-performing content from the archive, putting those insights into action is the next step. We found that turning data into a solid content plan is much easier with a clear, visual calendar. It's why we built Postbase with a clean, drag-and-drop planning tool, helping you see your entire strategy at a glance and schedule your strongest content ideas across all your social channels.