How to save your tweet archive, burn the evidence and get out before #RIPTwitter actually happens

Suddenly it’s not looking great at Elon Musk’s Twitter.

There’s blood in the water, but half the sharks have been fired and the other half have jumped ship.

The word factory was said to be shutting down for the weekend, but someone’s tweeted that tweets are still on for the weekend.

It is, however clearly a total, gripping slow motion car wreck which may very well suddenly speed up – in which case keen Twitterers may want to dash on in and clean house while the ship is quasi-upright.

If you’ve been witty, then now’s possibly a good time to get on in there and save, burn or frame the many years of tweets and other foolishness you’ve seen fit to share.

How to get your stuff and get out

Twitter used to have a working  ‘grab everything and burn the house’ switch. Certainly, in theory it shouldn’t be a drama.

Of course everything is a drama Chez Twitter right now, so there’s a reason that if you’re jumping ship, it might be good to do it now or forever let them hold your pieces.

As of right now, not a lot is going smoothly over there – as the NYT says – there’s already visible cracks in the infrastructure.

But if all goes well, here’s how you can download your data from Twitter, including your tweets, attached photos and videos, direct messages, likes, lists and Moments.

When you download your Twitter archive, you’re capturing a snapshot of all your Twitter info starting al the way back at your first baby step tweets.

1. Click on the More icon in the navigation bar right above the blue draft new Tweet icon.

2. Then hit “Settings and Support” from the menu. Click “Settings and privacy.” Choose “Your account” from the menu options.

3. Click “Download an archive of your data.” You’ll be asked to enter your password, do so and click “Confirm.”

4. Next you’ll have to verify your identity.

5. Click “Send code” to your email and/or your phone number. You’ll be redirected to the “Account information” page where you’ll be able to enter the code that was sent to your email or phone.

6. Once your identity is verified, click Request archive.

7. When your download is finished, Twitter will send you an email where you can download a .zip file of your Twitter archive.

8. If you have the app downloaded, you’ll get a push notification letting you know your Twitter archive has finished downloading.

9. Navigate back to “Settings” on the app where you can click the “Download data” button under the Download data section.

Worth repeating – we don’t know just how long this might take – Old Twitter says “24 hours or longer,” New Twitter probably fired those help deactivate accounts people first up.

On your big computer

While logged into your account, Click More in the left column. Choose “Settings and Support,” then “Settings and privacy.”

Under Your account select “Download an archive of your data.

You will have to do the Twitter password thing, and it will then email or text you a verification code that also needs to be entered.

*As of Friday, CNBC says there were widespread reports of the text option not working, but the email option appeared to work.

After submitting your password and the verification code, hit the big, blue button that says “Request archive.”

Once you’ve requested your data, it’s time to sit back and hope. Twitter says “it can take 24 hours or longer for your data to be ready,” but that’s in the best of times.

Good luck.

On iOS and Android

1. Tap on your profile photo in the top-left corner

2. Scroll down to Settings and Support.

3.  Select Settings and privacy.

4. Click on Your account, then;

5. Click on Download an archive of your data

6. You’ll get asked to sign in

7. Follow the steps from above.

Deactivating vs deleting your Twitter account