Bring your account
Move here, keep your people
Coming from Mastodon or another server of the fediverse? Your followers can follow you here on their own, and you can pick a new name.
Read this first: the risk is yours
Moving an account changes things on two servers, and some of them cannot be undone. Any loss of data is at your own risk. Disbigle cannot recover anything lost on your old server, and it cannot finish a move your old server refuses or interrupts.
- Before you start, download every export your old server offers (data, archive, lists) and keep them somewhere safe.
- Do not delete the old account until you have checked that everything you wanted arrived here.
- What each platform lets you take away is decided by that platform, and can change with its versions.
Your name, your choice
Your Disbigle address does not have to match the old one: [email protected] can become [email protected], or anything free. The old account keeps pointing to the new one, so whoever finds it learns where you went.
What moves and what stays
Moves
- Your followers, on their own, from servers that support moving (Mastodon and most of the fediverse)
- The people you follow, from the list you export
- Blocked and muted accounts, from the lists you export
Stays behind
- Your old posts, with their replies, likes and reshares
- Private messages and notifications
- Followers on servers that do not support moving: they must follow you again
- Your password and two-step sign-in: you set new ones here
Step by step
Save everything
On the old server, download every export it offers. Keep the files.
Sign up here
Press "Bring your account", pick your new name and write your old address.
Link the old account
Once your account is open, Settings → Move links the old address to the new one.
Start the move there
On the old server, open its "Move to a different account" page and enter your Disbigle address.
Followers arrive
Their servers follow you here on their own, within minutes or a few hours.
Bring your lists
In Settings → Move, load the lists you exported: people you follow, blocked and muted accounts.
On Mastodon the old account becomes a pointer to the new one: it can no longer post, and you have to wait 30 days before moving again.
Where you can come from
What each network lets you take away today. We add the others one by one.
Mastodon
Followers move on their own. It exports the people you follow, lists, blocks, mutes, blocked servers, bookmarks and an archive of your posts (posts cannot be imported elsewhere). Status: available now.
GoToSocial · Akkoma · Pleroma
In their recent versions, followers move on their own the same way; the people you follow can be exported as a list. Status: available now.
Misskey · Sharkey · Iceshrimp
They have an "account migration" that moves followers; the people you follow can be exported. Status: available now.
diaspora*
Load the profile data your pod lets you download: name and description, aspects, the people you share with (followed again and put back in their aspects), hashtags and blocks come here. The file is read on your computer: its private key never leaves it. Posts and photos stay on the pod. Status: available now.
Friendica
It exports your account and your contacts as a list Mastodon can read. Moving followers on their own works between Friendica servers only. Status: available now for your contacts (the list you export).
Hubzilla · (streams)
Your channel moves by cloning, but only to other hubs of the same family. Here you can rebuild your contacts by hand. Status: not possible.
Bluesky
Another protocol: an account cannot move to the fediverse. You can still follow and be followed through the Bridgy Fed bridge. Status: not possible.
A whole diaspora* pod?
If you run a pod, everyone can move at once, on the same domain and with the same keys: contacts do not even notice. That is done together with the pod's administrator: read how.
Questions
Can I go back?
You can move again, from here to anywhere that supports it. On Mastodon you then wait 30 days between moves.
My old server is closed or does not answer.
The move starts on the old server, so without it followers cannot move on their own. You can still sign up and look for your contacts again.
Do I lose my old posts?
They stay on the old server as long as it keeps them. Download its archive: it is yours.
Who is responsible if something goes wrong?
You are: moving is your choice and happens partly on another server. Keep your exports, and write to [email protected] if you need a hand.
Ready to move?
Pick your new name and bring your followers along.