Why you should download your Twitter archive - and how to do it

After Elon Musk became the owner of Twitter a couple of weeks ago, many changes have happened to the platform, many for the worse.

For one, the Twitter Blue experiment, which began and stopped numerous times, has been suspended for the moment following a slew of fraudulent but verified accounts that have spread on the social media platform.

Even Twitter Support is seemingly having a hard time getting this under control.

Last week, the platform shared that they decided to add an "official" label to some accounts to prevent impersonations.

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Elsewhere, there is also cause for concern given the amount of Twitter employee and contractor layoffs that have also occurred.

Casey Newton, the co-founder of the Platformer, took to his Twitter to note that company sources informed him of the thousands of contractor layoffs.

"Company sources tell me that yesterday Twitter eliminated ~4,400 of its ~5,500 contract employees, with cuts expected to have [a] significant impact to content moderation and the core infrastructure services that keep the site up and running.

"People inside are stunned," he tweeted on Sunday (13 November).

People across Twitter are concerned about the possibility of the site suddenly being shut down, locked out of their accounts, and more.

However, one way that can help people avoid these issues is to preserve their Twitter archive, a collection of profile information, DMs, moments, follower lists, and more.

Here's how it can be done.

First, confirm your email address by hovering over to the "More" section, then scroll to "Settings and Support," followed by "Settings and Privacy," "Your Account," and "Account Information," and view the email that's present.

Then, log back into your account in the same browser.

After that, click on the "More" section, scroll to "Settings and Support," then "Settings and Privacy," and "Your Account," before going down to the section that reads "Download an Archive of Your Data."

From there, you will be asked to input your password and hit confirm. You will also be asked to verify who you are with a code that can be sent to your phone or email on file. Once that's complete, request the archive.

Once the archive file download is available, you will get a push notification if the app is n your phone or via email.

Lastly, go back into the "More" tab, then "Settings and Support," "Settings and Privacy," "Your Account," and hit "Download an Archive of Your Data," which will provide you with a button to click on for a Zip file of your archive.

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