How to Migrate from Twitter to Mastodon

Let's say you want to leave Twitter. For whatever reason. Everyone's talking about Mastodon and how great it is. How can you make the switch? Are there any easy ways to move from Twitter to Mastodon?

No, not really. But there is a tool that can help. You can migrate some of the people you're following and your followers to Mastodon from Twitter. You can't move your followers, but you can follow them and hope they follow you back.

Which Mastodon Server Do I Sign Up With?

I don't know the answer to this question. There are tons of them to choose from. Find one that matches your community. It doesn't matter much because you can follow people from any Mastodon server.

I originally signed up on Mastodon.Social because someone invited me there a couple of years ago. But I am thinking of moving over to Dotnet.Social to be a bigger part of that community.

It's entirely up to you. However, once you pick one, you can get some of your Twitter people over there fairly quickly.

Migrating Your Twitter Friends

This process is not precise. Obviously, not all of your Twitter friends are Mastodon. Also, if they are, they have to have a Mastodon link in their profile (Twitter is already cracking down on this).

There is a great tool I used called Debirdify. It has yet to be banned on Twitter. It's free. Here's how you use it.

1. Sign In

Sign in and give the app permission to access your Twitter account:

2. Search For Your Friends

Once you're logged in, you have a few options:

You can:

• Search followed accounts
• Search followers
• Search for blocked and muted accounts

This tool looks for a Fediverse ID in their profiles and provides a list. The tool even checks your profile to see if you have one:

3. Export the .CSV

From there, you can build a CSV file of the Twitter users it finds. The tool will show you a count and produce a link to the CSV file for you:

Perfect.

You can then download a .csv file of the accounts. One is formatted for Mastodon. One is not. Choose the one formatted for Mastodon and download it.

4. Import the .CSV into Mastodon

Log into your Mastodon server and click "edit profile"

Select "Import and Export"

Select the "Import" tab below, and you'll see an import screen.

Upload your .CSV file and click "upload"

And that's all!

I did two CSV files, both my followers and the people I follow. Now I am following them on Mastodon so we can stay in touch.

I hope your migration goes smoothly and you enjoy your time on Mastodon. The culture is quite different, but that could be because of fewer people on the platform. For now, it's pretty awesome.

Questions? Comments? Yell at me on Mastodon!