Back up your own X videos before deleting your account

A common worry for anyone leaving X goes like this: "I'm closing my account and I don't want to lose my videos." Some people have years of clips on X: a band's live recordings, a small shop's product demos, a parent's videos of their kids, a journalist's on-the-ground footage. Often X is the only place those videos still exist, because the phone they were shot on is long gone.

This guide is the process we suggest. It is written for one situation: you are saving content you posted yourself. Backing up your own work is the clearest legitimate use of any download tool, and it's the use we built TwitterDownloaderX around. If you want to keep someone else's videos, read our guide on asking a creator for permission first.

Why "just delete it" is risky

When you deactivate an X account, X gives you a window to change your mind. At the time of writing it is 30 days, after which the account and its posts are queued for deletion. After that window you cannot reliably get anything back. Several things catch people out:

• Your phone's camera roll is not a complete backup. Videos edited in an app, recorded inside the X app, or streamed live often never landed in your gallery.
• Live broadcasts exist only on X. If you went live from the X app, the replay usually lives only on X's servers.
• Old phones and cloud accounts lapse. Many people find that the "original" file was on a device they sold years ago.
• Replies and quote posts are scattered. Videos you posted as replies are easy to forget because they don't show on the main tab of your profile the way top-level posts do.

So the goal is a backup that doesn't depend on X at all: files on a drive you control, with enough context (date, caption, link) that they still mean something in ten years.

Step 1: Request the official X data archive first

The official archive should always be your first move. It comes from X directly, it covers your whole account (posts, replies, direct messages and media), and it doesn't depend on any third-party tool still working next year.

1. Open X on the web or in the app and go to Settings and privacy → Your account → Download an archive of your data.
2. Confirm your password and the verification code X sends to your email or phone.
3. Tap Request archive.
4. Wait. X says preparing the archive can take 24 hours or longer. You'll get a notification and an email when it's ready.

We go through every screen, including what to do when the request button is greyed out, in our dedicated guide to downloading your X data archive. The important point here is timing: request the archive before you do anything else, and keep your account active until you've downloaded it and checked it. The download link expires after a while, and once the account is deactivated you can no longer request a new one.

Step 2: Check what the archive actually contains

When the ZIP arrives, unzip it on a computer (not just your phone) and open the file called Your archive.html in a browser. It gives you a browsable view of your posts. The media files are in folders inside the data directory; videos you attached to posts are usually under a folder with a name like tweets_media.

Do a quick audit before you trust it:

• Count roughly. Do you have about as many video files as you remember posting? Sort the folder by file size: videos are the big files.
• Play a few at random, especially old ones and long ones.
• Check the quality. In our experience, files in the archive are sometimes not the best version X has of a video. Compare a couple with the same post on X. If a clip looks noticeably softer or smaller, note it for Step 3.
• Look for live broadcasts. Replays of lives are handled differently from normal uploads and may not be in the media folder at all.

Make a simple list (a text file or spreadsheet is fine) of posts whose video is missing, broken or low quality. Copy the post link for each one: open the post, tap Share → Copy link.

Step 3: Fill the gaps, one post at a time

For each link on your list, you have three options, in this order of preference:

1. Find the original file. Search your old phone backups, Google Photos, iCloud, or the editing app's project folder. The original camera file is always better than anything X re-encoded.
2. Use the X app's own options. If you still have the video in the app's drafts or media studio (for accounts with access to media tools), export it from there.
3. Use a downloader on your own public posts. Paste the post link into TwitterDownloaderX and pick the highest quality listed. That is the version X actually serves for the post. We don't upscale, so if the post only has 720p, that's the best anyone can get.

A few practical notes from handling these files:

• Your account must be public for a downloader to see the post. If your account is protected, tools like ours cannot read it, by design. Either rely on the archive, or temporarily make the account public while you back it up and switch protection back on straight after. Only you can decide if that's acceptable for your content.
• Live replays take longer. A long replay has to be put together from many small segments into one MP4, so give it time and don't close the tab.
• Name files as you go. Something like 2021-06-14_shop-demo_1234567890.mp4 (date, short description, post id) saves you hours later.

Step 4: Save the context, not just the video

A folder of 300 files named video(37).mp4 is a poor archive. For each important video, keep:

• The post text (the archive has this in its data files; the HTML view lets you copy it).
• The date it was posted.
• The post link, even though it will stop working once you delete the account; it still documents where the video came from.
• Any replies or context you care about. A screenshot of the post with its replies is often the easiest way.

The archive keeps the text in machine-readable files, so even if you never open them yourself, keep the whole archive ZIP alongside your video folder. Someone (or some tool) can make sense of it later.

Step 5: Verify and store your backup properly

Before you deactivate, make sure the backup is real:

1. Copy everything to at least two places, for example an external drive and a cloud folder. The "3-2-1" rule (three copies, two kinds of storage, one off-site) is a good target for anything irreplaceable.
2. Open the copies, not the originals. Play a handful of videos from the backup drive itself.
3. Keep the archive ZIP unmodified. Unzip a working copy if you want to browse, but keep the original ZIP as received.
4. Write down where things are. A short README.txt in the folder ("X archive requested on…, extra downloads in /gaps, originals from old phone in /camera") helps future you.

Only after this should you deactivate.

Troubleshooting

The archive request button is greyed out or nothing happens. X limits how often an archive can be requested, and sometimes a pending request blocks a new one. Check whether you already requested one recently and wait for that email. Make sure your email address on the account is confirmed and that you can receive the verification code.

The archive email never arrived. Check spam and promotions folders, then return to the same settings page; when the archive is ready there's usually a download button there too.

A video plays without sound. Some posts were uploaded without audio, and GIF-style posts never have sound. Try the file in VLC before assuming it's broken. Our page on videos with no sound covers more cases.

The downloader says it can't find media in my post. The post may be protected, removed, age-restricted or withheld in a country. See why some X videos can't be downloaded.

On iPhone, I downloaded it but can't find it. Safari puts downloads in the Files app, not Photos. Our Files vs Photos guide explains how to move them.

Responsible use: only your own content

Everything in this guide is about content you created and posted. Your account backup will also contain material that isn't yours: videos you reposted, clips in quoted posts, media in DMs other people sent you. Having a copy in your archive is fine for your personal records, but it doesn't give you the right to republish those videos elsewhere. If you plan to re-upload your old posts on another platform after leaving X, re-upload your videos. For anyone else's clip, ask them first.

Be careful with direct messages, too. Your archive includes your side of conversations and media others sent you privately. Store it like any other private document: not in a public cloud folder, and not shared with anyone without thinking about the people in those chats.

A short checklist

• Request the official archive while your account is active.
• Download it, unzip it, open Your archive.html, spot-check the videos.
• List missing or low-quality videos with their post links.
• Fill gaps from original files first, then from your own public posts.
• Keep captions, dates and links with the files.
• Store two verified copies in different places.
• Then, and only then, deactivate.

It is a slow afternoon of work for a big account, but it's the difference between losing years of your own footage and keeping it for good.