Migrating Two Mastodon Accounts from Different Servers to a Single One: A Guide

Migrating Two Mastodon Accounts from Different Servers to a Single One: A Guide

Mastodon is a decentralized social network that allows users to host their own servers, also known as "instances". With the growing popularity of Mastodon, many users find themselves wanting to migrate their accounts from one server to another. This guide will cover the process of migrating two Mastodon accounts from different servers to a single one, as well as moving old account followers to the new account.

Key Concepts

Before diving into the migration process, it's important to understand a few key concepts:

• Mastodon is a decentralized social network, meaning that users can host their own servers, known as "instances".
• Each Mastodon account is associated with a specific instance.
• Followers are associated with a specific account, not an instance.

Applications

There are a few different ways to use Mastodon, including:

• Web interface: Each instance has a web interface that can be accessed through a web browser.
• Mobile apps: There are several mobile apps available for iOS and Android that allow users to access Mastodon.
• Desktop apps: There are also several desktop apps available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Significance

Migrating Mastodon accounts can be useful in a number of situations, such as:

• Switching to a different instance with more features or a larger community.
• Moving to an instance run by a friend or organization.
• Consolidating multiple accounts into a single one.

The Migration Process

The migration process involves a few steps:

1. Create a new account on the target instance.
2. Follow the new account from the old account.
3. Use a tool such as mastodon-follow-redirect to redirect followers from the old account to the new one.
4. Delete the old account (optional).

Moving Followers

To move followers from an old account to a new one, you can use a tool such as mastodon-follow-redirect. This tool allows you to specify an old account and a new account, and it will automatically follow the new account from the old one and redirect followers to the new account.

Code Blocks

Here is an example of how to use mastodon-follow-redirect:

$ mastodon-follow-redirect --old-account old.example.com --new-account new.example.com

Migrating Mastodon accounts from different servers to a single one can be a useful way to consolidate accounts, switch to a different instance, or move to an instance run by a friend or organization. The process involves creating a new account on the target instance, following the new account from the old account, using a tool such as mastodon-follow-redirect to redirect followers, and deleting the old account (optional).

References

• Mastodon on GitHub
• mastodon-follow-redirect on GitHub

This article includes references to the following types of resources:

• Online resources: GitHub pages for Mastodon and mastodon-follow-redirect.