There’s a full archive of your tweets and likes, complete with media. If all you want is to know that you have a backup of your tweets, that’s it. You can even use the search function to find a specific tweet.
It’s great, but it’s not useful as a public archive. There are no URLs for individual tweets – all links point to Twitter itself – meaning someone who wanted to share a link to a specific archived tweet couldn’t.
Convert the archive to something browsable
If you have a website and can upload it via FTP or other means, it is possible to convert your uploaded Twitter archive to a public archive. The Tiny Subversions site has a Create your own Twitter archive very handy tool for this, especially if you intend to upload your archive to a personal website.
To get started, go to the site. I recommend reading the full instructions – the action starts at the bottom of the page. First enter the URL where your archive will eventually be hosted, this will ensure that the links work.
Small subversions via Justin Pot
Then click Choose file and upload the .ZIP file you downloaded from Twitter. Note that your file will not be uploaded to any server – the conversion happens entirely on your own device. A file named archive.zip will appear in your Downloads folder. Unzip this file and upload it to your host.
Small subversions via Justin Pot
I set up my own archives just to demonstrate it. I like the idea that my tweets are still available, but on a site that I control. I also like that threads I’ve created myself appear as threads. All my media is there too. That said, it’s not perfect – conversations with other people don’t appear, nor do moments, circles, or co-tweets.
There are a few other tools, if this one doesn’t work the way you want. Twitter Archive Analyzer can download the full-resolution images and videos while making Markdown and HTML copies of all tweets, but it’s not great as a public archive because individual tweets don’t have their own page. There is also a tool for import your tweets into Mastodonbut it’s not exactly user-friendly.
For most people, I recommend the Make Your Own Twitter Archive tool – it creates a public archive without much work on your part.
