How to Back Up Your X Articles and Threads
A two-layer plan for writers: X's own account archive as a safety net, plus per-article Markdown or ZIP files you can actually open and reuse.
A two-layer plan for writers: X's own account archive as a safety net, plus per-article Markdown or ZIP files you can actually open and reuse.
Request it in the X app or on the site: Settings and privacy → Your account → Download an archive of your data. You verify your identity with a code sent to your email or phone, tap Request data, and X notifies you when it is ready. Then download the .zip from settings while logged in (X Help). Third-party guides note that the download link may expire after a short time, so download promptly.
The archive is organized as data files plus media folders: your posts, account details, and more. It is useful as a record that you wrote something and when.
We could not find any X documentation stating that Articles are included as formatted documents, and descriptions of the archive's contents mention posts, not Articles. Open your own archive and check before you rely on it; we have not verified this for every account. Even if the text is in there, it is stored as data files, not a readable article with the layout and images.
/i/article/ in it, use the post link with /status/ instead.)For a thread, paste any post of it and the whole self-thread is merged in order.
Switch to Batch mode, paste up to 20 links, and download one ZIP. Repeat in groups of 20 for a larger back catalogue.
Xtracticle can open an article as a new note in your vault, with front-matter containing title, author, source, dates and tags. Details in Save X articles to Obsidian.
Notion can import Markdown files: use Import → Text & Markdown and pick the .md files.
YYYY-MM-DD-title.md.Follow the 3-2-1 idea: at least two copies on different devices or services, one of them off-site, such as cloud storage or a private Git repository.
Back up each Article when you publish it, because you know the link then. Request a fresh X account archive every few months as a second layer. If you also want to keep a deleted-post risk in mind, read what can and cannot be recovered.
No account, no login, no upload. Xtracticle fetches the public post on demand through the open-source FxTwitter API and builds your file in your browser. We don't store the posts you extract. We use Google Analytics to count anonymous visits and downloads so we know which features matter. The source code is on GitHub.
We could not find X documentation saying Articles are included as formatted documents. Check your own archive, and keep per-article exports as a second copy.
Paste the post link into Xtracticle and choose ZIP + images. You get a Markdown file with every image saved next to it.
Yes. Batch mode accepts up to 20 links and returns a single ZIP.
You can save any public Article for personal reading or reference. Respect the author's copyright and do not republish it without permission.
Yes. Obsidian opens .md files directly, and Notion can import Markdown through Import → Text & Markdown.