Mastodon Account Backup Script

This Python script allows you to back up key data from your Mastodon account, including:

• Statuses (Posts)
• Followers
• Following Accounts
• Lists
• Muted Accounts
• Blocked Accounts
• Domain Blocks
• Bookmarks
• Media Attachments

The script uses the Mastodon API to fetch and store your account data locally for reference purposes.

Features

• Backup Posts: Fetch all or a limited number of posts (statuses) from your account.
• Backup Follows: Backup the list of accounts you follow and those that follow you.
• Backup Media: Downloads media attachments from your posts.
• Backup Privacy Settings: Backs up mutes, blocks, and domain blocks.
• Customizable: Supports configurable limits for the number of posts to fetch.

Requirements

Before you run the script, ensure you have the following installed:

• Python 3.x
• Mastodon.py library
• requests library

You can install the required Python libraries with:

pip install Mastodon.py requests

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ruzaq/mastodon_account_backup.git
   cd mastodon_account_backup

2. Create a configuration file (config.ini) in the script directory with the following structure:

   [mastodon]
   api_base_url = https://your.instance
   access_token = your_access_token_here

   Replace https://your.instance with your Mastodon instance URL and your_access_token_here with your API token. You can generate an API token from your Mastodon account under Settings > Development > New Application.

Usage

The script can be run with the following options:

./mastodon_backup.py -c config.ini [-l limit]

• -c or --config: Path to your configuration file (required).
• -l or --limit: Limit the number of statuses (posts) to fetch. If not provided, the script will fetch all statuses.

Examples

1. Backup all posts and account data:

   ./mastodon_backup.py -c config.ini

   This command will fetch all statuses, followers, following accounts, lists, mutes, blocks, domain blocks, media attachments, and bookmarks.

2. Backup only the last 100 posts:

   ./mastodon_backup.py -c config.ini -l 100

   This command will fetch only the last 100 posts while still backing up followers, following, and other account data.

Output

The script stores all backup data in the out/ directory. The directory structure is as follows:

out/
    mastodon_backup_<username>_<YYYY-MM-DD>/
        statuses_backup.txt
        followers_backup.txt
        following_backup.txt
        lists_backup.txt
        mutes_backup.txt
        blocks_backup.txt
        domain_blocks_backup.txt
        bookmarks_backup.txt
        media_<index>.jpg

• statuses_backup.txt: Contains your posts (statuses).
• followers_backup.txt: Contains the usernames of your followers.
• following_backup.txt: Contains the usernames of accounts you follow.
• lists_backup.txt: Contains your Mastodon lists.
• mutes_backup.txt: Contains usernames of muted accounts.
• blocks_backup.txt: Contains usernames of blocked accounts.
• domain_blocks_backup.txt: Contains the domain names you have blocked.
• bookmarks_backup.txt: Contains URLs of bookmarked posts.
• media: Media files attached to your posts are downloaded and saved with sequential filenames.

Notes

• The script fetches all available data from your account using the Mastodon API and stores it locally.
• Please note that this script is for backup purposes only. It cannot re-import data into Mastodon.