How to Download Your X (Twitter) Archive

X has no list of the people who unfollowed you or who don't follow you back. What it does give you is a copy of your account data, called your X archive. The archive includes the accounts that follow you and the accounts you follow, and the X tool on unfollowtool compares those two lists in your browser.

This guide covers requesting the archive on a computer and in the X app, getting the ZIP onto your device, what's inside it, and the problems people run into most often.

The short version

Where	Settings and privacy → Your account → Download an archive of your data (in the app: Account → Your X data)
Direct link	x.com/settings/download_your_data (works when you're logged in)
What you need	Your X password and access to the email address or phone number on your account
What you can choose	Nothing. X always builds the full archive, media included
Waiting time	X says it may take a few days
How you're told	An email notification, or a push notification if you have the X app installed
What you get	A ZIP file named like `twitter-2026-09-27-….zip`
What unfollowtool reads	`data/follower.js` and `data/following.js`, plus `account.js` and `manifest.js` if present

Before you start

Each of these can stop the request, so check them first:

A confirmed email address. X asks you to confirm your email before you can request the archive. If your account has no email or phone number, X sends you to the Account information page instead of sending a code.
An X password. On x.com, X asks for your password before it lets you request your data. If you signed up with Google or Apple and never set one, create a password first with Forgot password on the X login page.
The same browser. X says you need to be logged in to X in the browser you use to download the archive.
Storage space. The archive contains the photos, videos and GIFs you've posted or sent, so it can be large if you post a lot of media.

If you've downloaded your data from Instagram or Facebook before, you may be looking for a "followers only" option, a JSON/HTML choice or a date range. X has none of these. You request the archive and wait. In a current browser, the size doesn't matter much for unfollowtool, because the tool only unpacks the few small files it needs.

Request your archive on a computer

Log in at x.com. In the menu on the left, click More, then Settings and privacy.
Click Your account, then Download an archive of your data. You can also open x.com/settings/download_your_data directly.
Enter your password and click Confirm.
Click Send code. X sends a code to the email address and/or phone number on your account.
Enter the code.
Click Request data. Older versions of the page call it Request archive.

Request your archive in the X app

The steps are the same on iPhone and Android. Only the first tap differs: depending on your app version, you'll see your profile icon or a navigation menu icon at the top.

Tap your profile icon (or the menu icon), then Settings and privacy.
Tap Account. Some app versions call it Your account.
Under Data and permissions, tap Your X data.
Tap Send code to get a code by email or text message. X may also ask for your password.
Enter the code.
Under Download your data, next to X, tap Request data.

Later, the finished archive is downloaded from the same screen.

How long it takes

X's help center says preparing the archive may take a few days. Third-party guides commonly report 24 to 48 hours, and longer for accounts with many posts and a lot of media. X doesn't publish a guaranteed time.

When the archive is ready, X lets you know by email, or with a push notification if you have the X app installed. The notifications go only to you. Nobody on your follower or following lists is told anything.

Download the ZIP file

You can download the archive from the link in the email, or from the settings page where you requested it (on x.com, the Download data button). Either way, X says you need to be logged in to X in the browser you download with.

X's help pages don't say how long the download stays available. Download the file the day it arrives so you don't have to request it again.

On a computer

The ZIP goes to your browser's download folder, usually Downloads. You don't need to unzip it: unfollowtool reads the ZIP as it is.

Safari on Mac unzips downloaded ZIP files automatically by default, so you may find a folder named twitter-2026-… instead of a ZIP. That still works, see The archive was unzipped.

On iPhone

If the download button in the X app doesn't save a file, open the email link or x.com/settings/download_your_data in Safari, and log in to x.com there.
Tap the download button and confirm the download if Safari asks.
The file is saved in the Files app under Browse → iCloud Drive → Downloads, unless you changed Safari's download location.

You don't need to open the ZIP. If you tap it in Files, iOS creates a folder next to it with the unpacked contents. Leave the .zip file where it is and select that one later.

On Android

Open the email link or x.com/settings/download_your_data in Chrome, and log in to x.com there.
Tap the download button.
Find the file under Chrome's menu ⋮ → Downloads, or in your phone's Files app under Downloads.

What's inside the ZIP

Opened on a computer, the archive looks roughly like this:

twitter-2026-09-27-….zip
├── Your archive.html   (a viewer you open in a desktop browser)
└── data/
    ├── follower.js     (the accounts that follow you)
    ├── following.js    (the accounts you follow)
    ├── account.js      (your username, email and account details)
    ├── manifest.js     (an index of the archive)
    └── … many more files: posts, likes, messages, media

X describes the archive as "HTML and JSON files". The HTML part is Your archive.html, which lets you browse your data offline. The data itself sits in the .js files in the data folder. Each of them is JSON with one line of JavaScript in front:

window.YTD.following.part0 = [
  { "following" : { "accountId" : "1111111111", "userLink" : "https://twitter.com/intent/user?user_id=1111111111" } }
]

Each entry in follower.js and following.js has exactly two fields: a numeric account ID and a profile link. There is no @username, no display name and no follow date. For very large accounts, X can split a list into extra files such as follower-part1.js.

Check who doesn't follow you back

Open the X tool. Use this page, not the Instagram checker on the homepage.
Click Choose your X archive ZIP, or drag the ZIP onto the box. On a phone, the box opens your file picker: go to Downloads (Files app on iPhone) and pick the ZIP.
Wait for "Analysis complete". The results appear below the box.

You get three lists: Don't follow you back, You don't follow back and Mutual. Because the archive has no usernames, every row shows "Account ID" plus a number, and its Open button shows the profile on X (if X asks you to log in, use a browser where you're signed in). You can search by account ID and download each list as a CSV file. The X tool page explains the results in more detail.

What happens to the file: it's opened by JavaScript in your browser tab and never uploaded. Besides the two lists, the tool reads only account.js (to keep saved results of different accounts apart) and manifest.js (to check that no part of a list is missing). Your posts, messages and media are never unpacked. You can check this yourself: load the page, go offline, then select the ZIP. In a current browser the analysis still works.

Seeing who unfollowed you

One archive is a snapshot. It shows who doesn't follow you back at the moment X built it, not who unfollowed you. Someone on the "Don't follow you back" list may never have followed you at all.

To see who left, you need two archives from different dates. Keep Remember this result on this device checked when you analyze the first one: the account IDs are then saved in this browser, not on a server. When you analyze a newer archive in the same browser, an Unfollowed you list shows the accounts that were among your followers last time and aren't anymore, and a New followers list shows who arrived since. Unfollowed you also includes accounts that were deleted, suspended or deactivated in between, and followers you removed or blocked yourself. The X tool page describes how the comparison works.

Two practical tips: keep each archive ZIP you download, and upload the archive the same way each time, ideally the full ZIP. If you select loose files instead, include account.js, so the result is filed under your account and can be compared with the next one.

Troubleshooting

X asks for a password I don't have

X requires a password to download your data. If you signed up with Google or Apple, you may never have set one. Log out, choose Forgot password on the X login page, set a password, and start the request again.

I'm not getting a verification code

X sends the code to the email address and/or phone number on your account. Check your spam folder. If your account has neither, X sends you to the Account information page: add and confirm an email address there, then try again.

My archive hasn't arrived

X says it may take a few days. Check your spam folder, and look at the settings page where you requested it. When the archive is ready, a download button appears there (Download data on x.com), even if you missed the email.

The download link has expired

Request a new archive from the same settings page and wait again. The 4-day limit you may have read about is Meta's rule for Instagram and Facebook downloads. X doesn't publish a fixed period, so download as soon as you get the email.

The download doesn't start on my phone

Email apps and the X app sometimes open links in a built-in browser where you aren't logged in to X. Open x.com/settings/download_your_data in Safari or Chrome, log in there, and tap the download button.

The archive was unzipped

This happens with Safari on Mac, or if you opened the ZIP on your computer. You don't need to zip it again. On a computer, drag the whole unzipped folder onto the box in the X tool. Or click the box and select follower.js, following.js, account.js and any follower-part… or following-part… files from the folder's data folder together.

The archive is very large

In current browsers, the tool reads only the files it needs from the ZIP and skips your photos and videos, so archives of several gigabytes work. Older browsers have to load the whole ZIP into memory, which stops at 2 GB. If you see "too large to open in your browser", update your browser or use a current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. The message suggests requesting a smaller download, but X doesn't offer one. Instead, unzip the archive on a computer and select the files from its data folder, as described above.

I have several ZIP files

If your archive download came as more than one ZIP, select all of them together in the file picker. If a list is split across several files, the tool reads all parts. If a part named in the archive's manifest.js is missing, you get an error instead of an incomplete result. Don't mix an older and a newer archive in one upload: the tool then analyzes only one of them. Analyze each archive on its own, oldest first.

Error messages in the X tool

Message	Usual cause	What to do
"… could not be opened as a ZIP file"	The download was interrupted, or the ZIP was re-packed with a password	Download the archive again. Don't add a password when zipping files yourself.
"We couldn't find follower data in your upload"	You selected `Your archive.html` or another file without the follow lists	Select the ZIP from X, or `follower.js` and `following.js`.
"This is an old Twitter archive from before 2018"	Old archives contain only your posts, no follower lists	Request a new archive from X.
"Your export doesn't contain your followers list" (or following)	Only one of the two files was selected, or a part of a split list is missing	Select both files, or all ZIP parts together.
"The file … is damaged or has an unexpected format"	The file was edited, cut off or renamed	Take a fresh copy from the original ZIP. Don't edit or rename it.
"This looks like an export from Instagram, but this is the X tool" (or another platform)	The file is from another platform	Use the button in the message to open the matching tool.
"… could not be read"	The file is stored in iCloud, Google Drive or a similar folder and isn't on the device yet	Save it on your device first, then select it again.

When the tool can't find what it needs, the error message also lists the files it found in your upload. That usually shows quickly whether you picked the wrong file.

Common questions

Can I download only my followers and following lists from X?

No. X doesn't let you pick parts of the archive, a format, a date range or a media quality. You always get the full archive. For unfollowtool that isn't a problem, because it opens only the follower and following files.

Can I see who unfollowed me before my first archive?

No. An archive contains your followers and following at the moment X created it, with no history of follows and unfollows. No archive-based tool can show past unfollowers. From your first saved analysis on, the next archive shows who left in between.

Do I have to give unfollowtool my X password?

No. You enter your password and the code only on X's own settings page when you request the archive. On unfollowtool you only select the file.

Where are the steps for Instagram, TikTok and Facebook?

The tutorial has short step-by-step instructions for every platform, including a summary of the X steps from this guide.