Mastodon Account Migration Tool

This migration tool is very much work in progress and was initially set up to help me with migrating my creative bots from botsin.space. Be sure to open an issue or reach out to me directly if you have any questions, or things are not working for you.

Overview

Here's a quick overview of what the migration script does:

• Log into your "from" server using account details saved in the accounts.csv file (see instructions below).
• Copy description, avatar, header image, and custom fields from the old account.
• Marks the new account as automated.
• Sets up account migration on the "Account migration" settings account.
• Creates a new app with "write" permission.
• Optionally sets up automatic post deletion. (See delete_old_posts option below.)

Note that this script will not migrate your posts, as this is not something that Mastodon currently supports.

Full walkthrough of how to use the script

1. Register accounts on the new server for each of the accounts you're migrating. If you're an admin of the server to which you're migrating, you can use the tootctl command line tool to create the account, and also approve it.

tootctl accounts create USERNAME --email EMAIL --confirmed
tootctl accounts modify USERNAME --approve

If necessary, you can also reset an account's password.

tootctl accounts modify USERNAME --reset-password

2. Rename accounts-example.csv to accounts.csv and update the list of accounts with usernames and passwords for "migrating from" and "migrating to" servers. You can leave the MIGRATED and TOKEN columns empty, the migration script will fill these out for you.

ACCOUNT,EMAIL,PASSWORD_FROM,PASSWORD_TO,MIGRATED,TOKEN
account1,[email protected],*****,*****,,
account2,[email protected],*****,*****,,
account3,[email protected],*****,*****,,

For example, for an account [email protected] with a password password123 on the old server and password password321 on the new server (these may be the same!) that I registered using email [email protected], it would look like this:

ACCOUNT,EMAIL,PASSWORD_FROM,PASSWORD_TO,MIGRATED,TOKEN
mycoolbot,[email protected],password123,password321,,

Note the extra two commas at the end, this is fine!

This file will be overwritten during the migration process, marking each account as migrated, so you will be able to resume later if needed. Please also consider making a backup of your accounts.csv file before you begin.

3. Install project dependencies.

npm install

4. Finally, run the migration script. This will

• copy the name, description, and profile fields between each of the migrating accounts
• set up a new app with write permission for each of the accounts and save the token in the accounts.csv file

npm run migrate -- --from=SERVER1.SOCIAL --to=SERVER2.SOCIAL

For example, if you're migrating your accounts from botsin.space to stefanbohacek.online, you'd run:

npm run migrate -- --from=botsin.space --to=stefanbohacek.online

Optionally you you can also pass the --delete_old_posts parameter to set up automatic deletion of old posts for the new accounts. (The old accounts from which you're migrating will not be affected.)

npm run migrate -- --from=SERVER1.SOCIAL --to=SERVER2.SOCIAL --delete_old_posts

This will delete all posts older than 2 weeks, other than:

• pinned posts
• direct messages
• favorites
• bookmarks
• polls
• posts with at least 3 favorites or 3 boosts

To customize these options, look for if (options.delete_old_posts) inside the modules/migrateAccount.js file.

Extras

Request archive for your migrated bots

npm run request_archive -- --server=botsin.space

Mass-(un)follow a specific account

npm run follow -- --server=stefanbohacek.online [email protected]@bsky.brid.gy --skip=dedication_bot,southpoleviews,trains,rain,nycviewsbot,wikipediatopedits
npm run unfollow -- --server=stefanbohacek.online [email protected]@bsky.brid.gy 

Mass-block a specific account

npm run block -- --server=stefanbohacek.online --account=@[email protected]

Boost a post as an announcement to all bot followers

Note: This feature is experimental and currently works only if the status you're boosting is on the same server as all your bots.

npm run announce -- --status=https://stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/113716686966076876 --skip=botwikirandom,botwikirandomfediverse,newonbotwiki,mastodon_mobile_apps,mastodonroadmap,mastodonmilestoneprogress,curator_machine,primestamp,what_capital,mtaupdates,happynameday,happymoonbot,wikipediatopedits

Purge posts (Work in progress)

npm run purge -- --account=mtaupdates --server=stefanbohacek.online --skip=POSTID1,POSTID2