If you’re running several different Mastodon accounts and you want to merge all of them into a single account, you can do that by using the Mastodon account transfer procedure. You need to do the transfer for each account you want to merge.
Why would I want to merge accounts?
There are many possible reasons, but for example you might have several accounts on related topics and you now want to put it all under one roof. e.g. If someone had an account about baking bread and another account about baking cakes, they might later decide they want to merge them into a single account about baking in general.
Another scenario might be projects or organisations that merge in real life, which might want to combine their social network followers into a single account.
Does this mean connecting accounts?
No. It means no longer using several accounts and combining all their followers etc into a single account.
Could you give an example of merging multiple accounts?
Suppose you have five accounts called A, B, C, D, E. If you wanted to merge A, B, C, D into E, you would need to use the transfer procedure four times:
- TRANSFER 1: Account A (using the transfer procedure’s instructions for the “OLD” account) to account E (using the transfer procedure’s instructions for the “NEW” account)
- TRANSFER 2: Account B (“OLD”) to account E (“NEW”)
- TRANSFER 2: Account C (“OLD”) to account E (“NEW”)
- TRANSFER 2: Account D (“OLD”) to account E (“NEW”)
How many accounts can I merge?
You can merge as many accounts as you want using the Mastodon account transfer procedure. However, remember that follow transfers can take a while to happen fully. There is lots more info about what to do if followers haven’t transferred over in the transfer guide.
What if I just want to merge one account into another?
Then just use the transfer procedure once.
What exactly gets merged? What happens to posts?
You can merge your followers, follows, bookmarks, lists, filters, mutes, blocks and domain blocks. Posts remain in existence on the old accounts and will redirect people to your new account.
What happens to the follows and followers of the old accounts when they’re merged into the single new account?
They are all combined into the single new account. In the example above of accounts A, B, C and D, all their followers and follows would transfer to account E.
What if someone is already following my old accounts and my new account?
It’s not a problem. If someone is already following your new account, the system will detect this and won’t add them twice.
What happens to the old accounts after the merger?
They stay in existence but they redirect people to the new merged account.
The transfer procedure talks about adding an account alias. Do I need to delete a previous merger’s account alias before adding another one?
No. A single account can have several aliases.
⚠️ What if I change my mind? Can I split the accounts up again?
You can go back to using the old accounts, but followers cannot be unmerged after they are merged into a single account. You need to be 100% sure you want to merge accounts before you actually do it.
You can only transfer followers to one account (this is to prevent spammers and abusers trying to clone accounts). If you change your mind after the followers are merged and want to go back, you can only transfer the whole set of followers back to one of the original accounts. There is no way to split them up again.