Here's a quick thread about moving to a new Mastodon server, because it's not exactly difficult but it's also not as easy as some people seem to suggest.
There are basically three stages to doing this.
First - finding a server to move to and creating an account.
Second - getting the lists of people you follow, block and mute transferred
Third - redirecting your old account to your new one and transferring your followers over.
1,
Before you begin though there are some things that you can't transfer:
Your old posts don't get moved over, they will stay on your old account.
Your profile doesn't get moved over, you will need to set that up yourself on your new account.
Your lists can't be transferred easily, you can export them into a file from your old account but there's no easy way to import them to the new one (fixed in v4. 2.0)
You can't transfer the private notes you make on other accounts.
2.
It's a lot easier to do most of the transfer using a web browser rather than an app. Not all apps will have access to all of the settings you need to change and it's also easier to have the two accounts on two separate tabs.
So the first thing you need to do is to create your new account on your new choice of server. At this stage it's a good idea to set up your profile and bio, and maybe add a pinned post to say that you have moved here from your old account.
3.
Now you should have a brand new account tha'ts following nobody and has a completely empty timeline. The next step is to go to your old account and download your various lists.
Inn the preferences of your old account go to the Import and export section and get all of the CSV lists for follows, blocks, mutes, domain blocks and bookmarks. You don;t need to do this with the ones that have 0 entries.
4.
The next step is to import all these to the new account. In the new account preferences go to the Import section and upload all of the files that you just downloaded from the old account. It doesn't matter whether you select merge or overwrite at this stage so just leave it set at merge.
It may take a bit of time for your new server to process these lists so don't be surprised if your following list isn't instantly as big as your old one was.
5.
Now you should have your new account allset up but with no followers. So the final stage is to transfer all your followers over.
On your new account go to the account settings and scroll down to the bottom. You should see a move from a different account section. Click on create an account alias and you should get the account alias menu. Here you need to add your username (including the server) for your old account,
6.
Now you are ready for the final stage which is to direct your old account and all the followers to your new account.
So in your account settings of your OLD account, click on the link for configuring the move to a new account.You should get the account migration menu.
Enter the handle of your new account in the left hand box and the password for the old account in the right hand box and press the Move Followers button.
Your followers should start transferring and you're all done
End.
P.S.
I think wasn't sure if I put too much detail in the alt text for the images because I'm not used to doing this, so I'm open to suggestions about how tt write better alt text. Thanks.
@OldGitPhil Thank you, Phil! I'm glad I looked it up and found your steps before attempting my move!
Cheers,
Phil Harrison
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