What Happens if My Mastodon Server Gets Deleted?
A question I constantly come across on Mastodon is, "what happens to my account if the instance I join gets deleted?" On a decentralized platform like Mastodon, it's hard to know where your data lives and who has control over it. I'll quickly go over a non-technical and technical explanation of what happens to your account when a server is deleted. You can also learn more about what Mastodon is, and how it works.
The Non-technical Explanation
If an instance is shut down then everything related to it is deleted, including your account. This is one of the risks associated with a decentralized platform like Mastodon which is why it's so important to choose a trusted instance from the beginning. Mastodon has a list of trusted servers. These servers are required to follow the rules of Mastodon's "covenant". The most important parts of this covenant are that server owners MUST create a daily backup of data, and they have to give their users at least three months' worth of notice before they shut down the server. This will give you a bunch of time to migrate your account to a different server before it gets shut down.
The Technical Explanation
When an owner shuts down their server, they have a responsibility to do it using Mastodon's best practices. The best practice for shutting down a server is the self-destruct command. This removes all references to the instance on the Fediverse and helps prevent bugs and an out-of-sync network. It notifies all of the other known instances on the network that they need to scrub every reference of this server (accounts, statuses, attachments, etc). When an instance is deleted this way, it has a permanent impact on all of the users attached to it as well as neighbouring instances. If your account is deleted then you won't be able to recover it without the server administrator providing you with a backup.
Conclusion
The most critical part of using Mastodon is choosing a trusted and reliable server. If you'd like to move to a more reliable server, you can follow the steps in the "Move to a different account" section in your profile settings. Protect yourself by asking lots of questions, and getting to know your server owners better!
