Renaming a Mastodon Account by Transferring Data

BelowThis isarticle aexplains purelyhow manual,to Ruby-based procedure formanually “renaming”rename” a local Mastodon account by transferring its content from an old account to a newly created oneaccount in your Mastodon instance’s database. This approach does not preserve followers/followings. It is a risky, unsupported method—proceed only if you fully understand the implications and have a complete database backup.

Important disclaimers up front:

Disclaimers

• Mastodon does not officially support changingdirect usernamesusername bychanges directvia database manipulation; there’s no built-in UI for this.edits.
• In some Mastodon versions, a tootctl accounts rename command may not existexist, (particularlyleaving oldermanual versions).DB manipulation as your only option.
• DirectlyThese updatingsteps theinvolve databaselow-level data changes that can be risky—always back upbreak your DBinstance firstif anddone proceed with caution.incorrectly.
• InThe thisinstructions example,below we’refocus on not copying (or preserving) followers/following relationships—onlytransferring statuses, favorites, bookmarks, notifications,notifications, etc., The user specifically mentioned notwithout copying followers.

If you proceed with these steps, do so in a test environment or with a fresh backup on hand.

1. Create athe NewTarget Account in the Web UI

1. Log intoin to your Mastodon instance’s web interface as an admin.
2. Create thea new local account withusing the desired (target)desired/target username.
3. Confirm you can log in toas thatthis new user to ensure it is recognized in the web UI—just to be sure the account is active and recognized.system.

2. PrepareAccess athe Rails Console Session

1. SSH into your Mastodon server.
2. Switch to your Mastodon user (oftencommonly mastodon or mastodon-user).
3. Navigate to your Mastodon installation directory (e.g., /home/mastodon/live).
4. Run:
Start

RAILS_ENV=production bin/rails console

3. FindIdentify the Old and New Accounts

In the Rails console, findlook up both the respectiveold and the new Account records:objects:

old_username = 'oldusername'  # fillReplace inwith yourthe old username
new_username = 'newusername'  # fillReplace inwith yourthe new username

# domain: nil ensures that we only match local accounts

old_account = Account.find_by(username: old_username, domain: nil)
new_account = Account.find_by(username: new_username, domain: nil)

if old_account.nil?
  puts "Old account not found! Check old_username."
end

if new_account.nil?
  puts "New account not found! Check new_username."
end

puts "Old account ID: #{old_account.id}"
puts "New account ID: #{new_account.id}"

Note: domain: nil ensures you are finding local (rather than remote) accounts.

4. Transfer Content to(Without the New AccountFollowers)

YouThe mentionedfollowing youcode do not want to preserve/copy followers. That’s simpler: we skip reassigning the Follow table. We’ll just movereassigns items like statuses (posts),statuses, favorites, bookmarks, notifications,and etc.notifications Tofrom dothe so:old account to the new account. We are deliberately skipping follower/following relationships:

# Move statuses to the new account
Status.where(account_id: old_account.id)
      .update_all(account_id: new_account.id)

# Move favourites
Favourite.where(account_id: old_account.id)
         .update_all(account_id: new_account.id)

# Move bookmarks
Bookmark.where(account_id: old_account.id)
        .update_all(account_id: new_account.id)

# Move notifications
Notification.where(account_id: old_account.id)
            .update_all(account_id: new_account.id)

# Optionally move pinned statuses
(if you want pinned statuses to show under the new account)
# Pinned statuses are in the "Pin" table
Pin.where(account_id: old_account.id)
   .update_all(account_id: new_account.id)

TheNote: aboveYou codecan blocksadapt bulkthis updatepattern the account_id column on each table, reassigning rows from the old account to the new account.

Optional Additional Tables

Depending on your needs, you may have to considerfor other references:

like
• PollsPoll (or MediaAttachment, if the old account created polls)needed.

  # Polls
  Poll.where(account_id: old_account.id).update_all(account_id: new_account.id)
  
  

  #
• Media attachments (avatars, headers, or post images could be associated with the old account or old statuses) – typically if the status is moved, the attachments should already point to that status. But if you want tothem fixreassigned referencesfrom old to thenew account itself:explicitly)

  MediaAttachment.where(account_id: old_account.id).update_all(account_id: new_account.id)
  

• Announcements, scheduled statuses, pinned statuses etc. – depends on how thorough you need to be.

RAILS_ENV=production bin/tootctl search deploy