Moving user profile to a new instance

[vin047]

Is your proposal related to a problem?

Unable to move my user profile from one instance to another.

Describe the solution you'd like

An option to move my user profile, complete with post and comment history and saved posts to a new instance.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Creating a new profile with the same user handle on a new instance. Unfortunately that won't save post and comment history and saved posts. It also doesn't preserve account settings like blocked users etc.

Additional context

I thought about whether this is necessary – with email you don't "move" accounts to a new server after all. But email is a form of communication and doesn't have the notion of "profile history". Social media does. It seems to me then that a users profile on Lemmy is more than just a communication endpoint. So the ability to move to a different instance, especially if you later on disagree with the way a particular instance is being run, seems important to me.

[Nutomic]

Or you could just put a link to your old account into your bio. So this might be a useful feature, but very very low priority.

More useful could be import/export of settings and subscriptions (also much easier to implement).

[dessalines]

I also don't fully understand how mastodon does this. Is it recreating toots in the past with no replies?

[Nutomic]

No idea. And there seem to be no docs about the implementatio either (as usual).

[vin047]

More useful could be import/export of settings and subscriptions

Yes I think import/export of settings and subscriptions would fulfil this requirement, since lemmy doesn't have profile karma (anymore).

[Nutomic]

Then its a duplicate of #506.

[Atemu]

Export/import functionality is nice but it can't facilitate users moving from one instance to another because the content they have produced would still be linked to the old account.

[Gladox114]

Then its a duplicate of #506.

While the priority suddenly changed to just exporting subs shouldnt mean it should be closed, at least not in others people favor.

I see myself stuck on lemmy.ml because I made posts and still would want to get messages from my old posts on my old instance. I cant be the only one who has this urge to not switch the instance because the account is not transferable, but I would want to because lemmy.ml is struggling.

[calculuschild]

Found this after being asked by multiple people how to do this coming from Reddit. My 2 cents (apologies for the wall of text):

I think import/export of settings and subscriptions would fulfil this requirement, since lemmy doesn't have profile karma (anymore).

The problem is, a (Reddit) account is much more than just your Karma points. It's the persona of your username and your associated post history, etc. I find myself looking back through my old posts all the time. Whether it's to delete something I realized contains too much personal information, to locate an old private messsge I made to someone, or to edit an old post when someone asks a question in a comment months later.

I certainly don't want to be locked into a failing instance just to retain editing access to my old posts. There's s reason phone companies let you keep your phone number when you get a new device; switching addresses and personas is a hassle.

Compare to an MMORPG: "Don't worry about which server you choose; your character can cross-play with everyone!" But they fail to tell you that you have to start a brand new character and forfeit all your progress if you want switch servers with better ping. Just importing subscriptions is like getting to keep your unlocked cosmetics, but the effort building your character is lost.

[PoorPocketsMcNewHold]

This feature should help people already on big servers, migrate on other ones for better Federation. Comming from myself, a lemmy.nl user.

[Venthe]

This is the single thing stopping me from using lemmy

On Reddit I have a persona. I really don't care for instance, but i should be able to move/link/sync between instances, with full and stable identity and history.

[eitland]

I think the concept several comments here seems to be talking about without naming is "nomadic identity" which (I think) was first implemented in Red Matrix which (I think) in turn became Hubzilla.

AFAIK nomadic identity is supported both by Hubzilla which seems to be the canonical implementation these days and Streams which seems to be a cleaned up version of Hubzilla with less features and more QA.

Kagi search for it: https://kagi.com/search?q=%22nomadic+identity%22++~hubzilla+OR+~streams&r=no&sh=pDpMmg7wz0A2FSX94RPO6Q

I am experimenting with Hubzilla on my account here BTW: https://zotum.net/channel/erik

[jakariyaa]

I can see how it can be hard to implement such as creating a new account in a new instance and be able to retain your old posts/comments from another account from another instance! How about some type of user id linking between the old and new id in the backend so the old account's history (posts/comments/activities) also gets shown/loaded with the new user id? (When clicking on the profile of course) And importing/exporting settings and subscriptions can be done too... Giving a somewhat complete user profile migration!? (Just my 2 cents)

[DraconicNEO]

I really hope we can get this or some kind of real account migration feature like what Mastodon has, it's really frustrating having your account locked to a specific Instance it was created on with you only being able to edit or change the posts and comments from that specific instance. Account Migration on Lemmy is an absolute must, not being able to do it essentially means for better or for worse Instance owners own your account, this is particularly bad when it comes to defederation and the blocking of communities.

[Nutomic]

https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/pull/3976

[Atemu]

@Nutomic https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/1985#issuecomment-1586438679 still applies, does it?

[dessalines]

Yes it does, this PR only deals with a user's settings being portable, not their historical content.

We can't import / rewrite historical data unfortunately. IE a comment you made months ago in reply to another comment can't be "overwritten historically" via an import.

There is #506 yet to be done, but that still won't allow history-rewriting, just a full account data export.

[Spunkie]

I agree this issue is not yet resolved, can you please reopen it @Nutomic

---

For now a possibly easier step in the direction of a full account move is simply a user setting that allows setting an account to forward to a new account. Exposing this forwarding setting on the public API would also allow other servers to reestablish subscriptions.

I guess this would also allow other servers to add an addition UI overlayed on top of rendering old posts/comments that would show info of both the old and new forwarded account. Without actually having to edit/rewrite the original post/comment on the old server.

[calculuschild]

a user setting that allows setting an account to forward to a new account.

Or alternatively, some kind of account linking feature? Allow users to join multiple accounts into a shared profile and give them all access to each other's historical data?

[dessalines]

I would rather not codify any account forwarding, just rather let ppl optionally link any other accounts they'd like to in their new or old bios. That's much simpler and more versatile.

@Spunkie what else does this need to be resolved?

[Spunkie]

@dessalines Codifying account forwarding, aka moving instances, is basically what this whole issue is about. People want to be able to move between instances without feeling like they have to take a loss.

Losing all your current subscribers, and all future traffic, and all future conversations that stem from your "old" accounts content is clearly a heavy loss and leads to people feeling locked in to their current instance.

I don't think a "link in your bio" nor a user settings export meaningfully remedies these losses.

[dessalines]

Losing all your current subscribers,

You can't subscribe to users in lemmy.

Also how is a box that says 'profile moved to X', any different than than that exact same line in your old bio(other than it being less versatile because you could only link one account, and not put any links you want to)?

and all future traffic, and all future conversations that stem from your "old" accounts content

How does mastodon migrate your account history?

[calculuschild]

Losing all your current subscribers,

You can't subscribe to users in lemmy.

I think what they mean is losing the credibility/goodwill associated with your account. Your online persona builds up a track record over time and losing that can be a pain to recover from. How can people trust it's still you in the new account?

[Kommynct]

They can trust it's still you because you put a link to the new profile on the old one and said you're moving the account, right?

[Atemu]

It's also about getting messages from replies to your old posts, DMs, retaining moderator status and your votes.

[DraconicNEO]

It's also about getting messages from replies to your old posts, DMs, retaining moderator status and your votes.

Yeah and not to mention that if you transfer them to the new server they'll still be there and accessible if the old one goes offline, not the case though if you're just pointing a link at the old account.

[Baerbeisser]

I'm in this boat currently, my instance got unbearable unreliable and slow the last month. There's LASIM but as you can see there, it can only copy some parts, last update 5 months ago. Especially comment history and saved posts would be important.

[Nutomic]

Lemmy 0.19 has a builtin import/export functionality for user data.

[Baerbeisser]

Cool! So the apps aren't up to speed then?

[Atemu]

As mentioned before, import/export is adjacent but not the same as account migration.

The functionality requested here does not exist, no matter which app.