Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms around at the moment. The micro-blogging site is used by millions every day all around the world. That said, there are still some features that its users sorely want.
While Twitter recently may have introduced the ability to edit tweets, there’s still no option for users to access their deleted tweets, easily anyways. In this article, we’re taking a look at how you can find your deleted tweets.
Also read: How to make a Twitter account public?
Finding deleted tweets
There are five ways you can find your deleted tweets:
- Using your Twitter archive.
- Using an internet archiving engine (the Wayback Machine for example).
- Using Twitter’s native advanced search.
- Google Cache.
- Using third-party services.
We’ll be going over all these methods so you can find out the best way to see your deleted tweets for yourself.
Using the Twitter archive
Users can request their Twitter archive which contains all the information, including tweets, associated with your account since its creation. Here’s how.
Step 1: Open Twitter and click the More button.
Step 2: Click Settings and privacy.
Step 3: Click Download an archive of your data under Your account. You’ll be asked to confirm your password and email and an entire archive with all your Twitter data will be sent to your registered email.
You can open this archive with your web browser and find out all the tweets that you may have deleted.
Using the Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is essentially a website that documents and archives the entire internet. If you have the URL of the deleted tweet or the profile that tweeted it, the chances are that you might be able to find it using the Wayback Machine.
Step 1: Head over to the Wayback Machine and copy the profile or tweet’s URL in the search box. Hit enter to search.
Step 2: If the page has been indexed, you’ll see it appear in the search results. Click the page to be able to see the tweet.
Keep in mind that the machine takes random screenshots at random times, so there’s a chance that the tweet or account you’re looking for might not exist in the archives. That said, it is one of your best chances of finding deleted tweets and/or accounts on the platform.
Using Twitter’s native advanced search
You can also give Twitter’s native advanced search to look for tweets or other deleted content. Head over to Twitter’s Advanced Search page and scroll down to the Accounts subheading. Enter your (or the account you want to see) username in the From these accounts field. Scroll down and set the date parameters and click Search.
Twitter will now display all the tweets from the specified account during that time period. Alternatively, you can also search for specific keywords to further target your search.
Google Cache
Next up, you can also try Google’s cache to see if the search engine has an indexed page including the deleted tweet.
Step 1: Search for your Twitter profile on Google and click the three vertical dots next to the search result.
Step 2: In the source window that pops up, click the Cached button. These should include the tweet you’re looking for regardless of the profile, time or circumstances of the tweet’s removal.
Using third-party services
While we don’t recommend using just another third-party service, there are several that can fetch your deleted tweets such as Circleboom’s Twitter management tool and Hootsuite which can potentially help you find deleted tweets.
Also read: What is ‘This request looks like it might be automated’ on Twitter? 5 Fixes
