Changes on Tumblr

We’re making a big change to how account deletion works on Tumblr, and we’re really excited about it, because this is something that some of you have been requesting for… well… a literal decade.

Before today, when you deleted your Tumblr account, it was immediate and permanent. Occasionally, this resulted in Very Sad Times. Even though we’ve tried to make it super difficult to accidentally delete your account, this is something that still happens a lot. Like, a lot. There’s also plenty of folks who delete their account on purpose, but then regret it shortly afterward. Worst of all, if your account was hacked, and then deleted by the hacker, there was no way to get it back. 

All of these problems are *poof* no more. As of today, when you delete your account, we will keep your data for 30 days. Your account will remain recoverable during that time, and you can contact us within that 30 day window if you’d like us to restore your account.

Eventually, we hope to make this process a bit easier, and allow you to restore your account with a single click of a button. For right now, though, you’ll need to contact us via tumblr.com/support and choose the category “Account Access” > “I have deleted my account or blog by accident”. 

FAQs

How do I delete my account? Does that process look different now?

You can follow the steps here to delete your account on the web or through the mobile app, which works pretty much the same way as before. You’ll notice we’ve updated the confirmation screen to reflect the new process, though.

Does a deleted account still appear on Tumblr during this 30 day window?

Nope. As soon as you submit the request to delete your account, all of your blogs will no longer be accessible (they’ll 404), no one will be able to message you, your posts will no longer appear in search results, and you won’t be able to log in anymore. This happens right away, not 30 days later. Deleted accounts still behave exactly as they always have.

What about my email address and username? Will those become available again immediately after account deletion, like they did before?

Notably, no, they will not. In order to make it possible for the account to be restored during the 30 day window, the username and email address must remain associated with the account during that time. So they won’t be available to register again until 30 days after you’ve deleted your account.

If you’re deleting your account, and you already know that you’d like to use the same username or email address on a new account immediately afterward, we recommend that you change your username and email address before deleting the account. That way, they will become available right away, instead of being on hold for 30 days. 

What if I’ve accidentally deleted one of my sideblogs, but not my entire account?

If you delete a sideblog, it will be deleted right away, and cannot be restored. We can only restore an entire account (which will restore all of its blogs along with it). 

Is this feature retroactive? Can you restore the account I deleted two years ago?

As much as we would like this to be possible, the answer is no. We still haven’t perfected the art of time travel, so all accounts deleted before today are still deleted for good. This new change will only apply to accounts which are deleted after this announcement is posted.

Where can I learn more about the account deletion process?

Please be aware of common scams! If someone reaches out to you with a scam, please report and block them. Outside of our support email and official [tumblr] accounts ONLY on [tumblr] (when in doubt, look for the same Staff Member badge that you see on this blog), Staff will never message you or reply to your posts to notify you about changes to your account. Also, [tumblr] will never ask for money besides for Premium subscriptions, domains, paid themes, and what's sold in TumblrMart.

🌟 New

You can now sort your likes from oldest to newest on web and iOS. Do you remember what your first liked post was?

You can now search for posts within Communities on web.

Redesigned blog headers on iOS — Same as Android, now following and subscribing to a blog are front and center.

Tapping "Not interested in this post" now temporarily filters that blog and their posts from recommendations. This is an additional improvement to how "Not interested in this post" works. We had announced that tapping this option will down-weight the tags from that post in your interest profile, and filter out recommended posts similar to the ones you have dismissed.

A new Media auto-play setting on web lets you choose whether GIFs and videos auto-play, independent of your system's reduced-motion preference. Find it in Settings → Dashboard.

The reblog graph explorer on web now shows at a glance which reblogs have commentary.

🛠 Fixed

We fixed an issue on web where high-resolution image thumbnails appeared noticeably degraded in quality.

We fixed an issue on iOS that was causing crashes related to image decoding, particularly with GIF-heavy content.

We fixed an issue in the iOS and Android apps where users with unverified age in mature-labeled communities couldn't see the "Leave community" button.

We fixed an issue in the iOS app where the Unblock button in the Blocked Blogs list stopped responding to taps after scrolling.

We fixed an issue where blogs previously marked as "not mature" by our team couldn't add content labels to their posts.

We fixed an issue where blocking anonymous ask senders from a sideblog would fail with an error.

We fixed an issue where users on older operating systems encountered SSL errors when clicking password reset or email verification links.

🚧 Ongoing

We're aware that some blog exports are failing. If you're affected, please file a Support Request so we can track your case.

We're investigating reports of some image thumbnails appearing pixelated in the mobile apps, despite looking fine on web.

We're investigating reports from some iOS users who are unable to view mature content despite having their settings correctly configured.

We're aware that some users are seeing an empty For You feed. We're investigating.

We're aware that some Firefox users are encountering errors when editing and publishing posts or sending messages. Sometimes, trying a second time works. We're investigating.

We're also aware that the Home and Activity notification badges are getting stuck for some Firefox users. We're investigating.

🌱 Upcoming

We're trying out a redesigned Trending tab on web, with topic blocks showing follower counts, preview posts, and related tags for each trending topic.

We're trying out a new post editor entry at the top of the dashboard on web.

As shared previously, we're building some new features for replies, including a new blog tab to see a blog's comments!

We're working on some updates to account deletion. In the future, when you delete your account, we will keep your data for 30 days. This will allow you to restore your account if you regret your decision, deleted your account by accident, or your account is hacked and deleted.

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We'll get back to you as soon as we can!

To continue our commitment to user safety and to comply with local laws, we will start using age groups to determine access to certain experiences.

People in Brazil or in the UK, who are 18 or older, will soon need to verify their age to change content label settings and view mature-labeled content. Until then, the settings will be locked to hide.

As a reminder, verification is handled by our age-assurance partner, k-ID. Tumblr won't have access to the information you submit, just the final age-verification result. Documents are deleted after confirmation, and facial scan data never leaves your device. 

Please be aware of common scams! If someone reaches out to you with a scam, please report and block them. Outside of our support email and official [tumblr] accounts ONLY on [tumblr] (when in doubt, look for the same Staff Member badge that you see on this blog), Staff will never message you or reply to your posts to notify you about changes to your account. Also, [tumblr] will never ask for money besides for Premium subscriptions, domains, paid themes, and what’s sold in TumblrMart.

🌟 New

The new Reblog Graph on web gives you a full-screen visualization of reblog chains, and it scales past 100K reblogs.

Android, iOS and web now support “Original Posts Only” and the full set of post type filters in in-blog search with a query. On iOS and Web, these filters also work without a query.

On Android, you can now save a post as an image, share a post to Instagram Stories. Just tap Share on any post to use these.

Queue and drafts now show separate counts for likes, reblogs, and comments.

Tapping "Not interested in this post" is now more powerful. We'll down-weight the tags from dismissed posts in your interest profile, and filter out recommended posts similar to the ones you have dismissed. Basically: we listen when you say no.

🛠 Fixed

We fixed an issue causing high-resolution image thumbnails to appear noticeably degraded on web. Your art should look sharp again.

We fixed an issue on web where the Image Options dropdown in the post editor looked like a disabled option.

We fixed an issue on web where the "Answer" button appeared on privately answered asks in the inbox, and a related issue where the submissions footer said "Post" instead of "Answer."

We fixed an issue on web where the post footer could overflow on narrow or masonry-layout posts.

We fixed an issue on web where the notes panel could freeze the page when reopened in narrow view.

We fixed an issue on mobile web where the alt text button was missing from images.

We fixed an issue where older asks weren't showing in the inbox, and older community posts stopped loading after moderating several posts.

We fixed an issue where image uploads could lose their color profile and appear washed out, especially from devices with wide color gamuts like iPad.

We fixed several keyboard navigation issues in the Reblog Graph.

We fixed an issue where users on older operating systems encountered SSL errors when clicking password reset or email verification links.

We fixed an issue where uploading very large GIFs could result in errors.

We fixed an issue in the iOS app where tapping "Keep reading" on a reblog whose original post was deleted showed "No posts found."

We fixed an issue in the iOS app where tapping "Read More" on community posts opened a blank page, and a similar issue where reblog permalinks in Communities showed an error.

We fixed an issue in the iOS app where the first image in a gallery was mislabeled as the last (e.g., showing "9/9" instead of "1/9").

We fixed an issue in the iOS app where deactivated blogs showed real avatars and led to empty pages when tapped.

We fixed an issue in the iOS app where community carousel cards didn't update colors when changing your palette, and the Tumblr TV Follow button sometimes wrapped its text.

We fixed an issue in the iOS app where tapping the blog name on a submission in the inbox opened a blank screen.

We fixed some image-loading crashes on iOS 26.

We fixed an issue in the iOS app with broken avatars and trail items across reblog chains. Please keep your apps up to date!

We fixed an issue in the Android app where saving edits to a draft post accidentally published it.

We fixed an issue in the Android app where poll-only reblogs appeared blank in the notes view.

We fixed an issue in the Android app where tapping a post preview in a trending topic didn’t surface the selected post immediately; it now opens the tag page with the post at the top.

We fixed an issue in the Android app where "View Post" appeared on blurred mature posts for accounts that aren't verified to view them.

We made it possible to enable media auto play in the Android app settings even if you have device animations disabled in the system settings. Please keep your apps up to date!

🚧 Ongoing

We are aware that some blog exports are failing, and we’re working on a fix.

🌱 Upcoming

A redesigned blog header is being tested on iOS, matching the existing one on Android.

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We'll get back to you as soon as we can!

Please be aware of common scams! If someone reaches out to you with a scam, please report and block them. Outside of our support email and official [tumblr] accounts ONLY on [tumblr] (when in doubt, look for the same Staff Member badge that you see on this blog), Staff will never message you or reply to your posts to notify you about changes to your account. Also, [tumblr] will never ask for money besides for Premium subscriptions and what’s sold in TumblrMart.

Before we begin, we rolled out a change allowing you to reblog, like, share, and comment on any post in a reblog chain. However, this change also altered how we list notes and notify users of reblogs, likes, and comments on reblogs of their content. Based on your feedback, we’ve reversed the change and will be working with some of you before moving forward with any future updates to reblog notes.

🌟 New

The faster and more relevant GIF search experience that was available first in our apps is now live on web.

We made some behind-the-scenes changes to improve the quality of trending tags by removing semantically identical tags.

🛠 Fixed

The "Exclude from Tumblr search and recommendations" blog setting no longer disables in-blog search. Blog owners (and visitors) can always search within a blog now, regardless of the global search opt-out.

We fixed an issue causing Premium's "Show only Blaze" setting to save as "Show all ads."

We fixed an issue with verifying Gmail email addresses.

We fixed an issue causing logins to randomly fail.

We fixed an issue where the Trending section was briefly only returning two (or less) tags.

We fixed an issue on web that removed re-order buttons from the queue.

We fixed an issue in the iOS app causing the fast-reblog options to disappear too quickly when tapping and holding the reblog button.

We fixed an issue in the iOS app causing videos to zoom in a bit when played.

We fixed an issue in the Android app causing the blog picker to not be scrollable when reblogging.

We fixed an issue in the Android app causing the follow button to appear in the Dashboard for deactivated blogs.

🚧 Ongoing

We are aware that some folks are having trouble sharing their posts on Pinterest, and we're looking into that!

🌱 Upcoming

We completed yet-another fun hack day, so look forward to an announcement at @engineering soon!

🐍

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We'll get back to you as soon as we can!

Please be aware of common scams! If someone reaches out to you with a scam, please report and block them. Outside of our support email and official [tumblr] accounts (when in doubt, look for the same Staff Member badge that you see on this blog), Staff will never message you or reply to your posts to notify you about changes to your account. Also, [tumblr] will never ask for money besides for Premium subscriptions and what’s sold in TumblrMart.

🌟 New

We have changed how images are displayed on [tumblr] on the web to distinguish them from other content by adding a subtle border and spacing. It's worth noting that we have not scaled images down. Instead, we made the post feed just a bit wider.

Communities have a new tab called "Latest Comments", where you'll be able to find posts sorted by the newest comment left on them.

We’ve upgraded GIF search on the [tumblr] app for both iOS and Android, so finding the perfect reaction GIF is faster than ever. Whether you’re replying to an ask, adding flair to a post, or just hunting for the exact right “vibes,” you’ll get better matches.

We’ve added smarter automated alerts to catch unusual patterns of reply spam more quickly. Our systems now watch for sudden spikes or shifts in suspicious replies and flag them right away. For you, that means fewer junk replies cluttering your notes and faster responses when new kinds of spam try to show up.

🛠 Fixed

Rabid Tumbeasts took [tumblr] offline for two hours on February 6th, but we were able to find them a home and return your blogs to you.

The Fast Queue button briefly disappeared from Drafts, but it's back now.

[tumblr] links in messages, and posts shared directly on the Android app, were not generating previews, and that has now been fixed.

The Android app no longer displays old blog avatars.

We fixed an issue preventing logins from the “Continue with Google” button.

Version 43.3 of the iOS app was crashing for some folks, and a fix was quickly released.

Version 43.3 of the Android app had some difficulty with entering tags, and a fix was quickly released. Please keep your apps up to date!

We’ve rolled out a fix for hidden asks in the Inbox on the web. Asks should appear more reliably in the main Inbox.

We’ve made reblog trails less fragile, so posts are less likely to lose pieces of their history as they travel across [tumblr].

🚧 Ongoing

We are aware that birth dates are not being properly set for some users, and we're working on a fix.

We are aware that the blog picker list on the Android app’s reblog menu is not scrollable, so not all sideblogs may be available, and we’re working on a fix.

🌱 Upcoming

Improved GIF search is in-progress for the web version of [tumblr] too!

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Please be aware of common scams! If someone reaches out to you with a scam, please report and block them. Outside of official [tumblr] accounts and our support email, Staff will never message you, reply to your posts, or notify you about changes to your account. Also, [tumblr] will never ask for money besides for Premium subscriptions and what’s sold in TumblrMart.

🌟 New

Blogs engaging in any official [tumblr] capacity will now have a new Staff Member badge, like the one you can see on this blog here. Not all Staff members have chosen to display this badge, but any acting in an official capacity will.

Search now supports an exclusion operator to help you filter out results you don’t want to see. Use -word, -"phrase", or -#tag to exclude posts that contain a specific word, phrase, or tag. For example, "the pitt" -#spoilers will find posts that include "the pitt" in the post content or tags, but do not have the tag "spoilers," like this.

If you use [tumblr] on web or iOS, you might already be familiar with our new post footer that splits out likes, reblogs, and replies. Turns out, this helped people find real conversations faster and jump in more often. We’ve also seen more people discovering and using the Queue! Based on what we learned, we’ve rolled out the updated footer to everyone on iOS, with Android coming soon.

🛠 Fixed

We’ve fixed an issue where certain posts were crashing the iOS app. Please keep your apps up to date!

We’ve fixed an issue that was breaking Bandcamp embeds.

We’ve fixed an issue preventing signups with the Continue with Apple button.

🚧 Ongoing

We are aware of an issue causing the Android app to continue displaying old blog avatars despite new avatars being set, and are working on a fix.

We are aware of an issue preventing some folks from logging in with the “Continue with Google” button, and are working on a fix. Please contact support if you’re having trouble!

🌱 Upcoming

We recently had Hack Day again! Stay tuned for what we got up to.

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Please be aware of common scams! If someone reaches out to you with a scam, please report and block them. Outside of official [tumblr] accounts and our support email, Staff will never message you, reply to your posts, or notify you about changes to your account. Also, [tumblr] will never ask for money besides for Premium subscriptions and what’s sold in TumblrMart.

🌟 New

If the only admin leaves a community, and the community has a moderator, the moderator will now be automatically promoted to admin.

🛠 Fixed

Password reset and verification links were blocked by some ISPs, and that has now been fixed.

We fixed an issue in the Android app that made it difficult to set the correct birth year.

We fixed an issue in the Android app where certain ads made the app unusable. Please keep your apps up to date!

🚧 Ongoing

We are aware of an issue preventing activation of Two-factor Authentication on the web when copying and pasting the text activation code, and are working on a fix. Two-factor Authentication can still be activated on the web by scanning the QR code instead.

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Tumblr has evolved a lot over the years, but some things never change. It remains a home for fandom, culture, and self-expression, where originality is celebrated and creativity doesn’t follow a formula. And we’ve maintained our commitment to user safety and being a responsible actor in any place our users may be. Sometimes that means updating our practices to keep up with the changing internet.  

Starting today, to comply with local laws, some users in Australia will need to verify their age to keep using their account (including all new users). If we need you to verify your age, you'll be prompted to provide additional information to help us confirm you meet the age requirement. If you’re not meeting the criteria yet, don’t worry, Tumblr will still be there for you, and we can’t wait to have you join us on the platform. 

We are working with a reputable partner to provide you with multiple verification methods. You may already be familiar with some of these methods: ConnectID, Photo ID, AgeKey, or using a selfie. You can read more here.

Before we begin, if someone reaches out to you apologizing for accidentally reporting you and giving you steps to fix that, it is a common scam that we are aware of. All reports are reviewed by a human, so if someone actually accidentally reported you, the report would likely be rejected. If someone like that reaches out to you, or you think someone is pretending to be [tumblr] Staff, please report and block them. Outside of official [tumblr] accounts and our support email, Staff will never message you, reply to your messages, or notify you about changes to your account. Also, [tumblr] will never ask for money besides for Premium subscriptions and what’s sold in TumblrMart.

🌟 New

Our systems now better identify posts and blogs that may contain mature content. Posts that are flagged or labeled as mature can be blurred depending on your mature content settings, and we’ll show a banner if content is filtered from search results based on your settings. Content from blogs you follow won’t be additionally filtered. We know it’s not perfect, and we’re working on that. In the meantime, if any of your posts are misclassified, you can submit an appeal by following the instructions here.

Some of you will see a refreshed post design on Tumblr that makes posts easier to read and lets you tap anywhere on a post to open its page and join the conversation, as part of an experiment to improve how you browse and interact with posts. This change is currently only available to some users on the web.

Post sources added to the original post will now appear below the original post in the reblog chain, rather than at the bottom of the chain.

🛠 Fixed

We fixed an issue that wouldn’t allow the Home unread count to decrease.

We fixed an issue that caused some Android users to see an unskippable ad when opening the app. This bug was present only briefly, and we appreciate everyone who reported it so quickly. If you ever notice something that doesn’t look or feel right, please contact support.

We fixed a bug on Android with the push notifications we’re sending whenever we have a good recommendation for you. You can always tweak your notification settings following these instructions.

🚧 Ongoing

We are aware that folks on the iOS app can no longer Blaze other people’s posts. You can, however, still do this from the meatballs menu on the Web, even in mobile Safari.

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

We’re rolling out enhanced automated detection of mature content on Tumblr for the iOS app and web, following the measures we launched on Android earlier this year.

What’s Changing Our systems now better identify posts and blogs that may contain mature content. Posts that are flagged or labeled as mature could now be blurred depending on your mature content settings, and we’ll show a banner if content is filtered from search results based on your settings. Content from blogs you follow won’t be additionally filtered. Creators can appeal if their content is misclassified.

Why We’re Doing This These updates help make Tumblr safer and more consistent for everyone. They will help protect users, especially younger audiences or anyone else who prefers not to see this content.

Who Is Affected All Tumblr users on iOS and web are now impacted by these changes.

Adjusting Your Experience You are still in control of what content you see on Tumblr, and you can customize it in settings:

Enable “show mature content” in your settings under Content you see.

Review your blog visibility settings to see if your blog has been flagged as mature, which also provides a shortcut to appeal if needed.

For more information on our guidelines, please visit:

Tumblr’s Community Guidelines

Before we begin, if someone reaches out to you apologizing for accidentally reporting you and giving you steps to fix that, it is a common scam that we are aware of. All reports are reviewed by a human, so if someone actually accidentally reported you, the report would likely be rejected. If someone like that reaches out to you, or you think someone is pretending to be [tumblr] Staff, please report it to us immediately and block them. Outside of official [tumblr] accounts and our support email, Staff will never message you, reply to your messages, or notify you about changes to your account. Also, [tumblr] will never ask for money besides for Premium subscriptions and what’s sold in TumblrMart.

🌟 New

On web, we want to make it easier to follow the conversations happening around posts. Separating likes, reblogs, and comments lets you quickly see whether a post is sparking discussion, taking off in reblogs, or simply stacking up likes.

Ads might be displayed on your Tumblr blog site (think: [yourblog].tumblr.com). Ads help support Tumblr and keep the platform running, and you can turn them off for both yourself and your visitors by subscribing to Tumblr Premium.

Some of the tags appear to be haunted by Halloween spirit! Tap the heart on posts with these glowing tags at your own peril!

🛠 Fixed

We fixed a bug that was sending more than one notification for each mention.

We won’t display post thumbnails with filtered tags when recommending blogs.

🚧 Ongoing

If you’re still experiencing random crashes on the Android app, please make sure that your app is up to date first, then try our troubleshooting steps, and contact support if it’s still happening.

🌱 Upcoming

Separated activity counts are coming to the apps soon.

Experiencing an issue? Check for Known Issues and file a Support Request if you have something new. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Hey Tumblr, we’ve got a quick update. 

Soon, ads will start appearing on Tumblr blog sites (think: [yourblog].tumblr.com). Ads help support Tumblr and keep the platform running. We know your Tumblr blogs have been where you showcase your art, host your work, and gather your people. We want to be upfront about what’s changing and how you can manage the experience on your blog.

Here's what you need to know 👇

Who will see ads (and who won’t)

Premium users and blogs with custom domains: If you have a Premium subscription, or you’ve bought a custom domain for your blog, your blog site will stay ad-free for all visitors.

Premium users everywhere: If you have Premium, you won’t see ads on any Tumblr blog site. Even ones that aren’t Premium. You stay in your ad-free bubble, wherever you go.

Everyone else: Visitors may see ads when browsing your blog site.

How to remove ads from your blog site If you’d prefer not to have ads on your blog site, you have two options:

Upgrade to Tumblr Premium (and unlock extra perks like early access to new features, Blaze credits, and higher post limits)

Purchase a custom domain for your blog

With either option, your blog site will stay ad-free for everyone. This change won’t affect how you post, create, or connect, but it’s important you know exactly what’s happening and how to control the experience on your blog site.