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?

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🌟 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!

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Hello Tumblr! 

@jubs here, today, to tell you about a feature we're building: Comments by author!

Comments (or replies) have been around for a while, but they have always been tucked away from your regular feed, and so we're working on a few ways to integrate them into the rest of our experience.

Soon, blogs will have a Comments tab alongside Posts, Likes, and Following. There, you will be able to see posts other people have been commenting on, and, more importantly, find your own comments! This was not possible before, except through notifications if someone engaged with your comment.

We're also working on a way to surface posts commented on by people you follow in your feeds. You will be able to find those in the For You tab, and later, alongside chronological posts in the Following tab.

So, how do you identify those posts in the feeds? 

Replied posts will show a small preview right there in your dashboard, before you click anything.