Simple toot deleter for Mastodon

This simple PHP script deletes all your toots from your Mastodon instance.

TL;DR

Copy the script, edit and fill out the settings in the source code and run.

It worked on macOS and RaspbianOS.

TS;DR

How to use (Detail)

1. Go to your Mastodon account settings and create an access_token.

2. Create a new PHP file. (ex: delete_toot.php)

3. Copy and paste the source.

4. Don't forget to chmod the script file as executable. (ex: $ chmod 0755 delete_toot.php)

5. Run the script once and it will create a JSON file for user settings.

   $ php delete_toot.php

6. Then edit the JSON file and change the values below.

   • scheme -> ex. https
   • host -> ex. qiitadon.com
   • access_token -> Get it from your instance's settings.

   Optional:

   • id_skip -> Set toot IDs to skip deleteing.
   • time_sleep -> Must be more than 1. The bigger the slower.
   • id_account -> Leave it blank then the script will auto fill.

7. Run the script again and wait until it's done.

   Note1 : To run it background see below. Note2 : Don't forget to delete 'nohup.out' file after finish.

How do I get the access token?

1. Open your Mastodon account settings.
2. Go to "</> Development" setting and open "Your applications".
3. Create "NEW APPLICATION" with the settings below.

• Application name : Any name you want and easy to notice.
• Application website : Any web site, may be this GitHub page.
• Redirect URI : Leave it as is.
• Scopes : Check all.

Note: Don't forget to delete this application entry after use. (For sureness)

Why it's slow?

This script deletes 1 toot/second by default because of the Mastodon's access limitation.

Since there's an access time limitation to use the API and if you request more than 300 authorized requests in 5 minutes ( 1 authorized request per second) / account, you'll get a "Too many request" error. Therefore this script is slow.

• See the current limit threshold.

Running the script in background

$ # Check the current PID to compare
$ ps
$ 
$ # Run the script in background then press Ctrl+c to exit
$ nohup php ./delete_toot.php &
$
$ # Recheck the PID to see if the script is running
$ ps
$
$ # See the progress to check
$ tail -f nohup.out

Operation environment tested