How to Backup a Tumblr Blog: Export vs Offline ZIP

There are two ways to backup a Tumblr blog, and they produce different things. Tumblr's built-in export gives you a ZIP with your posts and the media you uploaded, but not your theme. A crawled offline copy gives you the blog as visitors see it: theme, post pages and images in a ZIP that opens in any browser. For a complete backup, use both. Neither one reaches blogs that require a login. If the blog has already been deleted, the Wayback Machine may still have a copy.

Two ways to back up a Tumblr blog: export or full offline copy

The question to ask is what you want to be able to do with the backup later.

• Tumblr's export is a data dump. Use it to keep your writing and original uploads, or to feed them into another platform. You can't browse it like your blog, and it doesn't preserve the design.
• An offline copy is a snapshot of the public blog. You open index.html, click through posts, tag pages and older pages, and it looks the way it did online. Use it to preserve the blog as a whole, keep a record of how it looked, or archive a blog you like.

How do you export a Tumblr blog with the built-in tool?

Tumblr lets the owner of a blog request an export from its settings. At the time of writing, the steps on desktop are:

1. Open Tumblr in a browser, go to Settings and select the blog under your blogs list.
2. Scroll to the Export section and click the button to export that blog.
3. Wait. Tumblr builds the file in the background and lets you know when it's ready, and you download the ZIP from the same settings page.

Tumblr changes its settings pages from time to time, so check its help center if the button isn't where you expect it. Each blog on an account is exported separately. If you run a main blog and several side blogs, request one export for each.

What's in the file and what it leaves out

The export typically contains your posts as files and a folder of the media you uploaded. It is a solid record of your own content. Before you rely on it, open the ZIP and check these:

• No theme. Your custom HTML, CSS, header image and layout are not part of the export. If you edited your theme by hand, copy the theme code from the theme editor into a text file yourself.
• Reblogs. Reblogs are posts on your blog, so they appear. Media originally uploaded by other people may come through differently from your own uploads, so check a few reblogged posts.
• Notes, likes, drafts and queue. Don't assume these are complete. Look in the file for anything you care about.

Why is my Tumblr export taking so long, or why did it never arrive?

Exports of large blogs, with thousands of posts or lots of video, can take a long time to build. Hours is normal, and very large blogs can take longer. If nothing arrives, check your spam folder and look at the export section in settings, where the download often appears even when the notification doesn't. If it still fails, try again later or contact Tumblr support. An offline copy is a useful backup while you wait, because it doesn't depend on Tumblr's queue.

How to backup a Tumblr blog as a browsable offline ZIP

An offline copy is made by crawling the public blog page by page. The crawler saves each page with its images, stylesheets, scripts and fonts, and rewrites the links so everything works from your disk. With Website Downloader it works like this:

1. Enter the blog's theme address, in the form https://yourname.tumblr.com, or its custom domain if it has one.
2. Start the download and watch the page count go up. Nothing needs to be installed, and you can close your laptop while the crawl runs.
3. Download the finished ZIP, unpack it and open index.html.

Use yourname.tumblr.com, not tumblr.com/yourname

Tumblr shows every blog in two ways, and they crawl very differently:

• yourname.tumblr.com is the themed blog. Its pages arrive from the server as real HTML, so a crawler can save them and follow the links to post pages.
• tumblr.com/yourname is the dashboard-style view. JavaScript builds it in the browser, so a crawler gets the app shell but not the posts.

If yourname.tumblr.com sends you to tumblr.com/yourname, the blog's custom theme is probably turned off. If it's your blog, switch the custom theme on in the blog's settings before you download.

How many pages a Tumblr blog really has

A Tumblr blog has more pages than posts. Every post has its own page, every tag has its own listing, and the front page is split into /page/2, /page/3 and so on. A blog with 800 posts can easily reach a few thousand subpages. The free plan stops at 100 subpages, which is enough to test how your theme comes out. For a full blog, a one-time Single Site download covers up to 5,000 subpages, and the Premium plan goes up to 30,000 for very large blogs. See pricing for details.

Why does my offline copy only show the first page of posts?

The usual cause is an infinite-scroll theme. These themes load older posts with JavaScript as you scroll. A crawler can only follow links that are in the page's HTML. If the theme never prints an "older posts" link, only the first batch of posts is captured, plus any posts linked from tags or sidebars.

To get every older post:

• Check first. Open yourname.tumblr.com/page/2 in your browser. If it shows older posts, the pages exist. The theme just doesn't link to them.
• If it's your blog, switch to a paginated theme for the download. Choose a theme with visible "Older / Newer" or numbered page links, run the crawl, then switch back. Your posts are not affected by a theme change. Save a copy of any custom theme code first.
• Look at the archive. Tumblr's /archive page also loads older months with JavaScript, so don't count on it for links to every post.
• Spot-check the result. Open the ZIP and click through to the oldest posts. Compare the count with what the blog shows online.

If pages are there but images or styling are missing, see downloaded website missing images and CSS.

Can I back up a Tumblr blog that is password-protected or marked as mature?

Not with a crawler. Website Downloader does not download pages behind a login, and these Tumblr blogs all require one:

• Blogs hidden from people without an account. Logged-out visitors see a login prompt instead of posts.
• Password-protected blogs. Tumblr lets owners put a password on secondary blogs, and a crawler can't enter it.
• Blogs flagged as mature or explicit that Tumblr shows only after you log in.

If it's your blog, you have two options. You can use Tumblr's export, which works no matter how private the blog is. Or you can temporarily make the blog public, run the offline copy, and switch privacy back on. Only do the second if you're comfortable with the posts being public for that time. If it isn't your blog, respect the owner's choice to keep it private. The tools that can get around these restrictions use your account credentials, and that is a decision to think through carefully.

TumblThree and other media grabbers vs a full blog backup

Most tools that come up for download tumblr blog are media grabbers. TumblThree is a Windows desktop app, and there are browser extensions and GitHub scripts that do similar work. They are built to pull every image and video from one or many blogs into a folder. They do that well, and some can also save post text.

What they don't produce is the blog itself: no theme, no post pages to click through, no tag pages. The right tool depends on the job.

• You want every photo and video, in bulk, from many blogs: a media grabber fits better.
• You want the blog preserved as it looked, readable in a browser, on any operating system: an offline copy fits. It is a TumblThree alternative for anyone on a Mac, a Chromebook or Linux, or anyone who doesn't want to install software.
• You want your own original files and post data: use Tumblr's export.

For a general look at desktop crawlers and browser-based downloaders, see wget vs HTTrack vs an online website downloader.

Can I recover a deleted or terminated Tumblr blog?

Tumblr itself won't bring back a blog you deleted. If the blog was terminated by Tumblr, appealing through Tumblr support is the only official route, and an export may not be available while the blog is down. Outside Tumblr, the best source is usually the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, which has captured many Tumblr blogs over the years.

1. Look up yourname.tumblr.com on the Wayback Machine and check which dates have captures. Also check post URLs you remember, since individual posts are sometimes captured separately from the front page.
2. Choose the capture with the most content.
3. Use the Wayback Machine downloader to turn that capture into an offline ZIP. The Wayback toolbar and the links back to archive.org are removed. Restores of up to 100 pages are free. A one-time Wayback Restore covers up to 5,000 subpages.

Expect gaps. The archive rarely captured every post page or every image, and full-size media and video are often missing. The step-by-step Wayback restore guide explains how to choose captures and what to do about missing pages.

FAQ

Does Tumblr's export include the theme, reblogs, notes and drafts?

It doesn't include the theme. Copy your custom theme code by hand, or make an offline copy to preserve the look. Reblogs appear because they are posts on your blog. Don't assume notes, drafts or queued posts are complete; open the export and check for anything you need.

Can I back up a Tumblr blog that isn't mine?

Technically yes, if the blog is public. A crawler sees what any logged-out visitor sees. Tumblr's export only works for blogs you own, and private or login-only blogs can't be crawled. Keeping a copy for personal reference is one thing. Republishing someone else's posts is another.

Is it legal to archive someone else's Tumblr blog?

It depends on your country and on what you do with the copy. The posts, art and photos stay under their creators' copyright, so a private archive for reading or research is treated very differently from reposting the content. Check Tumblr's terms as well. If you plan to publish, sell or use the archive as evidence, ask a lawyer. This article is not legal advice.

Can I move a Tumblr blog to WordPress or another platform?

Yes. WordPress has a Tumblr importer that can bring posts across, and Tumblr's export gives you the raw content for other platforms. The theme does not move, so you'll need to rebuild the design. Make an offline copy before you switch so you have a reference for how everything looked and linked.

How do I download all images and videos from a Tumblr blog?

For your own blog, Tumblr's export contains your original uploads. For a public blog you want to keep as a whole, an offline copy saves the images and videos embedded in its pages along with the theme and posts. If you only want the media files, in bulk from several blogs, a dedicated media grabber is the better fit.