The Short Answer: It's Not Possible

Our tool, like all other public third-party downloaders, cannot download videos, images, or GIFs from a private Twitter/X account. If you paste a link from a protected tweet, you will receive an error like "No media found" or "Invalid URL".

Why can't our tool access private media?

There are two primary reasons for this limitation, both centered on respecting user choices and technical boundaries.

1. Respect for User Privacy

When a user sets their account to "private" (also known as "protected"), they are explicitly stating that they only want their approved followers to see their content. Building a tool to bypass this would be a direct violation of that user's privacy settings. We are committed to ethical operation and firmly believe in respecting the privacy choices of every Twitter/X user.

2. Technical and Security Limitations

Our downloader accesses Twitter/X as an anonymous, public visitor. It can only "see" and process content that is visible to everyone. To access a private tweet, our server would need to be logged into an account that follows the private user. Creating a system for this would be insecure and would violate Twitter's terms of service.

How to Identify a Private Account

You can easily tell if an account is private by looking at their profile. A small lock icon (🔒) will be displayed next to their username.

What Are the Alternatives?

If you need to save media from a private account that you follow, the only way is to do so manually and responsibly:

  • Ask for Permission: You can ask the user to temporarily make their account public so you can download the tweet.
  • Manual Capture: If you are an approved follower, you can take a screenshot of an image or use your device's built-in screen recording feature to capture a video. Please do this responsibly and with respect for the user's privacy.