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On March 1, 2023, some long-time Twitter users were greeted with a “Welcome to Twitter” screen and asked to find accounts to follow, even though their accounts and follows already existed. The episode was a temporary service incident—not evidence that those accounts had been erased.
What happened on March 1, 2023?
BetaNews reported that users in multiple parts of the world saw a welcome prompt normally associated with a new account. The affected users had already used Twitter for years and were still following accounts. The report did not provide a verified total for affected accounts, so the scale cannot be stated precisely.
The incident was also covered by several outlets in Techmeme’s March 1 roundup, which listed symptoms including blank timelines and the same welcome prompt. That roundup confirms broad contemporaneous reporting, but it is not a technical incident report.
Why did Twitter seem to forget an existing account?
The visible failure was inconsistent across Twitter’s interface. BetaNews said some users continued receiving notifications for mentions, likes and follows. Tweets could also be viewed by opening an individual account or selecting a trending topic, even when the normal timeline or welcome screen was unavailable.
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That pattern indicates a disruption to the account or timeline experience rather than proof that user data, follows or accounts had been deleted. The cited reporting does not establish whether the underlying problem involved a database, a deployment, authentication, caching or another service component.
How long did the problem last?
BetaNews reported that the service returned to normal after around three hours. This was the outlet’s approximate duration, not an official incident-duration measurement published by Twitter.
Was there an official explanation?
No official cause was reported in the cited coverage. There was no named statement from a Twitter representative or engineer and no public postmortem establishing the failure mechanism. It is therefore not accurate to blame a particular code change, database problem, staffing decision or outage system.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteWhat should users have done?
Because the reported problem was temporary and affected different parts of the service differently, practical steps were limited:
- Wait and try again later rather than creating a second account.
- Check whether notifications, an individual profile page or a trending-topic page still loaded.
- Avoid assuming that a welcome screen meant follows or account data had been permanently removed.
If the same symptom appears in a future incident, check current service-status reporting before changing account settings. The March 1 episode itself does not show that the problem is recurring now.
Is this happening now?
The evidence describes a dated incident on March 1, 2023. It should not be presented as proof of a current Twitter or X outage, nor as evidence that existing accounts are presently being reset. Any current problem would require current status information.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The short answer to “Why does Twitter say ‘Welcome to Twitter’ when I already have an account?”
During the March 1, 2023 incident, some established users were shown a new-user-style welcome and follow screen because Twitter’s interface was temporarily malfunctioning. Their accounts were not shown to have been erased, some other features still worked, and BetaNews said normal service returned after about three hours. The available reporting did not identify an official root cause.
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