Before you cancel Hootsuite: exporting reports, inbox history and scheduled posts

Leaving Hootsuite takes three separate actions: export what you want to keep, cancel the subscription, and remove Hootsuite's access from each social network. They happen in that order because Hootsuite's help center does not say what you can still export once a cancellation takes effect, and the third is the step that removes Hootsuite's permissions on the networks themselves. This page takes each step from Hootsuite's own help center and its terms, both read on 29 September 2026.

What can you export from Hootsuite, and on which plan?

Sources: Export an Analytics report, Export your content calendar, Export your Inbox data, Hootsuite help center, read 2026-09-29.

The gap is on Standard and Professional: analytics leave as PDF or PowerPoint only. Below Enterprise, no inbox export is documented at all. Plan for that before the paid period ends.

How do you export analytics reports?

Open the report in Analytics, set the date range, select Export and pick the format. Hootsuite emails the finished file, and you can also download it from the report page if you stay on it (Export an Analytics report).

Two details matter when you are leaving:

• Set the widest date range you need before exporting. A PDF is a snapshot of the view you had open.
• Scheduled exports end with your access. Scheduled exports run weekly on Tuesdays or monthly on the second day, at 10am GMT, and they are deleted when you are removed from the report's shared users, removed from an organization, or delete your Hootsuite account. If a client receives a monthly report by email, send them a last manual export and tell them the schedule ends.

On Standard and Professional, no report exports as a spreadsheet. If you need the figures in a spreadsheet for a year-end comparison, the networks' own analytics are the other source: LinkedIn Page analytics export as XLS files (LinkedIn Help) and YouTube Analytics exports from its advanced mode, up to 500 rows per download (YouTube Help), as set out in the native tools each platform provides. See reach, impressions and views: what each platform counts before you put the two side by side.

How do you export scheduled posts?

Hootsuite's help center describes the content-calendar export for its current interface (Export your content calendar):

1. Go to Perch and select Calendar.
2. Optionally filter by social account, post status or campaign.
3. Select Export and choose a file format.
4. For CSV, choose whether to include unscheduled posts in your organization that are pending approval.
5. Select a date range and Export.

What the file leaves out decides what you rebuild by hand:

• Drafts. Exports "do not currently include post targeting details, location tags on Instagram posts, ads, or unscheduled drafts". Copy drafts out one by one.
• Media, after a week. "Media links are valid for one week from the export date." Download the images and videos the file links to within that week, or export again.
• Range. CSV covers up to 365 days and PDF up to one week. For a long queue, export CSV.

What happens to your inbox history?

Hootsuite documents an Inbox export only for Enterprise Inbox admins with Advanced Inbox: custom CSV reports of up to 18 months of Inbox data, covering conversations, messages, agents, contacts, topics, tags and response times (Export your Inbox data).

On other plans there is no documented export. Replies sent from Hootsuite's inbox are posted on the networks themselves, so the conversations also live in each network's own inbox. For a Facebook Page and an Instagram account, that is Inbox in Meta Business Suite, which shows messages from Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp and comments on Facebook and Instagram posts (Meta Business Help Centre, read 2026-09-29). What you lose is Hootsuite's layer on top: its tags, assignments and notes. If those matter, for a complaint history or a client audit, copy the relevant threads before the end date.

When does cancelling take effect, and is there a refund?

Cancellation takes effect "at the end of your paid or trial period", and you keep your current features until then (Manage your Hootsuite plan and account). The same article says Hootsuite will restore your account information and data if you come back and restart a subscription, but not what you can open or export in the meantime, so export before that date.

On money, the documents agree:

• The subscription renews at the end of the commitment unless you cancel, so cancel before the renewal date (Billing FAQ).
• Annual subscriptions are "one discounted, non-refundable payment" (same FAQ).
• Under the self-serve terms, plans renew automatically (section 22), and if you cancel mid-term you pay for the rest of the term with no refund (section 24) (Hootsuite terms, read 2026-09-29).
• Add-ons removed mid-cycle stay active until the end of the commitment, without a refund (Billing FAQ).

For how renewal and refund clauses compare across vendors, see paying for a social media tool: billing, VAT and renewal terms.

Should you cancel or delete the account?

Cancel. Deleting is a different, faster action. Hootsuite's help center says deletion is immediate and accounts are not recoverable, your scheduled content is permanently deleted, and the account's email address cannot be used for a future Hootsuite account (Manage your Hootsuite plan and account). The Billing FAQ adds that a deleted account is closed "immediately" with no proration or partial refund.

Two conditions come first if you run an organization in Hootsuite:

• You must delete your organization, or transfer its ownership, before you can delete your account (Manage your Hootsuite plan and account).
• An account owner cannot be removed from an organization until ownership has been transferred to someone else (Remove a member from a team or account).

If an agency set up Hootsuite for you, check who owns the organization now. The owner is the one who can cancel, delete or hand it over.

How do you remove Hootsuite's access on each network?

The permissions each network gave Hootsuite when you connected an account are managed on the network's side. Hootsuite's help center lists where to remove them (Revoke Hootsuite access to a social account):

On Facebook, one revocation reaches further than one account: the article says it disconnects every Facebook Page your profile is an admin of, and the Instagram business profiles linked to those Pages. The same article says revoking before you remove the account in Hootsuite disconnects it, but "you won't lose any scheduled content for the account". So revoke last, after the exports and after your new schedule is running, or anything still queued in Hootsuite sits on a disconnected account. For the wider clean-up of partners, roles and connected apps on each platform, see agency offboarding: how to take back your accounts and remove access.

A checklist before you cancel Hootsuite

1. Find the renewal date and the owner of the organization.
2. Export analytics reports for the full date range you need, in every format your plan allows. Send clients a last copy of any scheduled export.
3. Export the content calendar as CSV, up to 365 days, including posts pending approval if you use approvals.
4. Download the media linked in the export within a week.
5. Copy out drafts, which the export leaves out.
6. Export Inbox data if you are on Enterprise with Advanced Inbox; otherwise copy the threads whose Hootsuite tags or notes you need.
7. Transfer or delete the organization if you will delete the account later.
8. Cancel before the renewal date. Cancelling mid-term does not refund the rest of the term.
9. Revoke Hootsuite's access on each network once your queue has moved and nothing still needs to publish from Hootsuite.
10. Delete the account last, if at all. Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone.

Questions and answers

Does cancelling Hootsuite delete my scheduled posts?

Hootsuite's help center does not say it does: your plan features continue until the end of the paid or trial period, and Hootsuite says it restores your account information and data if you restart. Deleting the account does delete them: Hootsuite says scheduled content is then permanently deleted. Export the content calendar as CSV before either.

Can I export my Hootsuite scheduled posts?

Yes. From the calendar, Export gives a CSV of up to 365 days or a PDF of up to one week, and the CSV can include posts pending approval. It leaves out unscheduled drafts, ads, post targeting details and Instagram location tags, and its media links expire after one week.

Can I export my Hootsuite inbox history?

Hootsuite documents an Inbox export for Enterprise Inbox admins with Advanced Inbox only: CSV reports of up to 18 months of Inbox data. On other plans, the conversations remain in each network's own inbox, but Hootsuite's tags and notes do not.

Do I get a refund if I cancel Hootsuite partway through a year?

No, under the self-serve terms: cancelling mid-term means you pay for the rest of the term, and the Billing FAQ calls the annual payment non-refundable. Deleting the account closes it immediately, also without proration or a partial refund.

Sources

Hootsuite help center, read on 29 September 2026:

• Export an Analytics report: formats by plan, scheduled exports and when they are deleted.
• Export your content calendar: steps, CSV and PDF ranges, pending-approval posts, media-link expiry, exclusions.
• Export your Inbox data: 18 months of CSV, Enterprise Advanced Inbox admins.
• Manage your Hootsuite plan and account: when cancellation takes effect, account deletion.
• Billing FAQ: renewal, annual payments, add-ons, deletion without refund.
• Remove a member from a team or account: ownership transfer before removal.
• Revoke Hootsuite access to a social account: where to revoke on each network.

Other sources:

• Hootsuite self-serve terms, sections 22 and 24, read 29 September 2026: hootsuite.com/legal/terms.
• LinkedIn Help, Export your LinkedIn Page analytics report, and YouTube Help, Advanced mode for analytics reports, read 29 September 2026.
• Meta Business Help Centre, Inbox in Meta Business Suite, read 29 September 2026: facebook.com/business/help/294426838452244.