Pinterest Backup Guide
How to Back Up Your Pinterest Boards Locally
Pinterest boards can disappear without warning - pins get removed, accounts get suspended, content gets taken down. Here's how to back up everything to your computer so you never lose your curated collections.
Why you should back up your Pinterest boards
You've spent months or years curating Pinterest boards - mood boards for design projects, recipe collections, travel inspiration, wedding planning, home renovation ideas. But Pinterest doesn't guarantee that content will stay forever. Here are the most common reasons people lose their pins:
Original sources get deleted. When someone deletes the original image or webpage that a pin links to, Pinterest may eventually remove the pin. This happens all the time with blogs that shut down or websites that redesign.
Copyright takedowns. Pinterest complies with DMCA requests, which can remove pins from your boards without any notice to you.
Account issues. If Pinterest flags your account for any reason - even mistakenly - you could lose access to everything. There's no easy "export all" button in Pinterest's settings.
Pinterest's data export is incomplete. Pinterest does offer a data download under Settings → Privacy, but it only exports a list of URLs and metadata, not the actual image or video files. If the original source goes down, those URLs are useless.
How to back up a Pinterest board
Use PinBoard - a free desktop app that downloads every pin from a board in full resolution.
Download PinBoard for your operating system (Mac, Windows, or Linux). It's free and requires no account or signup.
Go to the Pinterest board you want to back up. Copy the URL and paste it into PinBoard. For private boards, click "Sign in to Pinterest" first to authenticate.
Click Load Board, then download each category - images, GIFs, and videos. PinBoard saves everything to a folder on your computer organized by board name. Full resolution, no compression.
Paste the next board URL and repeat. PinBoard remembers your last 20 boards, so you can quickly re-download updated boards later if new pins are added.
Backing up private and secret boards
If you have private or secret boards, you'll need PinBoard Pro ($5 one-time). Click "Sign in to Pinterest" inside PinBoard, log in normally, and then paste your private board URL. PinBoard uses your session to access the board - your credentials go directly to Pinterest and are never stored by PinBoard.
This is especially important for secret boards that contain content you can't find anywhere else - mood boards, client work, personal collections. If your Pinterest account ever gets locked, those boards are gone unless you have a local backup.
FAQ
Don't lose your Pinterest boards
Back up your curated collections locally with PinBoard. Full resolution. Takes a minute per board.
Download PinBoard for Free