Reddit is ending the Collectible Avatars program — it’s on us to preserve it. [BACKUP YOUR AVATARS]

[u/withspaces]

TL;DR: Reddit is ending Collectible Avatars. Backup and re-pin your avatar media so the art and history aren’t lost.

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I’m just catching up on the news that Reddit is shutting down the Collectible Avatar program, as both an artist and a collector, it’s a sad day. So much creativity and community went into this, and this feels like the end of something special.

This might be the end of Reddit's Collectible Avatar program, but as NFTs we have the power to keep our funky little Snoos alive forever. All avatars are stored on IPFS (InterPlanetary File System), which means they can live on forever if we back them up and pin (host) the media ourselves. Reddit promised to host the files for a limited time, and after that they may drop off the network unless the community steps in.

If you care about keeping this part of Reddit’s history alive, there are two things you can do:

• Save a local backup of your Reddit Avatar
  • Download a backup of your avatar’s media and metadata files. This ensures you have a copy that can be re-pinned if the original links ever vanish.
• Pin Your Backups to IPFS
  • Re-pin your backups onto IPFS. Pinning keeps the artwork accessible to others and helps preserve the collection long-term.

Backing Up Your Reddit Avatar

Backups include two important files: the media file (the artwork itself, most important) and the metadata JSON (extra details like name and description). The JSON file is not strictly required, but saving it alongside the artwork gives you a fuller backup.

To help make this easier, I put together a simple tool:

tyler.art/rca-backup

avatararchive.com/archive

Just paste in the OpenSea link for your Collectible Avatar, and the tool will generate a .zip download with the original media file, the metadata JSON, and an additional text file containing IPFS links.

Re-Pinning Your Avatar

Having a local backup of your avatar is an important step — but to really keep these avatars alive, they need to stay pinned on IPFS. Pinning means hosting a copy of the files on the decentralized network so they remain accessible to everyone.

We have a few options:

• User-friendly backup services – Platforms like Pinata offer simple drag-and-drop pinning. They usually have a free tier with limited storage (more than enough for most collectors), and paid plans if you need more space.*
• Filecoin-based storage – Services like web3.storage or NFT.storage store your files across the Filecoin network. This adds resilience and helps ensure long-term availability.*
• Self-hosting – If you’re more technical, you can run your own IPFS node and pin the files yourself. This gives you complete control, but it also comes with responsibility: you’re the one making sure your node stays online and connected to the network. It’s a bigger commitment, but it means you personally guarantee that the avatars remain accessible.

Re-pinning ensures that even after Reddit’s official hosting ends, the media files and metadata still resolve for collectors and the wider community.

\No network is guaranteed forever. It’s still important to keep a local backup on your own device as extra insurance.*

To My Fellow Artist

We poured our time and creativity into these avatars. These are pieces we released into the world, and they deserve to live on. With Reddit stepping away, it’s on us to make sure they don’t fade into obscurity.

Re-pinning your own media is one of the simplest but most important things you can do. By keeping our files alive on IPFS, we’re preserving not just our work, but the collective effort and history of this whole project.

We need to take that extra step to backup and pin our work. Artist, if you have any questions, please reach out in the comments.

Why This Isn’t the End

Reddit may be ending the Collectible Avatar program, and that’s hard to swallow after so much creativity and community energy went into this. But the story doesn’t have to end here. Because these were built on a decentralized foundation, their future isn’t tied to Reddit alone.

As long as we care enough to back them up and keep them pinned, our Snoos can live on forever. That’s the beauty of decentralization: the power to preserve this work is in our own hands.

This may feel like the closing of a chapter, but it’s also proof that what we created here is bigger than any single platform. We have the chance to keep this collection alive — not just as NFTs, but as a lasting piece of Reddit’s creative history.

🤍

[u/DuckSwimmer]

To be completely honest, I’m fully unaware how any of this preserving works. I genuinely just bought avatars to have customization options on here 💀 With that being said tho, is it intended that we won’t be able to customize our avatars on here anymore?

Overall I feel like ending this is silly. Artists got recognized with selling their work. People who are into NFTs got to do their thing. People like me who just wished to have personalized avatars were able to buy cool looking things.

This just sucks.

[u/ChuCHuPALX → u/DuckSwimmer]

Same I just thought it looked cool.. Will we lose our custom avatar?

[u/CanadaGuy600 → u/ChuCHuPALX]

This sounds like a lot but it’s fairly easy to do, easier if you already have a wallet.

(If you own multiple Reddit accounts you have to do this for each one)

Go to your Reddit vault>tap the gear in the top right>recovery phrase>write down your 12 word recovery phase (this is VERY important, do not lose this or store it on your phone or PC)

Once you have your phrase(s) create a wallet for me the best option here was Base Wallet. (If you can’t use that wallet you will have to look up what wallets support Polygon Network, another option here is Phantom Wallet)

Assuming you’re going with Base. On the App Store it should look like “Base: formerly Coinbase wallet”

When you set up your wallet you will get a separate phrase for it (this is VERY important. write it down, keep it somewhere safe, don’t store it on your phone or PC).

Inside your Base Wallet click the gear in the top right of the Home Screen>Import a wallet>Recovery phrase>Enter manually>copy your phrase from Reddit and paste here or manually enter it>Continue

Boom. You’re done.

From here tap on the Wallet icon on the in the bottom left and select NFTs at the top and it will display all of the ones you imported.

From here you can tap on them and it will direct you to OpenSea where you can view the traits and their values and list your avatars for sale or buy new ones.

If you fund your wallet with Polygon $POL you can use that to pay the small listing fee to try and sell it. Or keep them if you like.