Threads are where the good stuff on X lives — the twelve-post breakdown, the case study, the argument worth keeping. And they are exactly what X gives you no way to save. There is no "copy thread" button. Select-and-drag across a long thread picks up timestamps, view counts and reply buttons along with the words, and every "Show more" you forgot to click leaves a hole in the middle of your text.
Here is how to get a clean, searchable text version of a whole thread — the manual route, and the faster one.
Why threads resist copying
Three things get in the way. Truncation: longer posts collapse behind "Show more", and collapsed text is not in the page, so it cannot be selected. Virtual scrolling: X unloads posts you have scrolled past, so a selection that spans the whole thread quietly loses its middle. Interface noise: a drag-select grabs the like counts and the "Reply" labels wedged between paragraphs.
The manual method (no tools)
It works, it is tedious, and it is worth knowing when you cannot install anything:
1. Open the thread's status page.
2. Click every Show more so all text is expanded.
3. Scroll slowly to the end so every post has rendered, then back to the top.
4. Drag-select from the first post to the last and press Ctrl+C (Cmd+C on Mac).
5. Paste into a plain-text editor first — not straight into a formatted document — and delete the interface fragments by hand.
Expect to spend more time cleaning than copying. And the author attribution is not in there unless you type it yourself.
The faster method, step by step
The xPostCopier extension puts copy buttons under every post on x.com, so a thread becomes a sequence of one-click captures instead of one fragile selection.
Open the thread on its own page
Click the opening post. X.com shows the entire conversation on one status page, in order, which is the state you want to copy from.
Expand every collapsed post
Click through the Show more and Show replies links. This matters just as much with the extension as without it: text that has not been loaded into the page cannot be captured by anything.
Click Download All on each post, in order
Work top to bottom. Each click captures that post as a structured block — author name, @handle, text, link and timestamp — and saves it to the extension's post history. Any video or GIF in the thread is saved as a file at the same time.
Assemble the thread from your history
Open the extension popup. The captured posts are listed in the order you took them; from there you can export a post as TXT or JSON, or paste the blocks one after another into your document. History holds 20 posts on the free trial and 2000 on Premium — enough for a very long thread either way.
Long-form X articles are the exception
If what you are looking at is not a thread but a long-form X article, there is a dedicated path: the extension captures the article as ordered segments — paragraphs and images in reading order — so a single paste reconstructs the whole piece top to bottom. Threads are split across posts by design; articles are one document, and are handled as one.
Where to put the text once you have it
A thread in plain text is only useful if it lands somewhere you will look again. Notion and Obsidian both take the structured block as real text, which means your own search finds it later — see copying X posts into Notion, Obsidian and Google Docs. For sharing rather than storing, the extension pastes a captured post into LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Reddit or Wykop with attribution to the original author.
FAQ
Can I copy a thread on my phone? Not with the extension — it is a Chrome desktop extension. On mobile you have the manual selection, or paste individual post links into the web downloader. See copying X posts on mobile.
Does it work on threads from accounts I do not follow? Yes, as long as the thread is publicly visible to you in the browser. Protected accounts are not accessible.
What about the images inside the thread? Download All saves media as files as it goes, and the Screenshot button captures the post as it appears if you want the visual.
Will the posts stay in order? They are saved in the order you capture them, so work top to bottom and the sequence takes care of itself.