How to switch social media agencies without losing your content

Give notice last. Before the old agency knows you are leaving, confirm that you hold the top role on every account, pull a copy of everything they have made, and find out what is sitting in the posting queue. Once notice is given the incentive to be helpful drops, so do the parts that need their cooperation while they still have a reason to cooperate.

Then run the two teams in parallel for a couple of weeks. The new agency gets footage and access while the old one is still posting, the queue never runs dry, and you revoke the old agency's access only after you have watched the new one put a post live. The order below is the whole method.

Check ownership before you give notice

Ownership on a social platform sits with whoever holds the top role and the recovery details. Check each account from your own login, not from a screenshot the agency sends.

YouTube. Open YouTube Studio, then Settings, then Permissions. Your Google account should be listed as Owner. Per YouTube's channel permissions help page, a Manager can also manage permissions and delete content, so if the agency sits at Manager and nobody on your side is Owner, fix that first.

Facebook and Instagram. Open Settings in Meta Business Suite and check which business portfolio owns the Page and the Instagram account. Meta's help centre says only the organisation that owns an asset can share it with another business portfolio, and only someone with full control of the portfolio can add partners. If the Page lives in the agency's portfolio and you are the partner, you cannot take it back from your side. Ask for it to be moved into a portfolio you control before you mention leaving.

TikTok, LinkedIn and everything else. Log in as yourself and confirm the email and phone on the account are yours, not a shared inbox the agency set up. If an account was created under the agency's details, moving it is the first task.

If any of these checks fail, stop and repair before going further. Who owns your social accounts covers the setup in detail.

What to ask for: footage, edits, project files, captions, thumbnails

Ask for a single export to a drive you own, in original formats and at full resolution. Send the list in writing.

• Raw footage. Everything you sent, plus anything they trimmed or transcoded. Their copy may be the only organised one.
• Finished edits. Every published and unpublished cut, named so it can be matched to the post it became.
• Project files with media collected. A Premiere, Resolve or CapCut project file on its own points at media on their machine and opens empty. Ask for it packaged with its media, fonts and graphics.
• Caption bank. Titles, captions, hashtag sets, hook lines, the description template. Usually in a spreadsheet or a scheduler, and the easiest thing to lose.
• Thumbnails and covers. The layered source files as well as the exported JPG. If they were built in a design tool on the agency's account, ask for the templates to be duplicated into yours.
• Brand kit. Fonts, colour codes, lower thirds, logo animation, intro and outro stings.
• Music list. Which tracks were licensed under the agency's own subscription rather than yours, because that licence may not travel with you.

Ask for this before notice if the contract lets you, framed as a routine backup. Most agencies will hand it over without asking why.

The queue: what is scheduled, where, and who can stop it

Scheduled posts live in one of three places, and each behaves differently when the relationship ends.

Native schedulers. Meta Business Suite's planner, YouTube Studio's scheduled videos, TikTok's scheduler. These sit on your account, anyone with a posting role can see them, and they go out on time whether or not the agency is still around. Open each one and list what is queued, with dates.

A third party tool on your subscription. You can log in, see the queue, and edit or delete it.

A third party tool on the agency's subscription. You cannot see the queue. The posts go out until the agency disconnects your accounts or stops paying, and you will not know which happens first. Ask for a written list of every queued post with its date, caption and file, and move them into your own scheduler before the handover date.

Whoever can see a queue can stop it. If you cannot see one, treat it as unreviewed content with your name on it.

Timing the overlap so Thursday still has a post

The failure everyone remembers is the gap. The old agency stops on a Friday, the new one is still waiting on access the following Thursday, and the page goes quiet for weeks. Overlap avoids it.

1. Confirm ownership and pull the export.
2. Sign the new agency and brief it, with no public change yet.
3. Give the old agency notice with a fixed final posting date, ideally the end of a full week.
4. The new agency gets access and footage the day notice goes out and starts on its first batch.
5. The new agency's first post goes live while the old agency is still posting. You watch it go out.
6. The old agency's final post goes out on the agreed date.
7. You revoke the day after.

A couple of weeks is usually enough, because the new team needs a few days to receive footage, cut a batch and get titles and thumbnails approved. If your cadence is daily, make it longer. Paying two agencies for a fortnight costs less than a dark page.

Revoking access on Meta, YouTube, TikTok and your scheduler

Revoke from your side. "We have removed ourselves" is a claim. A role list with the agency missing from it is proof.

• Meta. In Meta Business Suite Settings, under Users, open Partners and remove the agency's business portfolio. Then check People for staff who were added directly. Meta's help centre notes that if you cannot see Partners, you may not have full control of the portfolio, and only full control lets you share assets with partners.
• YouTube. YouTube Studio, Settings, Permissions, select the person, Remove. Per YouTube's help page, invitations expire after 30 days, so clear any pending invites too.
• TikTok. Remove any member or role the agency holds on the business account. If the agency ever used the login itself, change the password and check the linked phone and email.
• Your scheduler. Remove the agency's seats, then review the connected apps list on each platform and disconnect any tool you do not recognise. A scheduler connected under the agency's plan keeps its permission until you cut it there.
• Everything else. Shared drives, the design tool, the link in bio page, the ad account, inbox tools.

Change any password that was ever shared, and confirm two factor is on and tied to your phone. Never give your agency your password is the longer version of that step.

What the new agency needs on day one

The new team should not spend its first fortnight rebuilding what already exists. Hand over:

• Delegated access on each platform, at the lowest role that lets them post and read analytics.
• The export above, in a folder structure they can find things in.
• The caption bank and brand kit.
• A one page note on what has worked, what drew complaints, and the topics you will not touch.
• The posting calendar for the overlap period, so they know which slots are theirs.
• A named person on your side who approves things, and how fast.

If the new agency does not ask for most of this, ask why.

What you cannot get back, and how to avoid it next time

Every one of these was decided at the start of the last engagement, not at the end.

An account created under the agency's email. Getting it back depends on goodwill. Next time, create the account yourself and grant a role.

A Page owned by the agency's business portfolio. Per Meta's help centre, only the owning portfolio can share an asset, so you need their cooperation to move it. Next time, keep the Page in your own portfolio and add the agency as a partner with partial access.

A queue in a tool you never had a login for. Once the subscription lapses, it is gone. Next time, the scheduler sits on your account and the agency gets a seat.

Project files and templates. Unless the agreement says they are yours, some agencies keep them. Next time, put "all files and project files delivered on request" in the agreement before the first post.

Music licensed on their subscription. Next time, license it yourself, or accept that some edits may not be safe to reuse.

Write the last day into the agreement and the handover becomes a checklist rather than a negotiation.

VALORAE Media is a video first social media management agency. We do not shoot. You film, and we edit short form, long form and thumbnails, then title, caption, schedule and post them on your channels, on the Edit, Manage or Full Page package. The handover order above is the one we ask clients to hold us to. Pricing depends on volume, so book a call and we will walk through it against your footage.