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 first.

Then run the two teams in parallel for a couple of weeks, so the queue never runs dry, and revoke the old agency only after you have watched the new one put a post live.

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

Facebook and Instagram. In Meta Business Suite Settings, check which business portfolio owns the Page and the Instagram account. Meta's help centre says only the owning organisation can share an asset with another portfolio, so if the Page sits in the agency's portfolio 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 open the account settings. The login email and the recovery phone should both be yours. Change any that are not now, while the request still looks like housekeeping.

If a check fails, stop and repair before going further. Who owns your social accounts covers the setup.

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

Send the list in writing, and name the folder it should land in, on storage you pay for. A link to the agency's own drive is not an export, because it dies with their subscription.

• 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 Every published and unpublished cut, named so it can be matched to its post.
• Project files with media collected. A Premiere, Resolve or CapCut project 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, not only the exported JPG.
• Brand kit. Fonts, colour codes, lower thirds, logo animation, intro and outro stings.
• Music list. Which tracks were licensed under the agency's subscription rather than yours.

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

One test covers it: can you log in somewhere and see next week's posts? If yes, the queue is yours and you can stop it. If no, it is unreviewed content with your name on it.

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 you pay for. Log in, read the queue, edit or delete as you like.

A third party tool the agency pays for. You cannot see the queue, and the posts keep running until the agency disconnects your accounts or stops paying, whichever comes first. Ask for a written list of every queued post with its date, caption and file, and rebuild it somewhere you can see before the handover date.

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. The overlap is a calendar, not a checklist.

Before notice. Ownership checked, export received, new agency signed and briefed. Nothing public has changed.

Notice day. Notice goes to the old agency with a fixed final posting date, ideally the end of a full week. The same day, the new agency gets delegated access and the footage folder, and starts cutting its first batch.

The overlap fortnight. Both teams post. The calendar says which slots belong to whom, so nothing goes out twice. You watch the new agency's first post go live yourself.

Final posting date. The old agency's last post goes out. The next morning, you remove their access.

A fortnight is usually enough, since the new team needs a few days to receive footage, cut a batch and get thumbnails approved. If you post daily, make it longer. Two agencies for a fortnight costs less than a dark page.

Revoking the old agency's access

Remove the agency yourself, from your own login, and take a screenshot of each permissions page once they are gone. Nothing then rests on trust.

The platform by platform steps are in Never give your agency your password. What a platform checklist misses at a handover:

• The scheduler. On your subscription, remove their seats. On theirs, disconnect the tool from each platform's connected apps list, because a connection made under the agency's plan stays live until you cut it there.
• Partners, not only people. On Meta, an agency added as a partner portfolio does not appear under People. Meta's help centre notes that if you cannot see the Partners section, you may not have full control of the portfolio.
• Pending invites. Per YouTube's help page, channel invitations expire after 30 days, so an invite sent during the engagement may still be open.
• The rest. Shared drives, the design tool, the link in bio page, the ad account, inbox tools, any group chat with your number in it.

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.
• 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 does not come back

Two things on the export list may not arrive however politely you ask.

Music licensed on the agency's subscription. The licence is in the agency's name, and whether it covers a repost from your account depends on terms you have never read. Next time, hold the music subscription yourself and add the agency to it.

Templates in a tool the agency licenses. They can be duplicated into your workspace while the agency still has a reason to help, and not after. Ask in the same message as the export.

Everything else that goes missing at a handover was decided the week the last engagement started. Write the ownership and access clauses in before the first post and the next exit is 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. Pricing depends on volume, so book a call and we will walk through it against your footage.