If You Use Manus, You Have Eleven Days to Back Up Your Data
Manus is separating from Meta and returning to independence. Some accounts will have all data created since December 29, 2025 deleted on August 23, with a backup window open now.
Manus, the AI agent service that had been bought by Meta, is going independent again, and the unwinding comes with a deadline that some users need to write down. Data created by affected accounts on or after December 29, 2025 will be deleted between August 23 and 24. The backup window is open now and closes at 7:59 a.m. on August 23 Singapore time, which is 1:59 a.m. on August 23 in central Europe.
The company was clear about one thing up front: this is not a breach. In its note to users, Manus says the deletion is required to comply with regulatory requirements in specific jurisdictions as it separates from Meta. December 29, 2025 is the date Meta’s acquisition closed, which is why that is the cut-off. Chinese regulators blocked the roughly two billion dollar deal in April, after it had already gone through, and the two companies have been untangling since.
Not everyone is affected. Manus says it will notify affected users by email and in the app, and unaffected users will get an in-app notice telling them there is nothing to do. If you signed up with an Apple ID or a Facebook account, the company does not have your email address, so the in-app notification is the only one you will get. That detail is easy to miss and worth acting on. There is a backup tool on the site, it supports multiple runs, and anything you create after backing up needs backing up again. Affected accounts will be inaccessible for roughly two days and restoration opens at 8:00 a.m. on August 25 Singapore time. Manus says affected users will not be charged during the backup period and will get what it calls welcome back bonuses.
What is behind it
Manus made its name in early 2025 as one of the first general purpose AI agents that could go off and complete multi-step tasks on its own, and it built up millions of users fast. The Meta deal, then Beijing blocking it, then this separation, is a reminder that AI companies are now inside geopolitics rather than beside it. Data location is part of that: Manus says its data sits in the US and Singapore.
A caveat worth stating plainly. Manus has not published the criteria for which accounts are affected, only that it will tell you. So the honest advice is not to wait for certainty.
What this means for you: If you have ever run anything through Manus that you would miss, go and back it up now rather than after a reminder email you might not receive. More generally, this is the cleanest recent example of a risk that applies to every AI service you use: the work lives on someone else’s server, and a corporate reshuffle you had no part in can put a date on it. Exporting anything you care about, on any platform, is a cheap habit.
Sources
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