Manus Deleted User Data This Weekend: How to Migrate Your Projects to Runable

Key Takeaways

• Manus permanently deleted affected user data created on or after December 29, 2025, over the weekend of August 23 and 24, 2026, as part of its regulatory separation from Meta. If you exported a ZIP before the deadline, you can rebuild it on Runable for free at runable.com/import.
• The deletion was a condition of the Meta unwind required by Chinese regulators, not a breach: no data was leaked or exposed.
• Runable's import flow supports Manus, Lovable, Replit, Base44, and Claude: upload your export, paste the provided prompt, and the agent rebuilds your project with database, auth, and deployment included.
• If you missed the export deadline, the agent can rebuild from a live URL, screenshots, or a detailed description of what you built.

Over the weekend of August 23 and 24, 2026, Manus carried out one of the more unusual data deletions in recent memory. Following its separation from Meta, the company permanently deleted data that affected users created on or after December 29, 2025. This was announced in advance, it was legally required, and it still caught a lot of builders off guard.

If you exported your Manus workspace before the deadline, your projects are not gone. They are sitting in a ZIP file waiting to be brought back to life. This guide covers what happened, what it means for your work, and how to rebuild your Manus projects on Runable in minutes using the free import flow at runable.com/import.

What happened to Manus: the full timeline

The deletion is the final chapter of a corporate saga that ran for eight months. Here is the short version.

On December 29, 2025, Meta announced it was acquiring Manus, the AI agent startup built by Butterfly Effect, in a deal valued at roughly 2 billion dollars. Manus had grown fast on the strength of its autonomous agent product, and Meta wanted that capability in house.

The deal ran into trouble almost immediately. On April 27, 2026, Chinese regulators blocked the acquisition, citing concerns over the transfer of technology and user data developed by a company with Chinese origins. A Tencent-led arrangement was put together to unwind the transaction.

On June 11, 2026, Meta completed the operational split. Data sharing between Meta and Manus was halted entirely, and the two companies began operating as fully separate entities.

Then came the part that affected users directly. On August 11, 2026, Manus published a notice titled "A Note to Our Users" on its blog. Affected users were told that any data created on or after December 29, 2025, the date the Meta deal was announced, would be permanently deleted. The backup deadline was August 23, 2026 at 7:59 AM Singapore time. The deletion itself ran across August 23 and 24, and affected users lost access to the platform for roughly two days while it happened.

That deadline has now passed. The deletion is done.

What got deleted, and why it was not a breach

It is worth being clear about what this was and was not. This was not a hack, a leak, or a security failure. No user data was exposed. The deletion was a condition of the regulatory unwind: because the Meta acquisition was announced on December 29, 2025, data created under the period of Meta's involvement had to be removed as part of the separation.

For affected users, that means projects, chat histories, generated files, and deployed artifacts created in Manus after that date are gone from Manus servers. Anything created before December 29, 2025 was not covered by the deletion notice, and users who were not in the affected group kept their data.

The practical consequence is the same either way. If you built anything meaningful in Manus during 2026, the only copy you control is the export you downloaded before the deadline. A ZIP file on your laptop is a backup, not a working product. It does not run, it does not have a database, and it does not have a URL. The next step is turning that archive back into a live project.

How to migrate your Manus project to Runable

Runable has a dedicated import flow for exactly this situation, and it is completely free. It supports projects from Manus, Lovable, Replit, Base44, and Claude. You do not need to untangle the export yourself or figure out which framework Manus used under the hood. The Runable agent reads your archive and rebuilds the project on a modern stack, with the database, authentication, and deployment included.

Here is the full process for a Manus project.

Step 1: Locate your export

Find the ZIP file you downloaded from Manus before the August 23 deadline. Manus exports typically bundle your project files, generated assets, and in many cases the conversation history that produced them. Do not unzip or edit it. The import works best with the original archive.

Step 2: Open the import page

Go to runable.com/import and select Manus as your source platform. The page gives you a ready-made migration prompt written specifically for Manus exports, so the agent knows what kind of structure to expect inside the archive.

Step 3: Upload the ZIP and paste the prompt

Upload your export ZIP, copy the provided prompt, and paste it into the Runable chatbox. That is the entire input. You can add context in plain language if you want, for example "the admin dashboard matters most, rebuild that first" or "keep the same color scheme but fix the mobile layout."

Step 4: Let the agent rebuild

The Runable agent unpacks the archive, reads through the code and assets, and rebuilds the project as a working app. This is a rebuild, not a copy-paste job. The agent reconstructs your product on Runable's managed stack, which means you get a real database, working auth, and one-click deployment without wiring any of it up yourself. When it finishes, you have a live preview you can click through immediately.

Step 5: Verify and keep building

Walk through your app the way a user would. If something from the original is missing or behaves differently, tell the agent in the chat and it will fix it. From there you are in a normal Runable workflow: every change is a message, and every version is deployable.

What you get that Manus did not offer

Migration is the obvious reason to move, but the more interesting question is what happens after. Rebuilding on Runable is not just a lifeboat. It is an upgrade in several concrete ways.

First, infrastructure is included. Every imported project gets a managed database, file storage, and authentication out of the box. There is no separate backend to provision and no third-party service to glue on.

Second, deployment is built in. Your rebuilt app can go live on a real URL immediately, and you can attach a custom domain when you are ready. There is no export-to-Vercel dance.

Third, you are not limited to web. Runable projects share a single codebase across web, mobile, and desktop, so the dashboard you built in Manus can become an iOS and Android app without starting over.

Fourth, the agent handles the whole stack. Payments through Stripe, transactional email, AI features through a built-in gateway, and analytics are all things you can add by asking, not by reading integration docs at midnight.

And on cost: importing is free, and Runable's plans are simple. There is a Free tier to start, Pro at $20/mo, which is the most popular option, and Max at $100/mo for heavy usage.

If you missed the export deadline

Not everyone got their data out in time. If your Manus projects were deleted and you have no ZIP, the situation is worse but not hopeless.

Check whether your project was deployed anywhere. A live URL, even a broken one, gives the Runable agent something to work from. Screenshots, product demos, old pull requests, and design files all help too. Describe what the product did in as much detail as you can, attach whatever artifacts survive, and the agent will rebuild from the description. It will not be a byte-for-byte restoration, but teams regularly rebuild a working v1 this way in a day, and the second version is usually cleaner than the first.

The larger lesson from this whole episode is about ownership. Your work should not live exclusively inside any single platform's servers, subject to acquisitions, regulators, and unwind agreements you have no say in. On Runable, your project code is yours, exports are always available, and the app you build runs on standard, portable technology. To understand how AI agents for small business compare across categories, including build tools like Runable, it is worth seeing how the landscape has shifted in 2026.

FAQ

Is the Manus data deletion reversible?

No. Manus stated the deletion of affected data created on or after December 29, 2025 is permanent. If you did not export before August 23, 2026 at 7:59 AM SGT, that data cannot be recovered from Manus.

Does Runable's import really cost nothing?

Yes. The import itself is completely free. You upload your export, the agent rebuilds it, and you only ever pay if you choose a paid plan for ongoing usage, either Pro at $20/mo or Max at $100/mo.

What platforms can I import from besides Manus?

The import flow at runable.com/import currently supports Manus, Lovable, Replit, Base44, and Claude. Each source has its own tailored export instructions and migration prompt.

Will my rebuilt app look and work the same?

The agent's goal is functional parity: same features, same flows, same data model. Because it is a rebuild rather than a file copy, minor visual differences can appear, and you can correct any of them by telling the agent what to adjust.

How long does a migration take?

Most imports produce a working preview in minutes. Larger projects with many pages or complex logic can take longer, and you can watch the agent's progress and answer its questions along the way.

Related Reading

• What Is an AI Agent? A Plain-English Guide for 2026
• Best AI Agents in 2026: 10 Picks by the Job You Need Done
• Best AI Agents for Small Business in 2026 (By Category)
• How to Use Runable: The Complete 2026 Guide
• The Outcome Era: Why Agents Are Replacing Tools
• Introducing Runable 2.0: The Best Way to Work with AI

Migrate your Manus projects to Runable today

Your export ZIP is the last copy of work the Manus deletion already erased from its servers. Turn it back into a live product: go to runable.com/import, upload the archive, paste the provided prompt, and let the agent rebuild it with the database, auth, and deployment included. The import is free, and you keep full ownership of everything it builds.