For whatever the reason(s) that you might have to ditch Instagram — you can freely do so without losing your data (photos and videos).
The Facebook-owned platform has in recent years updated its privacy rules, to give users more control over their data.
So let’s say you want to ditch Instagram forever or move the content to another platform and you are wondering how will I save all my uploaded content — here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
On your smartphone via the app
- Open up your Instagram app
- From your profile page, tap the hamburger icon in the top right-hand corner.
- Tap “Settings” on the menu that pops up from the bottom of your screen.
- Tap on the “Security” option about halfway down this menu.
- Under the “Data and History” header, tap “Download Data.”
- You will be asked to enter the email address that you’d like your data to be sent to, then tap the “Request Download” button.
- You’ll be prompted to enter your password for the account.
After the last step, Instagram will start gathering your data and will therefore send you an email with a link to download your data within 48 hours.
The file will be downloaded as a zipped folder with all the information Instagram has stored (photos, videos, Reels, Stories, and even archived posts).
Photos are downloaded as JPEGS and videos are downloaded as MP4s.
We’d recommend that you open up the link on a computer so that the downloading process is easier.
On your computer via the browser
- Open up your Instagram page on the browser
- From your profile page, tap the profile picture in the top right-hand corner.
- Tap “Settings” on the menu that pops up.
- On the right menu, look for the “Privacy and Security” option, then click on it.
- From the next page that appears scrolling down, you should see the “Data Download” with the “Request Download” option.
- You will be asked to enter the email address that you’d like your data to be sent to, then tap the “Request Download” button.
- You’ll be prompted to enter your password for the account.
After the last step, Instagram will start gathering your data and will therefore send you an email with a link to download your data within 48 hours.
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