How to delete your Instagram account and keep your photos
Want to give yourself a break from social media? We tell you how to delete or temporarily disable your Instagram account and keep your photos.
It is fashionable to leave social networks, and ironically, sometimes it becomes a popular movement on the networks, such as #DeleteFacebook, and Instagram should not be an exception.
Each user will have their own reasons for deleting their account, but what is certain is that the idea of leaving the second most important social network in the world is becoming more and more common.
Why am I leaving Instagram? For the same reason as many others: When I see pictures of other people’s delicious meals and wonderful vacations, my life becomes very depressing in comparison.
After 5 minutes on this social network, I feel like my life is boring (even though it isn’t), so I’ve decided to quit Instagram.
In this article, I will explain how to back up your Instagram profile and make it temporarily unusable or leave the social network forever and delete your profile permanently.
How to secure your Instagram profile
On the one hand, Instagram is very generous when it comes to backups, allowing you to download not only all your photos, but also Likes, comments, contacts, the text accompanying your photos (including hashtags), searches, settings, and more.
On the other hand, everything except the photos is compressed into JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) files. You can read (and parse) them with any simple text editor like Notepad, WordPad, or TextEdit, but the formatting isn’t exactly practical.
In any case, the most likely reason to request a backup on Instagram is photos, and we have good news: They are downloaded in JPEG format, sorted into folders by date. The downside? The low resolution, 1080×1080. This is how Instagram stores them, so don’t expect anything else.
To back up your Instagram using an Android or iOS app.
To download a backup of your Instagram profile on a smartphone or tablet, you must follow the steps below:
- Open the Instagram app.
- Access your profile from the icon in the bottom right corner.
- Tap the menu in the upper right corner and select Settings, hidden at the bottom of the menu.
- Scroll down to Privacy & Security and select Data Download.
- Accept the default settings or change the email address for file delivery.
- Confirm the email address and enter your Instagram password.
- Wait up to 48 hours (but usually only a few minutes) for Instagram to email you a link to download the file with all your data.
- Click on the link, log in to the Instagram site with your username and password, and select “Download data” to start downloading the ZIP file with your photos and other profile information.
How can you backup your Instagram data using the web interface?
The web version makes backing up Instagram a little easier, especially if you are using a desktop or laptop computer. Just follow these steps:
- Go to Instagram.com and sign in.
- Click on your profile picture in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Next to your username, click Edit Profile.
- Select Privacy and Protection from the menu on the left.
- Look for Download Request directly under the Download Data subheading. Instagram will email you a link to a file with your photos and other data.
- The rest is the same as before: open the email and open the link.
- Open the email and open the link.
- Open your Instagram account, open the link, click “Open” and start downloading the ZIP file with your photos and other profile information by clicking “Download Info”.
- Once you have backed up your photos, you can delete your Instagram profile.
How to delete your Instagram profile?
You can only temporarily deactivate your Instagram account from the web interface. If you know the secret link, you can permanently delete your account, but you can’t delete or temporarily deactivate it from the mobile app, you have to use the browser and the web interface.
Today we explain both options.
Temporarily deactivate your Instagram account from the web interface
- Open your browser and go to Instagram.com
- Sign in.
- Click on your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen.
- Next to your username, select Edit Profile.
- In the lower right corner, click on Temporarily disable my account.
- Select the reason you want to temporarily disable your account, enter your password, and click Temporarily Disable Account.
- Select Yes. Your account is now disabled, so your likes, comments, and profile will be hidden until you reactivate it.
You can permanently delete your Instagram account via the web interface.
- Open your browser and go to https://www.instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/permanent/
- Sign in.
- Select the reason why you want to deactivate your account, enter your password, and click the red Delete my account permanently button.
- Click Ok.
That’s it, you have deleted your account. Remember that in this case, you won’t be able to restore your Instagram account. So, if in doubt, it’s better to turn it off temporarily.
How to reactivate your Instagram account
If you decide to temporarily deactivate your account, you can reactivate it by logging into the app or the web interface on Instagram.com.
Unlike deleting your profile on social networks like Twitter, Instagram doesn’t permanently delete your account if you don’t reactivate it within a certain amount of time, so don’t worry about losing it if you forget about it for a while.
But unlike Twitter, Instagram doesn’t let you reactivate your account immediately after deactivating it.
According to Instagram, it takes a couple of hours to deactivate an account, so once you do, you’ll have to wait just as long to reactivate it.