Suppose you want to take all your Instagram data, delete your account, and save it somewhere safe and accessible. How do you do that? It’s simple.
You don’t have to delete your account to acquire a downloadable archive of your Instagram information. However, you do want to retain the archives to know the exact information Instagram has on your social activity. Either way, it’s nice to have the option to see all your data in one organized place and to delete your account if you decide to end your Instagram relationship.
The Information Instagram Gives You in the Downloaded Archive
Here’s a list of the data Instagram gives you when you download the archive of your information:
- All of your phone contacts
- Your profile information
- Your search history
- Your connections and who you follow
- Posts you’ve liked
- Direct messages you’ve sent
- Videos and photos you’ve posted
- Stories you’ve shared
According to a CNBC article, when you download an archive of your information on Instagram, data about your interactions with ads on the platform is not included. That doesn’t necessarily mean Facebook doesn’t have it logged away somewhere (it most likely does), but it does mean you are unable to download it.
How to Download Your Archived Instagram Data
To download the data Instagram has stored away about you, here’s what you do.
Step 1: Go to Instagram.com on your desktop and navigate to your profile.
Step 2: Select the gear icon next to the “Edit Profile” button.
Step 3: In the box of options that appears, select “Privacy and Security.”
Step 4: Navigate down to “Data Download.” Select “Request Download.”
Step 5: Enter the email address you want Instagram to send the download link to. Then select “Next.”
Step 6: Enter your Instagram password to verify your request, then select “Request Download.”
It can take up to 48 hours or less than 30 minutes to receive your download link. It all depends on how active you are on Instagram. After you click the link and everything is downloaded, the zip file opens as a folder containing files of photos, Stories, videos, and text formats for data related to searches, settings, messages, etc. Also don’t forget that often on different devices and hard drives, there is an unplanned removal of files and data, so in these cases, many companies use such services and programs as file recovery tool.
How to Delete Your Instagram Account
Before you get into the groove of getting rid of your Instagram account altogether, make sure you are fully willing to do so permanently because when you delete your account, it is, in fact, gone for good.
If you do decide to delete your account for good (instead of temporarily deactivating it), here’s what you do:
Step 1: Navigate to Instagram’s “Delete Your Account” page. Indicate from the dropdown the reason you are deleting your account.
Step 2: Enter your password to verify your request, then select “Permanently delete my account.”
Now that you have the know-how on how to obtain your Instagram data and delete your account (if you so choose), you have more control over your online presence than you did before.
Before you go on to delete your Facebook account as well, you should first review the seven reasons why you may not want to do that quite yet.
