How to Recover Deleted Instagram Posts, Photos and Videos? Try These 4 Methods
Last Updated on June 16, 2020 by Ian McEwan
Why Do My Instagram Posts Get Deleted?
Your well-composed Posts/Photos on Instagram can be accidentally deleted or lost by any means. Most of the time, you actually delete them yourself.
Perhaps you find the photos unattractive, offensive or mere junk filling up your account and decide to delete them. Your photos could also be deleted when deleting a post related to them, or if you happen to disable your account.
In other rare cases, the photos could get deleted by third-parties who gain unauthorized access to your account and decide to delete your photos without your knowledge.
Want Your Deleted Instagram Posts/Photos Back?
One of the main reasons you would want your Instagram photos back is to relish the good memories immortalized in those photos. Indeed, Instagram is a gem of precious memories, and those memories are often captured in our photos.
You could also want your photos back if you had previously disabled your account but forgot to save the photos instead. These photos would seamlessly drive traffic back to your Instagram profile, as most of your fans and followers would easily identify with you.
There could be cases where you just want to prove a point and the only way to do that is through Instagram photos. The only solution, therefore, is to recover deleted Instagram photos.
Does Instagram Delete Right Away?
It is important to remember that there is no Recycle Bin feature on Instagram. However, for some reason, such as the need to comply with certain legal obligations, Instagram will keep those deleted Instagram photos and posts on the company’s server for an indefinite time.
So, if you want to recover your deleted Instagram posts, you would need to consult the support or secure a valid court order to compel the company to retrieve these photos for you.
Instagram Archive can help to Recover Deleted Instagram Post? NO WAY!
In 2017, Instagram added a new feature known as Archive Posts, which enables you to hide the photos and posts you would wish to keep secret from your public profile.
And you can retrieve the archived posts and put them right back onto your Instagram gird where they were before, with all the comments and likes.
Although Instagram Archive more or less resembles a Recycle Bin, Instagram posts can only be “Recovered” if you tap Archive instead of tapping Delete from the three vertical dots of each post.
So technically, you cannot count on Instagram Archive if your Instagram posts were deleted.
However, if you have question like, “Why are my Instagram posts disappearing?” then you can try to check your Archive with the instruction here.
So, if you are not in a position to “recover” your photos with the aforementioned methods, you can use any of the methods below.
How to Recover Deleted Instagram Posts/Photos? How Can I See My Deleted Instagram Photos?
- Method 1: Check Your Photo Albums (including the Recently Deleted folder)
- Method 2: Recover Deleted Instagram Photos with Photo/Videos Recovery Software
- Method 3: Recover Your Deleted Instagram Photos/Videos/Comments/Likes, etc from Instagram Data You Download before
- Method 4: Recover Photos from the Cloud
Method 1: Check Your Photo Albums (including the Recently Deleted folder)
Thankfully, Instagram will automatically save photos and videos to the camera roll of your Smartphone.
Unless you went ahead to delete these photos from your phone, you can always find them in your Phone’s gallery, Downloads folder, Camera Roll or any location where your photos would normally be stored.
The following process might help you recover your deleted Instagram photos.
If you are an Android user, then:
- Head on to My Files.
- Select Pictures and then the Instagram folder, or other app folders if you use other photo editing apps, such as VSCO, Priime, Snapseed, etc. All of these photo-editing apps will save a copy in a separate folder on your Android before you post to Instagram.
- Check if the lost photos can be located, then restore it.
For iPad and iPhone users;
- Select the Photos app right from your Home screen.
- Tap on Albums, then Recently Deleted.
- Search your lost photos, tap on it and then select Recover.
It is important to remember that this method applies only to photos that have been deleted within the past 30 days.
Unlike Instagram on iPhone, which can only save unedited/original photos and videos, Instagram for Android gives you two more options, Save Posted Photos and Save Posted Videos. It can save you time if you are looking for the edited version.
If you are not sure whether the autosave function is turned on, you can check here.
- Go to your profile by tapping the profile icon on the far right bottom bar.
- For Android Users: At the top right corner, tap the three horizontal lines and select Settings at the bottom of the menu. Then go to Account > Original Posts to check.
- For iPhone Users: Tap the gear icon. Then go to Account > Original Photos
Method 2: Recover Deleted Instagram Photos/Videos with Recovery Software
Photo Recovery Software is perhaps the most effective method to recover deleted Instagram photos.
There is so many photo-recovery software out there, and the one you go for pretty much comes down to your preferences.
However, the steps in using photo-recovery software are more or less the same.
- Download and install the software on your computer.
- Launch the software. (If you want to recover your deleted Instagram photos from your handset, then you should connect it to the pc with a USB cable.)
- Click on what to recover. Usually, there are options for Photo, Video or Audio.
- Select the photo or photos you would like to recover and click Recover.
- The software will prompt you to select the location where the recovered photo would be stored.
- Proceed and check if the photo has been stored.
List of the best Instagram Photo/Video Recovery software on different devices:
Company | Photo/Videos Recovery for Mobile (iOS, Android) | Photo/Videos Recovery for Computer |
Aiseesoft | Fonelab
| DataKit
|
Wondershare | dr.fone
| Recoverit
|
EaseUs | MobiSaver
| Data Recovery Wizard
|
Stellar | Stellar iPhone Data Recovery
| Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery
|
iMyfone | D-Back
| AnyRecover
|
Method 3: Recover Your Deleted Instagram Photos/Videos/Comments/Likes, etc from Instagram Data You Download before
If you have ever downloaded your Instagram data before, it will be pretty easy to get your deleted Instagram posts back.
The file you downloaded includes all the photos, videos, profile, checkout log, comment history, likes history, etc.
To get back your deleted Instagram photos, you can enter the photos folder and chose those you want. All your posted Instagram photos will be organized by date. However, compared to the original photos with 2 or 3 MB, the size of the downloaded Instagram photos range from 20KB to 120KB. If you are looking for photos with higher resolution, try Method 2.
Although you can’t restore this deleted post back to your Instagram profile with all the comments and likes, you can check the Comment history and Like history with the file “comments.json” and “likes.json”, which can be open with the freeware Notepad++.
Tips: For those who want to download a copy of your Instagram Data from desktop/ iOS/ Android, just follow the instruction here step by step: How do I access or review my data on Instagram?
Method 4: Recover Photos from the Cloud
This method is only viable where there are backup files such as Google Photos. In addition to having these backups, you should also ensure there’s an updated backup on the files that you intend to restore.
If everything is fine, proceed as follows;
- Tap on the Menu bar on your profile.
- Tap on the Settings icon, then select Account.
- Proceed to Original Photos in case of an iOS or Original Posts for Android devices.
- You will see the Save Original-Photos or the Save Original-Posts depending on your operating system. Tap next to it to turn it on.
- By turning each of these features on, photos will be automatically backed up on your phone even when they are deleted. You can then recover them using Method 1 above.
Out of all the methods to recover your deleted Instagram photos, we would tout for recovery software. Not only are these software abundant in number, but they are way more reliable than any other method highlighted above.
Tips for keeping your Instagram data safe/ backing up your Instagram data.
- Turn on Save original post.
- Download your Instagram data regularly.
- Save to Camera Roll/Save to archive.
- Archive your unwanted Instagram posts instead of deleting them.
How do I unarchive a post on Instagram?
The Archive is normally located as an icon on your profile page. It is symbolized by a clock button and located top on the right side.
On the Archive, there are options for Archived Images(Posts Archive) and Archived Stories(Stories Archive).
Select Posts Archive, tap on the photo you wish to recover and from the three vertical dots, choose Show on Profile to put it back to your Instagram gird where it was before.
It is important to remember that Archive Posts only offers temporary storage of deleted Instagram photos. If you delete photos from the Archive Posts, then they are as good as lost permanently.
As a word of advice, it is important to hide your posts and photos in the Archive Posts up until you are sure you utterly do not need them. Then, you can permanently delete them from your account.