If you’ve decided to delete Instagram, whether it’s because you’ve outgrown the need for a certain finsta or because its parent company Meta is once again leading the controversy, it’s not as quick or easy as it should be.
Go ahead and take a moment to create the obligatory “I’m deleting Instagram” post if you’d like. After that, you have two ways to achieve this.
DELETE INSTAGRAM USING THE IOS OR ANDROID APP
If you have one, tapping it will bring up a menu asking if you want to delete or deactivate your account – you can read more about these other options in the “Temporarily suspending your Instagram account” section of this guide. Press the Delete Account button to see a message that you can stop the deletion process by a certain date if you log in again.
Click the red Continue to delete account button and the app will open a web page. Here you can complete the deletion process after answering the question why you are deleting your account and entering your password to confirm.
Apple’s rules mean that the Instagram app for iOS must allow you to delete your account. In our testing, this selection wasn’t perpetually obtainable in the automaton version of the app.You can check the Delete Account option using the iOS instructions above, but if you don’t have it, you’ll need to use the web to do it.
REMOVING INSTAGRAM ON THE WEBSITE
First, you’ll need to go to the special Instagram account deletion request page, which can be found here or via the link in the Instagram account deletion help article. If you’re not logged into Instagram for the web (most people won’t be), you’ll need to enter your login information. In fact, it’s very likely that you’ll have to enter your password twice during the wipe process, so now is probably a good time to make sure you know what it is.
you ought to find yourself on a page with the previous Instagram brand and a dropdown asking why you would like to delete your account. Depending on which option you choose, you may see various links to the Instagram Help Center that promise to solve your problems, or a message that helpfully reminds you to check which account you’re deleting.
Whichever option you choose, there will be a box below the links asking you to re-enter your password. Then tap or click Delete (your account name) and confirm that you are sure.
As Instagram says several times on the account deletion page, your data won’t be deleted immediately – Meta will keep it for 30 days. However, your profile and posts are hidden on the site.
If you’re utterly breaking up with Instagram, don’t forget to get rid of the app from your phone as well. Doing so will save some space and also cause some friction between you and the service login.
HOW TO UN-DELETE AN INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT
However, if you are within that 30-day time period, you can get your account back, along with its posts and DMs. To do this, simply return to Instagram and log in with your credentials. You will see a message that you have requested to delete your account, along with the date when your data will be gone. to stop this, simply press the “Keep Account” howeverton.
TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF YOUR INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT
If you would like to remove your account from public view, but don’t want to for good delete all of your photos and messages, you’ll suspend your account instead.
Again, Meta allows you to use the web version of Instagram instead of the app, but at least you won’t have to get the link from the help article.
After logging in to Instagram.com, go to your profile and click the Edit Profile button (if you’re using a mobile browser, you’ll need to tap the settings gear to get the option).
From there, go to Edit Profile > Temporarily Deactivate My Account (it will be an option at the very bottom). As with account deletion, you’ll need to select the reason you’re suspending your account and enter your password.
