How do you delete an instagram account for good
How to Delete an Instagram Account (The Easy Way)
How to delete an Instagram account on iOS
How to delete an Instagram account on Android
How to delete an Instagram account on your computer
When should you delete your Instagram account?
Decided Instagram isn’t the best fit for your business? No sweat. Unlike real life, there’s an undo button: you can delete your Instagram account permanently.
Before you delete, consider backing up your account data in case you need it. Be aware the data will be a computer-readable HTML or JSON format, not individual profile photos, videos, comments, etc.
Ready? Here’s how to delete your Instagram account in the app, from a computer, or via mobile web browser.
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
How to delete an Instagram account on iOS
Step 1: Go to your account in the Instagram app. Then, tap the menu icon (3 lines) in the top right corner of the screen.
Step 2: Navigate to Settings, then Account.
Step 3: Tap Delete account.
Instagram will suggest deactivating instead of deleting. Deactivation hides your account and is reversible anytime. If you still want to permanently delete the Instagram account, go ahead and tap Delete account.
Step 3: Confirm deletion.
Instagram will ask you AGAIN… You’re sure about this, right?
Step 4: Confirm… again.
Instagram draws out the process, which you could argue is either annoying, or a good thing to prevent accidental deletions and angry users.
Instagram asks why you want to delete it. Your answer is mandatory and so is entering your password.
Clicking the Delete @username button on this page will permanently delete your account.
Your account won’t be visible on Instagram anymore but you have 30 days to reverse your decision and reactivate it. After that it’s real-real gone.
How to delete an Instagram account on Android
For whatever odd reason, the native Instagram app on Android currently doesn’t allow you to delete an account like it does in the iPhone version. It’s weird, but no sweat, just open up a browser and follow the directions below.
How to delete an Instagram account on your computer
If you don’t have access to the app on your current phone or you’re an Android user, you can also delete your Instagram account from any web browser.
The steps below also work for mobile browsers (e.g. Safari or Chrome on your phone).
Step 1: Go to www.instagram.com and sign into your account
Step 2: Visit the Delete Account page.
Step 3: Confirm deletion.
Ensure the username matches the account you want to delete. If not, click Log out on the right side of the screen to go back to Instagram and sign in to the correct account.
Fill out the reason for deleting your Instagram account and enter your password. Tapping Delete @username at the bottom will permanently delete your account.
When should you delete your Instagram account?
If you have any doubts at all about deleting your profile, you should temporarily deactivate your Instagram account instead. Deactivated accounts are easily recovered, whereas deleted ones are permanently removed from the platform (after the 30 day grace period).
For most people, I’d recommend deactivation, even if you leave it that way for months or years. It accomplishes the same thing (no one can find or see your account) but without the risk of regret.
Another option is to switch to a private account.
Private accounts still show up in search results but their posts don’t, nor are they publicly viewable on your profile. People can request to follow you, but you don’t have to approve them. Current followers will still be able to see your posts and content, though.
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
Get the free guide right now!
To change to a private account, go to Settings in the app, then Privacy and tap the slider next to Private account to the on position.
There are a few specific scenarios where deleting your Instagram account makes sense. (Although you could still choose to temporarily disable your account for these, too.)
You’re not sure if Instagram is paying off
Is Instagram helping you achieve your business goals? You set business goals for your Instagram account, right? And you measure them regularly, right?
Instagram may not be the best fit for you, but if you’re unsure, it’s worth it to revise your Instagram marketing strategy first.
Give it a fair shot to provide a positive ROI for you.
Use our free social media audit template to track progress and evaluate the results. If you still don’t see results from Instagram for several quarters, it’s probably worth focusing more on other platforms.
Your target audience doesn’t use Instagram
You can have the most bangin’ Reels, the best carousels, and the most interesting Stories, but if your target peeps aren’t seeing it? Oof, that’s a lot of wasted effort for very little reward.
Social media platforms are only as effective as your marketing strategy. Is your target customer 70+ years old? Certainly some will be on Instagram, but it’s probably not where you should spend the bulk of your time or budget.
Not sure if Instagram is a good fit for your audience? Check out the Social Trends 2022 report for the latest demographics for all platforms and the stats you need for an informed strategy.
You have more than one account for your brand
Whoops, discovered that second account last year’s intern opened by mistake? Go ahead and delete it (unless it has, like, a bajillion followers).
Duplicate or erroneous accounts can confuse your audience, especially if your main profile doesn’t have a blue check mark beside it to show its authenticity. People may end up following the wrong account. Eliminate confusion by deleting any unused profiles.
Managing Instagram is overwhelming
Gotcha! This is a trick reason. Overwhelm is real but it’s not a reason to delete your account.
Instead, save time, get organized, and get your Instagram marketing in gear with Hootsuite. Schedule and publish your content—yep, Reels, too!— in advance, manage DMs from all your platforms from one inbox, and collaborate and approve draft content with your team.
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Check out how Hootsuite takes the overwhelm out of managing your Instagram (and all your other platforms).
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How to Permanently Delete Your Instagram Account (2022)
Of course, there comes a time when you might want to disconnect from your social platforms, and not just temporarily.
More often than ever, people are choosing to delete their social media presence to live a life less focused on online culture. Whether you’re trying to protect your future job aspects by deleting your social media or just reaching for your phone a little bit less, deleting your social media accounts may lead to a healthier life.
Permanently deleting your Instagram account may seem like a significant step, but it’s easy to carry out if you’re ready to be free of your profile and get some spare time back in your life. Let’s look at how to delete your Instagram account permanently.
Save Your Instagram Data before Deleting Your Account
Before you act out of frustration or want to make a move to delete your Instagram account permanently, it is a good idea to back up your Instagram data. You can’t add it back later, and you may have valuable photos, interactions, and friends. When you delete your account, Instagram will do just that, delete your account and everything in it, including your photos, likes, comments, and friends.
To save your account data, follow these steps:
- Open Instagram and tap the profile icon in the lower right corner.
- Tap the hamburger icon (Menu) in the top right corner, then tap Settings at the bottom.
- Select Security, then tap the Download Data option.
- Enter your email address and tap Request Download.
Within 48 hours, Instagram will email a complete file of your profile to the email address you provided. The email contains your photos, comments, profile information, and everything else you may need to access in the future. Even if you think you’ll never need this data again, it’s an essential step to ensuring that your information is protected if you ever want to view it. If you don’t do this, you’ll lose your data completely, and you’ll never get it back, no matter how hard you try.
How to Permanently Delete Your Instagram Account
After you’ve saved your Instagram data, you can move on to deleting your Instagram account.
There are two options for users. The first is to permanently delete your Instagram account and everything associated with it, while the second is a temporary option.
Permanently deleting your Instagram account can only happen using a browser, but you can do that on both mobile and desktop browsers. Before your profile disappears forever, Instagram makes your account temporarily invisible for 30 days. Therefore, you can reinstate it if you change your mind. Here’s how to permanently delete your Instagram account:
- Go to the unique Delete Your Instagram Account page on your browser (ensure that you’re logged in).
- Select a reason for deletion from the drop-down menu.
- Click or tap the Delete button to confirm your decision.
Temporarily Delete/Disable Your Instagram Account
If you are only looking for a break from Instagram or don’t want to make an irrational decision, disable your Instagram account rather than delete it.
Disabling logs you out and hides your profile. As far as your followers are concerned, you may as well have deleted the account. However, this method allows you to reinstate your profile at any time when temporarily disabled by simply logging back in. Follow these steps to disable your account:
- Go to Instagram.com from your browser on any device (you cannot do this from the app).
- Log in if prompted to do so.
- Click or tap on the profile icon in the upper right-hand corner.
- Click or tap Profile, then select Edit Profile.
- Scroll down and tap Temporarily disable my account to the right of the Submit button.
- You get asked why you are doing this. Select an option from the drop-down menu.
- Re-enter your account password.
- Click or tap Temporarily Disable Account.
Delete or Disable Instagram without Username or Password
If you have been hacked and want to protect your personal information, you might find the above deletion/disable steps easy, but not if you don’t remember your login credentials.
Unfortunately, there is no way to delete or disable an account without first logging in, nor can Instagram do it for you. If you cannot remember or find your password, or if it got changed by someone else, follow the below steps to access your account.
Access Instagram without Username/Password on Android or iPhone
- Launch the Instagram app.
- Tap Get help logging in under the Login button.
- The Find your account screen appears. Type in your username, email, or phone, then tap Next. You can also select Log in with Facebook or Continue as [your FB name].
- On the new screen, choose Send an email, Send an SMS, or Log in with Facebook.
- Enter the confirmation code sent to you and tap Next.
If all went well with the above steps, you should now be on your Instagram account.
If you think you got hacked, you might not be able to use one or all of these methods, depending on how thorough the hacker has been at changing your recovery information.
- Open the app.
- Tap Get help logging in under the login fields.
- Select the option that allows you to enter your username.
- Tap Need more help?
From here, you can follow the prompts to contact Instagram. They will likely ask you for information regarding the account, such as previously used passwords, recovery information, etc.
Is There Any Way to Get My Account Back After Deletion?
So, officially there’s no option to get your account back after permanently deleting it. Still, several users swear by a workaround method, as explained below.
To sum it up, you need to report your account as hacked to Instagram, just as we’ve done above. Here’s how to do it.
- First, type in your username or email address and click on Instagram’s Get help signing in option.
- From here, select Trouble logging in.
- Follow the prompts, including selecting the type of account you’d like to recover, then choose My account was hacked to proceed.
- Then select hear more about your experience.
- Fill out the forms, and Instagram will send you an email within a few hours. You will eventually need to provide some verification, such as images that you’ve uploaded to that account, your username, email address, and verification code, for this to work.
Instagram Account Delete/Disable FAQs
How long does Instagram keep my data after I delete my account?
Instagram states that it can take up to 90 days to completely delete your account, meaning Instagram may still have pieces of information about your account stored on its servers. However, Instagram’s Data Policy also states that the company may keep information about your account beyond 90 days. The information the company may retain is for legal purposes or related to a violation of the company’s Terms of Use.
Can I delete my child’s account?
Unfortunately, you cannot delete your child’s Instagram account, at least not without the user’s login information. Instagram’s policy on account deletion states that only the account owner can delete the profile using the instructions above.
How long until Instagram deletes your account?
If you go through the deletion process outlined above, your Instagram account gets deleted after 30 days following the request, and your IG account becomes invisible so nobody can see it. However, all data stored in backups can take up to 90 days to delete.
If you’re wondering how long it takes Instagram to delete inactive accounts or accounts reported for spam or bots, the answer is less known. Instagram periodically deletes completely inactive accounts and bot accounts through their system. However, no one except for Instagram is entirely sure how often this happens or the parameters for deletion.
Wrapping Up
By resetting and deleting your Instagram account for good, you can finally give yourself some personal time to escape and leave behind the ever-present slog of online culture.
Of course, temporarily deactivating your account is a good option if you’re looking to get away for a while, but otherwise, delete away to protect your identity and personality—and your sanity. Do you have any experience or questions regarding deleting an Instagram account? Please share with us in the comment section below.
HOW TO DELETE ACCOUNT ON INSTAGRAM - 2 options: permanently and temporarily
If you need to delete your profile on Instagram, follow the instructions. After that, the user will not be able to upload old photos and stories to his mobile phone.
We advise you to save photos and stories dear to your heart from the archive to your phone in advance. After a month or two, they cannot be returned, they are deleted from the servers.
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How to delete an Instagram account from your phone
Getting rid of the page without leaving the application on your smartphone is real.
To do this, do the following:
1. Go to the Instagram program and go to the profile.
2. Tap on the menu (three bars) on top and click on "Settings".
3. Go to "Help" and "Help Center".
4. Go to "Manage Account".
5. In the "Search" line, enter "Delete profile". nine0003
6. Find the "How to delete your account" guide and tap on the link.
7. Take any of the reasons for leaving and write down your password.
After that, the account is deactivated and disappears completely after 30-90 days.
Useful: Review of Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G NE - argued in 8 sections The request to be removed from the servers takes up to three months. This time the link is still active, but there will be no content inside. All publications, likes and comments will not be seen by other users. nine0003
After a month or two, Internet users will no longer see the account itself. The information will be deleted. But at the same time, a backup (backup copy) may be on the servers of the service itself for a couple more months.
This is stated in the data usage policy.
The steps on how to permanently delete an Instagram account are the same as in the paragraph above: go to settings, go to help. In the search, register "Delete profile", take "How to delete an account." After tapping on the link, where to choose one of the reasons for getting rid of the page. nine0003
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How to temporarily delete an Instagram account
If you don’t want to leave social networks, but you just need to disable your Instagram account for a while, then follow these instructions. So photos, likes and comments will remain hidden: no one can access them. And they will appear only after the account is restored. You cannot turn off the profile in the application - only in the web version. How it's done:
- Open the social network Instagram.com in the browser itself.
- Click on the avatar and go to your profile.
- A page with a menu will open: there you can enter the mobile phone number, gender and other features of the account.
- Scroll and select "Temporarily disable account".
Next, you should find the reason why you want to deactivate the acc. If the point is that you need to delete a comment, you get a lot of ads, or the social network is distracting, Instagram will suggest solutions without deleting it. For those who still want to move away from social networks, just click "Temporarily disable". nine0003
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How to delete an Instagram account from a computer
Nickname will be lost when deleting a profile. If another user wants to take this "name" for himself, he can do it. And upon return, you will have to create a page with a new nickname.
Sometimes others may have time to take this name - consider this before deleting your Instagram account.
For those who decide to leave online, the algorithm is as follows:
All steps on how to delete an Instagram account are suitable for any type of profile - personal or professional. The instructions are identical in both cases.
But if you just want to hide the page and keep posting, hiding is enough. To do this, go to the privacy settings and check the box next to "Closed account". After that, only those who have already been subscribed can watch what is happening on the page. No one will even be able to view the content anonymously and through bots. nine0003
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How to delete an Instagram account: instructions
Sometimes it is useful to take a break from social networks, but self-discipline allows this only to a few. Then deleting the profile comes to the rescue. We explain how to delete from Instagram permanently or temporarily, saving data
Since March 21, 2022, the social networks Facebook and Instagram have been banned in Russia by a court decision, and the holding company Meta Platforms, which owns them, has been recognized as an extremist organization and is also banned.
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Some users notice that they devote too much time to managing their Instagram account to the detriment of work and personal affairs. Even the owner of Instagram, Meta, admitted in internal documents that its social networks have a negative impact on sleep, work, parenting, work productivity and personal life of approximately 12.5% of users. And scientists from the University of British Columbia found that users' own lives begin to seem insufficiently bright and interesting compared to what they see on Instagram. nine0003
Meanwhile, until the spring of 2022, the social network was consistently in the top 10 in terms of downloads in Russia and in the world. The international agency We Are Social estimated that in 2021 Instagram ranked fourth in our country in terms of the number of users (61.2% of Russian Internet users go there), and in total 67.8% of the Russian population (99 million people) use social networks. The average Russian spends outside of work 3 hours a day at the monitor or with a smartphone.
In November 2021, Instagram began testing the Take a Break feature. It will allow users to escape from the continuous viewing of the feed. In the settings, it will be possible to set reminders for breaks, for example, 10, 20 or 30 minutes. After that, the application will issue a warning about the need to rest. However, this feature has been opened to a limited number of users so far. nine0003
For now, everyone has the only alternative - to give up Instagram for a while or for good.
How to permanently delete an Instagram account
This option should be chosen when the profile is definitely no longer useful: for example, if we are talking about the account of a company that has closed.
Before deleting a profile, Instagram will offer to save data from it. To do this, you need to send a download request. After that, an email will be sent to your email within 48 hours with a link where you can download photos and videos. You can also request a copy of your data through the Instagram app for Android and iPhone.
To do this, open the menu in the profile, go to the "Settings" - "Security" section and select the "Download data" item. Next, you will need to enter your email address and account password. nine0003
Download request from Instagram
Even after deleting the profile, it will be visible on the social network for another 30 days. During this time, the user can change his mind and restore the account. If within a month the owner of the profile has never logged into the system, then the account is permanently deleted.
In the web version
To delete a profile using a computer, you need to perform several steps:
- go to the social network site and click on the "Help" button in the lower right corner; nine0048
- go to the "Help Center" and select the line "Delete your account" in the left menu;
- follow the link suggested in the article;
- specify the reason for deleting the profile;
- confirm the action by entering a password.
From a smartphone
To delete an Instagram profile using your phone, you need to take more steps:
- enter your profile in the application and click on "Settings"; nine0048
- in the menu that appears, select the "Help" line and go to the "Help Center";
- on the page that opens, select the item "Manage your account";
- in the search bar enter the query "Delete profile";
- go to the article "How to delete your Instagram account";
- follow the link in the article;
- indicate the reason for deleting the account and enter the page password. nine0048
How to temporarily delete an Instagram account
The user can also stop using Instagram for any period and then restore the page. However, you can do this no more than once a week. A temporarily deleted profile is not visible to other users of the social network. To restore it, you just need to log into the application.
In the web version
To temporarily deactivate your profile using a computer, you must perform the following steps:
- go to the social network site under your account;
- click on the profile photo and select "Settings" in the menu that opens;
- at the bottom of the page, click on the link "Temporarily disable my account";
- on the page that opens, indicate the reason for the temporary disconnection and enter the account password.
From the phone
As in the case of the "permanent" deletion, temporary blocking of Instagram will require more steps:
- go to your profile;
- go to the "Settings" section and select the "Help" item;
- in the menu that appears, click on the line "Help Center";
- on the support page, open the "Manage your account" item;
- in the search bar, enter "Temporarily disable";
- go to the article "How to delete your Instagram account";
- click on the link "How to temporarily disable your account" and find the article "Instagram.
com website from a mobile browser"; nine0048 - click on the link in the first paragraph of the instruction and go to the mobile browser;
- on the main page of the account, click on the "Edit profile" button;
- select the link "Temporarily disable my account" at the bottom of the page.
Is it possible to delete a blocked Instagram account
To delete your account, you need to know your username and password. A forgotten password can be reset using an email address, phone number, or Facebook account. If the user does not have access to the email address specified during registration, and his Instagram and Facebook accounts are not linked, then the support service will not be able to provide access to the account. nine0003
In the event that an Instagram account has been blocked by the social network itself, its owner will see a corresponding message when logging in. He can appeal this decision. To do this, you need to open the app, enter your username and password, and then follow the instructions on the screen.
