How to inactive instagram account


How to deactivate your Instagram account

If you’re getting a bit tired of Instagram, you might want to consider deactivating your account. With Instagram, you have two choices: You can learn how to deactivate your Instagram account, or you can delete it completely. We’ll review both options, so you can decide if you’d rather take a break or cut ties with Instagram forever. Just be cautious, as deleting your Instagram account removes all of your content permanently, and you won’t be able to get it back.

Contents

  • Temporarily disable your Instagram account
  • Permanently delete your Instagram account

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

Be sure to check out our guide on how to use Instagram if you need any additional help.

Temporarily disable your Instagram account

By temporarily disabling your Instagram account, your profile, along with its photos, videos, comments, and likes, will be hidden (until you reactivate it). Disabling your account is a perfect way to take a bit of a vacation from Instagram. Another option to consider is merely muting a few friends, if that’s your main reason for disabling your account.

Note: The following instructions only work for Instagram accounts that do not use a Facebook account to log in. If you want to disable your Instagram account but your account uses Facebook to log in, you'll need to remove your Facebook account from your Instagram account and then reset your Instagram account's password. To do this successfully, you'll need to have access to the email account that is associated with your Instagram account. Once your Facebook account is unlinked from your Instagram account and you have reset your password for your Instagram account, you can use the following instructions to temporarily disable your Instagram.

Here's how to deactivate your Instagram account:

Step 1: Visit Instagram.com using a web browser.

If not already logged in, log in to your Instagram account.

Step 2: Click on your profile photo icon in the top-right corner, then select the Profile option.

screenshot

Step 3: At the top of the page, click the Edit profile button.

Step 4: Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Temporarily deactivate my account.

screenshot

Step 5: Instagram will ask why you're deactivating your account. Select a reason from the drop-down menu, and then enter your password.

screenshot

Step 6: To complete the process, click Temporarily deactivate account. Then select Yes to confirm.

Your Instagram account should now be temporarily disabled. To enable your Instagram account again, simply log back in using the website.

Step 7: The above steps can work for anyone as long as they have a PC, an internet connection, and a web browser.

The Instagram mobile app can let users disable their accounts, but this functionality is currently only limited to iOS users at this time. If you're an iOS user, you can disable your IG account on the mobile app using the following method:

Select your Profile picture > Three horizontal lines Menu icon > Settings > Account > Delete account >Deactivate account.

Then answer the on-screen prompts. Then select Temporarily deactivate account.

Permanently delete your Instagram account

If you know that you definitely won’t be coming back to Instagram, you can permanently delete your account. It is critical to note that deleting your account will remove your profile, photos, videos, comments, likes, and followers. There is no way to retrieve them once the process has been completed. Additionally, you won’t be able to use that same username again if a new user ends up taking it before you decide to sign up with it again.

If you are positive that you want to delete your account, follow these steps:

Step 1: Visit the Instagram Delete Your Account page. If not already logged in, log in to your Instagram account.

Step 2: Next to Why do you want to delete [your username]?, select an option from the drop-down box.

Step 3: Enter your Instagram password to confirm.

screenshot

Step 4: Click Delete [Your Username].

By following the above process, you will have submitted a deletion request to the Instagram team. After 30 days, Instagram will permanently delete your account and all information. Instagram notes that it may take up to 90 days for the process to complete.

Step 5: As with disabling an account, you can also delete your account via the Instagram mobile app, but only if you're an iOS user.

Here's how to do it: Select your Profile icon > the three horizontal lines Menu icon > Settings > Account > Delete account > Delete account > Continue deleting account. Then answer the on-screen prompts.

Then select Delete [your username] > OK.

Editors' Recommendations
  • PC gamers are flocking to Windows 11, new Steam survey says
  • The best desktop computers for 2023: Dell, HP, Apple, and more
  • Apple cracks down on ChatGPT apps with harsh age ratings
  • 5 Windows 11 settings to change right now
  • The best Mac apps for 2023: top software for your Mac

How to deactivate your Instagram account

Guides

Take a break from scrolling.

Alexander Shatov / Unsplash

Sam Hill

Looking to take a break from Instagram? Whether you’re trying to ditch your account for the sake of your mental health, to avoid the app’s inevitable role in Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse (they’ve already tried stealing the @metaverse handle from an Australian artist), or because it's transforming into a TikTok clone lately, it’s no problem at all — deactivating your account is easy.

If you don’t want to delete your account outright, deactivating your account temporarily might help curb your Instagram scrolling habits or give you time to make that final deletion decision.

What does deactivating your account really do?

Deactivating your account essentially hides your profile from the rest of the world. Your account will look like it doesn’t exist, your photos won’t show up in others’ liked posts or tagged photos lists, and no one will be able to send you a message on the platform. There’s no sign that says your profile has been deactivated temporarily — it’ll just disappear.

Your account will reactivate if you log in as normal. Obviously, this isn’t the biggest hurdle to overcome if you’re having issues spending too much time on Instagram, but it's one step keeping you off the platform.

You can keep your account deactivated as long as you’d like — your account will be right where you left it if you log in after a week, three months, or a year. The only restriction Instagram has for this feature is that you can only deactivate your account once a week. There’s no explanation as to why this restriction is there.

How to deactivate your Instagram account

While some social media apps are notorious for hiding deactivation or deletion options, deactivating your Instagram account is very simple.

Right now, you can only deactivate your account while logged in on a desktop or a mobile browser. There’s no way to deactivate your account on the mobile app. I’m going to deactivate my account on a desktop, but the steps are the same on mobile.

Logging into Instagram on a web browser, you can deactivate your account with just a few clicks.

  • On any browser, navigate to Instagram and sign in to your account.
  • From either your profile or your feed, click on your profile photo in the upper right-hand corner of your screen and select “Settings” from the drop-down menu.
  • This will take you to your “Edit Profile” tab where you can change your username, bio, and personal details. On this page, scroll down to the very bottom and click the hyperlink that reads “Temporarily disable my account.”
  • On the next page, select a reason for deactivating your account from the drop-down menu (it doesn’t matter which choice you pick) and reenter your password in the box below.
  • Click the “Temporarily Disable Account” button at the bottom of this page.
  • Instagram will confirm that you want to deactivate your account. Click the “Yes” button.
  • You will be immediately signed out of your account on all of your devices and booted back to the Instagram homepage. Your account is now hidden to all!
How to reactivate your Instagram account

Whenever you decide to jump back into your Instagram account — whether you’re returning to post vacation photos and rejoin that platform or just logging back in to delete your account for good — reactivating your account is as simple as logging in. To reactivate your account, you can log in on a desktop, a mobile browser, or the mobile app.

Watch: Extreme Reviews

How to get an inactive Instagram account

Marketplace for Instagram usernames

If you're setting up an Instagram account and thinking about the perfect username that reflects your personality or mission, you may realize that the username is taken by an inactive account. For companies and influencers trying to launch an Instagram presence, having the right username is valuable.

Want to learn how to sell effectively on Instagram? You can get more followers and more activity on your Instagram, and this book shows you how,

If you track your performance, be sure to read our article explaining what makes for a reasonable level of participation on Instagram,

Windows programs, mobile applications, games - EVERYTHING is FREE, in our private telegram channel - Subscribe :)

Inactive an account is an account that has been abandoned or has not been used for a long time. If the account has the username you so desperately need, there's no direct way to get it. But there are a few things you can do.

Buying an Instagram username

There are many secondary markets where owners of good usernames can sell them for amounts ranging from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands.

For the most part, the people who make money selling names are those who set up their accounts in the early days and were able to choose the names other users would eventually want.

Sometimes a name becomes valuable because a movie, show, or album comes out, and all of a sudden BigBangTheory goes from being a great account for a physics student to a highly sought-after property. If an account becomes "inactive", you can retrieve the username.

If you have such a trademark or copyright, you can file a copyright/trademark infringement report and try to claim the name as your own.

If the account is active and frequently used, you may have difficulty with this method.

Obtaining a new trademark is a complex and expensive process, but obtaining copyright is quite simple. Every time you create something original, you have a hidden copyright; You can file a formal copyright registration to cement your legal claim, but a claim is created by the act of creating a work, not by the act of filing a claim.

Choose a similar username

While it may seem obvious, choosing a similar username is the easiest way to set up an Instagram account. Adding an underscore or a number is simple and effective.

Instagram usernames can be up to 30 characters long and can contain letters, numbers, periods, and underscores. This gives you some flexibility in creating a name that is close to your dream name. You may need to use a little imagination, but everything else should be fairly simple.

If you are running a business, add the city or location to your name. You can do the same for last names or other given names. This can help keep your brand alive and add a quick local ID that can work in your favor. You can also add a business type to the name.

Big Brand Workarounds

If you're a big business or more established brand, adding "official" or "real" to the end of your Instagram account name might also work. Artists with common names often do this so you can too.

However, you must be careful when emulating well-known brands. If you create an account for Microsoft Software, this is a legitimate account name - but if you reach a level of success and visibility where Microsoft sees your account, they will shut you down immediately using the same trademarks and copyright protections that I described above. You cannot infringe on other people's protected intellectual property, just as they cannot infringe on yours.

If you're having trouble getting a username, but there are no accounts with that username, be aware that some accounts are configured as private. If it is true; the username will be unavailable and you won't be able to search for the account.

Programs for Windows, mobile applications, games - EVERYTHING is FREE, in our closed telegram channel - Subscribe :)

How often does Instagram delete inactive accounts?

Instagram is an incredibly popular social media platform and one way to keep it going is to keep users active and engaged. In order to maintain an active user base, Instagram has a policy of deleting all inactive accounts that meet certain criteria

This means you have to be careful with your Instagram profile as you could lose all your posts if you don't log in often enough. This policy affects everyone, no matter how popular their account is or how many posts they have.

But how long does it take for Instagram to declare an account inactive? What exactly does Instagram consider when determining whether to delete an account? In this article, we'll take a closer look at Instagram's inactivity policy.

Programs for Windows, mobile applications, games - EVERYTHING is FREE, in our closed telegram channel - Subscribe :)

How does Instagram mark accounts as inactive?

Instagram has many strict policies under the user agreement that is provided when you create an account. Users who do not comply with the rules will be subject to various penalties.

When will Instagram delete inactive accounts?

Instagram has never made clear statements about how long it takes before an inactive account is deleted.

However, employees encourage their users to log in and use their platform from time to time to avoid the risk of deleting their accounts. You can read about it in Instagram's inactive username policy.

For example, you may log into Instagram once a month and your account will most likely not be marked as inactive.

If you continue to interact with other messages in any way, your account is basically immune to the inactive flag.

Can I take an inactive username?

People often fail to select the desired username because that username has already been claimed by another user. When you can't use your favorite alias without adding extra characters to it, it can be very frustrating.

However, it is also common for the usernames taken to be actually inactive. Does this mean you can take them?

If the account has several messages, but the number is relatively small, you can still proceed to the next step.

The next step requires you to send an email to the Instagram team.


Learn more