How to see your instagram story

How to View Old Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories have become one of the most popular features of the social media platform, Like Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories only appear on your feed for 24 hours, or until the person who posted the Story deletes it.

However, unlike Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories don’t actually disappear completely after 24 hours. While Instagram Stories do disappear from your feed after 24 hours, they remain archived in the app. So, if you post a story but it expires before you get a chance to save the video, don’t worry, you can still recover it.

Like many users, you may not know that this feature exists, let alone how to access it. Let’s take a look at how you can view old Instagram Stories.

Accessing Your Expired Instagram Stories

As Instagram Stories increased in popularity, more and more users started asking Instagram for a way to access their stories outside of the regular 24 hour time limit.

In response to this, Instagram added the Highlights and Archive features back in 2017. Highlights allow you to group story elements and post them on your profile as a regular post. They’re labeled as Highlights but they behave the same as a regular Instagram post.

The other feature, Archive, saves your stories for future use. It’s important to note that your stories get archived for your use only. For other people, they will disappear after 24 hours like normal.

The archiving feature should be turned on by default, but if it isn’t, you can turn it on in your Settings. Find the Stories panel in your Privacy Settings and toggle on the option that says Save to Archive.

To view your older Instagram Stories, navigate to your profile screen, and tap on the hamburger icon in the top-right corner.
From that menu, you should tap on Archive to access your Stories Archive.

From there, you can re-share, highlight, and otherwise interact with your Stories. That’s the gist of accessing your old Stories but seeing other people’s old Stories is an entirely different matter.

Can You View Someone Else’s Expired Instagram Story?

By design, Stories are only viewable for 24 hours, and there’s not really any way around this. However, if you’re acquainted with the person who created the Story, you could request that they share it with you by saving it from their Archive.

In terms of seeing other users’ Stories that have already expired, that’s about as far as you can go. This feature was always intended to be ephemeral, just like Snapchat Stories.

However, if you frequently find yourself wanting to view other users’ expired stories, there are a few proactive steps you can take.

Saving Other Users’ Stories

The good thing about Stories is that they last a whole 24 hours. This gives you plenty of time to decide whether you want to save one.

Some websites are designed to save Instagram Stories. The most minimalist and approachable of these is Storiesig.

All you need to do is enter someone’s username and the website will find all their active Stories.
From there, just select the Story you want to save and click Download.

This isn’t the only option, as many other websites can do the same. However, this is the most hassle-free way to do it. Also, this won’t give you access to expired Stories, but if you catch them within the 24 hours since they were published, you’re good to go. This website also works on mobile devices, but there is another option for your phone.

Both Android and iOS have screen recorders for their newer versions. You can also get a screen recorder app and simply record the story. AZ Screen Recorder is a good option for both Android and iOS. All you have to do is start recording, view the Story, and then save the recording.

Again, these methods don’t give you access to past Stories, but they do allow you to retain active Stories on your device for future use.

Screen Recording Instagram Stories

If you’re looking to save someone else’s Instagram Story for future reference you can always screen record or screenshot the content during the 24-hour active period. You may wonder if Instagram will notify another user that you’ve captured the content.

There is a lot of debate about this, but as of right now you’re in the clear to take undetected screenshots of Instagram Stories. This won’t work with DMs, and Instagram has changed this several times through the years, so you’ll want to test it on another friend before taking a screenshot of someone who you’d rather your activities stay anonymous.

Once you’ve captured the story on your iPhone or Android, you can revisit the story in your camera roll as many times as you’d like.

Viewing Instagram Stories Saved as Highlights

Thanks to the highlights feature on Instagram, you may get lucky and revisit your favorite content as much as you’d like by visiting your friend’s profile. When a story is created, the account owner has the option of saving the story as a Highlight.

The story will remain on their profile until the user deletes it. It’s a permanent option for displaying the best content. To check if your favorite stories were saved as a highlight do this:

Tap on the magnifying glass icon or tap on the following option from your profile to locate the account you’re interested in.
Locate the story under the Following and Message icon – these highlights are round icons with an image
Tap on the story

That’s all there is to it. If you don’t see any stories here they either weren’t saved as a highlight, you’re not an approved follower, or their account is set to private.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I watch a Story more than once?

Absolutely! As long as it’s within the 24-hour period you can watch the Story as many times as you’d like. Instagram does tell the creator that you watched their content, but it doesn’t tell them how many times you watched. Just beware, if you watch their Story over and over again, they’ll see the view count increase and you may be the only person who’s seen it. This is a sure-fire sign that you’ve been watching their Story, a lot.

Can I re-publish and old Instagram Story?

Yes.

1. If you have a favorite Story, you can re-post it by navigating to your Archive folder as described above, then tap on the Story you’d like to re-post.

2. In the lower left-hand corner tap on the three vertical dots to access the sub-menu.

3. Then, tap on Repost.

4. Follow the prompts and your Story will live on in the feeds of others for another 24 hours.

5. If you’d like to re-post another person’s Story you can do that too. All you need to do is tap on the paper airplane icon and share.

If you don’t see the option, it’s probably because the other user has a private account. A private account means you can’t share their content for anyone else to see.

Final Thoughts

That pretty much sums up the resources you have when it comes to viewing and saving Instagram Stories.

Your own stories are archived for future use, but the Stories posted by other people are a little trickier. You can’t really see them once they expire, but you can save them while they’re active. Use a website made for saving IG Stories or a screen recorder on your mobile device.

How often do you feel like saving a Story you see on Instagram? If you could easily view old Stories at will, do you think it would defeat the purpose of Stories altogether? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Here's How to See and Download Old Instagram Stories

There's a way you can view, download, and re-post your old Instagram stories.
Just click the circular clock icon at the top right corner of your profile.
If nothing shows up, you might need to update your app settings.

You might think your Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours, but it turns out they're not actually gone forever.

There's a way to view, download, and reshare your old stories. Instagram rolled out the feature back in December 2017, but you probably weren't aware of it.

Here's how you to take advantage of it.

To view your old stories, click the circular clock icon at the top right corner or your profile.

Instagram released this feature in December 2017. Leah Rocketto/INSIDER

This will show you your past Instagram stories — both photos and videos — which you can then download to your phone.

The archive even shows the date you made each post.

Leah Rocketto/INSIDER

This archive is only visible to you.

Your archive might go back several months, depending on when you updated Instagram after it rolled out the new feature in December 2017.

How far your archive goes back depends on when you updated your app. Leah Rocketto/INSIDER

If you don't see anything in your archive, you might need to update your settings.

In the Instagram app, scroll down to Story Controls.

You can find your settings by clicking the little gear icon on your iPhone or the three dots if you have an Android. Leah Rocketto/INSIDER

Make sure "Save to Archive" is switched on.

This might not have been switched on automatically for everyone. Leah Rocketto/INSIDER

By clicking the word "Archive" once you have it open, you can toggle between your stories and any photos you archived manually.

Any photos or videos you saved manually will show up under "Posts." Leah Rocketto/INSIDER

Now, enjoy spending hours scrolling back and reminiscing on the countless photos and videos you took.

For more great stories, head to INSIDER's homepage.

How to view Instagram search history by keywords

Instagram account search history is located in the profile settings. Let's look at how you can view your Instagram search history after updating the app. And where is the function that displays the history of the instagram account now.

How to view your search history on Instagram

Few people know, but you can easily see your search history by yourself in the search for your account . As if, a tautology and trite, but it's true. Your entire history by words, tags, key queries - is saved directly in the search for the application .

Let's see what it looks like visually. On condition? that you were definitely looking for options - how to view your search history on Instagram.

Search icon, second tab of the bottom menu in the instagram app .
By clicking on the icon you will see feed - featured content , as well as section navigation .
To display the search history , move your finger over the dialog box and click on it.
Instagram search is divided by , the first thing you see is the best , then the field accounts , tags , places . As you may have noticed in the first field, the best, apparently, are several recommendations from instagram.
After which comes the inscription - "recent" . As you can see in the second screenshot . There and is shown, the entire history of your calls to the search string , inside the instagram application.

Opposite the inscription - recent , you can find active field (link) " all ". If you click on this field, you will see application page - " recent searches" , and next to there will be an inscription , " Clear all ". This is deleting your history , we told her detailed instructions - “ How to clear (delete) your search history on instagram ”.

Search history is in the instagram search history delete tab

This is a longer and more complicated method, but yes! You can view your search history in the delete search history tab on Instagram. At the same time, you can immediately clean it, if necessary.

Open instagram app and go to main profile .
In the top menu open your account settings .
On the settings page , select the "security" item and go to the settings.
On the page " security" we find the active field " clear search history " and click on it.

On the page clear search history » you will be able to see all searches that have been searched recently. This page is called at the top of the screen - " recent searches " next to it there will be an active field " clear history" .

Thus, you can view your search history on Instagram, and optionally clear it or go back.

Instagram story archive and how to see your old stories, where

Stories are publications that have a limited broadcast period of only 24 hours in the feed, after which they are not deleted, but sent to the Instagram stories archive. In the article we will tell you how the service works, where to find and how to view the archive.

What is the archive of stories on Instagram, and where is

Publications in the stories feed have a limited broadcast period, after a day they do not disappear from view, but are moved to the archive list, provided that automatic saving of stories is activated.

The archive stores all the stories you published from the moment you registered on the social network. This important feature will prevent you from losing colorful content that is very dear to you. It will be very unpleasant if a high-quality and beautiful photo or video is deleted forever.

Keep in mind that the vault will contain only those publications that have been in the main feed for more than 24 hours. If you erased the content before the end of this period, then the history will not be saved.

Where is the archive list? Backup files can be found at any time, they are in the public domain, but only for the owner of the page in the service. Unauthorized persons will not be able to view stories. To go to the archive you will need:

Launch the mobile app on your device.
Enter your username and password, log in to your account.
Go to the personal page, to do this, click the icon in the form of a person on the bottom panel of the workspace.
Find the button in the upper corner in the form of three parallel lines and click on it.
A pop-up window will appear on the screen, in which you need to click on the icon in the form of a clock face with the corresponding caption.
This will take you to the archive directory where all your publications are stored.

Please note that on different operating systems and smartphones, the location of the main elements may differ.

How to create an archive

Each story after the end of 24 hours and the end of the broadcast in the feed will be automatically saved to the storage.

As for all other publications, photos and videos that are not placed in the story feed, you will have to add them to storage yourself. After all, the automatic archiving function only applies to short recordings. Let's take a quick look at how to add history to the archive list:

Log in to your account with your username and password. After that, you will find yourself in the main menu of the service with a news feed.
Go to the personal page where your posts are posted.
Select the desired photo or video.
On the top panel, click on the button in the form of an ellipsis.
In the new menu, click on the archiving item.
The procedure will take only a few seconds, after which the record will be in the storage.

A similar algorithm must be performed with each publication that you want to save.

If you want to archive material on Instagram through a computer, you will have to face a number of difficulties. In the web version of the social network, there is no such function and it is impossible to access the vault. The official application for Windows solves the problem, starting from version 8 of the operating system, but in this case, only publications are displayed in the archive, but no stories. To add stories to the archive from a PC, you need:

Log in to the social network.
Go to personal page.
On the top panel you will see an indicator in the form of a dial for switching to archived lists.
To add an image or video, select and open the desired content.
Press the ellipsis button and the archiving item.
Done.

Note. To have access to all the functionality on a PC, you can use the mobile version of Instagram by downloading an Android emulator or installing additional browser extensions.

How to delete archive stories

In the archive, you can set up the desired publication at any time, edit it and re-place it in the news feed. In this case, the entry will be displayed with a memory mark, which can be erased using standard social network tools. If you decide to delete Instagram stories from storage, then follow these steps:

Go to your social network page.
Locate the button in the form of three lines.
Open the archive section.
A list of all saved histories will be displayed on the screen. Select the one you don't want and click on it.
In the new window, find the ellipsis button.
Select the item to delete the publication.

The procedure is the same for the PC application. Thus, you can erase from the archive not only stories from the tape, but also all saved photos and videos. It should be remembered that after this it will no longer be possible to restore the content, so think carefully before proceeding with actions.

Set up automatic archiving

It's important to remember that your mobile device and app may have the automatic storage feature disabled. In this case, you need to activate it:

Go to your social network page.
Click on the button in the form of three parallel lines on the top panel of the workspace.
Locate the settings section, displayed as a gear.
Click on the privacy tab.
Open the stories item.
At the very bottom, set the checkbox for saving data to archive to the active position.
Save changes.

After that, all your stories will be sent to the store by default.

There is no archive icon, what to do

If the archive section could not be found in the mobile application, and the corresponding icon is simply missing, then there are several reasons for such a failure:

The smartphone has outdated software, update the operating system.
Learn more