Did you recently or accidentally delete an Instagram post?
If you did, you might be looking to recover or restore it.
As of February 3, 2021, Instagram introduced the “Recently Deleted” feature.
The feature allows you to recover recently deleted posts.
Instagram is aware that hackers may delete your posts, so the “Recently Deleted” feature fixes this.
In this guide, you’ll learn if Instagram keeps deleted photos and how to restore or recover deleted Instagram posts on Android/iOS.
Does Instagram keep deleted photos?
Yes, Instagram keeps deleted photos for up to 30 days.
After 30 days, your deleted posts (photos and videos) will be permanently deleted.
When that happens, you won’t be able to recover them.
As of February 3, 2021, posts that you’ve deleted will be moved to the “Recently Deleted” folder.
The folder contains posts, stories, videos, and reels that you’ve deleted in the last 30 days.
You can restore them by selecting the post that you want to restore and tapping on “Restore”.
You can also permanently delete the post by tapping on “Delete”.
How to recover deleted Instagram posts
To recover deleted Instagram posts, you need to navigate to “Your activity”.
Once you’re there, tap on “Recently deleted” and select the post that you want to recover.
Lastly, tap on “Restore” to recover the post.
When you tap on “Restore”, the post will show up on your Instagram profile again.
Similarly, your followers will be able to see it.
Keep in mind that you can only restore posts that were deleted within 30 days.
After 30 days, any post that you’ve deleted will be permanently deleted from the “Recently deleted” folder.
In other words, you cannot restore any post that you’ve deleted after 30 days.
The only way to restore the post is if you have it saved in your photo gallery.
Here’s how to recover deleted Instagram posts:
1. Go to “Your activity”
To begin with, open Instagram and navigate to your profile.
Once you’re on your profile, tap on the menu icon on the top navigation bar.
This will open the menu where you’ll see multiple options.
This includes “Settings”, “Your activity”, “Archive”, and more.
Tap on “Your activity” to manage your activity on Instagram.
2. Tap on “Recently deleted”
After you’ve tapped on “Your activity”, you’ll land on the “Your activity” page.
On the page, you’ll be able to review and manage your posts.
This includes your photos, videos, account, and activity on Instagram.
There’s also a “Recently deleted” folder where you can see your recently deleted posts.
Since you’re looking to restore deleted Instagram posts, tap on “Recently deleted”.
3. Select the post that you want to recover
After you’ve tapped on “Recently deleted”, you’ll land on the “Recently Deleted” page.
On the page, you’ll be able to view and manage content that you’ve recently deleted.
This includes photos, videos, reels, and more.
You can also see a timer that states when each post will be permanently deleted.
For example, if you’ve just deleted an Instagram post today, you’ll see the “30 days” timer.
This means that you have 30 days to recover the post before it gets permanently deleted.
Now, you need to select the Instagram post that you want to recover.
4. Tap on “Restore”
After you’ve selected the Instagram post that you want to recover, you’ll land on it.
Now, you’ll be able to see the full-sized post.
On the top right corner of the post, you’ll see three dots.
Tap on the three dots to open a couple of options.
The first option allows you to permanently delete the post.
The second option allows you to restore the post.
Tap on “Restore” to recover the Instagram post.
After you’ve tapped on “Restore”, the post will be back on your profile.
You can check this by navigating to your profile and seeing if it’s there.
Your followers will also be able to see the post on your profile again.
However, if you’ve deleted the post from your archive, it will not be restored to your feed.
Instead, it will be restored to your archive.
You can access your archive by going to your Instagram profile > Menu > Archive.
You can then unarchive the post to restore it to your profile.
Conclusion
At times, you might accidentally delete one of your Instagram posts.
Or, you might have deleted an Instagram post and regretted it.
Either way, you can restore it by navigating to the “Recently Deleted” folder.
Instagram introduced the “Recently Deleted” folder because hackers might delete your content.
If they do, you can easily restore them from the folder.
That said, you might still need to verify your identity before you can restore a post.
