How to recover recently deleted Instagram photos, videos, and stories

Instagram has a feature called Recently Deleted that allows you to recover recently deleted posts, including photos, videos, reels, IGTV videos, and stories.

Since February 2021,  deleted items stay in a “Recently Deleted” folder for 30 days. After that, they are auto-deleted. The only exception is deleted stories, which will stay in the Recently Deleted folder for 24 hours before they too are gone for good.

Here is how to find Instagram’s Recently Deleted folder and restore any deleted posts.

How to access Instagram’s Recently Deleted folder

Follow the steps below to access Instagram’s Recently Deleted folder:  

Open the Instagram appTap on your Profile icon in the top right cornerTap on the three lines in the top right corner Tap on ‘Settings’Tap on ‘Account’Scroll down to ‘Recently deleted’

Instagram will ask via email or text to verify you’re the account owner when permanently deleting or restoring content from Recently Deleted.

How to restore content you’ve deleted from Instagram

Tap on the Profile icon in the top right to go to your profileTap the three lines in the top rightTap SettingsTap Account Tap Recently DeletedAt the top, tap the type of content you’d like to restore or permanently deleteTap the photo, video, or story you’d like to restore or permanently deleteTap the three-dot icon in the top rightTap Restore to profile or Restore to restore content or Delete it

Which deleted posts can you recover on Instagram?

You can recover the following content from your Instagram account if you’ve deleted it within the last 30 days:

Photos and videos from your profilePhotos and videos from your Instagram story*Instagram stories from highlights and your story archiveReelsDirect messages

Note: Deleted stories will stay in the Recently Deleted folder for up to 24 hours. Everything else will be automatically deleted 30 days later.

Want to know more?

Check out Instagram’s help hub for more step-by-step instructions.