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Deleted an important post while reorganizing your Instagram grid? Trust me, we’ve all been there. The only thing worse than an unorganized Instagram feed is losing your important photos and videos. Boasting over 2 billion active users, Instagram is easily the 3rd most popular social media platform. The question that comes now is if you can successfully recover Instagram videos and photos or not.
We’ll be resolving all your queries and doubts related to how to restore deleted videos and photos on Instagram. This guide will walk you through the step-by-step procedure to get back deleted Instagram photos and videos.
Where did my Instagram photos and videos go?
Most likely, your Instagram videos and photos got deleted accidentally by you. There are some other factors due to which your photos or video got deleted from Instagram. Some of the most common factors are:
- Accidental deletion: This is by far the most common reason you must’ve lost your Instagram photos or videos. You could’ve deleted important media while cleaning up or reorganizing your feed.
- Unauthorized access: There’s a chance that your account security got compromised and the attacker deleted media from your feed.
- Instagram community guidelines violation: Your Instagram post might’ve unintentionally violated the Instagram Community Guidelines. If the posted photo or video is deemed offensive, then they’re removed automatically.
How to restore deleted Instagram videos and photos?
Instagram has a time limit of 30 days where you can restore deleted photos or videos easily. After that time span, you can only recover your media from an existing backup. Let’s see some simple solutions to recover deleted Instagram photos or videos you uploaded prior but got deleted. Let’s discuss the solutions:
Method 1. Restore deleted videos and photos from Phone’s album
One way to restore deleted Instagram photos or videos is to restore them from your phone’s album. When you upload any photo or video on Instagram, a folder will automatically get created on your phone by Instagram’s name. So you can still look for them on your phone. You can find them again and restore them to your chosen location. Let’s see the steps to do that:
If you are an Android user,
- Open the photo gallery in your device and look for the Instagram folder.
- Find all the pictures that you wish to restore and re-upload them on your Instagram account.
If you are an iPhone user,
- On your iPhone, open the Photos app and go to the Album
- Then, scroll down and click on the Recently Deleted
- Now, find the deleted Instagram pictures and restore them by re-uploading.
Method 2. Restore from the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder on Instagram
Deleted items like photos, videos, etc. first move to the Recently Deleted folder and stay therein for 30 days. So, you can restore the deleted items before 30 days expire. Follow the steps given below to restore deleted items from the Recently Deleted folder:
- Open Instagram application and tap on your profile on the bottom-right of your screen.
- Tap on Menu on the top right to go to
- Click on Your activity in the How you use Instagram section.
- Then scroll down to open the Recently deleted
- Individually select desired photos and videos.
- Click on the 3 dots displayed at the bottom right corner of the screen.
- Select Restore from the given options.
- Confirm Restore.
In this way, you can restore deleted photos and videos from Instagram within 30 days.
Method 3. Restore Via Archive feature of Instagram
Launched back in 2017, Archive feature allows users to hide certain posts from their followers without deleting them. The post stays there until it’s recovered again by the user. There’s a chance you might’ve archived some posts and have forgotten about them. Follow the steps below to easily recover your photos and videos from archive folder.
- Open Instagram and tap on your profile icon.
- Open Menu and click on Archive under the How you use Instagram section.
- Tap on Stories archive option and choose Posts archive from the list.
- Choose the post that you wish to restore and click on the three dots, then select Show on Profile.
- Confirm by clicking on the Show on Profile option, and your post will get restored on your feed.
Method 4. Recover deleted Instagram photos and videos from File Manager
You can easily recover your lost Instagram photos and videos from a backup saved in your Android device’s File Manager. If you are an Android user, you can try this method as well using the below-described steps-
- Go to File Manager on your Android device.
- Now go to the Pictures folder and open the folder where you’ve stored all the backed-up photos.
- Find all the lost photos and restore them immediately.
Method 5. Restore Via iCloud or Google Photos
Another way to restore your media files is by looking for them on Google Photos or iCloud. When you upload photos or videos on Instagram, Google Photos or iCloud automatically save a copy of them. Hence, you can go there and check if your media files are still there or not.
Method 6. Get in touch with Instagram officials
If you’re having trouble recovering your deleted photos or videos on Instagram, try contacting the official support. We’ve given 4 ways by which you can contact the Instagram officials to recover your media files:
- Visit Instagram help center: Go to Instagram’s help center either through it’s app or via the website. Search for topics related to how to recover deleted photos and videos.
- Report your problem: Instagram provides a feature to report any issue that you face by different ways. Go to Profile >> Menu >> Help and then click on Report a Problem. Explain thoroughly the issue you’re facing, add pictures if needed, and click on Send.
- Contact via email: You can also try reaching out to Instagram officials by emailing them at support@instagram.com. Give extensive detail about your issue and send it at given email address.
- Contact via social media channels: If the above solutions don’t resolve your problem, try tagging the officials on other social media platforms or send them a direct message.
Restore deleted images with a third-party tool
The given solutions have primarily talked about ways to recover photos and videos via Instagram and from a pre-existing backup. But what if you are past the recovery time limit of Instagram and don’t have a backup? Don’t worry; you can still recover deleted photos and videos with an automated photo recovery software. It easily recovers and restores all the lost photos and videos from your PC, external drives, and mobile phones. Connect your device with a desktop and perform the recovery with this tool.
What if your images or videos get corrupt?
Don’t worry; we have a solution for that too. If, your images or videos get corrupt by any chance, then you can try Kernel Photo Repair and Kernel Video Repair to fix the corruption in files. Both of these tools are tried and tested and are proven for the best results. These tools can repair photo and video files from a wide range of available formats.
Conclusion
Losing Instagram photos and videos is never a pleasant experience for anybody. However, good thing is that you can recover them easily either from Instagram or from a pre-existing backup. We’ve given some simple solutions to restore deleted videos and photos on Instagram. Additionally we’ve also mentioned an easy alternative to recover your Instagram media if you don’t have a backup. Use Kernel Photo Recovery for a simple and efficient solution to recover deleted photos and videos from Instagram.
FAQs
A. You can easily recover your deleted Instagram photos from the Recently deleted folder of Instagram.
A. Look for your lost Instagram videos in the Archive folder of Instagram. There’s a possibility you might’ve archived your reels and forgotten about them.
A. Instagram allows users to recover deleted videos and photos up to 30 days before they’re permanently deleted. After that, you might need to take professional help to recover your deleted photos and videos.
