You can choose to delete content from your Instagram account. This includes content like:
- Photos and videos from your Profile
- Photos and videos from your Instagram story
- Instagram stories from highlights and your story archive
- Reels
- Direct Messages
Note that your Data Download file doesn't include messages that you've unsent from your Instagram account.
Content that you choose to delete is removed from your account immediately and moved to
Recently Deleted.
Content in Recently Deleted will be automatically deleted 30 days later, or up to 24 hours for stories that aren’t in your stories archive. During those 30 days, you can access deleted content from your account in Recently Deleted on the Instagram app for Android and iPhone and either restore it or permanently delete it.
It may take up to 90 days to complete the deletion process after it begins. Copies of your content may remain after the 90 days in backup storage that we use to recover in the event of a disaster, software error, or other data loss event. We may also keep your information for things like legal issues, terms violations, or harm prevention efforts. Learn more about this in
our Privacy Policy .