Short answer: before you delete your account, request a copy of your data with Instagram's Download your information, open it to check that your photos and videos are there, and keep it in two places. Instagram sizes photos down to 1,080 pixels wide when you post them, so look for the originals on your phone or in its backup too.
Last updated: 3 November 2026. Every fact about Instagram on this page was checked on Instagram's own help pages; the sources are at the bottom.
For many people, Instagram became a diary without anyone deciding it would be. Ten years of holidays, friends, a first apartment, a baby, a dog. Leaving the app is easy. Leaving without losing that diary takes a little care, and the order matters: first a copy, then a check, only then the delete button.
Step by step
- Request your copy. In Instagram's settings, use Download your information to ask for a copy of your Instagram information. Instagram then prepares it for you to download.
- Open it and check. Look for the photos and videos you care about most. Check a few old ones, not only the recent ones.
- Find the originals. Instagram sizes photos down to 1,080 pixels wide when you post them. The full-size original is often still on your phone, in your phone's photo backup or on a computer. Keep those, and use the download for what you cannot find elsewhere.
- Save the words. A caption or a comment from a friend can matter as much as the photo. Make sure the ones you care about are in the download, or copy them next to the photo.
- Two copies, two places. Keep the download and the originals in at least two places, as the Library of Congress advises for digital photos, for example your computer and an external drive.
- Only then delete. Once the copy is safe and checked, you can delete the account.
Where your Instagram photos can live next
| Option | Good for | Who can see it | Not the best choice when |
|---|---|---|---|
| A folder on your computer, with a backup | Keeping everything, cheaply, in your own hands | Only you | You want to look at it with others, or find one post quickly |
| A cloud photo library | Having the photos on every device, next to the rest of your photos | Private to you unless you share | It would be your only copy |
| A printed photo book | A year or a trip, to hold and give | Whoever has a copy | You want videos, voices or to keep adding |
| The Memory Palace | The posts that matter, with the story behind them, shared with chosen people | Only the people you invite | You want a public profile and followers, or an automatic import of everything |
What you lose, and what you do not
You lose the likes, the feed and the public profile. For many people that is the point. You do not have to lose the photos, the captions that told the story, or the memory of who was there. A folder keeps the files. What usually disappears in a folder is the context: in five years, IMG_4821.jpg is a beach, not the weekend you met your best friend. Give the folders a year and a place, and write one line with the photos that matter.
The Memory Palace, honestly
The Memory Palace is your own 3D memory palace: you hang photos, videos, voice recordings and written stories in rooms you walk through. After Instagram, it is a calm place for the posts that matter: a room per year, a trip or a friendship, with the caption or a longer story next to each photo. It is private by default; you invite family and friends into a room or a wing and choose per person whether they can view only or also add, so the friends who were on that trip can add their own photos. No likes, no followers, no feed.
- The story next to the photo. What the caption said, and what it did not.
- Voices too. A voice note from that night hangs beside the photo.
- You can leave with everything. A full ZIP export on every plan, including the free plan with 1 GB, with a page that opens without internet.
What it lacks: no one-click Instagram import, so you choose and upload the photos yourself. It is not a social network and has no public profile. It is not an automatic backup of your phone. It is encrypted in transit and at rest, but not end-to-end. And it is made by a small team in Leuven, Belgium.
A simple way to start
Request your download today; it costs nothing and you can still decide later. While you wait, pick the twenty posts you would most hate to lose. If you are curious which years of your life are well covered in photos and which are thin, the free photo timeline shows it. And if you want a private place for those twenty, you can start a palace.
Read on: a private alternative to social media for your memories, the memory app graveyard and export index, the best way to back up your photos, and all guides on your own memories.
Sources
- Instagram Help Centre, review and export a copy of your Instagram information (Download your information): help.instagram.com/181231772500920
- Instagram Help, photo resolution (photos are sized down to 1,080 pixels wide when posted): help.instagram.com/1631821640426723
- Library of Congress, Personal Digital Archiving, digital photos (at least two copies in different places; check them once a year; descriptive file names; tag people and subjects): digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/photos.html