How to download your Instagram data: a step-by-step guide

Whether you are thinking of leaving Instagram, want a backup of years of photos, or simply like to keep your own copy of your data, downloading your Instagram information is straightforward, free, and genuinely worth doing. It is also the sensible first step before deleting an account, because once an account is gone, recovering its contents is difficult or impossible.

This guide walks through the process step by step. One honest warning up front: Meta changes the exact menu layout fairly often, so if a label has moved slightly since this was written, the overall path, Accounts Center, then your information, then download, still holds. If you are planning to delete afterwards, pair this with our guide to deleting Instagram.

Before you start

A couple of things worth knowing first. The download is free, and you can choose how much to include, everything, or just specific categories like photos or messages. You can also choose a format: HTML if you want to open and read it like web pages, or JSON if you want a portable, machine-readable copy to import elsewhere. And it is not instant: Meta assembles the file and sends a link, which can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of days depending on how much data you have.

Step by step

1. Open Settings. In the Instagram app, go to your profile, tap the menu (the three lines) in the top corner, and open Settings and activity.

2. Find Accounts Center. Near the top of Settings, tap Accounts Center, the hub Meta uses to manage Instagram, Facebook and related accounts together. You can also reach it in a browser via the Accounts Center page.

3. Open “Your information and permissions”. Inside Accounts Center, find the section for your information and permissions, which is where data tools live.

4. Choose “Export your information”. Tap this option, then tap “Create export” and select the profile you want to export. Note that on some older versions of the app this is still labelled “Download your information”; it does the same thing.

5. Choose where it goes. Select “Export to device” to download the file yourself, or “Export to external service” to send it straight to a service like Google Drive or Dropbox.

6. Select what to include. You can export all of your information or choose specific categories, such as posts, stories, messages, comments, followers and account information. If you only want your photos, you can narrow it to that.

7. Choose your format and options. Pick HTML (easy to read) or JSON (easy to move to another service). Set the date range (all time, or a specific period), choose a media quality (higher quality means a larger file), confirm the notification email, then start the export. You may need to re-enter your password, which is normal and expected.

8. Download it in time. Meta will prepare your file and notify you, usually by email and in the app, when it is ready. When it is, you have four days to download it from the “Available downloads” area before the link expires, so save it somewhere safe and backed up.

What’s in the download

The export typically includes your photos and videos, your posts and stories, your messages, your comments and likes, your follower and following lists, and your account information and some of the data Meta holds about your activity. The exact contents depend on what you selected and how you have used the account. It is often a sobering amount of information, which is itself a useful thing to see.

A note on what this does and doesn’t do

Downloading your data gives you a copy; it does not remove anything from Instagram or change your account. If your goal is to leave, downloading is step one and deleting or deactivating is step two, in that order, so you keep your photos. And a download is a snapshot in time: it reflects your data at the moment Meta assembled the file, not continuously. We explain the wider context of leaving in how to delete Instagram.

Where 142 fits

A brief and relevant aside, clearly flagged as coming from the company I run. One reason data export matters is that it shows who actually controls your information. On Instagram you can get a copy, which is good, but the originals live on Meta’s servers under Meta’s terms. 142 is built on the opposite principle: because it operates under European data law, proper data export is a built-in right rather than a buried menu, and the business model, paid subscription rather than advertising, means your data is not the product being monetised in the first place. We are not the point of this guide; we are simply an example of designing for your control of your data rather than around it. More on that thinking is in our guide to social media without ads.

Summary

Downloading your Instagram data is free, straightforward and worth doing, especially before deleting anything. The path runs through the Instagram app’s Settings into Accounts Center, then “Your information and permissions”, then “Export your information”, where you choose what to include, pick HTML to read it or JSON to move it, set a date range and quality, and submit. Meta sends a download link within minutes to a couple of days. The export is a copy, not a deletion, so if you are leaving, download first and delete second. Keeping your own copy of your data is simply good practice, and a reminder of how much of it these platforms hold.