You found the perfect shot of that New York Blizzard, or an exquisite snap of whatever lunch you’re particularly proud of, posted it, and then, for whatever reason, deleted it. And now that you’ve thought better of it, life simply won’t be the same without that particular Instagram post. How could you? There has to be a way to recover a deleted Instagram post — there just has to be? Right?
Right?
How to Undelete an Instagram Post
Right.
Technically speaking, it used to be that you couldn’t undelete an Instagram post without Archives, nor Stories if you deleted it before it turned exactly one day old — i.e. 24 hours. And god forbid the worst happened and a less-than-upstanding citizen got access to your account and deleted everything — Archives included.
However, Instagram recently announced they would be rolling out a new, Recently Deleted feature that would protect deleted posts from eternal oblivion for up to 30 days — kind of like a spam or trash folder. The company says the new Recently Deleted option isn’t merely to help out the indecisive among us, but rather a protection against hackers and trolls.
An important thing to note is that while most deleted items, from photos, videos, reels, etc will remain in the Recently Deleted section for a month, Stories will be deleted from Recently Deleted forever as soon as they turn 24 hours old — the inverse of how it used to be.
Go to Settings
Tap on the menu icon in the upper right-hand corner of your profile and open up Settings.
Tap on Account
Towards the bottom of the settings menu, tap on Account.
Open up Recently Deleted
Navigate to the Recently Deleted folder within the Account menu. If you’re unable to find the feature in your account menu, it’s possible the feature hasn’t rolled out to your device yet. The Recently Deleted feature is, at the time of this writing, still brand-spanking-new so, if you haven’t received it just yet, be patient; the feature will be fully rolled out soon.
Tap Restore
Within the Recently Deleted folder, you’ll see all of your deleted items from the past 30 days, and any stories deleted within the last 24 hours. If you’d like to save any of the deleted items, make sure to remain cognizant of these timelines.
Simply select the item you want to resurrect and tap Undelete.
What Do You Need to Get the Undelete Feature?
Absolutely nothing but vanilla Instagram. The feature is currently rolling out across devices, and if you’re unable to find it under Account, it simply means that the Recently Deleted feature is yet to reach your device. Hang tight, it should show up soon.
How Undelete Helps
The Undelete feature is less a suped-up archive and more a protective space for all of your posts, deleted and undeleted — protecting your content from yourself and, more importantly, any ne’er-do-well who may have gained access to your account and sought to wreak havoc by laying waste to your content.
The key component of the new feature is its identity verification requirement. To permanently delete anything from Recently Deleted, users must verify their identity via email or text message, protecting their account from being mercilessly wiped into oblivion by hackers and other nefarious actors.
Why Was Undelete Introduced?
The Undelete feature was created in response to a rising spate of high profile hacks and cybersecurity issues that left victims, even after restoring access to their accounts, at a staggering loss with all of their content gone — sometimes years’ worth of important data, all gone.
How to Know if You Got The Undelete Feature?
You can check if you’ve received the Undelete Feature right away by following the steps laid out above (going to Settings > Account and looking for the Recently Deleted option). If you do find the Recently Deleted feature in your Account menu, the feature is fully functional and can be used to undelete or permanently delete the posts saved there.
We hope this post helped alleviate some of the confusion surrounding the new Recently Deleted feature. Feel free to shoot any other questions you have at us in the comments below — we’d love to help!
