How to delete all Instagram posts – Quick Guide

Instagram has been around for over a decade now and for those of us who have had an account on the platform since its inception may well have some embarrassing posts saved to our profiles from those early years.

While some people will be happy to keep hold of these posts for nostalgia purposes, others will want to get rid of them.

Once you’ve deleted some of your old posts, you may well decide that you want a fresh start altogether and look to delete all of your posts in one go and start over. If you are thinking this way, then we’ve got you.

In this article, we are going to explain how you can go about doing this and look at other ways in which you can start over on the platform. Let’s get started.

How to delete all Instagram posts – The quickest way

The quickest and safest way to delete all of your Instagram posts is to use the bulk delete option via your Instagram profile.

While third parties apps and extensions may claim to do this in a more efficient way, to guarantee your account security and to be safe in the knowledge they have all been deleted, then you should follow these instructions:

  1. Log on to your Instagram account via the mobile phone app.
  2. Select the profile icon on the bottom right-hand side of the screen to bring your account profile.
  3. Select the three lined icon on the top right hand side of your account profile and click ‘your activity’.
  4. Select ‘photos and videos’ and then select ‘posts’.
  5. Tap ‘select’ on the top right hand side of this screen and then select each and every one of your Instagram posts.
  6. Once they are all selected, select ‘delete’.
  7. Please note that Instagram won’t ask you to confirm you decision, so after you hit ‘delete’ the post will be gone forever.

While this is by far the quickest way to delete all of your posts on Instagram, there is another way of doing it.

Alternative method – Delete each post individually

It goes without saying that manually deleting each post on a post-by-post basis is going to be a lot more time consuming than the method above.

However, it does have its merits. For starters, it will allow you some thinking time about whether you really want to delete EVERY post or just a select few.

As you manually scroll through your profile, it may dawn on you that would like to actually keep a few of them.

To delete Instagram posts individually, please follow these steps:

  1. Log on to your Instagram account via the mobile phone app.
  2. Select your account icon on the bottom right-hand side of the page to bring up your profile.
  3. Find whichever post you’d like to delete and select it.
  4. Click the three-dotted icon on the top right hand side of the selected post and click ‘delete’ from the drop-down menu.
  5. From here, a confirmation pop up will appear. Select delete again to confirm your decision.
  6. Repeat process for all posts that you wish to delete.

Other ways to restart your life on Instagram

If the motivating factor behind wanting to delete all of your Instagram posts is because you are looking for a fresh start on the platform then bulk deleting your posts may not be the best option available to you.

Many users mass delete Instagram posts only to regret it later. Here are two alternative suggestions that you may want to consider.

Archive your posts instead of deleting them

Archiving your posts instead of deleting them will mean that you a) retain all data from these posts and b) are able to restore these posts whenever you feel like.

However, just like with deleted Instagram posts, they will be hidden on your profile and inaccessible for other accounts regardless of whether they follow you or not.

Obviously, the best bit about archiving posts is the fact that it allows you to change your mind months or years down the line.

To archive your Instagram posts then follow the same instructions as explained earlier for bulk deleting Instagram posts, but select ‘archive’ rather than ‘delete’ on point number 6.

Delete your account and start a new one

Arguably the best way to wipe the slate clean and start again on Instagram is to create a brand new account, though remember other users won’t be able to view your Instagram videos or posts anymore.

Don’t worry about your old posts, and just start again with an empty profile. Sure, you’ll lose your following but anyone who you are friends with will likely just follow your new account anyway.

To delete your Instagram account, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your Instagram account on the mobile phone app.
  2. Navigate to your profile and select the three lined icon on the top right hand side.
  3. Select ‘settings’, followed by ‘account’.
  4. Select ‘delete account’ and follow the on screen instructions from there to seal the deal.

To open a new account once you’ll simply have to open up the app again (it should now be the main Instagram landing page with no logged in accounts) and select ‘sign up’.

Conclusion

To conclude, deleting all of your Instagram posts isn’t a decision that should be made lightly, especially when the alternative option of archiving them is there as well. Archived posts can still be recovered at a later date, and you may want those photos back a few years down the line.

Regardless of what you decide to do, we hope that the advice and instructions within this article will help you to achieve your goal. Good luck!

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Author

Andy

Andy is a Professional Content Editor with expertise in a whole host of areas (or so he tells us anyway). His main interests are sports, tv/film and social media. He has reviewed over 100 apps so far for Apps UK.

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