How to delete an Instagram account on the app – Quick Guide

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms out there. It’s a great way to showcase the highlights of your life and keep in touch with friends and family. 

However, sometimes only seeing the best parts of people’s lives can make you feel a little down. Comparing yourself to others will no doubt make you question yourself, and can often lower your self-esteem. 

So, having a social media cleanse every now and again is becoming a popular practice for many to avoid the Instagram blues.

If you’ve decided to take a break from social media, you may be wondering how to delete an Instagram account on the app. In this article, we’re going to give you a step-by-step guide on how to do this. 

How to delete an Instagram account on the app

When you delete your account, your profile, photos, videos, comments, likes and followers are permanently removed.

Put simply, you cannot delete an Instagram on the app – you can’t do this via your account page or in your mobile device settings when using the application.

Instagram doesn’t really want people to permanently delete their accounts, so they don’t make it easy. To delete your account, you must log in to the web browser on mobile or desktop and do it here. 

To request deletion of your account, follow these steps:

1. Go to this link 
2. Select a reason on the drop-down menu explaining why you want to delete your account
3. Enter your Instagram password
4. Tap ‘delete [username]’ 

After thirty days of your request, they will delete your account and all of its data. Your content will still be subject to Instagram’s terms of use, but other users will not be able to access the account.  

You can only do this in your desktop or mobile browser, not via the iPhone app or the Android app.

Can you temporarily disable an Instagram account?

You can take similar steps if you wish to temporarily disable your Instagram account. By doing this, you can take a break from Instagram but easily recover your information if you wish to have it again. 

Again, you cannot do this on the app, you’ll need to access the link from the mobile or web browser. 

Following these steps to temporarily disable your account:

1. Go to your Instagram account on a mobile or web browser.
2. Tap on your profile image on the bottom right-hand corner.
3. Tap ‘Edit profile’.
4. Scroll to the bottom and tap ‘temporarily disable my account’.
5. Select a reason from the drop-down menu and enter your password.
6. Tap ‘temporarily disable my account’.

By temporarily disabling your account, your profile, photos, comments and likes will be hidden until log back in which will reactivate your account. 

This is a better option if you’re just looking to take a break from social media for a while since you won’t lose your data and you can easily recover your content. 

Can you recover an Instagram account once deleted?

Once you permanently delete an Instagram account, you cannot recover the information.

You may make a new account with the same name if it has not been taken, but you will have lost your followers and pictures unless you saved them. 

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When completed, you’ll reach the account deletion page. Make sure that if you want you select Temporarily Disable account and don’t delete Instagram completely – otherwise, once you’ve gone through the deletion process, there’s no coming back.

Remove an account from your Instagram app

Instagram allows you to be logged into five Instagram accounts in one user’s app. 

Removing an account from your app is not the same as deleting it. Once removed, the account is still accessible to others on Instagram, but it won’t show up on your profile anymore.

You can still log back in and access the account at anytime. 

To remove an account from your app, follow these steps:

Log out of the account

1. Launch your Instagram app and make sure you’re logged in to the account you wish to remove.
2. Tap on your profile image on the bottom right-hand corner.
3. Tap the three horizontal lines on the top right-hand corner.
4. Tap ‘Settings’.
5. Scroll to the bottom and tap ‘logout [username]’.

Remove the saved login information 

1. Tap on your profile image on the bottom right-hand corner.
2. Tap the three horizontal lines on the top right-hand corner.
3. Tap ‘Settings’.
4. Tap ‘Security’ .
5. Tap ‘Saved login info’.
6. Move the slider button to turn off ‘Saved login info’.

By doing this, you’ve ensured Instagram doesn’t remember the account info on this device. 

As stated above, since your account isn’t deleted, you can log back in anytime you want by entering your username and password. Note that you can follow these same steps on an Android device.

Conclusion 

Instagram gives you a few options if you want to take a break from social media for a while. You can permanently delete, temporarily disable, or remove an account from your app. Remember that permanently deleting your account means there’s no going back.