In general, Instagram is a social media platform where users spend most of their social time. For all, you may come across situations in times when you want to break off from the online presence.
You might have your online presence through various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. If you wish to completely disconnect yourself from the online culture, you can break off from all of the social media platforms.
In this post, I would primarily focus on deleting your Instagram account so that you can take a break or completely disconnect yourself from using Instagram as per your requirement.
Deleting Your Account on Instagram (Permanently & Temporarily)
There may be several reasons for which a person is looking to delete their Instagram Account. The decision may be temporary deletion or a permanent break from Instagram as per the reason of a user.
The reasons for taking a break from Instagram may be job-related, education-related, lifestyle-related, and so on.
If you are looking to take a temporary break from Instagram with a view of logging back to Instagram and using it later, you can Disable Your Account (temporary deletion of account).
On the other hand, if you are looking to completely pill the plug on Instagram so as to dissolve your online presence, you can Delete Your Instagram Account Permanently.
What Happens When You Delete Instagram Account?
Disabling Your Instagram Account Temporarily
If your decision is to delete your Instagram account temporarily (disable your account), you need not worry about anything. You can log back into your account anytime you want with the username and password.
Disabling the account on Instagram for a temporary break would in no way impact your account data (posts, stories, archives, etc.)
Permanently Deleting Your Account on Instagram
Unlike, the temporary deletion permanent deletion leads to the loss of all of your data from Instagram. When you delete your account, your Profile, photos, videos, comments, likes, and followers will be permanently removed.
If you want to keep your profile, photos, videos, comments, likes, and followers, you can choose to take a break and temporarily disable your account instead.
However, if you just want a copy of your account data and want to permanently delete the account, you can save the data by downloading it and then deleting your account.
Steps to Download & Save Your Account Data
Before deleting the account permanently, make sure you save your account data if you do not want to lose them. Follow the steps to save a copy of your account data.
Step 1: Open the Instagram application on your mobile.
Step 2: Go to the “Profile Section” of your account by tapping on the Profile Icon on the bottom right.
Step 3: Tap on the “Hamburger Icon” (three horizontal lines) on the top right corner and go to settings.
Step 4: Under Settings, go to “Security” by tapping on it.
Step 5: Tap on “Download Data” under Data and History in the Security Menu.
Step 6: Enter the email address in which you would like to receive the file of data from Instagram and click on “Request Download”.
A copy of the data would be shared with you via email within 48 hours of your request. It is always suggested to keep a copy of this data even if you decide to delete your account as sometime in your life later, you may need them.
How Do I Permanently Delete My Instagram Account?
After you have the file with your account’s data you can now proceed with deleting your Instagram account permanently.
Consider the fact that the permanent deletion of your account can only be done through a browser irrespective of the device (whether mobile or PC). It is not possible to delete an Instagram account permanently from the Instagram application.
Step 1: Go to instagram.com and log in with the account which you want to delete permanently.
Step 2: Visit the special pathway for account deletion i.e., the “Delete Your Account” page of Instagram.
Step 3: You would be landed on the account deletion page when you visit the above link.
On the Delete Your Account page, select the reason why you want the account to be deleted permanently from the drop-down menu.
Step 4: Enter the password of your account and Click on Delete button as shown above.
With this, your account would be permanently deleted. However, Instagram provides some days to recover your account if you change your mind later.
How Long Does Instagram Takes to Delete Your Account Permanently
Instagram usually provides 28 days for you to recover the account with the view that you may change your mind later. Hence, it would take as many days like these to delete your account permanently.
Though it takes 28 days for the account and the data to be deleted, your account would remain deleted from the day you placed the delete request unless you wish to recover it back again.
You can ignore everything if you don’t want to recover your account as it would remain deleted with that too.
How to Temporarily Disable My Instagram Account
If you want to take a break from Instagram but you don’t want to delete your account permanently, you can disable your account for some days.
Like that of permanent deletion, you cannot also disable your account from the application, so you need to do this from the browser.
Step 1: Go to instagram.com and log in with the account which you want to disable.
Step 2: Go to your “Profile Section” by clicking on your profile icon.
Step 3: Click on “Edit profile” from your profile.
Step 4: Scroll down and click on “Temporarily Disable My Account”.
Step 5: Now, select the reason why you are looking to disable your account from the drop-down menu.
Step 6: Enter the password of your account.
Step 7: After selecting the reason and entering the password, click on Temporarily Disable My Account button.
In this way, your Instagram account would be disabled until you decide to log in back to your account using your username and password.
I hope that I am able to help you delete and disable your Instagram account temporarily as well as permanently.
Note that your username would not be available for the creation of new account for 28 days until instagram deletes all of your account’s data. After this, your username would be made available for use by any user.
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