There are times when social media could be stressful. This is when users start to temporarily deactivate their social media platform including Instagram to take a break. Though this could give you space and a breather, many wonder if you stay deactivated for a period of time, will Instagram delete your deactivated account? To find out the answer to this, read further into this article and surely you would find useful information about this topic.
Quick Answer
Instagram has inactive username and account policy, however, they are kind of vague. Though this is the case, we shall try to break it down. Meta’s policy states that they have the right to delete your account in case of inactivity after 28 days. Fortunately, even with this policy, in practice, Instagram only deletes profile which are inactive for a year or more. If you are worried, however, and to be on the safe side, we suggest for you to log in every 28 days.
What Does Deactivating An Instagram Account Mean?
Deactivating your Instagram account could be due to many different reasons. However, most often than not, the main reason is to have a temporary break from social media. By deactivating your Instagram account, you would be able to reduce the temptation of having to log in and check your account.
Deactivated Instagram account does not mean it is permanently deleted. It actually means, that once you enter your username and password, you would be able to regain your account again. Moreover, you would not have to worry about the content of your account as it would be the same as it was before you have deactivated your account. In fact, you would still be able to view your messages. Keep in mind, however, you would not get any alerts for messages that your friends have sent you.
Deactivating vs Deleting an Instagram Account?
When you deactivated your Instagram account, it is just temporary. This means, any time you would want to come back to your account, you would be able to. However, if you delete your account, it would be permanent. This means, all of your content – photos, comments, interactions and relationships would be gone permanently as well. Moreover, you would no longer show up in the search results and all your DMs you have sent could not be replied to.
Instagram’s Inactive Username Policy
For those who would like to take a break from Instagram, one question is often asked, how long does Instagram let your deactivated account stay idle before they delete your account? The answer is according to the App’s policy is that they could suspend and end your access to your account if you have not accessed it within 28 days with or without notice.
If you wish to ensure that your account is safe, we highly recommend for you to log into your account before the 28 days period. Though there has been reports that show that usually Instagram waits for a year or more before deleting accounts, it is better to be safe than sorry.
How to Temporarily Disable Your Instagram Account
- Log into Instagram
- Click on your profile picture
- Select Profile
- Select Edit Profile
- Select Temporarily deactivate my account
- Select a reason as to why you would like to temporarily deactivate your account.
- Enter your password once asked
- Click again yes to deactivate your account to confirm
Though you are able to deactivate your account on Instagram, keep in mind that you could only do this with limits. This means, you would need to wait until a week before you would be able to deactivate your account again. Furthermore, aside form deactivating your account, you could set your posts to private and even block individuals.
What If I Want to Delete My Account Right Away?
We suggest if you would like to delete your account, to download your data. This way, you would be able to keep copies of your pictures and posts. Keep in mind that once you have deleted your account everything would be deleted as well and you would no longer be able to download anything. Here are the steps in deleting your account.
- Log into your account
- Go to the Delete your account page
- Select the reason as why you would like to delete your account
- Enter your password
- Click the delete button
On the delete screen, you would find the username that you would want to delete. Ensure it is the account that you would like to delete before you move forward. Once your account has been deleted your username would be available for other users to create a new account into. After 30 days of your account being deleted you would no longer be able to recover your account. However, if before 30 days you have changed your mind, you could log in and ask Instagram to recover your account. Keep in mind, however, all your content would no longer be there and you would no longer recover them.
How Do I Back Up My Instagram Data?
- Click menu
- Select settings
- Click on Privacy and security
- Select request download under Data download
- Enter your email address
- Select either HTML of JSON format
- Enter your password
- Click on request download again.
Conclusión
We hope that through this article, you were able to find useful information about your Instagram account deactivation of account.
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