This article on how to archive your Instagram photos is a collaboration with the wonderful Anastasia Sk! I wrote the guide, and she created the video demos using her beautiful Instagram account.
Know your why
There are tons of reasons why you might want to archive your Instagram posts.
Something terrible has happened to your camera/laptop. The only copies of your photographs are on Instagram.
You have decided to up your game. You are about to start curating your profile by deleting photos that don't fit your vibe. But you don't want to lose them for good.
You want to re-upload your photographs to a different site.
You are deleting your account, but don't want to lose your pictures.
You just want to back them up.
Instagram and the word "archive"
First of all, Instagram and I do not mean the same thing when we talk about "archiving".
Instagram says:You can archive a post you've shared to hide it from your profile and make it so your followers and other people on Instagram can't see it.
Basically, it is a reversible way of hiding a photo you have shared, without deleting it. (If this is what you want to do, then the instructions are here.)
In other words, Instagram's "archive" feature is usually about pictures you don't like.
That is not what I mean by "archiving".
What I mean is this. Choosing what is important to you. Setting it aside in a safe place. And most of all, caring for it to stop it being deleted, corrupted, stolen or forgotten over time.
In other words, archiving is about the pictures you consider to be your digital treasures.
(This is not me vs Instagram - it is a wider issue. Archives professionals and IT professionals use the word "archive" to mean different things.)
Downloading pictures from Instagram
There is no feature on Instagram itself that enables you to download all your pictures. But there are other tools out there to help with this.
I am going to explain three ways to export an image out of Instagram.
Remember: if you are going to use any image you have downloaded, always ensure you have the necessary rights or permissions.
How to download one photograph from Instagram
Downloading one image is fairly simple. Go to Instagram. Open the image you want to save. Copy the url.
Go to downloadgram.com and paste the url into the bar.
How to download low-resolution thumbnails of your images
Go to your Instagram page, and scroll right the way down so all your images load.
Right click on any of the blank space on the page, and click "Save As".
How to download your pictures in a higher quality
You'll need to an extra tool to do this.
Download and install the latest version of 4k Stogram. As of November 2017, the latest version is 2.5.3. (I am not including a link, because you need to make sure you're downloading a version that is safe). It's a free tool, so don't go paying for the extra features.
Type your Instagram username into the search bar in 4k Stogram and click "Subscribe".
Once your pictures have loaded, go to File, and select Export Subscriptions.
Follow the instructions, being careful to decide where to send your downloaded images.
4k Stogram will give you both thumbnails and the higher quality images. By default, it will send them to My Pictures. So if you can't find them, then that's where to look.
I'm not going to lie...
I had a right mare trying to work out how to do this! I really hope that one of these options lets you do what you set out to do.
Along the way, I came across various tools that say they'll do the same thing:
- JDownloader (which comes as a RAR file, so you'll need second tool to open it. The second tool could be win-RAR or 7-zip, both of which I tried.)
If either of these work for you, then yay! You did better than I did! Please get in touch; I'd love to know where I was going wrong!
Thank you!
Thanks so much for reading all the way to the end! I have loved working with Anastasia. You should definitely give her a follow on Instagram - I love her colourful and chilled-out vibe.
Anastasia is a passionate person born in the city of Lviv with scent of coffee. She is inspired by people and places, and really enjoys helping people to pursue their “creative life soundtrack”. Living in London, freelancing in creative industries and starting her Instagram blog “Friend in London” @anastasia_sk
If you liked this article, and would like more help with caring for your digital treasures, then why not sign up for my monthly email? I will send you all my new content, and you will also get my FREE How To Start Your Digital Archive Workbook.
Thank you again for taking the time to visit Archive Robin. Come back soon :)