If you’ve ever accidentally deleted a message on Instagram, you might be wondering if there’s a way to recover that message.
Instagram’s DM feature is a fun way to keep up with the people you know, whether that’s by responding to your best friend’s stories, catching up with a colleague or saying hi to a stranger who shares similar interests to you.
However, it’s possible to delete messages and entire chats with the slip of a finger. While this might clear up some storage on your smartphone, it can become inconvenient if you’ve made plans in that chat or are trying to dig up receipts on something you’ve spoken about.
Whatever the reason, it is possible to recover deleted messages from Instagram – sometimes.
We wouldn’t advise you to get your hopes too high as the method we’re going to share doesn’t have a 100% success rate in recovering deleted messages. For example, it didn’t work for us when we tested it. However, some users have reportedly managed to recover deleted messages this way and we have yet to find another method despite thoroughly searching the web for one.
The method in question involves requesting an archive of your Instagram data through Instagram’s website and trawling through the files on your desktop to find the deleted message.
If you’re lucky enough to be reading this guide as a precaution, we suggest following the below steps regularly to back up your data and ensure you have a record of any messages before they are deleted.
However, if you’ve just arrived at this guide, you likely have a specific deleted message in mind. Keep reading to learn how you might still be able to recover it.
What you’ll need:
- An Instagram account
- Up to 48 hours for your inquire to process
The Short Version
- Log in to Instagram in your browser
- Go to your Privacy and Security settings
- Scroll down to Data Download and hit inquire Download
- Confirm your details and foresee for an email
- Click the download link to download your data
- Open the file and check the Messages folder
How to recover deleted messages from Instagram
This isn’t something that can be done in the Instagram app.
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2Sign in to your account
You may already find yourself signed in if you’ve logged into Instagram recently.
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3Go to your profile
You can do this by clicking the profile icon in the top-right corner and selecting Profile.
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4Click Edit Profile
This option should be right next to your username.
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5Click Privacy and Security
This will be on the left side of the screen.
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6
You can find the link directly under the Data Download heading.
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7Click Next to confirm your email address and chosen information format
Stick with HTML if you just want to view your data and not import it into other services.
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8Enter your password and click inquire Download
Instagram warns it could take up to 48 hours for you to acquire a link in your email inbox, though ours took an hour and a half.
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9Once you acquire the email, click Download Information
This will send you back to Instagram. You may need to log in again to verify it’s you.
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10Click Download Information
The link will be available for up to two weeks, so be sure to download it before that time period is up or you’ll need to inquire a new link.
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11Head to the Messages folder to see an archive of your chats!
It’s important to note that this folder will only contain the information that is stored on Instagram’s servers, so you might not find everything you’re looking for.
Troubleshooting
If Instagram can’t retrieve your deleted messages from its servers, you can try using a third party app to find them for you. Just make sure you use an app that you trust and bear in mind that this may not work either.
The best way to recover deleted Instagram messages is to keep a regular back up of all your data using the method above.
If you’re chatting with a friend, you can always just ask them to forward the message to you as it should still be viewable on their end. This works well if you’ve made plans and have deleted the message stating when or where you’re meeting.
You can recover comments immediately after you post delete them by tapping on the red banner that appears when you hit delete.
