Every Instagram user eventually encounters archiving. After all, any publication in the Stories section has a limited broadcast time and disappears from public access after 24 hours of posting, but it is not deleted, but moved to a special storage. A similar situation arises with regular photos and videos from the page. To avoid losing an important snapshot, you can save it in the archive and restore it as needed. We will tell you where to find archived photos on Instagram from a computer or phone.
What is an archive on Instagram and how to find it?
It should be remembered that any publication in the story feed will automatically be removed from public access 24 hours after the broadcast. Don’t worry, it won’t be deleted, but will be sent to the platform’s storage.
Many subscribers may not know what it means to archive a photo on Instagram, but such a function is implemented and is standard. With its help, you won’t lose important posts if you accidentally delete them or remove them from your page. They are stored in independent memory, provided that automatic archiving is activated. This feature is available to any user. Let’s consider when it may be needed:
- If you are bored with a certain post or it has lost its relevance, send it to storage for a while, where you can edit it if necessary and republish it.
- All posts in the news feed of stories are sent to storage by default after 24 hours of broadcasting in public access.
That is why archiving is an important and useful function. It should be noted that after adding a photo or video to the archive, only the page owner has access to it, all other visitors and subscribers cannot view the content until you return it to the feed. All publications in the archive can be divided into certain categories and grouped for convenience of viewing and editing.
How to find archived photos on Instagram
The archiving function is a standard tool of the social network and has a special section for it. All added posts to the storage are divided into two main categories – stories from the short stories panel and publications from the main news feed on the user’s page. To view archived photos, it is enough to make just a few clicks, but it should be noted that the folder will be empty in cases when:
- No stories have ever been posted in the stories section.
- The function of automatically adding records to the storage is disabled.
- No posts have ever been added to the user’s page.
Below we will consider how to navigate to the corresponding section on devices of different types – on a mobile phone and a personal computer.
On the phone
If you access a social network on your smartphone using the official Instagram mobile app, to access the archive you will need to perform the following actions:
- Launch the utility on your phone.
- Complete the authorization process in the service, enter your personal password and login for your account.
- Go to your personal page by clicking on the silhouette of a person on the bottom panel (for Android operating systems) or on the thumbnail of your profile (for iPhones).
- Click on the icon in the form of three horizontal lines.
- An additional menu will appear, with the archive located in the first item, represented by an icon in the form of a clock face with an arrow.
- You will then see a list of all added and saved publications.
- On the top panel, you can select a section for posts from your page or short stories.
You can hover over any record, edit it, and post it back to the news feed. The principle of operation on different operating systems is similar, the difference lies only in the design of the interface and the location of the system control elements.
On the computer
Many users access social networks through their personal computers. It should be noted that you will not find the archive tab in the browser version of the service, as this function, like many others, is simply not implemented in this build. Therefore, you will have to use the official Windows 10 application or install additional programs, extensions, and plugins on your browser that transform Instagram into a mobile version with all its capabilities.
You can find the archive in the Windows 10 application by following these steps:
- Launch the utility and log in to your personal page by entering your login and password for the system.
- On the top panel, you will see a clock face icon with an arrow, which is the data archive.
- Click on it and you will see a list of all saved publications since registering on the social network.
This method of using the service has its limitations, as you can only see posts from the main news feed, and the archive stories tab is not provided here. To view them, you will have to use Android emulators or extensions on your browser that allow you to work in the mobile version of Instagram on your computer.
How to set up automatic archiving
If you don’t want your photos in the Stories section to disappear completely after the broadcast is over, set up automatic archiving. The procedure can be done in just a few clicks, so you don’t have to do everything manually every time. Here’s how:
- Launch the mobile app on your device.
- Log in to your account with your username and password.
- Go to your personal page.
- Click on the button with three parallel lines.
- Click on the social network settings section.
- Open the privacy tab and select the Stories option.
- Select automatic archiving and move the slider to the active state.
- Save changes.
There is another way to set up:
- Open Instagram and go to the user’s personal page.
- Click on the additional menu on the top panel and go to the archive.
- You will see an indicator in the form of three dots at the top of the screen, click on it.
- Select the settings section.
- Move the “save automatically” checkbox to the active position.
After that, your photos and videos will be automatically archived by default after their broadcast is over.
How to return a photo to the feed from the archive
If you have decided to return a publication back to your news feed on your page, you need to do it through the archive. You can edit and return the content to its original place by following these instructions:
- Launch the Instagram utility on your mobile device.
- Log in to the system and go to your personal page.
- Open the storage section in the additional menu on the right.
- To add a short story to the story panel, select the desired record and click on the “More” button at the bottom of the screen. In the menu, select the “Share publication” item.
- To return a photo or video to your page, click on it and in the “More” menu, select the “Show in profile” item.
After that, your posts will return to their previous place in the public domain. If necessary, you can add them back to the archive. On a personal computer, the process is similar.
The article explains how to view the archive on Instagram, where this function is located, and when it may be needed. To ensure that publications are saved by default and without your knowledge in the archive, don’t forget to activate the automatic archiving service in the social network settings. Remember that you can return content to the news feed or to the short story section at any time.