How to download Instagram data: your full account export, step by step

1. Open Accounts Centre

Instagram's help page says to click Settings from the More menu, then select Accounts Centre. Pick Your information and permissions, then Export your information.

2. Choose where it goes

You can export to your device, which needs enough storage space, or to an external service, which needs you to authorise that service first.

3. Customise the export

Instagram lets you choose the information types, a date range, the file format and the media quality, and add a notification email. Pick only what you need if you just want posts and comments.

4. Wait for the link, then download

Instagram says it may take up to 30 days to email the link, although it often finishes faster.

You then have 4 days to download from the available downloads section. The files are password-protected and only you can open them.

What an export is, and is not

It is a copy of your account for your own records or to move elsewhere. It is not a performance report: for results by post and period, a reporting tool is the better fit.

If you plan to keep posting to the same account through Dripost, nothing in the export is needed. You connect the account once and Dripost links each post it publishes to the live post.

Sources

• Instagram Help: download a copy of your Instagram data