There are two types of people in the world: Those who are constantly cleaning up their Instagram grid, and those who haven’t deleted a single photo since they downloaded the app in 2011. Whichever one you are, there may come a time when you realize that it’s time to delete instagram posts in bulk — and fast.
Perhaps a follow from a younger relative made you realize that the majority of your Reels aren’t very family-friendly. Maybe a friend creeping on your ‘gram reminded you that you have some pretty embarrassing photos still up from your college days that aren’t exactly #TBT-worthy. Or, a follow from your new crush quickly reminded you that your grid is still filled with photo dumps of you and your ex.
Whatever your reason for wanting to send a clean-up crew into your IG, the idea of scrolling your account to delete posts one-by-one can be daunting. Luckily, with the new “Your Activity” tab, the process of deleting and archiving your posts in bulk just got a whole lot easier.
How To Delete Instagram Posts In Bulk
If you’re ready to shed a few posts from your feed, you’ll want to head to the “Your Activity” tab on your Instagram. To get there, open Instagram and click on your icon in the bottom right corner to open your profile tab. Once on your profile, click the three horizontal lines in the top right corner, and click “Your activity” from the menu. (The option is second on the list with a clock icon and four dots.)
Opening the “Your activity” tab will give you a full overview of your activity log on Instagram — from screen time, to posts you’ve liked, searches, and more. Tap on the second option in the menu, “Photos and videos,” and select the form of media that you’d like to review. You can choose from Posts, Reels, or Videos.
Once you’ve selected from these three options, you will see a screen of your grid in thumbnails. The grid is listed from newest to oldest, but you can also review the posts from oldest to newest – or, you can select a certain start date and end date to search through. (Perfect if you want to review your posts specifically from your college years, or, say, the era of you and your ex.) To do so, click “Sort and Filter” from the top right corner just under “Select,” and choose which way you’d like to view your posts.
If you’re ready to begin selecting which posts, videos, or Reels are going on the chopping block, click “Select” in blue in the top right corner. From here, you can tap as many posts as you’d like to include in your mass deletion or archival. Once you’ve made your selections, all you have to do is click “Delete” in the bottom right. Or, of course, if you want certain posts off of your grid but still want to cherish them in your own personal gallery, just click “Archive” in the bottom left.
Once you’ve scrubbed your Posts, you can clean up your Reels and Videos, too. Lather, rinse, repeat.
How To Archive Instagram Posts In Bulk
If you have some posts that you want out of sight from your grid, but that you don’t want out of mind, you can always archive them. When you archive a post, Instagram moves the post from your profile and into a private folder that only you can view. Posts in your archives can be restored to your profile whenever. If you’re trying out a new grid aesthetic, or just want somewhere to look back on your high school Instagrams, consider “archive” as a kind of storage for your posts.
To archive posts in bulk, you’ll follow the same steps as you would when deleting. Once you’ve made your selections, click “Archive” on the bottom left of the screen.
To view your archived posts, head back to your profile. Click the three horizontal lines on the top right corner, then click “Archive” from the menu. The first screen to open will be your Stories archive, where you can view all of the stories you have posted, as well as any Memories you may have from the current day years prior.
To head to your archived posts, click on “Stories archive” on the top of the screen and select “Posts archive” from the dropdown menu. Here, you can view all of your archived posts, and choose to restore them to your profile.
To restore an archived post to your profile, click on the post’s thumbnail in your Archive, then click the three dots in the top right corner of the post. Click “Show on profile” from the menu, and the post will return to your grid.
How To Recover A Deleted Instagram Post
While you might have been feeling bold by going forth with your mass deletion, you may now be having second thoughts. One risk with deleting in bulk is that it’s relatively easy to accidentally select a post without meaning to, and have it end up in your trash pile.
If you’re trying to recover a deleted Instagram post, head back to your profile and click on the three horizontal lines in the top right corner. Click “Account” from the menu, then click “Your activity.” Scroll down to the option with a trash icon that says “Recently deleted.” (Note: If you haven’t recently deleted anything, this option will not show up.) Select the post you’d like to recover, click the three horizontal dots on the top right corner of it, and click “Restore.” Phew.
