How To Archive On Instagram Iphone

When Instagram introduced the archive, it didn't get much fanfare and was missed by a lot of users. If you missed it, here is everything you need to know.

How To Archive or Unarchive Instagram Posts

Rather than users deleting content and losing the company potential revenue, Instagram offers a way to save it for later. Rather than deleting the post completely, you can now archive the post to take it away from public gaze. You will still be able to view the post privately to use at a later date but nobody else will.

Using the Instagram Archive

The Instagram archive contains a section for stories, live streams and posts. Stories and live streams are saved automatically, while saving posts is an opt-in feature that you must use manually. Older posts are not automatically archived like other systems.

To archive a post on Instagram:

Select a post you want to store.
Select the three dot menu icon at the top of the page.
Select the Archive option.

How to Access the Instagram Archive

When you archive a post it will remain there until you either manually delete it or un-archive it. Instagram Archive is split between posts, stories and lives.

To access the Instagram archive:

Open Instagram on your profile page and select the menu (three bars) icon in the top right.
Select archive to view your archived posts on the Archive page.
Archive will show your automatically archived stories first by default. To see lives or posts, tap on the downward facing arrow next to "Stories Archive," at the top and select either option.

As mentioned above, the archive is for you only and is not publicly viewable.

Unarchive Instagram posts

If you want to bring a post out of hibernation and back into your profile, it is very straightforward. You just need to go into your Instagram archive and select the option to show on your profile again.

Open Instagram on your profile page. Select the menu (three bar) icon at the top right.
Select Archive.
Tap on the downward facing arrow next to "Stories Archive," at the top and select "Posts Archive."
Select the post you want to un-archive and select the three dot menu icon.
Select Show on Profile at the top of the popup box.

The post will be made live once more and publicly viewable.

If you would prefer to delete your archived post instead of make it public again you can. Just select Delete instead of Show on Profile and confirm your choice at Step 5 above. Your post will then be deleted forever and will not be recoverable. Sometimes that's a good thing!

Wrapping Up

The Instagram archive is a neat idea that takes some of the temporary out of social media. While we are gradually adjusting to the temporal nature of online life, there are some things that are worth keeping longer term. If you don't keep those memories close, at least you can keep them on Instagram.

For social media savvy businesses, this is a way of using posts and media multiple times or for seasonal offers that repeat annually or regularly. Why create a Christmas offer each year if you can just archive and tweak it and then make it public again?

Do you like the Instagram archive option? Have you used it? Tell us about your experience below!