Instagram’s New ‘Recently Deleted’ Feature Will Let Users Restore Photos, Videos, Reels, IGTV Videos, and Stories

Deleted photos, videos, reels, and IGTV videos will remain in Instagram’s Recently Deleted folder for 30 days.

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By Tanishka Sodhi | Updated: 3 February 2021 11:06 IST
Highlights
  • Instagram users can restore deleted content through the new feature
  • Stories can be accessed and restored only for 24 hours
  • Instagram will ask users to verify if they are rightful account holders

Once deleted, Instagram content will move to the Recently Deleted folder, from where they can be restored

Photo Credit: Instagram

Instagram is rolling out a new feature that will let users restore content they've deleted over the last 30 days. The Recently Deleted feature can be accessed through a Setting option in the app and applies to photos, videos, reels, and IGTV videos. Users can restore stories as well, but they will remain in the folder only for 24 hours. Instagram has also stepped up its protection process to prevent hackers from deleting posts on accounts.

Announcing the Recently Deleted feature through a blog post, Instagram stated that this was something people had been asking for.

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When photos, videos, reels, IGTV videos, and stories that are deleted from Instagram, they're removed from the account immediately. After this, they will be moved to the Recently Deleted folder where they can be reviewed and restored within a period of 30 days. If they aren't restored, they will automatically be deleted 30 days later. Stories, however, can only be accessed and restored for up to 24 hours.

To access the deleted content, users can go to Settings > Account > Recently Deleted on the latest version of the app. From here, users can choose to restore the content or permanently delete it. If the post you are restoring was deleted from your Instagram profile grid, it will appear there again, where people can see and interact with it again. If the post was deleted from the archives, it will be restored to the archives.

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Besides that, Instagram also announced that it was adding protection in order to prevent hackers from deleting posts. The Facebook-owned company said it will ask people to first verify that they are the rightful account holders while permanently deleting or restoring content from Recently Deleted.


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