How to archive your Instagram posts, Stories, and Live videos

Learn how to use the archive feature on Instagram to move your published posts to a hidden section that’s only visible to you and nobody else on the platform.

Instagram Archive on iPhone

As you know, an archive collects historic items, and Instagram provides you with an archive for your posts, stories, and live broadcasts. This allows you to hold onto posts you no longer want to display, stories that disappear, and live broadcasts that have ended.

Called Archive, it basically moves the selected post into a space that’s visible only to you. The post isn’t deleted permanently. It’s simply moved to a private place only you can see, and that post disappears from your profile so that no one can see it.

The nice thing about the Instagram archive is that you can still relive those moments, reshare them, or get rid of them for good. The archive is under your control for the most part, with a few exceptions.

Here, we’ll show you how to use the Instagram archive. We’ll cover how to archive items, access your archive, and reshare posts, stories, or live broadcasts that you find there.

Archive your Instagram posts

  1. Launch the Instagram app on your phone and go to the Profile section by tapping the rightmost tab at the bottom.
  2. Find the previously shared post you’d like to archive, then tap the three dots button at the top of the post and choose the Archive option from the menu.
  3. You can also touch and hold the post on your Instagram profile page and choose the Archive option from the shortcuts menu.
Archive post on Instagram

As mentioned, this action hides the selected post from your profile page and makes it so your followers and other people on Instagram can’t see it. The archived post retains all of the previous likes and comments.

See your archived posts

  1. Go to your Instagram profile screen.
  2. Tap the hamburger menu icon from the top right and choose Archive.
  3. Tap the drop-down menu from the top to choose the archive type: Live archive, Posts archive, or Stories archive. Since we are dealing with regular posts, tap Posts archive to see them.
View your archived posts on Instagram

Unarchive your Instagram posts

Previously archived posts can be shown again on your profile at any time.

  1. Access your archived Instagram posts.
  2. Touch and hold the archived post you want to unarchive and tap Show on profile. The post itself, along with all of its previous comments and likes, should return to its original spot on your Instagram profile. Alternatively, you can tap the archived post and then tap the three dots icon > Show on profile.
Unarchive Instagram post

Delete the archived post

You can tap the three dots icon for an archived post and tap Delete to remove it permanently from your Instagram profile. After deleting, you cannot see or retrieve this post.

Save Instagram stories and live videos to archive

For stories, you don’t have to manually move them to your archive. With a simple setting, your stories will automatically move to the archive once they disappear from your profile.

Similar to stories, you can move your live broadcasts to the archive automatically as well.

  1. Tap the menu icon on your Instagram profile screen and choose Settings and privacy > Archiving and downloading.
  2. Turn on the switch for “Save story to archive” and “Save live to archive.”
Save story to archive and Save live to archive on Instagram

Note:

  • If you delete a story before it disappears, it will not be saved to your archive, even with this setting enabled.
  • You cannot see a live broadcast in the archive until after it ends. And live broadcasts are only available in the archive for 30 days.

Share or delete your archived stories and live videos

  1. Go to your Instagram profile screen and tap the menu button, followed by Archive.
  2. Tap the menu option from the top and choose Live archive or Stories archive.
  3. Tap the story or live video you want to share or delete.
  4. Now tap the share option or the delete button. For stories, tap the three dots More icon to see the delete option.
Share or delete archives stories on Instagram

Note: When you delete an archived story, this deletes it from any place else you’ve shared it on Instagram, including Highlights.

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