Your Guide to Deleting Your Instagram Accounts

Social media has a finite lifespan on the Internet. For every success story like Facebook or Snapchat, there are doomed digital water coolers like Myspace and Vine, the latter of which is being killed off by Twitter, who owns the company.

Likewise, your accounts on social media may only have a finite lifespan as you find new ways to keep in touch with family and friends. Still, even if you can’t remember the last time you used Myspace (if you ever had it) or Tumblr, this doesn’t mean that the accounts themselves are gone as well.

Read More: Do Social Networks Respect Your Privacy?

Abandoned social media accounts can be problematic in this sense, as personal information may still be accessible on those sites in the form of posts, interactions with other people on the sites, and even old login information. Even if you don’t mind strangers browsing the internet to stumble on your music interests and hobbies circa 2006, the fact that your neglected social pages are a gateway that hackers and cybercriminals can use to track down and compromise your other digital properties, like emails, bank accounts, and other social pages, should strike you as troubling. Hence, it is important to ensure that a social media account is completely deleted to the best of your ability before moving on.

Here, we’ll talk about how to scrub away the Amaro and Valencia filters, and how you can amicably part ways with your Instagram.

The Process
As you would when deleting any other account online, your first step is to go onto Instagram on a computer or smartphone using the account you want to get rid of.

Next, click on the “Edit Profile” located next to your username, and scroll down. At the bottom, in lieu of a permanent “Delete My Account” button, you’ll be met with a more tepid “I want to temporarily disable my account” button.

Here is where things get somewhat trickier. Since Instagram doesn’t provide you with a way to completely erase any trace of your account on the platform in the form of comments, likes, photos, and direct messages, you may wish to remove all of these yourself manually. Depending on how often you’ve used the account in question, this could be a rather short and simple process, or one that would take weeks to realize. Assuming your account would require the latter, it isn’t necessary unless you don’t fully trust Instagram will keep your information filed even after erasure.

In any event, after you select the “temporary disable” button, you’ll be given further options for permanently deleting your account. All you need to do is follow this link while you’re still logged in, fill out the fields saying why you’ve decided to delete, and presto! Just keep in mind, however, that you can only delete your account while logged in to a computer or a laptop — you will only receive the “temporary disable” prompt if you’re on mobile.

If you ever decide you have buyer’s remorse and want your account restored, have no fear! The username will still be available, although your photos will be wiped if you decide to return.