Instagram automatically saves every post onto your camera roll, which can deplete the space on your phone. Luckily, there are ways to stop this from happening.
If you want to stop Instagram from saving every photo you post onto your camera roll, you can either disable that function from your Instagram account or your phone settings.
You can disable this function for edited photos posted from your camera roll, photos taken from Instagram’s feed camera, or videos.
How to Disable Save Original Posts on Your Instagram Account
When you edit a photo and post it on Instagram, it will automatically get saved to your phone, but you can disable this feature. This works whether you have an Android or iPhone:
- Open Instagram.
- Tap your profile picture on the bottom right corner of your screen to go to your account.
- Tap the 3 horizontal lines at the top right corner of your screen.
- Tap “settings” on the pop-up menu.
- Tap “account.”
- Tap “original posts,” which is near the bottom of the list of options.
- Tap the second option that says “save posted photos”.
How to Stop Instagram from Saving Pictures Taken with Instagram’s Camera
Instagram will save photos and videos taken with Instagram’s feed camera, not just those taken from your phone’s native camera.
To disable this on Android, follow the same steps as above. Once you get to “original posts” tap to turn off the first option instead of the second where it says “save original posts”.
If you have an iPhone, you’ll need to take an extra step, because even if you never post the pictures, iPhone will save them for you. To disable this feature, follow these steps:
- Go to your general settings.
- Select “Privacy.”
- Select “Photos.”
- Find the Instagram app.
- Select “Photos.”
- Tap “Never.”
This will not only stop images from being saved to your phone, but it will also stop Instagram from having access to the photos on your phone as well. That means that if you want to upload a picture from your camera roll to Instagram, you won’t be able to unless you turn permissions back on.
How to Delete Your Instagram Album on iPhone
If you have an iPhone and you block Instagram from having access to your photos, disabling this feature won’t hinder your experience on the app, so long as you don’t upload pictures. However, things get a little tricky when you do want to upload something.
You would have to enable the feature again, but doing so will allow Instagram to save photos and videos taken with Instagram’s feed camera. Depending on how often you use Instagram, disabling and enabling this feature will be a constant back and forth.
So, instead of disabling the feature every so often, keep it enabled and simply erase the saved photos and videos from your Instagram album. Deleting the contents on the album takes less time than disabling and enabling Instagram’s access to your camera roll. Here’s how to do it:
- Open the “Photos” app on your iPhone.
- Tap “Albums” on the bottom of your screen.
- Tap “Select” on the top right corner of your screen.
- Tap the “Instagram” album.
- Select “Delete All” on the bottom left corner of your screen.
- Tap “Confirm.”
How to Stop Instagram from Saving Videos to Your Phone
You can stop Instagram from saving posted videos on your phone by following these steps:
- Open Instagram.
- Tap your profile picture on the bottom right corner of your screen to go to your account.
- Tap the 3 horizontal lines at the top right corner of your screen.
- Tap “settings” on the pop-up menu.
- Tap “account.”
- Tap “original posts,” which is near the bottom of the list of options.
- Tap the third option that says “save posted videos”.
Conclusion
By default, Instagram saves pictures and videos you upload to your phone’s gallery. This can be very annoying, because it takes up a lot of space on your phone and you have to manually delete all the content.
You can disable this function easily on the app, but if you have an iPhone and regularly post on Instagram, things can get a little tedious. Thankfully, the steps you need to take to disable annoying functions or photo albums take less than five minutes whether you have an Android phone or iPhone.
