How to Unarchive Instagram Posts, Stories and Lives

What happens when a post is archived

Archiving hides a post from your profile, your followers and everyone else on Instagram, but it doesn't delete anything. The post keeps its likes, comments and caption, and when you bring it back it slots into its original date position on your grid instead of appearing as a new upload.

Instagram keeps three separate archives:

• Posts archive: photos, carousels and reels you archived manually.
• Stories archive: every Story you share is saved here automatically after 24 hours, as long as the archive setting is on.
• Live archive: live broadcasts saved after they end, if Live archiving is on.

Each one works a little differently, so the steps below are split by type.

How to unarchive a post on iPhone and Android

The steps are the same on both phones. Instagram currently shows two routes to the archive depending on your app version, so use whichever matches your screen.

1. Tap Profile or your profile picture in the bottom right.
2. Tap Menu (three lines) in the top right.
3. Below How you use Instagram, tap Archive. If you don't see it there, tap Your activity, then below Removed and archived content tap Archived.
4. Tap Stories archive at the top of the screen, then switch to Posts archive.
5. Tap the post you want back.
6. Tap Options (three dots) in the top right, then tap Show on profile.
7. On Android, confirm by tapping Show on profile again.

The post is live on your grid straight away. If you're reviving an older post, it's a good moment to check its caption and tags against current rules, because Instagram now caps how many hashtags count; our guide on how many hashtags to use explains the limit. For a restored holiday shot, a focused set from our travel hashtags or photography hashtags pages is a quick swap.

How to unarchive several posts

Instagram's bulk tools in Your activity let you archive or delete many posts at once, but its Help Center only documents unarchiving one post at a time. Repeat the steps above for each post you want to restore.

How to unarchive a post on a computer

Instagram's Help Center gives archive and unarchive steps for the iPhone and Android apps only, with no instructions for instagram.com. If you don't see Archive in a post's options or in the menu on your browser, open the Instagram app on your phone and follow the steps above. The change syncs to the web version immediately.

How to bring back an archived Story

Stories don't have a Show on profile option, because a Story is designed to disappear after 24 hours. You have three ways to reuse one from your archive.

Reshare it to your Story

1. Go to your profile and tap Menu.
2. Tap Archive (or Your activity > Archived). The Stories archive opens by default.
3. Tap the Story you want.
4. Tap Share at the bottom.
5. Choose Your story, or pick people to send it to in a chat, and follow the prompts.

The reshared Story is treated as a new Story and disappears after another 24 hours. For ideas on refreshing old Stories with new stickers and layouts, see our Instagram Story tips.

Add it to a Highlight

Highlights keep Stories visible on your profile until you remove them, which is the closest thing to "unarchiving" a Story.

1. On your profile, tap New below your bio. If you don't see New, tap Story highlight.
2. Select one or more Stories from your archive and tap Next.
3. Tap Edit cover, choose a cover and name the Highlight, then tap Add.

To add a Story to an existing Highlight, press and hold the Highlight and tap Edit highlight.

Save it to your phone

Open the Story from your archive, tap Options in the bottom right, then tap Save photo or Save video. Our guide to downloading your Instagram Stories covers the other ways to keep a copy.

Make sure new Stories are being archived

If your Stories archive is empty, the archive setting may be off, and Stories shared while it was off are gone after 24 hours.

• On iPhone and Android: Go to Menu > Your activity > Archived, tap Options in the top right, tap Settings, and turn on Save story to archive.
• On a computer: Click More in the bottom left, click Settings, then under Your app and media click Archiving and downloading and turn on Save story to archive.

How to find and reshare a Live video

Live broadcasts saved to your Live archive can be shared again as a reel.

1. Go to your profile, tap Menu, then tap Archive.
2. Tap Stories archive at the top, then tap Live archive.
3. Tap the broadcast you want.
4. Tap Share at the bottom. This opens the reel publishing screen.
5. Add a caption or tags, then tap Share.

To stop saving Lives, tap Create > Live, open Settings, tap Live and turn off Save Live to Archive. Planning your next broadcast? Our Instagram Live tips cover setup and promotion.

Archive, delete or Recently deleted?

If you're weighing up whether to hide a post or remove it for good, our guide on deleting an Instagram post walks through both options.

Troubleshooting

• The post isn't in your Posts archive. It may have been deleted rather than archived. Check Menu > Your activity > Recently deleted; items stay there for 30 days.
• There's no Archive option at all. Instagram notes that Stories Archive and Highlights aren't available for every account. Update the Instagram app and check again.
• The post came back in the "wrong" place. That's expected. Unarchived posts return to their original date slot, so an old post won't appear at the top of your grid. If you want it seen, share it to your Story after restoring it.
• Music is missing from a restored Story. This is the storage change described above and can't be reversed.