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Most of us have an Instagram account these days. Instagram is definitely one of the most popular social media networks out there, but just like everything else, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
Whether you are trying to have a detox from social media, or you're trying to get off social media forever this article is going to tell you everything you need to know when it comes to deactivating an Instagram account temporarily, so that you can maintain control of your Instagram profile, and decide when you want to get on it again.
How to Deactivate Your Instagram Account
If you choose to delete your Instagram account, this is permanent. However, Instagram has another option, where you are able to temporarily disable your account.
If you do this, you're still going to be able to recover your profile, as well as all of the content that you have posted. Deactivating your Instagram account is an easy way to either just take a short break from social media or take the time that you might need to decide if you actually want to let your Instagram profile go forever.
The good news is that this process is straightforward. However, you aren't going to be able to do it within the Instagram app. You will need to log into your account through your desktop, and you will also need to make sure that you have your login credentials handy.
Let's take a look at how to deactivate your Instagram account.
1. Open Instagram on your desktop
2. Log into your account
3. Select your profile image that will be at the top of your page
4. Choose ‘edit profile’
5. Choose an option to explain why you are disabling your profile
6. Enter your password again
7. Select ‘temporarily disable my account’
When you deactivate your Instagram account, you are going to be able to hide all of your content from your followers. Nobody is going to be able to see your profile, and its content, until you decide to reactivate your profile.
How Long Can You Deactivate Your Profile for?
The good news is that you are able to deactivate your Instagram account for as long as you want to.
This also means that you are able to reactivate it at any point, by simply logging back into your profile.
However, there is currently one restriction on this feature.
Currently, you are only able to disable your profile once a week.
This means that if you disable and deactivate your profile, but then you log back in, and decide you want to deactivate it again, then you will need to wait a week in order to do this.
Will You Lose Followers When You Deactivate Your Account?
Because Instagram is really good at storing your account data when you temporarily disable your profile, it is going to restore it to where it was when you disabled it, which means that you aren't going to lose any followers.
Your profile is going to disappear everywhere on the Instagram platform, including in the lists of people that you follow.
This means that people aren't going to be able to unfollow you while your profile is hidden, because they aren't going to be able to access your profile.
Deleting Your Instagram Account
If you are somebody who has already deactivated your Instagram account, or you have simply deleted the app from your phone, but you have decided that you want to delete your account permanently, this approach is also pretty simple.
Just remember that it is completely permanent, which means you can't take it back. Just like deactivating your Instagram profile, you aren't going to be able to delete your Instagram profile from the app.
1. Go to your web browser and log into Instagram
2. Find the ‘delete your account’ page
3. Choose an option that explains why you are deleting your account
4. Enter your password
5. Select ‘permanently delete my account
What Happens When You Deactivate Your Instagram Profile?
You might be wondering what happens when you deactivate your Instagram profile. When you deactivate your Instagram profile, this means that you are disabling it temporarily.
This means all of your comments, photos, likes, and your account is going to be hidden from your followers and the public, but they aren't going to disappear forever. Your profile is going to stay hidden until you decide to reactivate it.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are distinct differences between deactivating your Instagram profile, and deleting it forever.
If you have never done either, then you will definitely want to start by deactivating your Instagram profile until you are sure that you definitely want to delete your Instagram profile forever.
Or, perhaps you just want to be able to temporarily disable your Instagram profile, so that you can go on a week-long social media detox or you can get away from those pesky comments that might be annoying you.
Whatever your reason, now you know how to deactivate your Instagram profile, and now you know that it is a temporary solution, that allows you to avoid deleting your Instagram profile forever.