Instagram is the fourth biggest social media platform in the world that serves users from different parts of the world. It is a place where people, brands, and companies can share their stories through images. The reason why Instagram has managed to become one of the top social media platforms is that it has some strict rules that every user must follow. This has helped its creators with keeping the platform clean. And today, we are going to talk about does Instagram delete inactive accounts or not.
Does Instagram Delete Inactive Accounts?
The short answer is yes, Instagram will delete inactive accounts. While Instagram hasn’t mentioned how long an account needs to be inactive for it to get deleted, the platform mostly deletes accounts that have been inactive for a year or two.
Why Should You Create An Account on Instagram?
As mentioned earlier, Instagram is a popular social media platform that lets you post pictures of anything you like, as long as it’s not against the rules. Around 2 billion people use this platform to share their stories. If you’re someone who likes to socialize a lot or want to promote your brand, we recommend that you create an account on Instagram.
Brands these days are utilizing Instagram to promote their brand to different parts of the world. The platform lets you advertise your post, and you can target a specific audience, gender, age group, location, and much more. Therefore, if you want to grow your brand, you need to get it on Instagram.
When Will My Account on Instagram Get Considered Inactive?
Instagram will delete any account that has remained inactive for a year or two. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an individual or a brand running the account. If you haven’t used it for the mentioned time, your account will remain at risk of getting deleted.
A big misconception about an inactive account is that people think Instagram might consider their account inactive if they don’t post regularly. However, this is not the case at all. If a person even logs into their account in a while and like a picture or two, Instagram does not consider it an inactive account. For an account to be considered inactive, it must not have made any activity in the past year or two.
Therefore, if you’re someone who uses their account after a few months, you don’t have to worry about your account getting deleted. But if you have an account that you made years ago but still haven’t logged into it yet, chances are that it has already been deleted or is about to.
How Can I Prevent My Instagram Account From Becoming Inactive?
As discussed above, if an account has not done any activity for a year or two, it is considered inactive. Therefore, if you don’t want your account to get deleted, make sure to do the things we’ve mentioned below.
Log In To Your Account On in A While
I get it, not everyone can keep on using social media for a long period of time. Some people often decide to take a break, while others just leave it and don’t plan on using it anymore. But if you have an account that is either filled with memories or is linked to your brand, chances are that you might need it at some point in the future. Therefore, to prevent it from getting deleted, make sure to log in to it once in a while. You don’t have to do this every month, as logging in once every two to three months will do the job as well.
Connect Your Instagram Account to your Facebook Account
Instagram is owned by Meta, the very company that owns Facebook. A lot of people don’t know that there exists an option, thanks to which you can link your Instagram account with your Facebook account. Once done, you can enable an option that lets you share whatever you post on Facebook on your Instagram account. We recommend you turn this feature on as this way, your Instagram account will remain active even if you only use Facebook.
Keep Your Account Public
If you don’t have an Instagram account that has private pictures, it is recommended that you keep your account public. If you have an account for your brand, then it will be obvious to keep it public anyway. This way, if you have pictures on your account, chances are that someone might eventually land on your account and like a picture or two. Thanks to this, your Instagram account won’t be considered inactive.
What Reasons Can Lead To An Instagram Account Getting Deleted?
While inactivity is something that can lead to your account getting deleted, it isn’t something big. While an inactive account will get deleted after a year or two, there are reasons that can get your account deleted instantly. It is important to know about all of them if you’re someone who can’t afford to lose their account.
Using Hate Speech
All social media platforms in the world don’t allow their users to use hate speech, and Instagram isn’t any different as well. There are certain rules that you need to follow while discussing things, and this includes not targetting any race, gender, religion, or organization. If you use hate speech and someone reports your comment or picture, Instagram will waste no time in deleting your account.
Harassment
Social media platforms are amazing and all, but they have their dark side as well. A lot of users complain about receiving death threats from random accounts, and some even send them content they don’t want to see. Thankfully, Instagram has a strict policy for this as well. If any user is caught harassing another user on the platform, their account will get deleted permanently.
Posting Content That Contains Nudity
Instagram allows models to post their pictures to grow their accounts and reach, but it forbids them from posting anything that might contain nudity. This is done to keep the platform clean and a place where the content can be comfortable for everyone. Posting content that contains nudity can get reported quickly by other users, and this can result in the account getting deleted.
Spamming
If you visit the comment section of a popular post on Instagram, you’ll see that there are many accounts that are either promoting their business or are posting links to different websites. Or, you might receive a random DM from an account that might ask you to follow their page. These accounts message everyone they see and comment on every post that comes in front of them. However, what they don’t realize is that this so-called marketing technique is considered spamming, which is against Instagram’s rules.
Using Third-Party Applications To Increase Followers
The more followers a brand has on Instagram, the more trust people have in it. Even when individuals have lots of followers, they are considered social media influencers. While there is nothing wrong with it, a lot of people often use third-party applications to increase their followers. This is also against the rules as it falls in the category of deceiving people by getting fake followers. The same applies to buying followers from different websites. If anyone is caught doing this, their account will get deleted from the platform.
Underage Accounts
Kids these days are growing up with technology, and it is only obvious that most of them know about all of the major social media platforms. However, as social media contains content that can be sensitive or negative for young kids, Instagram has a strict policy of not allowing anyone who is below the age of 13 to create an account. If anyone under 13 is caught using an account, their account will be deleted.
Hacking Other Accounts
Hackers these days have spread to almost every major platform, including Instagram. These hackers use their accounts to get into the account of someone else by using different strategies. Their most common strategy is to send someone a DM with a message saying, “Open this link to get $100,” and when someone does click the link, their account information, including their password, gets sent to the hacker. This is strictly against the rule, and Instagram will permanently delete the account that is caught in such acts.
Is It Possible To Recover A Deleted Instagram Account?
An Instagram account can either be deleted by you or by the platform itself. There isn’t any third way for the account to get deleted. Therefore, if you deleted the account yourself, there isn’t any way to bring it back. Once it’s gone, there is no way to restore it.
On the other hand, if Instagram deletes your account because of a violation, there is a chance to recover it. However, the chances for this to happen are low, as Instagram is pretty strict with those who break the rules. Furthermore, the chances of recovery will depend upon the type of violation. For instance, if your account was deleted because of inactivity, the chances of it getting restored are high compared to if your account was deleted because you were buying fake followers or harassing others.
If you think your Instagram account was deleted for the wrong reasons, you first need to gather all the evidence that supports your statement and then contact Instagram either via email or live chat. Then, you can talk to them about how your account was wrongly removed from the platform and why you need it back. If Instagram thinks you’re telling the truth, they will give you your account back. But if they find something fishy in your statement or evidence, you can say goodbye to your account forever. There are times when you’re telling the truth, but Instagram thinks you aren’t. In this case, you can’t do anything.
Will Instagram Warn Me Before Deleting My Account?
A few years back, Instagram used to delete accounts without issuing a warning. If they caught any user violating the rules, they would remove their account from the platform without sending any warning. This prevented people from finding out why their account was deleted.
Thankfully, Instagram now sends a warning before deleting an account. If you have violated any rules with your account, you will receive an email from Instagram. They will either ask you to take some measures to prevent the account from getting deleted or will inform you why they deleted your account. If you receive the former, you must act immediately and fix the problem to save your account from getting deleted. For instance, if you post a picture that contains nudity, Instagram might email you and ask you to remove the picture.
Is Getting Banned On Instagram the Same As Getting Deleted?
There are times when your Instagram account will get either permanently banned or temporarily banned from the platform. This also happens when you violate a specific rule. However, getting banned on Instagram isn’t the same as getting deleted. While deleted accounts can not be recovered so easily, banned accounts can be.
In most cases, when the ban is temporary, the account gets restored in a few days without contacting the Instagram support team. But if the ban is permanent, contacting Instagram support can help recover the account. And for those wondering, getting the account deleted is worst than getting the account banned.
Is It Possible To Use The Username of Inactive Accounts?
While inactive accounts aren’t considered something valuable to Instagram, you still can’t use their username. As long as you can see the profile on Instagram, you can not use its username. Your only option is to wait for Instagram to delete the account, after which you will be able to pick up the username.
If you think an account is inactive and you badly want its username, you can try getting their account reported. There are a few things that can help you find out whether the account is inactive or not. First, check if there is a profile picture or not. Then, see if the account has made any posts or not. If there are posts, check when the last one was made. If it was months or years ago, you can report the account to Instagram and wait for your report to get approved. If it does, you can go ahead and grab the username for your new account.
However, keep in mind that if the account was deleted for a violation other than inactivity, chances are that the username was also banned from the platform. This is done to make sure that the user does not create another account using the same username after getting their account deleted. If this is the case, you’ll see a message saying “username not available” whenever you’ll try to create an account for it.
Wrapping Up
This was everything you needed to know about whether Instagram deletes inactive accounts or not. As you can see, inactivity is one of the many reasons why an account can get deleted. However, since it isn’t considered a major violation, you can get your account restored if it was deleted because of inactivity. But if your account was deleted because of some other violations, the chances for you to recover it are close to zero.
