How to Recover Disappearing Photos from Instagram on Computer?

Eleanor Reed

Dec 16, 2024 • Filed to: Photo/Video/Audio Solutions • Proven solutions

A common challenge that many people face is how to recover deleted photos on Instagram or recover disappearing Instagram photos on a computer. What if you accidentally delete your photos, can you recover them?

Part 1. What Are Disappearing Photos and Videos on Instagram?

Instagram introduced a technology where you send a photo and it disappears after the person you’ve sent it to views it once. This brought a new dimension as it gives you more control, tempts most people to share precious photos, and allows businesses to connect in real-time with their customers through live-videos.

To send a photo or video that disappears after viewing it for once, you need to take a picture with Instagram Direct camera and select one view button. You can also choose to make the photo viewable for about 24 hours, or even keep it in the chat for quite long. Even better, you can send disappearing photos to individual friends or a group. But these photos disappear from their inboxes once they view them.

On the other hand, you also can have disappearing photos and videos on Instagram because they simply got lost or you accidentally deleted them. Thankfully, there are solutions you can use to recover deleted photos and videos on Instagram.

Can You Recover Disappearing Photos on Instagram?

It’s possible to see disappearing photos on Instagram Direct that you’ve sent. You can do this by tapping the icon which is located in the right part of the Feed and then tap the conversation. But once you send these photos, you cannot view or recover them.

The undeniable advantage of Instagram is that you can filter, edit, and save photos to your device. You can save these photos as drafts and upload them from the corresponding folder. In this case, it’s possible to recover disappearing pictures on Instagram.

Part 2. How to View Disappearing Photos on Instagram Again?

After knowing the basic reasons for disappearing photos and videos on Instagram, let's jump into the solutions.

Solutions to Recover Disappearing Photos on Instagram

From time to time, you might delete some Instagram photos from your account accidentally and it becomes a huge challenge to recover them. Aside from deleting the photos by mistake, you can also experience disappearing photos if you disable your Instagram account and reactivate it soon after posting the picture.

Bugs in your Instagram app can also be a culprit that can cause disappearing photos. You see, a bug refers to a system that usually causes serious problems including erasing media data like photos.

The good news is that you can retrieve your disappeared pictures using either Instagram solutions or other computer options.

Solution 1: Check the Photo Albums

How to view disappearing photos on Instagram again is pretty easy. If you deleted Instagram photos, you can look for them on your mobile device. After all, there is always a backup of Instagram photos in your device from where you can recover lost or deleted Instagram photos. Hence, check the Camera Roll, phone’s gallery, downloads folder, or any other location where you normally save photos.

If you use an Android, do the following for Instagram photo recovery:

1. Go to the My Files and select Pictures.

2. In the Pictures, choose the Instagram folder. Here, you will find the lost or deleted Instagram photo files and restore them.

But if you use an iPhone and iPad, then take the below steps:

1. Launch the Photos app from the Home screen.
2. Tap on the Albums and go to the Recently Deleted to search for the photos.

3. Once you find the photos, select Recover to restore the deleted or lost Instagram photos.

Solution 2: Check Archived Chats

If you are wondering how to recover disappearing photos on Instagram DM, checking the archived chats can be a good way. Archived Chats on Instagram allows you to clean up your chat list without deleting messages. It's a useful place to check if you think you've lost access to certain conversations or media, like photos. However, you can only recover deleted photos on Instagram if you archived them before the deletion.

Simply put, the Instagram Archive is a temporary storage of your images, which you can use to recover lost or deleted photos. These steps will show you how to recover Instagram photos:

1. Log in to your Instagram account and go to the account page. Tap the messenger icon (paper plane symbol) in the top-right corner of your Instagram home screen. This opens your Direct Messages.

2. Look for a "hamburger menu" (three horizontal lines) or a similar icon at the top of your screen in the messages section. Tap on this icon.
3. If you don't see such an icon, look for a label saying "Archived" or a dropdown arrow next to the word "Chats" at the top of the screen. The location and icon might vary slightly depending on the version of the app.
4. In the menu that opens, select "Archived Chats," "Archived," or a similar option. This will take you to a list of conversations that you've archived.
5. Scroll through the archived conversations to find the chat where the missing photos were shared. If you find the conversation, open it to check for the photos.

Solution 3: Use Google Account to Recover Photos

Many mobile device users like Android users utilize Google Photos to store their pictures. Therefore, it makes sense to look for a backup copy saved in the cloud. For this solution, you need to:

1. Use your account and go to Google Photos.

2. Check what is in the published albums.
3. Examine the recycle bin if it has any of the deleted photos you shared on your Instagram.

Solution 4: Use Internet Archive

If you deleted your photos by mistake or your Instagram was hacked, you may have the unfortunate dilemma of trying to figure out how to recover photos from Instagram.

Well, the Internet Archive is another great way you can use to check the previous version of your site and retrieve any valuable photos. The Internet Archive tends to take periodic snapshots of various websites across the internet. Therefore, you might be lucky to find some copies of your disappeared photos.

To use this method to retrieve deleted Instagram photos, do the following:

1. Use this link https://web.archive.org/ to get to the main page.

2. Write your Instagram account address in the dialogue box.
3. Select the date in the calendar of the photo you want to view.
4. Right-click and save the photos you want to recover to any location on your computer.

Solution 5: Use Recoverit Data Recovery

The most reliable solution to restore your deleted Instagram photos is to use Recoverit Data Recovery software. This is the best photo recovery tool that allows you to restore lost multimedia files from any storage device. Because it’s available online and easy to use, you can recover various photo formats, such as PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, and PSD. Moreover, it supports different scenarios of photo loss while repairing lost or deleted photo files from different storage devices, like SD cards, and Windows OS and Mac computer hard drive.

Recoverit is known for having an advanced file recovery system that gives you peace of mind knowing that it always restores data files with the highest quality. That said, here are the steps you can use to recover deleted or lost Instagram photos:

Step 1: Select the Photo Storage Location

Download and install Recoverit Data Recovery software on your Windows or Mac computer.

Then choose the location where the deleted or lost photos were last stored and click the Start button to begin the recovery process.

Step 2: Scan to Find Deleted or Lost Photos

The Recoverit will start scanning the location to find your lost photos.

Remember that this is an All-Round Recovery. Besides, the size of the file will determine the length of the scanning process.

Step 3: Recover Deleted or Lost Photos

Once the scanning process is complete, the software allows you to preview the restored photos. If you are satisfied with the recovered photos, you can decide to recover and store them in the location of your choice.

However, don’t save the restored photos in the same location from which they got deleted or lost. You can click on the Recover to get back your deleted or lost Instagram photos.

As you can see, Recoverit Data Recovery software Intuitive and user-friendly interface. Above all, there are no limitations on the size of data files for repair and you can recover any number of lost or deleted photo files. Therefore, if your Instagram photos are deleted or lost from an Android phone, computer, hard disk, flash drive, or any other storage device, you will be in safe hands using this Instagram photo recovery tool.

Part 3. Video Tutorial on How to Recover Deleted Photos on Instagram

Here is a video we prepared for you that teaches you how to recover deleted Instagram photos easily. Take a look! You can explore more from Wondershare Video Community.

Recent Videos from Recoverit

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Now you've learned the solutions to recover deleted Instagram photos, here is some further information to cover the topic more thoroughly. Keep on reading!

Part 4. Tips for Instagram and Computer Photo Recovery

If you logged into your Instagram account and noticed that your photos are lost or have disappeared, it can be exasperating. Fortunately, using the above solutions you can recover them. Even better, you can use the following tips for Instagram and computer photo recovery:

• Check in the Gallery of Your App:
  You can look in your phone’s gallery. Mind you, when you use an Android device to upload a picture on Instagram, it usually saves a copy of the picture in your gallery which is in the Instagram folder. Similarly, you can do the same for iOS, where you can check in your Photos App, the Instagram folder might keep the backup of your media files.
• Check in the File Manager:
  For an Android device, you can find deleted Instagram photos by opening the File Manager. On the other hand, with iOS, you can look out for photos in the Recently Deleted folder.
• Search in Google Photos:
  When you take a photo and share it via Instagram, Google Photos backs them up. Therefore, you can check for deleted photos in Google Photos.
• Recover Deleted Photos from Recycle Bin:
  As you might be aware, if you delete any file by mistake, this file might be moved into Recycle Bin. Hence, you can restore deleted photos by retrieving them from the Recycle Bin.
• Use a Photo Recovery Tool:
  When it comes to accidental deletion or formatting of photos, your best bet is to use reliable photo recovery software to restore your lost files. The software is ideal if you lose photos due to problems with the file system of the hard drive, memory card, or other USB media storage devices.

Closing Words

The sad part of losing Instagram or computer photos is that you can lose your precious memories. The bottom line is that if your photos on Instagram or computer disappear due to accidental deletion regardless of the circumstances, you can recover them using the above solutions. Because time is of the essence, you need to use an easier and safer recovery tool. This is where Recoverit Data Recovery software comes in handy. You see, this tool is designed to recover all your disappeared photos and is risk-free.