How to Download Your Instagram Data
Short answer: Use Meta's Accounts Center to create an export of your Instagram account. Set the date range to All time and the format to JSON before you start, or you'll only get the last year. Exports often arrive within minutes to a few hours.
Step by step
- Open the Meta Accounts Center. In the left menu, click Your information and permissions, then Export your information.
- Click the blue Create export button.
- On Choose a profile, pick your Instagram account. If you have more than one Instagram account, pick the personal one, then repeat these steps for any others.
- On Choose where to export, click Export to device.
- On Confirm your export, click Customize information and keep only Personal information (your bio is stored there) and, under Your Instagram activity, your posts, Reels, comments, and likes. This step is optional, but it makes the download much smaller.
- Still on that screen, set Date range to All time, Format to JSON, and Media quality to Low (smaller download, the scan only reads text).
- Click Start export. Meta notifies you when it’s ready.
- Go back to Export your information and click Download next to your profile. You have 4 days before it expires.
Meta defaults to Last year and HTML. Change both before you click Start export, otherwise your export only covers one year.
Why download it before a job search
The export includes your posts, your comments on other people's posts, and every post you've liked. If you like posts often, likes can easily outnumber everything else in your Instagram history.
Some screening vendors publicly describe social media lookbacks of up to seven years, so PruneSocial uses a seven-year review window for eligible dated activity. Actual employer and screening-provider practices can vary. Your own export is the most complete way to see what's there. See the sources and methodology.
What's in the file that matters
You don't need to unzip anything or dig through folders. The scan reads: posts_1, reels, liked_posts, post_comments_1, reels_comments, and your bio. Everything else in the export, including photos and messages, stays on your computer.
Can’t find the ZIP on your phone, or the scanner can’t read it? See fixes for common export problems.
Check your Instagram history when your export arrives
Not requested yet? Start with the export checklist. Drop the ZIP into PruneSocial and your posts, comments, and likes from the last seven years are scored against published screening categories, with a recommended fix for anything flagged.