If you’re not trying to be a consumer on Instagram but would instead like to publish a lot of content on the regular, chances are you always find the application auto-saving those pictures you upload especially the ones you edit back to your phone’s gallery and that can be annoying considering the unnecessary storage wastage and the stress of having to manually remove these images.
Well, if that’s the current issue you’re battling with the use of Instagram, don’t give up just yet because the guys at the company probably heard your cry in 2020. There is a simple guide that will get this done but do note that this will not auto-remove images that have been automatically saved in the past especially the ones saved before changing the default setting.
Disabling the auto-save edited pictures/videos on Instagram
There are two ways you take and post photos on Instagram:
- The first one is the fact that you’re able to take a picture/video using your native camera application or third-party camera app for that matter and then share it on Instagram. When you do this, the original image will be kept but you can either choose to save the edited or not.
- You directly take your picture/video straight from Instagram’s camera application and then edit it right there. The disadvantage of this approach is that you get a lesser quality output but if you don’t mind, your edited picture/video can either be saved or discarded depending on your choice.
Disable Autosaving pictures on Instagram for Android
Time needed: 5 minutes.
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This simple guide will help you stop Instagram from auto-saving original photos and videos on your Android smartphones
- Visit your Instagram profile
Navigate to your profile by clicking on your profile avatar at the bottom right corner of the screen
- Then go to the settings area of your account
When you’re in that interface, click on the hamburger menu at the top right corner to open the settings area which is located at the bottom with the label “Settings”.
- Quickly search for “Original Posts” in the search interface
Quickly search for “Original Posts” from the search box at the top of the Settings page.
- Toggle-off the “Original Posts” options that you want from the page
Disable the “Save Original Post” toggle or you can toggle individual options you want such as “Save Posted Photos” or “Save Posted Videos”
- Remember, if you take your photos with your native camera app on your phone and share them on Instagram, the original photo is always in your camera roll.
- If you turn off Save posted photos and Save posted videos: photos and videos you post on Instagram will not be saved on your Android device’s camera roll.
Disable Autosaving pictures on Instagram for iOS
Just as stated above (in the Android tutorial), navigate to your profile by clicking on your Avatar at the bottom right and then navigate to the settings area and look for “Save Original Photos” and toggle off the “Save Original” feature.
When you turn off Save Original Photos, photos you take with your Instagram app’s camera will not be saved on your iPhone’s camera roll anymore.
However, once you post it, that version will still be saved on the camera roll which means there is more to it. Next, you should head to your iPhone’s General Settings and then go to Instagram and select Photos.
From the interface, you can decide on what you want to be saved on your device.
- If you select “Never”, this will disable Instagram’s ability to read and write from your camera roll. With that, the application will not save posted photos to your camera roll any longer. If you use the Instagram app’s camera and don’t want to save any photos, this is your option.
- If you want to use your phone’s native camera app and post photos to Instagram from there, then you need to select Read and Write. But then be aware that both original and posted photos will again be saved on your camera roll.
