How to export your data from Instagram

Requesting the GDPR export, what arrives, and how to open it.

easy Wait: minutes to a few days depending on size

Instagram is required to give you a copy of the data it holds about you, including photos, videos, messages and posts and social activity. The request itself is free, and arrives as .zip containing JSON or HTML files and media. Typical wait: minutes to a few days depending on size.

Meta Accounts Center - Download your information

Step by step

Every screenshot below is from Instagram's own pages on 30 July 2026.

  1. Open Download your information

    In the Instagram app or on the web, go to Accounts Center, then Your information and permissions, then Download your information.

    Meta Accounts Centre 'Export your information' dialog with a Create export button, and a note that the export excludes information other people shared.
    The export lives in Meta's Accounts Centre now, not in Instagram's own settings. Note what it says: photos other people posted that you are tagged in are not included, because they are not yours.

  2. Choose the Instagram profile

    Select the Instagram account whose data you want to export.

  3. Select information and range

    Choose which categories to include (posts, stories, messages, and more) and pick "All time" for everything.

  4. Pick format and quality

    Choose JSON for machine-readable data (best for Muletto) and set media quality to high.

  5. Create the file and wait

    Submit the request. Meta prepares your download and notifies you when it is ready.

    The same dialog after requesting, showing the request listed as 'Export to device, Once, JSON' with the date it was requested.
    Once submitted it appears under Current activity with the settings you chose, so you can check you actually asked for JSON.

  6. Download the file

    Download every part before the link expires and keep the files together.

Opening your Instagram export

Muletto reads an Instagram export directly - the zip, without unpacking it first - and finds the photos, videos and messages inside.

It runs in the browser: the archive is never uploaded, there is no account, and nothing is installed. Open several exports at once and they become one library, with the photographs that appear in more than one of them found automatically.

Meta gives you four days to download once the export is ready, not the week Google allows. The confirmation screen says so and the notification does not repeat it.

Open your Instagram export

Worth knowing

Meta gives you four days to download once the export is ready, not the week Google allows. The confirmation screen says so and the notification does not repeat it.
Meta asks for your password again before submitting the request. That is Meta's own screen - Muletto never sees it and never asks for a password.
Instagram and Facebook are both handled in Meta Accounts Center, so you can request them together.
Full-resolution photos and videos are included only if you set media quality to high before requesting.
Choose JSON, not HTML - and note that HTML is what the box starts on, so this is a change you have to make rather than a preference to confirm. HTML is a rendering of your data that nothing can read back.
Set the range to All time. A range left at a recent default produces an export that looks complete and is missing years.
Meta splits large exports across several files, and a conversation's media can be in a different part from its messages. Open all the parts together.

Common questions

Why are the emoji in my Instagram export broken?

Instagram encodes JSON by escaping the raw bytes of each character, so emoji and accented letters come out mangled. Three of the four bytes of an emoji are invisible control characters, which is why a smiling face often shows as one stray letter. It is repairable, and Muletto repairs it.

Where are my Instagram photos in the download?

Under a media folder, sorted into posts, stories, reels and profile, with the dates held in the category JSON rather than inside the pictures. Recent exports may also include a public-media folder that duplicates some of it.

Does an Instagram export include my direct messages?

Yes, under your_instagram_activity and then messages, with one folder per conversation. Messages are stored newest first, and anything sent in a conversation sits alongside it in that folder.

How do I read an Instagram JSON export?

Open it with something that understands the layout. Muletto reads the archive in your browser and presents the posts, messages and likes as a timeline, without uploading anything.