Why Instagram Won’t Let Me Delete My Account: Solution

Looking to delete your Instagram account, but Instagram won’t let you?

In this guide, I will walk you through the steps to delete the account if you have already attempted to do so yourself and failed.

Should I Permanently Delete Or Temporarily Deactivate My Instagram Account?

Instagram offers users the option to permanently delete or temporarily deactivate their accounts. Each has its perks, and we’ll discuss what might be best for you before you proceed.

The account deactivation method is the most suitable for a more temporary retrieval from your online life. Your account, by all means, will not allow views or searches by other people. However, you have the luxury of logging back in whenever you feel like ending your break. You won’t lose any posts, followers, and likes for temporarily deactivating your account.

Deleting your account is a much more serious affair. If you permanently erase your account, all your Instagram host information will go, and you won’t be able to recover it. This is best done when you are absolutely sure of never using this current account again, as deleting will purge everything. The permanent delete cannot take place in the app. For it, you have to use a browser on your phone, laptop, or computer.

What Do I Do When I Want To Delete My Instagram Account But Not My Data?

Suppose you want to delete your Instagram account permanently but save all your information, like photos and follower list. In that case, you might think of doing this randomly by saving or screenshotting. Lucky for us, Instagram has an option to download all your data.

This will include your Instagram photos, saved stories, posts, follower list, following list, and likes. This is a good option for whenever you need to access this information without opening/reactivating your account.

You can find the download option in the settings. Navigate to security and select download data. It will prompt you to enter your email address. Sending all your data will typically take a couple of days, so wait to delete your account until then. If you don’t do this, you’ll be losing out on your information completely—and you’ll never get it back, no matter how hard you try.

Why Instagram Won’t Let Me Delete My Account?

There can be a lot of reasons why you’re unable to delete your Instagram account. Instagram has a lot of restrictions and requirements that you have to do to delete your account. This is to prevent you from accidentally deleting your account.

These restrictions also help protect your account from being deleted by third parties and hackers, as you have to verify multiple times before deleting your Instagram account. So, when trying to delete your Instagram account, if you have not fulfilled a requirement of Instagram, it can show you an error and prevent you from deleting your Instagram account.

How Can I Force Instagram To Delete My Account?

Using Browser 

If you are trying to delete your Instagram account permanently and only use the mobile application, you have a problem. Instagram doesn’t allow users to delete their accounts permanently from the mobile app. To delete your account, you must use its website from a browser instead.

In case you don’t have a PC or laptop, it’s fine, as you can access Instagram.com from your phone’s browsers like Safari and Google Chrome.

Wrong Password Glitch

There is a glitch in Instagram’s browser version that doesn’t recognize your password in the “Last Chance” window that pops up when you permanently delete your account. We don’t know why this is happening, and we hope a future update from Instagram will fix this mistake.

Currently, a temporary fix is to change your password to something simple. Also, make sure all characters are in lowercase. Complex passwords are usually causing this problem, and a simple password will work to deactivate or delete your account half the time. Keep changing passwords till you have one that works to delete your account.

Bad Request Error

Another small glitch that some users are encountering is the “Bad Request Error” problem. This happens at the final stage of your account deactivation and deletion. We have found this to be a case of a bug between Instagram and your keyboard input.

A temporary fix we have found is not to use your keyboard “Enter” key. Instead, proceed to only click on the deactivate and delete buttons with your mouse or touchpad. Hopefully, Instagram will fix this bug in a future update soon.

Final Thoughts

Instagram can be really frustrating in the manner of deleting your account. If you are still unable to delete your Instagram account, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Instagram support for further assistance. So, we hope this guide helped solve your problem of Instagram not letting you delete your account.