Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours, and creators can delete them manually even sooner. If you're wondering how to see deleted stories on Instagram — whether it's one you posted yourself or one that belonged to someone else — the right method depends entirely on whose account it is. Here's exactly what works for each case.
How to See Recently Deleted Story on Instagram Using the Recently Deleted Feature
Let’s say you deleted your story and then changed your mind and want it back online. Luckily, the platform developers have already considered how to see recently deleted stories on Instagram and have prepared proper functionality for this. Surprisingly enough, it is called “Recently Deleted” (who would have thought, right?). So, how do you view recently deleted stories on Instagram using this feature? The procedure is very simple:
- open the app on your device and tap on your profile icon at the bottom right;
- tap on the sandwich menu sigh at the top right of your profile page;
- proceed to the Your Activity section;
- find the Recently Deleted item on the list and tap on it.
All the IG content, including stories that have been manually deleted, will be displayed here and will be available only to the page owner. Pretty convenient, isn’t it?
How to See Deleted Stories On Instagram Using Archive
How to see recently deleted stories on Instagram if they disappeared due to the 24-hour time limit? There is a special place on the platform where such stories get after their time expires – Archive. If you have posted a story anytime in the past, a week, a month, or a year, it does not matter when exactly. You can easily find it in the archive and review it. To access the archive, follow these steps:
- open the app and access your profile by tapping on the profile icon at the bottom right;
- open the sandwich menu at the top right of your profile page;
- tap Archive.
Here, you see all the deleted stories that Instagram removed 24 hours after their posting, and you can even switch between the original, date (calendar with the days when stories were posted marked), and map (with locations where the stories were made marked) views. A pretty convenient tool if you need to find a story from the past.
How to See Deleted Instagram Stories of Others
Wondering how to see someone's deleted Instagram stories when the account isn't yours? Instagram's Archive and Recently Deleted tools only work for your own account — there's no built-in way to see deleted Instagram stories of others, no matter how badly you want to check on a friend's or ex's activity.
That's where Peekviewer comes in. It tracks the account continuously, so if a story gets deleted or expires, it's already been captured — letting you see others' deleted Instagram stories without needing their login or credentials.
The whole process how to see deleted stories on Instagram with this tool looks like this:
- You register with the service by providing your e-mail and password only. Unlike a typical app to see what someone likes on Instagram, Peekviewer is a fully anonymous, browser-based tool, and to ensure the safety of the client's personal info, it prefers not to have this personal information at al
- Choose the payment plan from the 3 options: monthly, quarterly, and yearly; the plans differ only in length and provide the same set of features.
- Enter the link or name of the page of your interest into the search bar in your personal online space.
- Give the service a couple of minutes to go through all the algorithms and gain access to the page.
- As soon as access is gained, all the content from the page, including recently deleted Instagram stories, will be displayed in your online space. It is saved there for up to 3 months and can be downloaded to your personal device at any time.
The main advantage of Peekviewer over other similar services is that it works with private IG pages. Thus, it is the best solution for everyone wondering how to see deleted stories on Instagram posted by both private and public pages.
A New Level of Anonymity
People who need to view a recently deleted story on Instagram that was posted by another account usually do not want the page owner to know about their actions. Peekviewer values its users’ anonymity over anything else, and that is why only the e-mail and password are required to register with it. Moreover, it is not linked with the user’s IG page in any way, and thus, the e-mail provided upon registration is not associated with the name or image in any way. It is a completely new level of anonymity and personal information safety.
Conclusion
Learning how to see deleted stories on Instagram helps you save, revisit, and manage important content. You can use Instagram’s Recently Deleted feature to recover stories removed within 30 days, or the Archive to find all expired stories that disappeared after 24 hours.
If you want to view someone else’s deleted or expired stories, anonymous instagram profile viewer like Peekviewer offers an easy way to search, view, and save that content anonymously. With these methods, you’ll always have reliable options to recover, view, and save Instagram stories whenever you need them.
FAQ
Open the Instagram app on your phone, tap your profile icon, then the menu icon in the top right, and go to Your Activity. From there you can check Recently Deleted or Archive — both work the same way on iPhone and Android.
Instagram's own Archive works for stories you posted yourself, but if you need to find deleted stories on someone else's account, you'll need a tool like Peekviewer, which tracks the account in advance so the content is already saved before it disappears.
No — Instagram's Recently Deleted feature only works for your own account, not someone else's private account. To see recently deleted stories from a private account that isn't yours, you need a tool like Peekviewer, which tracks the account in advance so the content is saved before it's deleted.