How to Download Media from Instagram

Do you work with online influencers? Then you know it’s common to need access their content for redistribution. Once you’ve gained their explicit permission (learn more about copyright here and I also wrote a blog about it), you can download their content easily from Facebook and Twitter. It’s as simple as right clicking on their images to save. It’s more difficult to do on Instagram but still possible. I never would have been able to figure this out on my own so I’m paying it forward in case you want to know how to download media from Instagram.

When else would you use this?

Occasionally, I’m hired to work with a marketer that is replacing someone that has left or retired. Usually it’s training and strategy work but more than once, the new employee is starting from scratch and needs help – a lot of help. Many people aren’t organized when it comes to digital filing so it’s pretty common to not be able to find original media files. Maybe that person is you (the disorganized part), you’ve lost a file or deleted it by accident, and now you need to access it again.

Steps

I recommend doing this on a computer, not a mobile device, to get the highest quality image. You’ll need to visit the web page for the post. The URL will look like this:

— https://www.instagram.com/p/sRbx-VvvSy/?taken-by=kregobiz —

Replace the last portion of the link with media?size=l (that’s a lowercase L for “large”). It will look like this:

— https://www.instagram.com/p/sRbx-VvvSy/media?size=l —

Then you need to right-click on the photo and save it. For videos, stick with me while I get technical. Chrome or Firefox work best.

1. Right-click on the video and select Inspect. This opens up the Developer Tools window with a line of website code selected.
2. Just above the selected line, you will see another line of code like this:

-<div>…</div>

1. There is a small triangle to the left of this line that you can expand the code. Keep expanding it until you see the link to the .mp4 file of the video.
2. Then copy the link to the video and paste it into a new tab in your browser. Last, you can right click on the video to save it.

Make sure you check out other pieces I’ve written on Instagram.