How To Prevent Losing Your Instagram Account

Instagram is such a huge part of our lives as influencers, but what would you do if you opened up the app one day, and it had logged you out – you try to log in but it tells you you’re not providing the right details?

It happens more than you think for many reasons such as your password being compromised (make sure you use unique passwords for each site, and use a password manager like 1Password to keep track of them), your account being accessed by apps you’ve given access to (make it a habit to head to the authorised apps page every so often and revoke access to apps you no longer use), you clicked a phishing link in error or just that Instagram has deactivated the account but not told you why.

After removing access to the apps you don’t use any more, the most important thing to set up for your IG account is two factor authentication.

Go to “settings”, then “privacy and security“. Tap “Two-factor Authentication” and follow the instructions. You can read more about how Instagram uses two factor authentication here

Two factor authentication is where you have a second step to logging into an account with a new device. This can be things like getting a special code by text message, by email, with an authenticator app (Google’s is the most popular) or with physical devices called security keys.

If you lose access to the way you have set up two factor authentication (change your phone number, forget your password, lose your key, etc) then you can be locked out of your account forever. That’s why when you set up two factor authentication, most sites will set up recovery codes, which are one time passwords you can use to gain access to your account and update the details needed. Make sure you keep recovery codes somewhere safe and easy for you to access (such as Dropbox)

If you are in the unfortunate situation where you have been hacked, and they have changed the email and password associated with the account, check your email for the notification from Instagram that the email address associated with your account has been changed. This will at least revoke access and you may be able to request a new password.

The main thing to think about though is that Instagram is an external service that you have no control over, so you should consider what you would do if you did lose access to your account for any reason.