With all the hustle and bustle of daily life and everything you have to keep up with, it could be really easy to forget your Instagram password. It becomes worse when you do not even use a password manager.
I am sure there is a myriad of online accounts that you could have, your email, Twitter, Facebook, tinder, etc.
It could get really confusing trying to remember which password is for which online account, especially when you have varying passwords for your different online accounts.
I personally have had the experience where my sibling changed my password to my Instagram account while I asked her to help me manage the account for a while, and she actually forgot the password.
I was under a lot of tension, and several things ran through my mind.
It could be terrifying realizing you have lost or forgotten your Instagram password when you start to recall all the effort you have put into your account and how much growth you have achieved.
It is worse if you are using the account for business because of the possibility of you losing your entire client contacts in one fell swoop. Now, you do not have to fear anymore.
The fact that you have forgotten your Instagram password does not mean you have lost the account automatically.
Well, you might not be able to get back that password in particular, but you can definitely recover your account. You might just have to change your password to something different.
So now, I bet you are wondering if I forget my Instagram password, how do I recover it? Well, there are two basic ways to go about recovering your account.
- You could recover it using the Instagram app.
- Or you could recover it using the Instagram website.
Using the Instagram App to Recover Your Account
I Forgot My Instagram Password, How To Recover It
This process is quite straightforward, irrespective of the device you are using to load the Instagram app. But for the sake of clarity, I would explain how this process would work on both android and IOS devices.
Using an android device
- First, you would have to open the Instagram app and make sure you are on the sign-in page.
- Then you click on the “get help signing in” link that you would see below the sign-in fields.
- When you were creating your account, you must have used a phone number, email, or username to type any of those details in and then click “next.” Just ensure you use details that are actually connected to your account because you would need access to those details to complete your recovery process.
- If you typed a phone number, then that means Instagram will send a message to you containing the new code you can type into the app.
- Click Next, and then you can change your old password to a new one by entering it twice in the given fields and clicking on reset password.
- Once you have reset your password, you can easily log into your account.
- If you typed in an email, a confirmation link in the form of an email message would be sent to that email address.
- Go to your mail and check for the message, but you may have to check your spam, update, or social folder if you do not find it.
- Once you open the message, click on the password reset link.
- You would be brought to a page where you can enter your new password twice in the given field.
- Click on reset password and then log in to your account.
- If you typed in your username, you would be asked to select a preferred method of getting your confirmation code, either by email or SMS.
- The next step would be based on your choice, as explained above.
Using an IOS device
- To begin, you would first open the Instagram app.
- Make sure you are on the sign-in page.
- Then click on the “get help signing in” link that you would be below the sign-in fields.
- You can use a phone number, email, or username, so you have to type any of those details in and then click “next.” Just ensure you use details that are actually connected to your account because you would need access to those details to complete your recovery process.
- If you typed in your username, you would be asked to select a preferred method of getting your confirmation code, either by email or SMS.
- If you typed in an email, a confirmation link in the form of an email message would be sent to that email address.
- Go to your mail and check for the message, but you may have to check your spam, update, or social folder if you do not find it.
- Once you open the message, click on the password reset link.
- You would be brought to a page where you can enter your new password twice in a given field.
- Click on reset password and then log in to your account.
- If you typed a phone number, then that means Instagram will send a message to you containing the new code you can type into the app.
- Click Next, and then you can change your old password to a new one by entering it twice in the given fields and clicking on reset password.
- Once you have reset your password, you can easily log into your account.
Using Instagram Website to Recover Your Account
If you do not have access to the Instagram app for whatever reason, you can still recover your account by going through the website.
- First, you would have to type this web address “https:// www.instagram.com” into your browser in order to get to the Instagram website.
- You would be brought to the Instagram login page.
- Click “forgot password” below the login field at the bottom of the page.
- Then type in the phone number, email address, or username associated with your account. Ensure you can easily access any detail you decide to give out because you would need it later on.
- Click the “send login link” button to send a confirmation link to any of the details you have provided.
- If you get a code as an SMS, then enter the code into the Instagram field that would be provided.
- And if you get an email instead, click on the reset password link that would be present in the message.
- Either way, you would see a page where you can type your new password twice to reset your password.
- Once you have done this, you would be able to log in to your account comfortably.
Why Am I Not Receiving a Reset Password In My Email From Instagram
This is an issue I have heard a fairly moderate amount of Instagram users complain about.
It is obviously very frustrating when you have forgotten your password, and you finally think you have found a saving grace, only for Instagram itself to blank on you.
There are a few reasons why you might be trying to get a reset password in your email and failing at it.
- The first reason might be because there is just simply a delay with the network, either from Instagram’s side or yours. The best solution to this is to be patient and try after like 10 minutes if you still have not gotten it.
- The second reason might be if you took the first advice too close to heart, and you have attempted to get the reset password just too many times within a short period of time. You need to chill out and relax. If possible, leave the whole process for a whole 24 hours and do something else. On most occasions, everything would be fine after this.
- Another thing that could cause it is that maybe there has been some suspicious activity on your account of late. Think things like unusually heavy activity on your account, or all of a sudden, different devices in really different locations are logging into your account. These activities are very random and suspicious, and Instagram picks them up as soon as possible. To protect you from what it would consider harmful, it might refuse to send a reset password to your email. To solve this, try to access the reset password through the device you used to open the Instagram account and, better still, in the same location you normally operate your Instagram. But if this does not work for you, it would be advisable you wait a couple of days and try it again.
- The last and most unlikely reason is that Instagram is down. It is actually rare, but it does happen that Instagram’s systems shut down. If this is what is happening, you do not even need to bother yourself because you would not be able to perform any action on Instagram till they are back on. So the best thing to do in this situation is to cross your fingers and wait until they are active again.
If you still can’t get access to your reset password after trying all the above solutions, I would advise you to try to contact Instagram’s support directly.
Why Could You Be Receiving A Reset Email You Didn’t Request For
There are two sources this type of email could come from, either from Instagram itself or from a completely fake email, trying to pretend to be Instagram in order to scam you.
Either way, you must be wary whenever you see such an email you did not request for. Because that means someone somewhere is trying something fishy.
If the email is coming from Instagram, that means someone is entering your email and claiming the password of your account has been forgotten.
Such a person could as well be a hacker messing around trying to see if they can have access to your account.
In this situation, you do not need to freak out, you can just decide to ignore such emails, and it would not have any effect on your Instagram account.
Your password would not change as long as you ignore such messages.
But if the email is from a completely foreign source, it means there is someone trying to trick you into clicking the reset link, so that they would also trick you into providing important confidential details, like your Instagram password, which could also lead to your account getting hacked.
To solve this problem and prevent something like this from happening again, you must first ignore any messages you are getting from such persons.
The fact that you are getting these messages means that there are people who know the email address connected to your Instagram account.
Normally, Instagram does not display the email connected to accounts, but it would be visible to everyone if you added it to your contact info.
It is advisable that you remove your mail from your contact info if you have it on there. And it would be best if you could actually change this email address to something completely different.
After you change your email, it is better you keep it as confidential as possible because you cannot be certain who was actually messing around with it.
To change the email connected to your account, you need to;
- Go to your Instagram profile.
- Click on settings.
- Click on accounts.
- Then click on personal information.
- Type in your new email address and click confirm.
- Click on the link Instagram send you in the new email to confirm that you own it.
How to Activate a Deactivated Account
If you have deactivated your Instagram account, probably to take a break from social media or for whatever reason you might have, you need not worry about how you would activate your account when you are finally ready to start using it again.
But you must ensure your account has been deactivated at least for at least a week to avoid running into any problems.
To activate it, you would have to;
- Launch your Instagram app
- Type in your username and password.
- Click on the login. As long as all your details are correct, you should be able to log in and reactivate your account.
- You may have to follow some on-screen instructions before you are fully functional.
You must realize you cannot reactivate a deleted account, though. So, before you delete any account, you must be absolutely sure that it is what you want.
If you have issues reactivating your account because you have forgotten your password, you can follow the steps in this article as a guide.
Is it possible to forget your password and still be logged in
Yes, it is possible to have forgotten your password and still be logged into your account. It could happen if you had previously logged in onto your device, and you have not logged out in a long while, but you have actually forgotten the password you used to log in.
This way, you would still have access to the account, but if you log out of your device, you won’t be able to log in anymore. In this situation, you can follow all the account recovery processes I have written in this article, and you would be fine.
Can I get my account back if Instagram suspended it? Yes, you can get your account back, even if Instagram suspended it. You just have to submit an appeal and convince them that it was a mistake, and you did not violate any Instagram guidelines.