Instagram is one of the leading social media platforms. In 2023, it announced a new feature that comes in handy for many. Instagram now allows the downloading of reels posted via public accounts directly to your phone gallery. It aims to boost branding and content sharing, but some creators might want to avoid allowing the downloading of their content on unlimited devices. The good news is that the creators can control whether their reels will be downloaded or not. Turning the feature on or off is just a toggle switch away.
In this how-to guide, we have talked about how one can prevent/stop downloading their Instagram reels.
What are Instagram Reels?
Instagram Reels are short videos that you scroll through every day. The reels include videos about anything and everything under the roof, thus offering hours of unlimited entertainment. Reels can be saved on your IG Account so that you can access them later. However, there are times when the reel owner’s account gets suspended, deleted, or hacked. Also, the owner himself might delete the Reel, which means you will lose it.
To resolve such a situation, you can now download Instagram Reels from the app itself and save them to your phone gallery.
Before we discuss how to stop our Instagram reels from downloading, let’s first discuss how an Instagram reel can be downloaded.
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How to Download an Instagram Reel on your device
- Open the Reel you would like to download. Make sure the Reel has been posted via a public account.
- Tap on the “Share” option on the side.
- Look for the option “Download” and choose it.
- The Reel starts getting downloaded into your phone gallery. You can then view it offline anytime, anywhere.
Please keep in mind that only Instagram Reels posted on public Instagram accounts can be downloaded. This, too, is when the owner of the public account has enabled the downloading of his/her reels. Also, all the downloaded reels will have a watermark of the creators’ Instagram handle on them so that no one can claim the Reel as their own, discrediting the original creator.
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How to Stop Downloading Your Instagram Reels
The methods to prevent downloading of your Instagram Reels are simple and the same for Android as well as iOS devices.
a) Turning off Reel Downloads
- You can permanently block Reel downloads on your account.
- Record and edit your Reel, and once it is ready, click on ‘More Options’ at the bottom of your screen.
- On the screen that opens up, scroll down and look for the ‘Advanced Settings’ Option.
- Scroll down and look for an option that says, ‘Allow people to download your reels.’ Toggle it off.
- Next, select if you would like to turn on/off the option to download your Reels only for a specific reel you are uploading or ones you share in the future and those you have shared in the past.
- After you select your preferences, tap on the arrow at the top left side to go back to the Reel you were creating.
- Hit the ‘Share’ option at the bottom of the screen.
b) Making the account private
Another simple way to prevent the download of your reels is to make your account private. Instagram doesn’t allow the downloading of reels from private accounts.
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