Move Instagram to your own bucket

Instagram is a feed. It is a worse vault. Posts, Stories media, and message attachments you care about should live in a bucket you own if you want them to outlast an app change.

This post is the move for Instagram media. Not Google Photos. Not Drive. Not Dropbox. Those belong in Move Google Photos to your own bucket, Move Google Drive to your own bucket, and Move Dropbox to your own bucket.

1. Request the download from Instagram

Log in on Instagram. Open Settings, then Accounts Center, then Your information and permissions, then Download your information.

Create a download that includes media. JSON is fine. Pick the date range and media quality you want. Start the request and wait until Meta says it is ready. That can take a while. When it is ready, you usually get an email, and the zip also shows under Available downloads for a few days.

Download the zip to this computer. Do not unpack it on the laptop for the main path. The zip is the handoff. The bucket is the home.

Source labels follow Instagram's download help.

2. Pick a bucket you own

You need S3-compatible object storage. Not another Instagram clone.

For the price table, see the cheapest cloud object storage comparison.

This post does not walk the console again. If you do not have a bucket hooked up yet, follow how to connect a Backblaze B2 bucket and come back.

3. Import the zip in file.rocks

Sign in at file.rocks. Open Settings, then Import. Stay on From zip.

Pick Instagram. That profile is for Instagram data download media. The default destination hint is Instagram.

Leave Media files only on unless you need non-media files from the zip. With it on, most JSON sidecars get skipped and media still lands.

Select the zip. Optionally set a destination folder. Click Start import. Keep the tab open while it runs. If it pauses, you can resume by selecting the same zip again.

Your files stay in the bucket you connected, and file.rocks is how you manage them. You do not unzip the archive on your laptop for this path.

Media lands under Instagram/…, including folders like media/ and dated folders from the export.

This is not how to unzip a file in your own bucket. That is Extract to bucket on a zip you already own in Files. This is not import a file from a link or torrent either.

4. What you lose

Be honest about this before you delete anything on Instagram.

You lose the feed, Stories, and Reels as products. The bucket holds files. It is not an Instagram app.

You lose DMs as a chat product. Message media can land as files. The conversation UI does not.

You lose live shares and discovery. People who followed you on Instagram will not see a magic link into your new bucket.

You keep the media you exported. You own the bucket. You can leave file.rocks, or your storage provider, and the objects still sit there.

5. Then stop

Do not rebuild Instagram. Do not hunt for a Stories viewer on day one.

Open the files in file.rocks when you need a photo. Keep the bucket paid.

Need to send a file after it lands? That is how to share a file from your own bucket.

Photos, Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and iCloud are different exports. Use those migrate posts when that is the library you are moving.

No more cloud storage subscriptions.