How to Download Instagram Videos, Reels, Stories & Highlights

Every Instagram link type, on every device — with the quirks nobody else tells you about.

The short version

  1. Copy the Instagram link (••• menu → Copy link).
  2. Paste it into the downloader.
  3. Press Download and pick your quality.

That covers 95% of cases. The rest of this page is the 5% — story links, highlight ids, carousels, iPhone save behaviour and what to do when a link refuses to resolve.

Reels

Open the Reel, tap the ••• (or the paper-plane share icon) and choose Copy link. You'll get something like instagram.com/reel/C8QltNPRxJ_/. Paste it into the Reels downloader.

If the reel has a trending sound you want on its own, use MP3 on the result card — that pulls the audio track and transcodes it to 320 kbps.

Stories

You don't need a story link. Type @username or paste the profile URL into the Stories downloader and it returns every Story that account currently has active. Direct /stories/username/ links work too.

Two things to remember: Stories expire after 24 hours, so yesterday's is genuinely gone — and downloading never puts you in the viewer list, because your account isn't involved at any point.

Highlights

Open the Highlight on the profile, tap •••Copy link. The URL contains the highlight id: instagram.com/stories/highlights/17896518372017015/. Short share links (instagram.com/s/…) also work — we decode them. Paste it into the Highlights downloader and use Download all as ZIP to take the whole reel at once.

Photos and carousels

A carousel is a post with multiple slides. One link returns all of them — up to Instagram's 20-item limit — and mixed photo/video carousels are handled correctly. Use the Posts & Carousel downloader and grab the ZIP rather than tapping through slide by slide.

On Android

Chrome saves straight to Downloads. To get files into your gallery, move them to Movies or Pictures, or install our app, which files everything correctly and keeps an offline library.

On iPhone and iPad

Safari saves to the Files app. To get a video into Photos: open Downloads (the arrow icon in the address bar), long-press the file and choose Save to Photos. For images you can long-press the preview thumbnail directly and pick Add to Photos.

On Windows, macOS and Linux

Nothing special — the file lands in your browser's download folder. Desktop is also the best place to grab large highlight ZIPs.

When a link won't resolve

  • Private account. Nothing to do — we only reach publicly visible content, deliberately.
  • Deleted or archived post. The link is dead upstream, not here.
  • “No stories”. The account almost certainly hasn't posted in the last 24 hours.
  • Expired download link. Instagram's media URLs are signed and time-limited. Paste the link again for a fresh one.
  • Instagram rate-limiting. Wait a minute and retry — it clears on its own.

Please respect the creator

Saving something for yourself is fine. Reposting it as your own isn't, and no tool changes who owns the copyright. If you plan to reshare, ask first and credit properly.

PotatoPlayer for Android

Batch downloads, a built-in video and music player, MP3 conversion and an offline library — free on Google Play.

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