Once upon a time when I used the awesome Instagram app on my iphone it would save a copy of the photo before I uploaded it to the feed or a sharing platform like facebook or twitter. After several updates this no longer happens and it has continued to bum me out. I like to use the app to play with my cell phone photos but I don’t always like to share those photos right then and there (or at all).
This last week I accidentally discovered a workaround that solved my problem. I was taking photos of the sunset from 30,000 feet and then putting them into Instagram. I saw that the images failed to upload to the feed and I just shrugged and figured I would push them through again when I landed and was connected to the internet. Moments later I was looking at the camera roll on my iphone and saw that the Instagramed photos that had failed to load HAD saved into my camera roll.
OH! And that is when I realized that the answer to my Instragram woes was Airplane Mode.
Here is a step by step for how you do it when you are not up in the air: (you can click the photo to make the slideshow advance)
And of course I couldn’t miss a chance to show you my final product: My Plaidspotting moment of the day.
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Good to know! Thanks for the tip!
Genius! Thanks!
Why not use an app like Camera+ instead?
Instagram was one of the 1st add on camera apps I downloaded for my iphone and I love what I can do with it. (I just don’t always want to show everyone.)
Love this tip, thank you! There are times that I want to make my photos pretty in instagram but want to share those photos on my blog instead of on Instagram. So this will come in handy
Rock on with your Plaid self!! Awesome find — Thank you — I’ve been missing that feature too!
I have done all the updates and there is an option to keep photos private?
It’s under the edit button at the bottom?!
Jessica – are you saying you have an option to keep your photos private? I don’t have that update yet. Something to look forward to!
That is to keep all of your photos private — essentially it functions like a private Tweet stream – only people you approve can see your photos.
I thought I was losing it! I’m new to Instagram and thought maybe I’d missed something, but I did the same thing as Karla and I *believe* my photos are private and only visible to followers I’ve already approved.
I suppose you could also let the images upload and just quickly delete them from your stream instead of putting it into airplane mode first…
Thanks for the tip! I just found your blog through a pin on Pinterest and I’m so happy I did.
Thanks, Laura! I love Pinterest too. (What’s your username over there?)
Laura Bostwick Pettyjohn…I’m completely addicted to Pinterest
I was totally wondering about this – I’m brand new to the iPhone, so this is great to know! Thanks for sharing – found you from Pinterest.
Fantastic! I’ve been trying to figure this out myself! Thanks for posting!
Thank you for this. It’s funny how we figure some things out by accident : )
YMMV, but in the version I have you can opt to keep your photos private. This is a brilliant workaround though and I discovered the same thing when I was travelling before I went and looked for the privacy option.
Thanks so much for the tip! I just found it on Pinterest! As quickly as I started using Instagram, and realizing EVERY photo I took when into my feed, I stopped using it, knowing that I would totally miss all of the cool features on it. So glad to know that I CAN keep some photos all to myself! I want to use them for my Project Life albums… and some of those photos seem very out of place in Intsagram feed since no one would care about them but ME! So thnaks again!
thanks for the tip… it worked for me the 1st time but when I tried for the 2nd time it didn’t work anymore. the pic won’t show up in the photo album anymore . what shall i do?
.. pls. disregard my comment.. it worked again.. I need to choose a FILTER so it’ll work.
oh my goodness…I’m a “plaidaholic” too. Even as a little girl I only wanted to wear plaid school dresses…and it blossomed into just an obsession with my Scottish roots! Plaid-on!
i just have the internet turned off ( i only turn it on when i need it), so i log in once and
away i go, i also only take the photos with my normal iphone camera and edit them in the instagram.
Oh yeah! Good point! This happened to me too, but I forgot about it. Thanks for the tip!
You know when you take a photo and if you don’t like it u press the red X on the screen , well where do those photos go ? Do they get deleted ?
FollOw me on instagram Uncle_s
Loving this tip. Q: Did you add the plaidspotting label with an app?
Follow me pretty please. I just made a new one, i still don’t know how it works (well, kinda) I follow back. PROMISE!
@bbyreii thankyou
Follow me on Instagram and I’ll follow back – @hashtagchris
Can you please type out the tip or repost the video? It isn’t showing up for me.. Thanks!
So sorry Jillian! I had no idea that the images stopped showing up on this post so thank you for letting me know.
The steps are back now. Let me know if you have any questions.
Good article! We will be linking to this particularly great article on our website.
Keep up the great writing.
@meghanriley527
Does anyone know why instagram has its own album in my photos on my iphone? I’d really like to get rid of it but i don’t know how! I noticed i had my own instagram album a couple days ago and now its actually really bothering me because every time i delete the album and post a new picture on instagram it creates the album again! Very annoying!! can anyone help? it’d be greatly appreciated
You can do the same, if you put the phone in airplane mode
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