Got multiple Instagram accounts?
One for business, one for fun?
Another one for another business? Or maybe your pet ? ? ? (I hear dogs love Insta).
Maintaining separate accounts is a highly recommended, yet frustrating, tactic.
Recommended, because Instagram users love to follow laser-focused accounts.
Frustrating, because you’ve had to sign in and out of one account to access another.
But no longer!
Instagram finally announced account switching February 8, 2016. I got it that same day, after checking obsessively for days. It had already been rolling out for a week!
Note: This post was originally published on Feb 8, 2016, and updated Dec 2, 2017, August 14, 2018, and November 8, 2018, with the latest info for you.
We’ll cover all this below:
- How to create another Instagram account
- How to add Instagram Account Switching to existing accounts
- Push notifications on multiple Instagram accounts
- How to remove an Instagram account you’ve added, with troubleshooting tips
- How to permanently delete an Instagram account
The purple banners will help you find a specific section. Read on!
How can I create another Instagram account?
You can create a new Instagram account while you’re logged into your current account.
If you’ve already created multiple Instagram accounts, you can simply connect them, so skip to the next section.
Here’s how to create a new Instagram account that will instantly be connected to your current one:
- Open your current Instagram account.
- Go to your profile.
- Find and tap the gear icon for Settings.
- Scroll to the bottom. Tap Add Account.
- DON’T fill in the log in screen. At the bottom of the page, tap Sign up.
- You’ll see an option to use Facebook for sign-up. If you’re already using Facebook for your primary account, choose Sign Up With Phone or Email.
- Enter your Phone or Email. *READ CAUTION BELOW!
- If you choose Email, you’ll confirm your new account later. Open the email from Instagram and select Confirm your email address.
- If you choose Phone, you’ll need to enter the verification number sent to your phone. Once you’ve entered the verification code, tap Next.
- Next you’ll add your Instagram profile photo, Name, and Password.
- The next step will be to create a unique username. You can include dots, dashes, or numbers.
- You can skip the remaining steps for now.
- You’re logged in to your new account, and can switch to your original account!
*DO NOT use the same email or phone for your second Instagram account. Some readers have managed to do this and found themselves permanently locked out of the second account when they forgot their password. You MUST have different emails or phone numbers to recover your account!
And, per Instagram, “If you sign up with email, make sure you enter your email address correctly and choose an email address that only you can access. If you log out and forget your password, you’ll need to be able to access your email to get back into your Instagram account.”
Here’s a short video demonstration of the process outlined above:
How to add Instagram Account Switching to existing accounts
Account switching became available as part of Instagram version 7.15 for iOS and Android. First make sure your app is updated. If it IS and you still don’t have account switching, one user reported that deleting and reinstalling the app solved this issue.
You can add multiple Instagram accounts to switch between them without having to log out and log back in.
To add multiple Instagram accounts:
- Go to your profile and tap the gear or settings icon in the top right.*
- Scroll down and tap Add Account. It’s near the bottom.
- Enter the username and password of the account you’d like to add.
- Or log in with Facebook if that’s how you set up the other account.
*Instagram is always moving this around. As of September 2018, on iOS you’ll swipe left on your profile panel and see the gear icon at the bottom.
To switch between accounts you’ve added:
- Go to your profile.
- Tap your username at the very top of the screen.
- Tap the account you’d like to switch to.
- OR you can switch from any tab via your profile picture in the bottom left!
Note that you can add up to 5 accounts on one device. source
From now on, just tap your Instagram profile picture at the bottom of any panel to switch between accounts.
Here’s a short video demonstration of the process outlined above:
Once you have multiple accounts added, you’ll see your profile photo appear in places throughout the app so you can always tell which one you’re using at the moment. I noticed that my account name appears in the comment field so I’m sure which account I’m using. Nice!
What about push notifications on multiple Instagram accounts?
If you’ve added multiple Instagram accounts, you may get push notifications from any account that has them turned on. This depends on when you last logged in and the number of devices that are logged in to an account.
How do I remove an Instagram account I’ve added?
To remove an Instagram account you’ve added, you can log out of the account:
- Go to your profile and switch to the account you’d like to remove.
- Tap the gear or settings icon in the top right.
- Scroll down and tap Log out of [username] or Log out of All Accounts. Logging out of all accounts will remove all the accounts you’ve added.
My removed Instagram account is still showing!
If you’re still having problems, a reader offered these tips:
- Go log out of both accounts.
- Then go back to the home page where you log in. It’ll show the extra account still.
- The name will appear on the left and on the right will say log in for both.
- Hold down on the page and next to the log in tab an X will appear. Hit the X.
- It will prompt you that you will need all the info to log in again and ask if you’re certain.
- Hit accept.
Here’s another solution a reader found when that didn’t work!
- The X wasn’t active next to the account I wanted to remove.
- I removed Instagram from my iPhone by holding down the icon and tapping the little x in the corner.
- Then I re-downloaded the application from the App Store.
- I logged into my main account with my username and password.
- I went into settings and then to Add Account and added my second account again.
The third account is finally gone! PS. You have to be careful that you remember all of your usernames and passwords for this fix.
If this isn’t working for you, use the Report a Problem feature in your account settings.
Unfortunately I can’t provide additional assistance, because I haven’t experienced this problem myself. Would love to get your insights if you’ve been able to solve it!
How to permanently delete an Instagram account
The instructions below are to permanently delete an Instagram account.
Permanently deleting your Instagram account cannot be undone!
After you delete your account, you can’t sign up again with the same username or add that username to another account. Instagram can’t reactivate deleted accounts.
When you delete your account, your profile, photos, videos, comments, likes and followers will be permanently removed.
If you’d prefer to take a break, you can temporarily disable your account instead.
If you’re sure you wish to permanently delete, log in at Instagram.com. You can’t delete your account from within the Instagram app on your mobile device.
To permanently delete your account:
- Go to the Delete Your Account page. If you’re not logged into Instagram on the web, you’ll be asked to log in first.
- Select an option from the drop-down menu next to Why are you deleting your account? and re-enter your password. The option to permanently delete your account will only appear after you’ve selected a reason from the menu.
- Click or tap Permanently delete my account.
- If you’d like to delete a different account, click the username in the top-right of the Delete Your Account page, tap/click on next to username and select Log Out. Log back in as the account you want to delete and follow the directions above.
For security reasons, Instagram can’t delete an account for you. You’ll need to be able to log into your account to delete it. If you can’t remember your password or username, here are tips for logging in. source
Wrapping Up
We covered all this:
- How to create another Instagram account
- How to add Instagram Account Switching to existing accounts
- Push notifications on multiple Instagram accounts
- How to remove an Instagram account you’ve added, with troubleshooting tips
- How to permanently delete an Instagram account
Missed something? Look for the purple banners above.
This is a long-awaited feature that I use daily.
Have you tried Instagram account switching yet?
Has it made your life easier for managing multiple Instagram accounts?
This might be super late but do I have to crest another account first and then add it to my account? Because I went straight from my ig to add account and clicked *sign up* typed my stuff in and it takes me back to my real insta
yes.
Hello – sorry to add but I am desperate for help. I cannot see a dropdown of any kind on my MAC when I open Instagram. Neither do I see a place to add account s(I’ve already added one and just want to toggle back and forth on the MAC. It’s easy on the phone but I can’t see any way of doing it on a MAC desktop.) I’d be SUPER thankful for any help? THANK YOU!!!!
Desktop has limited capability. You can do this on a phone or tablet.
Ok i have two school accounts because I’m a club sponsor. Recently my phone had to be restored to factory settings. I lost all my profiles from my IG app. I was able to recover my personal account and one of the clubs. I can’t access the other one because I used the same phone number for all the accounts. It keeps sending the link to the personal account and not the one I need. How do I access it?? I can’t find where I wrote the password since it’s the summer and school hasn’t started. It’s been frustrating because I need to update the profiles by adding pics. Unfortunately I’m unable to access that particular profile. I hope I’m making sense. Thank you so much for your assistance
Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any way to recover additional accounts that used the same email or phone as a previous one.
You can change the number for one of the accounts that you can access.
thank you so much! Just spent over an hour on this – yours was the only set of directions that worked for me! THANK YOU!!!
I’m so glad it helped!
Hi Louise,
I have 2 profiles on instagram that I access through my phone.
My question is this: If I like or comment using one profile, can people following my main profile know that it’s me if they don’t know I have that second profile?
I would like to keep my activity on each profile private from the followers of each.
Thank you.
I don’t think there’s a way for them to know it’s you just from your comment and the fact that the accounts are linked. I can’t guarantee it, I just don’t know how they would.
However any profile that has FB connected to it may be telling your FB friends, “your FB friend so and so is on IG.”
Thank you. FB isn’t an issue, it’s more in regards to those that follow me on my main Insta page. I don’t’ want the activity to cross there.
I appreciate your answer
I got 2 instas. If i post something on the story of 1 of them it will also show on my other profile!? It did not used to be like this and I really dont want it to? Help?
I have no idea how this would happen. It doesn’t happen to me.
You could try disconnecting them, and reconnecting. Or else you’d have to keep them disconnected… unless you can figure out something else.
Please let us know if you do!
I can’t add my existing instagram account. What should I do? I have tried updating , uninstall and reinstall my instagram account but it’s not working.
Are you not seeing the option to add account?
Hi louise. I recently just open another account on Instagram, but I was wondering if I can move completely pictures to the other profile. Thank you for your time. Have an excellent day.
Maybe you should just change the name on the previous account. You can’t move the posts from one to another.
When you add another account to your instagram…will the other accounts on the app be notified that you opened another account?
I can’t guarantee anything, can only say this didn’t happen when I added accounts.
I signed up for a new account with new email , same phone number . The username is amigayoga . But Underneath the profile circle – it say my first & last name . I just want it to be amiga yoga gear
Apparel
You can change this in your account. Tap “edit profile” and type the name you want.
I recently created a second IG account and linked it to my original account. However, I made the mistake of using my email or phone # (can’t remember which one) to create the new account that I used on my original account. Is there a way to change the email/phone # on the new one? I would actually prefer to remove the 2nd account and just create a whole new account altogether. It’s for a business and I want my co-founder to be able to add photos as well so I’d rather it go under the business name and not be associated with me at all. If I remove the account, will that account still exist?
You’ll have to look up how to delete the account as opposed to simply unlinking it.
Thankyou so much! It’s obvious when you know how to do it, but I couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong
Clear, concise and perfect.
Thankyou again, Louise
What’s your suggested course of action if you’re managing 15 accounts? Is there an app to install? What about posting to instagram accounts from a laptop?
Thanks for your help! 🙂
JLB
If you manage that many accounts, you’ll definitely want to check out these Instagram marketing partners to post from your computer.
I am new to IG. My daughter put IG on my phone but deleted it when she was given her own iphone. I now need to put IG on my phone to manage the social media for a small business I work for. It is an existing account. I have to this point been managing it on my bosses iphone. He asked me if I could manage it from my personal phone. Can I do this?
I would be wary about logging in via different phones. Really the best solution would be to use an Instagram-approved partner to manage the business account.
The issue is that with multiple accounts, posting pictures is too annoying.
Before, if I wanted to share a picture from my gallery, I clicked on “share” and then “Instagram”.
Now, I have to open the instagram app, choose the right account, open the gallery, find the photo and share.
When you share directly from the gallery it doesn’t ask you WHICH account but it uses the current one.
I know, it’s not a big deal, but it annoys me!
I get it, but there’s probably nothing that can be done to change this, as Instagram only allows their approved marketing partners to post to IG accounts.
Hi, I have 2 IG accounts. I don’t have a problem switching between them using my iPhone, but I can’t do it on my computer. Since most of my pictures are on my computer I would like to use it instead. Is there a way to switch accounts using a computer or is that not available yet. Thank you.
You have to log out of one and log into the other.
Hi! What if you used the same email and phone number for both your personal account & business account & cannot log in to the business account?
If you figure something out, please let us know. You need to have a unique phone number and/or email for each account.
Hi Louise,
I just set up my 2nd (business) account with the same phone number.
I am currently logged into both accounts. Is there a way to change the phone number to an email because then I can use a different one than for the 1st account. Thank you!
Christine, I don’t know of a way to do this. I would look in your account settings to see if you can add an email.
Hi on my android I added my dogs account through the same Facebook
Now I got an iPhone and cannot sign in to dogs account? can I go into my android phone and change the sign in info?
I have no idea. Why not try it?
Hi I have my IG account connected to my daughters account and in the last few days I can switch back and forth but when I go to her account it says can’t refresh and I can’t see her messages and friends. What can I do to fix this?
When I see “can’t refresh” it’s because my iPad isn’t finding wifi (even if I’m next to the modem!). I’m not sure in this case. Perhaps she’s blocked you?
How do I disable or remove a second account I created? I understand how to log out of that account so it doesn’t appear on my phone, but how do I disable the added account so that it’s not searchable any longer without it affecting my primary account? Thank you!
This info is from Instagram. To permanently delete your account:
Go to the Delete Your Account page. If you’re not logged into Instagram on the web, you’ll be asked to log in first. You can’t delete your account from within the Instagram app.
Select an option from the drop-down menu next to Why are you deleting your account? and re-enter your password. The option to permanently delete your account will only appear after you’ve selected a reason from the menu.
Click or tap Permanently delete my account.
I created a third account then it locked me out of my second account only.
Meaning you can’t log into that account at all? I don’t have any advice as I’ve never experienced problems with account switching. I have 5 on 1 device and 3 on another.
I just created a second IG account, and everything seems to be fine. I actually was reading this to see if I could switch accounts easily using my computer, but someone asked and you answered so I get that. But I am trying to understand what the problem is in using the same phone number for both accounts? Sorry to be dense! I did use a different email account, because it prompted me to do so. But I only have (and can afford!) one phone, so what problems might I encounter, please?
You would not be able to recover the password for the 2nd account.
Hi, My husband made a secondary account for our business. He doesn’t have time for it now and I need to be able to access it from my phone through my account. I have tried adding, logging in etc and it won’t work. How do we fix this? Thanks!
This is all I know:
Go to YOUR profile and tap the gear or settings icon in the top right.*
Scroll down and tap Add Account. It’s near the bottom.
Enter the username and password of the account you’d like to add.
Or log in with Facebook if that’s how you set up the other account.
I’ve never heard of this not working and have no idea what’s wrong.
I just tried something that worked on iPhone.
Logout of all accounts, then a page with all the accounts and a switch button in front of each ig handle will open. Use the switch button to select which account you want the app to remember when logging in again.
Once that is done, select logout and all your accounts will log out.
The next page will come with 1 of the remaining account for you to login to.
Once you login to that the other account will also be remembered and the “unwanted” will be gone.
Very safe.
Wow, this sounds cool! Thanks Michael.
Great read Louise.
When i first startet doing instagram, i got alot of “shadow bans” because going way to aggresive. Learned alot by the years by now. And couldn’t agree more on what u say.
Hi Louise,
I have two Instagram accounts that I use, one with my first last name and one in the reverse, surname then first name (Example, @johndoe, and @doejohn) I forgot I had the one with my first then the last name and have been using the other. I would like to switch my @doejohn to @johndoe and I know I will have to delete the other account to do so and then change my profile name on my @doejohn to @johndoe but I am afraid I would lose the name if it cannot be done instantly. I have been publishing a good bit of content on my @doejohn and do not want to lose the content. I want to make the switch for brand purposes. I am a Leadership Coach.
I hope I made sense. I would appreciate any advice you can provide.
Thank you!
Instagram says that deleted account names aren’t released to be used again. I wouldn’t recommend testing this theory!
Hi! I have a second Instagram account but it does not allow me to repost or share to my story. When I click on the share arrow it only allows me to send to people individually.
I have the same problem . . .
Hi Louise,
My name’s Kudran. Can I ask you a favour? I don’t know what happened to my IG account. First time I made an Instagram account I used Google, and by mistake I tapped on ‘save password’. Then I use IG app and usually log in from there.
Yesterday I created a page on Facebook along with a new IG page from there using Chrome browser desktop view. When it’s all done I tried to log in the new account but it couldn’t open. It keeps showing my first account. I tried to input my new account but still it couldn’t open, and now even worse, when I clicked on my first account just as it is shown, it also couldn’t open saying that the username doesn’t belong to an account. I tried setting the password in chrome to ‘off mode’ but still it doesn’t work.
When I created the new account from Facebook it didn’t ask for password, just email. When I open Instagram from Chrome it shows my first account with already written password but it cannot open.
Could you help me with this problem? What should I do to restore and also use the new account ?
Thank you very much
Unfortunately I have no idea how to help.
Thank you! Solved my problem with getting accounts off my app. 🙂
Thanks Louise! You are always my first GO – TO blog when I need to know something that can easily be implemented! *fist bumps*
*fist bumps back!*
Hey! I did make my second instagram account by using my phone number because I didn’t have two emails. Now I can’t sign into that account. Am I forever locked out of that account or can I recover it? Every time I try to sign in on that account, it just redirects me to my main account.
I don’t know of any way to recover it IF you used the same phone number to sign in on both accounts. If you used an email on one and phone on the other, you should be able to.
I have 3 accounts. I recently logged in to do the top 9 and ever since, two of them keep making me make a new password every time I log in. They have two separate email addresses but are both linked to my Facebook. My facebook email is the same as my personal accounts on both platforms but is different for my business IG page. My business IG is linked to my business Facebook page. I’m wondering if the linking between platforms is what is making me reauthenticate every time?? HELP PLEASE.
No, I have different emails for all 5 of my accounts and only 1 matches FB. Sounds like the Top 9 site did something weird but I have no idea what. You could try contacting them…
So it shouldn’t matter that my Facebook links to my personal and business?
Not sure of your question. I have 4 business pages and a personal FB, all linked to 5 different IG accounts and I have no problems.
I have 3 instagram accounts. When I switched Iphone from Iphone 7 to Iphone XR, my main instagram account was installed but not the other two accounts. I remember my main email address, the 2nd email address, but don’t remember the 3rd one. How do I find out the email address so I can add my third instagram to my account? Thank you.
If it was a business account and you had the email public as a way to contact you, that would be the way. Just go to the bio and send yourself an email.
I assume you didn’t so… my only idea is to start trying your other emails! Or searching in these email accounts for the signup email from Instagram.
I have permanently deleted all unwanted accounts on IG but when I try to add account it says Cant add Account you already have maximum number of accounts active. I only have two accounts. How can I fix this? even when I go to log out of all accounts it only show the two active that I have.
Hi. I’m stumped I have a personal ig account I added my photography page to the same account using add business feature but now I have a small business in a different field and want a ig account for this also how can I add an additional account my new business has a different email to my other accounts but I get to age verification on setting a new page and that where it stops telling me to use at most 30 characters in which I have changed my name size and it still has no affect. All advice greatly appreciated