Ever looked at your Instagram profile and felt a sudden wave of cringe? Maybe it’s a "Summer 2022" highlight that features way too many blurry concert videos, or perhaps a collection of stories from an ex that you definitely don't need front and center anymore. We've all been there. Instagram highlights are great for giving your best stories a permanent home, but sometimes they just overstay their welcome. Knowing exactly how to delete highlights on instagram is basically a digital hygiene requirement these days. It’s not just about hitting a delete button; it’s about curating a vibe that actually represents who you are right now.
Clean up. Move on.
The process is actually pretty straightforward, yet I’ve seen people accidentally delete their entire archive because they tapped the wrong thing. That’s a nightmare. Instagram’s interface changes so often—especially with the 2024 and 2025 updates to the profile layout—that it’s easy to get lost in the sub-menus. Honestly, the hardest part is usually deciding which memories are worth keeping and which ones are just cluttering up your page.
The Quick Way to Remove a Whole Highlight
If you want the entire circle gone from your profile, you don't need to go into each individual story. That would take forever. Instead, you just head to your profile page. Locate that little circle you want to kill off. Long-press it. A menu pops up from the bottom of your screen, and you'll see an option in red that says "Delete Highlight." Tap it. Confirm it. Boom—it's gone.
Just like that, the entire collection vanishes from your public-facing profile. But here is the thing: deleting a highlight does not delete the stories from your Archive. Instagram keeps those tucked away in the back end of your account unless you manually go into the Archive and wipe them out there, too. It’s a nice safety net. If you have a change of heart three months from now and realize that blurry concert footage was actually kind of iconic, you can usually rebuild the highlight from your Archive.
How to Delete Highlights on Instagram One Story at a Time
Sometimes you don't want to nuke the whole highlight. Maybe you just want to remove one specific, embarrassing photo from a "Travel" highlight while keeping the rest of the trip intact. This is a surgical operation. You open the highlight, tap through until you find the specific slide that needs to go, and then look for the "More" icon—those three little dots in the bottom right corner.
Tap those dots. You’ll see "Remove from highlight."
This is where people get confused. There is a difference between "Delete" and "Remove from highlight." If you see a "Delete" option, it might actually delete the story from your profile and your archive entirely. If you just want it out of the highlight, make sure you're selecting the removal option. It’s a subtle distinction that saves a lot of heartache later.
I’ve talked to creators who accidentally wiped out their most viewed stories because they weren't paying attention to the wording in that pop-up menu. Instagram's UI can be a bit of a trickster.
Why Your Highlight Might Not Be Deleting
Technology is glitchy. Sometimes you hit delete, the circle disappears, and then—like a ghost—it reappears the next time you open the app. If you're struggling with how to delete highlights on instagram because the app won't cooperate, it’s usually one of three things.
- Your cache is full of junk.
- Your internet connection flickered right as you hit the button.
- You’re running an ancient version of the app.
Try a hard restart of the app. If that fails, check your web browser version of Instagram. Deleting highlights from a desktop is sometimes more stable than the mobile app, especially if your phone is struggling with storage space. It feels a bit "old school" to log into Instagram on a laptop, but it’s a solid troubleshooting step.
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The Stealth Method: Hiding Content Without Deleting
There is a weird middle ground. Let's say you want to keep a highlight for yourself but you don't want your followers—or maybe one specific person—to see it. Instagram doesn't have a "private highlight" feature yet, which is honestly annoying. But you can use the "Close Friends" work-around.
If you create a highlight consisting only of "Close Friends" stories, only the people on that list can see it. Everyone else sees nothing. It’s a clever way to keep your memories accessible on your profile without making them public.
Alternatively, if you're trying to hide stories from someone specific, you can go into your settings and hide your story from them entirely. If they can’t see your stories, they can’t see your highlights. It’s a scorched-earth policy, but it works perfectly if you’re trying to maintain some privacy without actually deleting your digital history.
Managing the Archive
Your Archive is the "basement" of your Instagram account. Every story you’ve posted since roughly 2017 is probably sitting in there. When you learn how to delete highlights on instagram, you’re really just managing the "display case" in the lobby.
To find the real files:
- Go to your profile.
- Tap the three lines (the hamburger menu) in the top right.
- Tap "Archive."
- Use the dropdown at the top to select "Stories Archive."
From here, you can see every single slide you’ve ever posted. If you truly want a story gone from the face of the earth, you have to delete it here. Deleting it from a highlight only removes it from your profile's front page. It’s important to understand this because if you’re deleting things for privacy reasons, the Archive is where the real work happens.
The Strategy of a Clean Profile
Why bother? Because a cluttered profile looks messy. In the early days of Instagram, people used highlights like folders. "Food." "Dogs." "Gym." Now, the trend is moving toward "Core" highlights or aesthetic "Photo Dumps."
If you have fifteen highlights, nobody is clicking on the fourteenth one. They just aren't. Most users only look at the first three or four. By deleting the old stuff, you force people to look at your most recent, relevant content. It's basically SEO for your personal brand.
I once helped a small business owner who had highlights from a sale that ended in 2021. Customers were still clicking on it and getting frustrated that the discounts weren't active. That’s a prime example of why knowing how to delete highlights on instagram matters for more than just vanity. It’s about accuracy.
Common Misconceptions
You might think that deleting a highlight loses you the "views" or "insights" associated with it. Not really. Those insights are tied to the original story post, which remains in your professional dashboard or archive for a limited time anyway. Highlights don't actually "collect" views in the way a Reel does; they just show who has seen that story recently.
Another myth: "If I delete a highlight, my followers get a notification."
Absolutely not.
Instagram is many things, but it isn't that cruel. You can overhaul your entire profile at 3:00 AM and nobody will be the wiser until they visit your page and notice it looks suspiciously cleaner.
Final Steps for a Fresh Start
Once you’ve successfully removed the clutter, don't just leave a blank space. The best way to follow up after you delete highlights on instagram is to create one intentional, well-curated highlight that serves as a "Start Here" for new visitors.
Check your "Recently Deleted" folder if you make a mistake. Instagram keeps deleted items for 30 days before they are gone forever. You can find this in your Activity settings. If you accidentally nuked a highlight that contained the only video of your graduation, go there immediately.
To keep your profile looking sharp moving forward:
- Use custom cover icons to make the circles look uniform.
- Keep titles short so they don't get cut off by ellipses.
- Regularly audit your highlights every few months to see what’s still relevant.
- Avoid putting "Current" in a highlight name—it won't stay current for long.
The power to curate is in your hands. Take five minutes today to look at your profile through the eyes of a stranger. If those old highlights don't tell the story you want to tell, you know what to do.
Now that the old highlights are gone, you can focus on creating new ones with high-quality covers. Open your remaining highlights, select "Edit Highlight," and then "Edit Cover" to upload a clean, branded image from your camera roll. This simple change makes your profile look professional and organized without needing a total overhaul. Regularly checking your Archive to see which past stories could be revived into a "Throwback" highlight is another great way to keep your engagement up without much extra effort.