5 Easy Methods: How to Download and Save Instagram Stories

Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours.

And if you do not save them or archive them, you will end up losing all the hard work you’ve put into creating your beautiful Instagram story.

To avoid this, and make sure you never lose an Instagram story, here are a few methods that you can use in order to save your Instagram stories.

Instagram stories platform
Instagram stories platform

Display your Instagram stories on any website automatically

Try EmbedStories to capture, save, and embed Instagram stories on any website!

Start a 7-day free trial

All features included | Live support available

Let’s break down each of these methods and how to use story downloader tools in practice:

1. Save stories in a web-based app

If you want to make sure your Instagram stories are saved in a web-based app and reachable anytime, we suggest you try EmbedStories.

It is a professional tool for Instagram stories that can automatically download and save your Instagram stories.

Here are the benefits that EmbedStories provide:

  • Save all elements of the Instagram story, such as photos and videos
  • Create a gallery from multiple Instagram photo stories
  • Embed and display your Instagram stories on any website
  • Create different web widgets and story sliders that have a specific embeddable code and can be showcased on different websites
  • Archive and save IG stories from multiple Instagram accounts that you manage

And here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to use EmbedStories as your Instagram Story downloader and archive all your Instagram stories in a web-based app:

  • Log in to EmbedStories or create an account
  • Connect your Facebook account
  • Allow the system to get your Instagram accounts
  • Click ‘Select source‘ next to the account from where you want the system to fetch the Instagram stories

That’s it.

Once you finish the steps, the active story from the selected Instagram account will show in the ‘My stories‘ section.

The best, you will be able to embed them in amazing slider, popover, or grid widgets directly on your website.

embed  instagram stories widget
embed  instagram stories widget

And every time you post stories, EmbedStories will fetch them and save them in your account, automatically syncing the widgets displayed on your website.

Instagram stories platform
Instagram stories platform

Display your Instagram stories on any website automatically

Try EmbedStories to capture, save, and embed Instagram stories on any website!

Start a 7-day free trial

All features included | Live support available

Using EmbedStories is perfect for agencies or people who manage multiple Instagram accounts.

It will save you tons of time and money to capture all the stories you post, analyze, and possibly use in the future again.

Additionally, it allows you to create and embed a photo stories widget with any photo that fits the story format or a video stories widget with any vertical videos you take on your phone.

Using Instagram story tools can help marketers get their Instagram marketing game to the next level.

2. Archive stories in your Instagram app

This is a great option provided as a setting in your Instagram app.

It allows you to activate an Archive option that automatically saves all stories you publish on Instagram.

To activate this option, follows the steps below:

save instagram story
save instagram story

  • Open your Instagram account and click on the ‘Settings icon.
  • Click on ‘Archive’
  • In the ‘Saving’ section, activate the options ‘Save Story to Archive‘ (Android) or ‘Save to Camera Roll‘ (iOS)

That’s it. Now every time you post an Instagram story, it will be saved in the Archive section, from where you can easily download stories into your phone library.

Instagram stories archive
Instagram stories archive

To access this section and view the saved stories, follow the steps below:

  • Open your Instagram account and click ‘Settings’,
  • Click on ‘Archive’,
  • The Archive screen will pop up, where you will find all stories categorized by date.

Now your Instagram stories are saved forever in your Instagram account.

One of the greatest benefits of saving Instagram stories in Archive is the future possibility to repost or re-use these stories to create Instagram Stories Highlights.

3. How to download Instagram stories on iPhone

If you do not want to save every story to your Camera Roll, you can choose to save a particular story manually.

To do this, follow the steps below:

  • View your active story
  • Click on the 3 dots at the bottom of the story and tap ‘Save.’
  • Select ‘Save Photo/Video’ to save the individual photo or video stories, or
  • select ‘Save Story’ to save everything from your story as a single video

This simple method requires you to download each story once they are published manually.

The format of the story that you will download is a vertical video.

4. Save stories in ‘Highlights’

This is a recent upgrade to Instagram stories, and it allows users to create Highlight sections on their Instagram profile from the stories after they’ve disappeared.

The sections can be viewed by others and work similarly to Pinterest boards.

The idea behind Instagram Stories Highlights is to create themed highlights where you can save and publicly store stories or posts that you think are worth the attention.

The benefits of having highlights for businesses are the following:

  • Easy access to categorized posts and stories
  • Highlight specific products or collections
  • Highlight customer testimonials
  • Add Highlight with the FAQ section about your business

And lots of more applications that you can try and use on your Instagram profile.

Here is how to save an Instagram story in Highlights:

instagram stories highlight
instagram stories highlight

  • Open the active story or go to your Archive and click on the saved stories
  • Click on the Highlight icon at the bottom of the story screen
  • Choose a Highlight category or just ‘Add new

That’s it.

Now your story will appear in the Highlight right below your details in your Instagram profile page.

You can also create a Highlight of the archived stories by simply following these steps:

  • Go to your profile and tap the + icon in Stories Highlights below your profile details
  • Tap to select the story or stories you want to add to highlights, then tap Next
  • Choose a cover photo and enter a story name for your highlight, then tap Add

You can add more photos or videos to your highlight at any time by tapping Edit Highlight.

How to save entire Highlight in one video

This is one of the most required options already available in the native Instagram app.

To  save the entire Highlight with a single click, follow the steps below:

  1. Go to your profile and click on a Highlight
  2. Click on the people photos in the bottom left corner  or just swipe up
  3. Click on the top bar download icon (as shown below)

save entire highlights story video
save entire highlights story video

The entire Highlight will be converted into one video and saved in your phone Camera Roll.

That’s it.

How to embed Instagram Stories Highlights on your website

As mentioned above, the EmbedStories platform can easily help you organize your generated Instagram stories in groups similar to Instagram Highlights (no need to download the Instagram highlights).

This unique feature will provide you with a code to embed these Highlights on your website.

This is how the widget will look like in action:

If you think this feature will level up your Instagram marketing strategy, check out our step-by-step guide on how to embed Instagram Stories Highlights on any website.

Instagram stories platform
Instagram stories platform

Display your Instagram stories on any website automatically

Try EmbedStories to capture, save, and embed Instagram stories on any website!

Start a 7-day free trial

All features included | Live support available

5. Share and save story as a post

With this option, you can share IG stories on your Instagram feed and basically save them in your account.

To do this and share an Instagram story as a post, follow the steps:

  • View your active story
  • Click on the 3 dots at the bottom of the story and tap “Save”
  • Select Share as Post

That’s it, the story photo or video will appear in your Instagram feed and can be seen in the feeds of your followers like any other Instagram post.

Save other peoples’ Instagram stories

Please note that there is no official Instagram API option to save other people’s Instagram stories. But, if for any reason you want to save someone’s Instagram story then you might try these methods.

Instagram story saver

Look for mobile apps in your Google Play Store or Apple App Store for an Instagram story saver app that can fetch your friends’ Instagram stories.

Usually, story downloaders request users to enter their Instagram username and click on the download button in order to save a story.

Make a screenshot of an Instagram story (Not recommended)

You can always take a screenshot and save a photo of the story but this is just a caption of the story format and it will not work if you want to save videos. Unless you use a video capture app.

Also, you might ask does Instagram notify screenshots of stories?

Yes! If you make a screenshot of stories posted by other people, Instagram will notify them that you’ve made a screenshot.

Bonus: How to download Instagram videos

There are few Instagram video downloader tools, and in this post, we will show you how to download Instagram videos with StorySaver. 

It is one of the easiest ways to download Instagram videos on your smartphone and PC via a browser and reuse them as Instagram stories and Instagram Highlights. 

Download Instagram videos on iPhone

  1. Open Safari and go to StorySaver to download Instagram videos;
  2. Go to Instagram and choose a public video and tap on the “three dots” in the top right corner to copy the video URL;
  3. Go back to Safari to Storysaver.net and enter the Instagram video URL in the search box, and hit Download;
  4. Scroll down to see the video and hit “Save as video”;
  5. Safari will ask if you want to download the video and press “Download”;
  6. On your iPhone go to “Files> Downloads” and click on the video;
  7. Tap on the bottom left corner icon and choose “Save Video,” and the video will appear in your “Photos” app.

Download Instagram videos on Android

  1. Open Google Chrome and go to StorySaver
  2. Go to Instagram and choose a public video and tap on the “three dots” in the top right corner to copy the video URL;
  3. Go back to Chrome to Storysaver.net and enter the Instagram video URL in the search box, and hit Download;
  4. Scroll down to see the video and hit “Save as video”;
  5. The Instagram video will save in your “Gallery app > Downloads”.

Download Instagram videos on PC

  1. Open Google Chrome and go to StorySaver;
  2. Go to Instagram and choose a public video, and tap on the “three dots” in the top right corner to copy the video URL;
  3. Go back to Chrome to Storysaver.net and enter the Instagram video URL in the search box, and hit “Download”;
  4. Scroll down to see the video and hit “Save as video”;
  5. The Instagram video will save in your “Downloads” folder.

NOTE: Before downloading Instagram videos, you must ensure two things: take creators’ permission to download and ensure that you can download videos from public accounts. 

Hope this guide helps you do more with Instagram stories and Instagram videos.

FAQs on saving Instagram stories

How to save Instagram stories on iPhone?

It’s actually really easy to save Instagram stories on your iPhone. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Download an IG story downloader app from the App Store. There are plenty of them to choose from, so just pick one that you like.
2. Open the app and log in with your Instagram credentials – username and password
3. Find the story you want to save, and tap on the “Download” button
4. The story will be saved to your camera roll!

That’s all there is to it. Saving Instagram stories is easy and quick with an IG story downloader app. So go ahead and download one now so you can start saving all your favorite Instagram stories.

How do you save videos from Instagram stories?

To save your own videos from your Stories, just tap on the Top right three-dot icon and tap Save so the stories download in your iPhone’s camera roll. It works the same as with the photos.

Can you save old Instagram stories?

There is an option in Archive that you can activate and have all your stories continuously archived in your account. To activate this option, tap on the top menu icon in your profile and tap Archive. In the Archive, tap the top right three dots and tap on Settings. Then find the option Save story to archive and activate it. Now all your stories will automatically save in your archive so you dont have to save them to your phone.

How do you save other people’s Instagram stories to your phone?

To save other people’s stories, you can use a third-party app like Toolzu. To use this app, just go to their website, enter the username of the person from where you want to download stories, and click Download. Please wait for up to 30 seconds so their system can generate their latest live stories.

How do I download Instagram story on a computer?

Unfortunately, you can’t download Instagram stories on a computer directly from your Instagram app. But you can use an IG story downloader app that will allow you to save the story to your computer.

Here’s how:
1. Google search for an ‘IG story downloader’ on your computer
2. You can find an Insta stories saver app like StorySaver and go to their website
3. Type the Instagram username
4. Find the story you want to save, and tap on “Download”.

That’s it.

Please note: you can only download the current, public Instagram stories.

Instagram stories platform
Instagram stories platform

Display your Instagram stories on any website automatically

Try EmbedStories to capture, save, and embed Instagram stories on any website!

Start a 7-day free trial

All features included | Live support available