Outside the UK? Read the global version of this guide.
Instagram handles a death through two separate requests, and the one families usually want is the one with the stricter rules. Memorialising is quick and open to anyone. Removing the profile is reserved for verified immediate family or the person handling the estate, and Instagram lists exactly what it accepts as proof. Get that right first time and the request moves; get it wrong and it quietly stalls.
In short: to memorialise, send the username and a link to an obituary or news article. To remove, send the person's death certificate, your proof of relationship or the grant of probate, and the username. Save the photos before either. And check whether the person set a legacy contact or "delete after death" in their own settings, because Instagram will follow that.
Save the photos first
A memorialised profile cannot be logged into, and a removed one is gone. Photos on a public or followed profile can be saved one by one from any account that can see them, and a laptop is quicker than a phone for this. If the person's phone is unlocked, the camera roll usually holds the originals in better quality. If the family wants everything, Instagram's own data download needs the person's login, which you may have on a device they stayed signed in on. Do this before anything else.
Check what the person chose
Instagram now lets people name a legacy contact, who can look after a memorialised profile, and choose delete after death instead, which means Instagram deletes the profile as soon as it receives a valid memorialisation request. If the person chose deletion, that is what will happen, whatever the family asks for. If a legacy contact exists, they will be told when the profile is memorialised, and they are the only person who can change anything on it afterwards.
Route one: memorialise
The name after the @ sign, copied from the profile. Not the display name, not the web address. A full stop and an underscore look alike on a phone, so copy rather than type.
In the Instagram Help Centre, search "Report a deceased person's profile" and follow the link to the memorialisation form. The report option inside the app is for content that breaks the rules and goes to a different team.
Instagram asks for a link to an obituary or news article. A death notice on a funeral director's site or a newspaper's notices page works. A photo of the death certificate is accepted too.
When it is done, "Remembering" appears next to the name, nobody can log in, the profile stops appearing in Explore and in suggestions, and the posts stay visible to the people who could see them before.
Route two: remove
Instagram's own words are that verified immediate family members may request removal, and it lists the proof it accepts:
- The deceased person's birth certificate.
- The deceased person's death certificate.
- Proof of authority under local law that you are the lawful representative of the person or their estate. In the UK that is the grant of probate, or letters of administration where there was no will.
In practice, send the death certificate and one document that connects you to the person: your own birth certificate naming them as a parent, a marriage certificate, or the grant. If your surname is different from theirs, that connecting document is the one that gets the request through. Our documents guide explains each one.
From the same Help Centre page, follow the removal link rather than the memorialisation one. It asks for your details, the username and the documents.
Clear photos or PDFs, names that match, and a line explaining any difference between the name on the profile and the name on the certificate.
Instagram gives no timescale and its reply often lands in junk folders. Silence is usually a request that has not been looked at, not one that has been refused.
Facebook is separate
A memorialised or removed Facebook profile does nothing to the Instagram account, even when the two are linked in Meta's Accounts Centre. Send both requests, with the same documents. Our Facebook UK guide covers that side. Threads follows the Instagram account.
Where families get stuck
- "Invalid username." Nearly always the format: the web address or the @ sign pasted in. Username only.
- Removal refused. Usually memorialisation-level proof sent for a removal request. Add the death certificate and the connecting document.
- The account is posting or following people. It has been taken over. Report it at instagram.com/hacked as well, and warn relatives not to reply to messages from it.
- The profile has vanished. It may have been suspended by Meta's systems. Meta gives 180 days to appeal by logging in, after which the account is deleted for good.
If a request you have already sent is not working, our page on Instagram deceased account requests that are not working goes through each problem and the next step.
Or let us handle Instagram and everything else
Departed Digital sends the right Instagram request with the proof that matches it, resubmits on schedule, handles Facebook and every other account in the same case, and gives the family a written record at the end. We never ask for passwords. Packages start from £149, and Essential covers Instagram plus one other account.
Instagram and Facebook both? Start a case with both ticked and we will run the two requests together.