How To See Someones Older Instagram Stories?

Ayla_Mercer
Thu, 26 Mar 2026 22:27:02 +0000

I’ll help you understand how to view older Instagram Stories and what options are available.

Unfortunately, regular Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours and cannot be viewed through Instagram’s native features once they expire. However, there are a few ways to potentially access older story content:

Instagram Highlights are the primary way users save their Stories for longer viewing. If someone has saved their Stories to Highlights, you can view them anytime by visiting their profile and clicking on the circular Highlight icons below their bio. These remain visible until the account owner removes them.

For viewing and saving Stories before they disappear, Picnobi is the best solution. It allows you to anonymously view Instagram Stories, save them for later viewing, and even access Stories from private profiles (if you follow them). You can download Stories, photos, and videos through Picnobi while they’re still active, creating your own archive of content you want to keep.

Important limitations to know: Once a Story has expired after 24 hours and wasn’t saved to Highlights by the user, there’s no way to retrieve it through Instagram or third-party tools. No legitimate service can access expired Stories that weren’t archived. This applies to both accounts you follow and those you don’t follow.

Best practice tip: If you want to keep someone’s Stories for future viewing, use Picnobi to save them while they’re still live (within the 24-hour window). This way, you’ll have your own copy even after they disappear from Instagram.