New York (CNN) – Some Instagram users received a shocking notification from the application on Wednesday: certain photos were permanently deleted from the app’s Stories files, with no possibility of recovery.
“This story is no longer available,” some users saw in certain Stories. “Due to a technical issue, this story is no longer available. Although we have already solved this problem, its history cannot be restored.”
Meta, which owns Instagram, declined to share how many users were affected, but said only people whose Stories were lost will see the notice.
“We found and fixed a bug that caused some people’s Story highlights and archives to be deleted. Unfortunately, we are unable to restore these Stories and we are letting people know in the app if they are affected,” a Meta spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Meta said the black screen displaying the error message would be gone by July 2025.
Instagram Stories are a more casual and less involved form of posting. Users can upload photos, videos or text messages that disappear within 24 hours.
More exclusive content can go to a curated list of Close Friends or be permanently placed on your profile as a featured story.
Stories differ from regular photos in that they are often customized with music, gifs, text, filters, and interactive features like polls.
Many users treat their Stories archives like a photo diary: from memes, screenshots of Spotify songs to show off their musical tastes, to relaxing poolside photos from a beach vacation. Instagram even displays “memories” in the archives tab, pulling up an old story of what the user did that day from years past.
Some people also use story files as a way to store photos and videos.
Instagram doesn’t automatically save Stories to the camera roll unless users turn on a setting; instead, they are automatically uploaded to story archives, which is what the bug affected along with featured stories.
The bug serves as a reminder that relying on a single backup method can be a bad idea. For important memories, people should make sure to back up photos, videos, and other media outside of an app, no matter how trustworthy the company is.
