The recent Instagram glitch that led to the deletion of Story highlights and archives was rooted in a technical bug that impacted how the app managed and stored user-generated content.
What happened?
A bug in Instagram’s backend system caused some users’ Story highlights and archives to be deleted. This bug disrupted the storage mechanism that is responsible for maintaining these user-generated content archives.
The glitch specifically affected the Story highlights and the Story archives. Story Highlights are collections of Stories that users choose to save permanently on their profiles, while Story Archives are where Instagram automatically stores all the Stories users have posted.
The reason
The technical issue likely stemmed from an error in the data management system or the software infrastructure that handles the archiving and retrieval of Stories. This could have involved an issue with the database where Stories are stored or a flaw in the code responsible for querying and displaying these archived Stories.
During the period the bug was active, some data entries related to Stories might have been corrupted or erroneously flagged for deletion. This would have resulted in the Stories becoming inaccessible or disappearing from the archives.
The response
Once Meta identified the bug, they worked to fix the underlying problem. This included patching the system to prevent further loss and ensuring that the mechanism for saving and retrieving Stories was restored to normal operation.
Despite fixing the bug, the damage caused was irreversible for those affected. The deleted Stories could not be recovered due to the nature of the data corruption or deletion. The error messages seen by users indicated that the affected content was permanently lost and could not be restored.
Meta communicated the issue to impacted users through in-app notifications, informing them that their Stories could not be restored due to the bug.
Meta has stated that the error message indicating the deleted content will be present until July 2025, when they expect to have fully resolved all residual issues related to the glitch.
Featured image credit: Alexander Shatov/Unsplash
