How to Add More Photos to an Instagram Draft

You’ve meticulously crafted the perfect Instagram carousel, written an amazing caption, and lined up your hashtags, but just before hitting Share, you realize you’ve forgotten a key photo. This common moment of panic is followed by an even more frustrating discovery: Instagram doesn't offer a simple add another photo button for a post you’ve already saved as a draft. This guide will walk you through exactly what to do when you're stuck, show you how to work around this limitation, and provide strategies to prevent it from happening again.

The Annoying Truth About Instagram Drafts

Let's get the bad news out of the way first. Once you have selected a group of photos or videos for a carousel post and saved it as a draft, you cannot directly go back and add more photos or videos to that specific draft. The media selection for a draft is locked in once you move past the initial gallery screen. You can edit the caption, tag people, add a location, or even reorder the images you've already selected, but you can't expand the lineup.

This is a long-standing limitation within the Instagram app that throws a wrench in the workflow of creators and social media managers everywhere. While it seems like a simple feature to include, the app's current structure doesn't support it. But don't worry, you aren't stuck. There's a simple and reliable workaround that will take you less than a minute to complete.

The Easiest Workaround: A Fresh Start with Copy and Paste

The most straightforward and foolproof method to add a photo to your would-be carousel is to start over while saving all the work you’ve already done on the caption and details. Think of it less as deleting a draft and more as transferring your creative work to a new, complete version.

Here’s the step-by-step process:

Step 1: Open Your Existing Draft

First, you need to access the information you want to save. To find your drafts, tap the + icon at the bottom of the screen as if you’re creating a new post. At the top of your phone's gallery, you should see a "Drafts" tab next to "Recents." Tap on it and select the draft you want to edit.

• If you don’t see a "Drafts" tab, it means you don't have any saved. Remember, drafts are saved locally to your device, so you won't see them if you log in on a different phone.

Step 2: Copy Everything You've Written

Once your draft is open, tap "Next" until you get to the final screen with your caption. Diligently copy everything you've painstakingly created. This includes:

• The Caption: Tap and hold on the text field and choose "Select All," then "Copy." This is the most important part!
• Location (Mentally Note It): Remember the location you tagged.
• Tagged Accounts: Take a mental note or screenshot of who you were tagging in each photo so you can re-tag them quickly.
• Hashtags and Alt Text: If you've placed your hashtags in the main caption, they'll be copied along with it. If you added Alt Text, you'll have to re-do this part.

After you’ve copied your text, do not share the post. Just use the back arrow twice to exit out of the draft completely.

Step 3: Begin a Brand New Post

Now, tap the + icon again to start from scratch. This time, carefully select all your original photos in the right order, and now include the one (or more) that you wish you’d added in the first place.

Pro Tip: To make this easier, favorite the images you want to use in your phone's gallery before you even start the process a second time. This way, they'll all be conveniently located in your "Favorites" album for quick selection.

Step 4: Paste and Re-Apply All Your Details

Proceed through the editing and filtering screens until you get to the final caption screen. This is where your copied information comes in handy.

• Paste Your Caption: Tap into the caption box, hold, and select "Paste." Your caption and hashtags should reappear perfectly.
• Add Your Location: Tap "Add Location" and find the place you noted earlier.
• Tag People: Tap "Tag People," swipe through your carousel, and re-tag the accounts on the correct images.
• Fill in Advanced Settings: If you used features like Alt Text or other advanced settings, you'll need to fill those out again.

Take one final moment to proofread everything one last time. Now that all your photos are included and your caption is back in place, you’re finally ready to go.

Step 5: Share and Delete the Old Draft

Hit "Share," and your perfect, complete carousel will be posted. Once it's live, it's good practice to go back into your drafts folder and delete the old, incomplete version to avoid confusion for future posts.

To delete a draft, go to your drafts folder, tap "Manage" in the corner, select the unwanted draft, and tap "Discard."

How to Prevent The Draft Dilemma in the Future

Working around a technical limitation is one thing, but establishing a better workflow to avoid the problem altogether is even smarter. As social media marketers and brand builders, being efficient is everything. Here are a few strategies to make your content creation process smoother.

Finalize Your Visuals First

The simplest advice is often the most effective. Before you even open the Instagram app to create a post, get your visuals 100% sorted. Decide on every single photo and video that will be in your post. Edit them, prepare them, and consider them "final" before they make their way into an Instagram draft.

This disciplined approach forces you to be more intentional with your content and eliminates the last-minute scramble of "Oh, I should have included that photo too!"

Create a "Ready to Post" Album on Your Phone

A little bit of organization in your Camera Roll can go a long way. Create a dedicated photo album on your phone titled "Instagram - To Post" or "Ready for IG." As you gather and edit assets for an upcoming post, put the final versions into this album.

When you're ready to create the post in Instagram, you can just navigate to that album. All your assets will be right there, in one place. You can select them all in the perfect order without having to hunt through your main gallery, reducing the chance of forgetting something.

Use an External Content Planner or Social Media Management Tool

One of the best ways to get ahead of platform limitations is to build your content outside the native app. Social media management platforms are built specifically for planning and drafting content in a more flexible environment.

These tools allow you to do things the Instagram app can't:

• Build and Rearrange Posts Visually: Upload all your photos for a carousel, write your caption, and see how it all looks in a calendar view. Want to add another photo? Just upload it. Want to swap the third and fourth photos? Just drag and drop.
• Save Unlimited Drafts: Your drafts aren't tied to your specific phone. You can create them on your computer and review them on your phone later, or collaborate with team members.
• Set and Forget: Once the post is perfect, you can schedule it to go live at a specific time, freeing you up to work on other things.

This professional workflow is a game-changer for anyone managing multiple accounts or looking to build a consistent content calendar without being bogged down by in-app quirks.

A Quick Note on Other Draft Types

The "no adding photos" rule mainly applies to carousel photo posts. Here’s a quick look at how other types of drafts behave:

Single Image Post Drafts

If you've saved a draft of a single-image post, you can actually go back and swap the photo. If you open the draft and hit the back arrow to the gallery selection screen, you can de-select the original image and choose a new one. However, you can't select *multiple* new images to turn it into a carousel, you can only do a one-for-one swap.

Reels Drafts

Reels work differently. When you save a Reel as a draft, your progress in the editor is saved. In most cases, you can open a Reel draft and continue editing it, which includes the freedom to add more video clips or photos to your timeline. The Reels editor is much more flexible and behaves more like a traditional video editing tool, making drafting a much more forgiving process.

Final Thoughts

While Instagram's draft function for photo carousels has its frustrations, being unable to add more photos doesn't have to stop you. By using the straightforward copy-and-paste method or shifting your workflow to be more planful and organized, you can easily navigate this limitation and keep your content on track.

We've experienced this exact frustration for years, which is partly why we built the visual calendar in Postbase to be as flexible as possible. In our planner, you can build your carousel post DAYS or WEEKS in advance, add and remove photos as many times as you like, and only schedule it when it’s truly perfect - no more getting locked into an incomplete draft moments before you want to post.