How to Remove Linked Accounts on Instagram

Thinking about separating your Instagram and Facebook profiles? Juggling linked accounts can be confusing, but detaching them is straightforward once you know where to look. This guide provides clear, step-by-step instructions for removing linked accounts using Meta’s Accounts Center, putting you back in full control of your social media presence.

Why You Might Want to Unlink Your Instagram Accounts

Connecting your social accounts can be a great time-saver, but there are plenty of valid reasons to keep them separate. People often decide to unlink their profiles for more control, privacy, or to create a distinct brand identity. What was convenient yesterday might not fit your strategy today.

Here are a few common reasons you might choose to disconnect your accounts:

• Diverging Content Strategies: Your Instagram audience might love your vibrant, highly-visual Reels, while your Facebook friends and family appreciate life updates and longer posts. Unlinking the accounts lets you tailor content for each platform without accidentally cross-posting something that doesn’t fit. You can focus on what resonates with each specific audience.
• Enhanced Privacy: Perhaps your Instagram is for a public-facing hobby or business, while your Facebook profile is strictly for close friends and family. Separating them prevents accidental sharing of personal information and keeps your private life disconnected from your professional or creative one.
• Selling a Business or Theme Page: If you've built an Instagram account into a valuable asset and decide to sell it, the new owner needs full control. Unlinking your personal Facebook profile is a necessary step to ensure a clean handover without giving away access to your private information.
• Managing Client Accounts: Social media managers and agencies often need to link and unlink client accounts from their own or a business manager profile. Keeping accounts separate prevents confusing notifications, crossed wires, and accidental posts to the wrong profile - a mistake that can be both unprofessional and embarrassing. For more tips on this, read our guide on how to manage multiple social media accounts.
• Troubleshooting Glitches: Sometimes, technology just acts strange. Cross-posting features can bug out, logins can fail, and sync settings can get stuck. Unlinking and then relinking your accounts can often work as a "reset" to fix mysterious technical issues that disrupt your workflow.
• Simplifying Your Digital Footprint: In an age of constant connectivity, you might just want to declutter. Disconnecting accounts that don't need to be linked is a simple way to streamline your online presence and have fewer interconnected data points across platforms.

The Heart of the Operation: Understanding Meta’s Accounts Center

If you've managed social profiles for a while, you might remember being able to link accounts directly within Instagram’s settings. That process has changed. To centralize everything, Meta (Instagram's parent company) introduced the Accounts Center. This is now the one-stop shop for managing login information, personal details, payments, and account connections across Instagram, Facebook, and your Meta account.

At first glance, it can feel like an unnecessary extra step, but understanding its purpose makes the process much clearer. The Accounts Center is designed to unify your experience across all of Meta's apps. This is where you control features like:

• Cross-Posting: The ability to automatically share your Instagram Stories and posts to your Facebook profile or page. If you're looking to manage this, check out our guide on how to post on Facebook and Instagram at the same time. This is the feature most people want to disable when unlinking.
• Single Sign-On: Using your Facebook login to get into your Instagram account, and vice versa. When you remove a linked account, this time-saving feature is disabled.
• Profile Syncing: Automatically updating your name, profile picture, or username across both Instagram and Facebook simultaneously.

So, when you go to "remove" an account, you’re not deleting the profile itself. You are simply severing a connection within the Accounts Center and turning off many of these shared experiences. All your posts, followers, and account data on both platforms will remain exactly as they were.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Remove a Facebook Account from Instagram

Removing a linked Facebook account is the most common reason people search for this guide. The process is identical whether you’re on an iPhone or Android device, as it all happens within the Instagram app. Just follow these steps carefully.

Using the Instagram App (iOS and Android)

Ready to take back control? Grab your phone and let's get it done.

1. Navigate to Your Settings: Open the Instagram app and tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner to go to your profile.
2. Open the Menu: Tap the hamburger menu (the three stacked horizontal lines) located in the upper-right corner of your screen.
3. Find 'Settings and Privacy': A menu will pop up from the bottom. Tap on the first option, which should be Settings and Privacy.
4. Enter the Accounts Center: At the very top of the Settings and Privacy menu, you'll see a section for managing your connected experiences. Tap on Accounts Center.
5. Locate Your Accounts: In the Accounts Center, scroll down to the 'Account settings' section and tap on Accounts. Here, you'll see a list of all the profiles currently linked, including your Instagram profile and the connected Facebook account.
6. Initiate the Removal: Find the Facebook account you wish to disconnect and tap the Remove button next to it.
7. Confirm the Removal Process: Instagram will now show you a screen explaining what will happen when you remove the account. It will confirm which profile you’re removing and detail the changes, such as disabling shared logins and stopping cross-posting. Read this carefully to make sure you're removing the right account. Tap 'Remove account' at the top.
8. Final Confirmation: One final confirmation screen will appear to make sure you want to proceed. Tap the blue Continue button, and then tap 'Yes, remove [Account Name]' to finalize the process.

And that's it! Your Instagram account is now independent of your Facebook profile. You will have to enter your password to log in next time, and the option to automatically share posts to Facebook will no longer appear by default.

What Happens After You Unlink Facebook?

The changes are immediate. Once you’ve confirmed the removal, here’s what you can expect:

• No More Automatic Cross-Posting: The most significant change is that your Instagram posts and Stories will no longer be shared with your Facebook account automatically. You regain control over what appears on each platform.
• Separate Logins: You can no longer use the "Log in with Facebook" button for that Instagram account. You'll need to use your Instagram handle/email and its dedicated password. If you’ve forgotten your password, now is a good time to reset it through the app's login screen.
• Shopping and Ads May Be Affected: For business accounts, your Instagram Shop or Ad Account may have been linked through Facebook. Unlinking them can sometimes interrupt these services. You may need to relink your catalog or adjust settings in Meta Business Suite to continue running ads smoothly. For more detailed guidance, see our article on how to access Facebook Business Manager.

What About Other Linked Accounts (Like X, Tumblr, etc.)?

In previous years, Instagram allowed you to link a handful of third-party social media accounts for easier sharing, including Twitter (now X), Tumblr, and others. However, Meta has since simplified things and removed most of these direct integration options.

If you're looking for that old settings page to unlink your X account, you won't find it anymore. The Accounts Center is now almost exclusively for managing connections between Meta's own properties: Facebook, Instagram, and Horizon.

Instead of a permanent link inside Instagram, sharing to other apps is now handled through your phone’s native share sheet. If you're concerned about an old connection that may still exist, the best practice is to check the "Connected Apps" or "Security and account access" settings on the third-party platform itself (e.g., in your X or Tumblr settings) and revoke access from there.

Common Issues and Quick Fixes When Unlinking Accounts

Sometimes, the process isn’t as smooth as it should be. If you get stuck, don't worry - here are solutions to the most frequent hurdles.

Problem: The 'Remove' Button is Greyed Out or Missing

This is a common issue for business accounts. It usually happens when the Facebook or Instagram account you’re trying to remove is set as the manager of a connected Facebook Page, an Ad Account, or a shop in Meta Commerce Manager. The system prevents you from removing it because doing so would orphan the other asset.

The Fix: You need to log in to

Meta Business Suite

on a desktop computer. From there, navigate to your Business Settings and either assign a new primary admin to the Facebook Page or ad account, or disconnect it from your Business Suite entirely. Once the dependencies are removed, the 'Remove' button in the Instagram app should become active.

Problem: You See a "Something Went Wrong" Error

General error messages can be frustrating, but they’re often temporary. It could be a simple glitch in the app or a momentary issue with Meta's servers.

The Fix: Try the classic troubleshooting steps. First, completely close and restart the Instagram app. If that doesn't work, check the App Store or Google Play Store for an update. You can also try clearing your app's cache (on Android) or waiting an hour or two and trying again. The issue often resolves itself.

Problem: You Can’t Log In After Unlinking Your Account

Many people rely on the "Continue with Facebook" button for so long that they completely forget their Instagram password. After unlinking, that login shortcut is gone, and you’re faced with a password field you can't fill.

The Fix: This is an easy one. On the Instagram login screen, simply tap the

'Forgot password?'

link. Enter your username, email, or phone number associated with the account, and Instagram will send you a link to reset your password and regain access.

Final Thoughts

Unlinking your Instagram and Facebook accounts is simple once you know how to navigate the Meta Accounts Center. This process gives you greater control over your content strategy, privacy, and overall digital brand, letting you manage each platform as a unique space for your audience.

Once your accounts are perfectly configured, managing them shouldn't feel like a constant scramble. At Postbase, we built our platform because we were tired of wrestling with clunky tools and profiles that constantly required re-authenticating. We focused on rock-solid post scheduling and a unified inbox for all your comments and DMs, so you can handle everything without the administrative headache. It keeps your accounts securely connected and your workflow seamlessly organized.