How to Reset Your Reels on Instagram

Feeling like your Instagram Reels are stuck, reaching the wrong viewers, or just not hitting the way they used to? You're not alone. The algorithm can sometimes get things mixed up, leaving you with a feed that doesn't inspire you and content that doesn't find its ideal audience. This guide walks you through the practical, actionable steps for a reset, retraining the algorithm to understand exactly what you want to see and who you want to reach.

Why Your Reels Feed Feels... Off (And What a Reset Really Means)

Before we fix the problem, it's helpful to understand it. The Instagram algorithm's primary job is to keep you on the app by showing you content it believes you'll enjoy. It learns what you like based on powerful signals, including:

• Which Reels you watch all the way through
• Which accounts you engage with (likes, comments, DMs)
• Which Reels you share or save
• What you search for
• Who you follow

The system is incredibly smart, but it's not perfect. If you spent one evening binging cake decorating videos, your feed might be flooded with them for weeks. As a viewer, this is annoying. As a creator, it's a huge problem. Your thoughtful content about financial literacy might be getting pushed to people whom the algorithm thinks are only interested in buttercream frosting. This creates a disconnect where your reach suffers because your Reels aren't being shown to your target audience.

Let's be clear: there isn't a magic "reset algorithm" button tucked away in your Instagram settings. A "reset" is a manual process. It requires you to actively give the algorithm new, better data points so it can correct its course. It's about consciously shaping your inputs (what you watch and engage with) to influence the outputs (what content you see and who sees your content).

Step 1: The Technical Tune-Up: Cleaning Your Data Slate

The first moves are simple housekeeping tasks that clear out some of the old data influencing what Instagram shows you. Think of this as wiping the slate clean before you start drawing a new picture for the algorithm. These actions won't instantly fix everything, but they're an important foundation for the steps that follow.

Clear Your Instagram Search History

Your search history is a direct log of your interests - both fleeting and long-term. Clearing it tells Instagram to place less weight on those past searches when recommending new content.

Here's how to do it:

1. Navigate to your profile and tap the three horizontal lines (the hamburger menu) in the top-right corner.
2. Select "Your activity."
3. Tap on "Recent searches."
4. In the top right, tap "Clear All" and confirm your choice.

Clear the App's Cache

The Instagram app stores temporary data (your cache) on your phone to help it load faster. Over time, this data can become bloated or corrupted, sometimes influencing what content gets surfaced. Clearing it is like giving the app a fresh start without losing any of your important account information.

For Android Users:

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap on "Apps" or "Apps & notifications."
3. Find and tap on Instagram in the list.
4. Tap on "Storage & cache."
5. Tap the "Clear Cache" button. Do NOT tap "Clear Storage" or "Clear Data," as this may log you out and delete drafts.

For iPhone Users:

iOS doesn't give you a direct "clear cache" button for most apps. The most effective method is to offload and reinstall the app. This removes the app itself but keeps your documents and data. When you reinstall, it comes back fresh.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to "General" and then "iPhone Storage."
3. Wait for your apps to load, then scroll down and select Instagram.
4. Tap "Offload App" and confirm. The app icon will remain on your home screen with a little cloud symbol.
5. Tap the Instagram icon to automatically redownload it.

Performing these two actions resets the surface-level data. Now you're ready to start actively retraining the core behavioral signals.

Step 2: Actively Retrain Your Feed Through Intentional Engagement

This is where the real work begins - and where you have the most power. The algorithm learns most from your active behavior. For the next week, your goal is to be extremely deliberate about the signals you send it. Stop passively scrolling and start curating your feed.

Use the "Not Interested" Button Relentlessly

The easiest way to improve your Reels feed is to tell Instagram what you don't like. When you scroll past a Reel that's not related to your niche or interests, don't just thumb past it - tell the algorithm you don't approve.

• Tap the three dots (...) at the bottom of the Reel.
• Select "Not interested." The Reel will be hidden, and Instagram will note to show you fewer videos like it in the future.

Be aggressive with this for a few days. See a viral dance trend you don't care about? Tap "Not interested." Showing a clip from a B-list celebrity reality show? "Not interested." See a prank video? You get the idea. This action is one of the strongest negative signals you can send, and it immediately helps prune the irrelevant content from your feed.

Curate Your Engagement with Surgical Precision

Now for the positive reinforcement. You need to actively find and engage with the kind of content you want to see (and the content your ideal audience likely engages with). Set aside 15-20 minutes each day specifically for this task.

Your Action Plan for Engagement:

• Search for Niche Hashtags: Use the search bar to find and follow hashtags directly related to your niche. Don't just watch the top videos, tap on the "Recent" tab to find and support smaller creators. For example, if you're a vegan recipe creator, search for #veganrecipes, #plantbasedmeals, and #veganbaking. Engage with that content specifically.
• Follow and Interact with Creators in Your Space: Find 10-20 other creators who are a perfect representation of your niche. Follow them and turn on notifications for their posts. When they post a Reel, watch it all the way through, leave a genuine comment, save it, and even share it to your stories.
• Prioritize Saving Content: Saving a Reel is one of the strongest positive signals you can send to the algorithm. When you find a video that perfectly aligns with your brand or interests, hit that save button. This tells Instagram, "This is extremely valuable. Show me more of THIS."

By replacing passive scrolling with this highly intentional engagement, you're spoon-feeding the algorithm exactly what it needs to understand your preferences.

Step 3: Signal Your Creator Niche with Extreme Clarity

If you're a creator, resetting your Reels isn't just about what you consume - it's about telling the algorithm who you are so it can find the right audience for your content. Everything from your hashtags to your captions provides a clue.

Optimize Your Upcoming Reels

As you begin posting new Reels during your "reset," be crystal clear with your signals. Leave no room for interpretation.

• Targeted Hashtags: Ditch the list of 30 generic tags. Use a smaller set (5-10) of highly relevant hashtags. Include a mix of broad tags (#socialmediatips), specific tags (#instagramreelsstrategy), and community tags (#solopreneurlife). This helps the algorithm categorize your content correctly from the moment it goes live.
• Keyword-Rich Captions & On-Screen Text: Instagram transcribes your audio and reads your on-screen text and captions. Use this to your advantage. If your Reel is about "how to batch create content," actually include those words on the screen and in your caption. For instance, start your caption with: "Here are three tips for batch creating content..."
• Relevant Audio: If you use trending audio, try to use sounds that are also trending within your niche community. Using a sound that's popular among fashion creators when your content is about investing might send a mixed signal.

Consider Archiving Irrelevant Content (Gently)

This is a more advanced technique, but it can be potent. If your profile is filled with old Reels that are totally off-brand - say, you used to post fitness content but now focus on small business marketing - those old videos might be confusing the algorithm.

Go through your Reels grid and find content that's dramatically disconnected from your current niche. Don't delete them, archive them.

To archive a Reel: Go to the Reel, tap the three dots (...), and select "Manage," then "Archive." The Reel will disappear from your public grid but will be saved for you privately. This cleans up your visible content library and presents a clearer, more consistent picture of your brand to the algorithm and new visitors.

How Long Will This Take? Managing Your Expectations

A true algorithm reset doesn't happen overnight. It's a process of building new habits and consistently feeding Instagram better data. You'll likely start to see a subtle shift in your "for you" page within a few days of aggressive use of the "Not interested" button and intentional engagement.

However, to see a significant change in the types of content you're recommended - and more importantly, an improvement in the reach and engagement of your own Reels - give it a few weeks of consistent effort. The algorithm needs time to recognize the new pattern and trust that this is your new preference. Stay patient and stick with it.

Final Thoughts

Resetting your Instagram Reels is entirely possible, but it relies on strategic action, not a single setting. By cleaning up your data, deliberately cutting out content you don't want with the "Not Interested" button, and actively engaging with creators and topics in your ideal niche, you can steer the algorithm in the right direction. It takes patience, but taking back control is worth it.

One of the biggest hurdles in any social media strategy is staying consistent with these new habits. Seeing your plan through is where powerful content strategies are actually built. It's why we created a tool to make consistency feel effortless. At Postbase, our visual calendar makes it simple to plan and schedule weeks of highly-targeted, niche-specific Reels, so you can execute your algorithm reset strategy without losing momentum. When you know your content is reliably going live every single day, you can focus your energy on intentional engagement instead of last-minute posting.