How to Share Old Stories on Instagram Story

Ever create an amazing Instagram Story, full of personality and perfectly timed GIFs, only to watch it vanish after 24 hours? You don't have to let your best content disappear forever. This guide will walk you through exactly how to find and share your old Instagram Stories, plus clever strategies for making repurposed content feel fresh, engaging, and new all over again.

Where Do Old Instagram Stories Go? Your Personal Story Archive

The moment your Story hits the 24-hour mark, it doesn’t just evaporate. Instagram automatically saves it to your private Archive - a personal digital vault of every Story you’ve ever published. This feature is on by default, so unless you’ve intentionally turned it off, your content is safe and sound, waiting for you to rediscover it.

Think of it as your own content library. It’s a goldmine for throwback posts, recaps, and reminding your audience of memorable moments. Finding it is simple.

Step-by-Step: Accessing Your Story Archive

1. Go to Your Instagram Profile

Open the Instagram app and tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner to navigate to your main profile grid.

2. Open the Hamburger Menu

Tap the icon with three horizontal lines in the top-right corner of your screen. This is often called the "hamburger menu."

3. Select "Archive"

From the list that appears, tap on 'Archive'. You might see a little clock icon next to it. This will take you to your content archives.

4. Make Sure You're in Your Stories Archive

Instagram has archives for posts and live videos, too. At the very top of the Archives screen, you will see a dropdown menu that might say 'Posts archive' or 'Stories archive'. If it is not already showing your Stories content, tap the dropdown and select 'Stories archive'.

Once you're in, you’ll see your old Stories laid out in a grid, with the most recent ones at the top. You can scroll through all of them, but Instagram also gives you two other cool ways to view your past content:

• Calendar View: Tap the calendar icon at the top to see a calendar with certain dates highlighted. These are the days you posted a Story, and tapping one will show you everything you shared that day.
• Map View: If you used location stickers on your Stories, tap the map icon. You'll see an interactive map with your Stories pinned to the locations where you created them. It’s a fun, visual way to revisit your memories.

The Mechanics: How to Reshare an Old Story in Just a Few Taps

Once you’ve found the perfect gem in your archive, bringing it back to your live Story is just a few taps away. The process is straightforward and sends the old content right into the Story editor, where you can add new life to it.

The Resharing Process

Follow these quick steps to get started:

1. Navigate to your Story Archive using the method described above.
2. Scroll through your past content and tap on the specific Story you want to share again.
3. At the bottom of the screen, you'll see a 'Share' button. Tap it.
4. Voila! The old Story will immediately open in the current Instagram Story editor, ready for you to customize and post.

When you do this, Instagram automatically adds a sticker showing the date the original Story was published. This "On This Day" feature can be a great way to provide context, but you don't have to keep it.

• Keep It: Embrace the throwback vibe. Position the date sticker where it’s visible to show your audience this is a memory.
• Delete It: If you'd rather the content feel as if it's new, simply tap and hold the date sticker, then drag it down to the trash can icon that appears at the bottom of the screen.

More Than Just a Repost: Strategic Ways to Reuse Old Stories

Republishing an old Story is easy, but the real magic comes from repurposing it strategically. Instead of just hitting 'Share,' take a moment to add a new layer of context or engagement. This turns a simple repost into a smart piece of content marketing.

1. Add Fresh Context with New Stickers and Text

Your old content is the canvas, today’s stickers and text options are your paint. By blending the old with the new, you can spark fresh conversations and draw your audience in.

• Create a Throwback Moment: Lean into the "On This Day" feel. Add text like, “Remember this? So much has changed!” or “One year ago today…” This frames the content as a fun look back, perfect for behind-the-scenes moments, old project photos, or event flashbacks.
• Start a New Conversation: Use interactive stickers to reboot engagement. Share an old design mockup and add a poll sticker that says, “Should we bring this style back?” Resurface a video clip from an old conference and use a question sticker to ask, “Who wants us to speak at an event again this year?”
• Give it a Glow-Up: Maybe your photography was great but your Story design skills back then were… simple. Refresh an older photo or video by adding trendy GIFs, a different music track that fits your current vibe, or a clean text overlay.

2. Curate Your Best Moments into Highlights

Sometimes, a great Story deserves to live for more than another 24 hours. Instagram Highlights are the perfect way to give your best archived content a permanent home on your profile. They act as curated folders that your audience can browse anytime.

To add an archived Story to a Highlight:

1. Open the Story from your Archive.
2. Tap the 'Highlight' icon at the bottom of the screen.
3. You will be prompted to either add it to an existing Highlight or create a new one. Choose "New," give it a name (e.g., "FAQs," "Behind the Scenes," "Client Wins"), and then add it.

Brands and creators can use Highlights strategically to build a resource library on their profile. Consider creating them for things like testimonials, tutorials, product demos, or recaps of past events - all pulled directly from content you've already created.

3. Give Your Best Grid Posts a Second Life in Stories

Repurposing isn't just limited to your archived Stories. You can also breathe new life into older posts from your main Instagram grid. If you have a post that performed really well in the past, or one that contains evergreen advice, sharing it to your Story can put it in front of a new wave of followers - or remind old ones of a valuable piece of content.

Simply navigate to the grid post, tap the paper airplane icon below it, and select "Add post to your story." But don't just share it as is. Make it interactive:

• Hide part of the image with a GIF and ask your followers to guess what's underneath.
• Use the pencil tool to circle a key detail and ask a question about it.
• Add commentary with text, explaining why this old post is still relevant today.

Common Questions About Sharing Old Stories

Even with a straightforward process, a few common questions pop up. Here are quick answers to some of the most frequent ones.

Why Can't I Find My Old Story?

More than likely, your "Save Story to Archive" setting has been accidentally turned off. To check this, go to your Settings and privacy > scroll down to Archiving and downloading > and make sure the toggle for 'Save story to archive' is on. If it was off, Instagram unfortunately won't have saved any Stories created during that time. Turning it on now will ensure all future Stories are saved.

Can I Reshare Someone Else's Old Story I Was Tagged In?

For the most part, no. You can only reshare a Story to your own feed if you are tagged in it and it is still live (within its initial 24-hour window). Once it expires and goes into the original creator's archive, you lose the ability to add it to your Story from your mentions. The only workaround would be to ask the original creator to share it from their archive and tag you again.

Do Reshared Stories Get the Same Views?

It depends entirely on your content and audience. A lazy, unedited repost may not get much traction. But if you use the strategies above to add fresh commentary, interactive stickers, or a fun "on this day" angle, you can restart a conversation and potentially achieve even greater engagement than the original.

How Long Are Stories Saved in the Archive?

Indefinitely! Your Story Archive acts as a personal cloud storage. Your Stories will remain there forever unless you choose to manually delete them one by one.

Final Thoughts

Accessing and reusing your old Instagram Stories from the Archive is a brilliantly simple yet powerful feature. It’s an effective way to fill gaps in your content calendar, breathe new life into your best work, and re-engage your audience with valuable information or nostalgic moments they may have missed.

While resharing past Stories is a great tactic, a strong social media presence is also built on consistently planning fresh themes and ideas. At Postbase, we designed our platform specifically to help with this. Since we built our platform for modern social media like Stories and Reels first, our visual calendar helps you map out your content - including those throwback Story ideas - weeks ahead of time. It allows you to spot gaps in your schedule and ensures your best ideas are logged and organized in one place, taking the chaos out of content management. With Postbase, your content plan can become as organized and accessible as your Instagram Archive itself.