Instagram is one of the most popular apps on the world, with over a billion daily active users. With such large numbers, it is important that the servers remain operational at all times. Instagram automatically scales down the media that users post to the app in order to decrease the load on its servers. Instagram compresses the photos and videos you upload to the platform by default. This decreases the quality and may disappoint many people. While there is no direct option to stop compression, you can still get original photo upload quality by following these steps. Here’s how to post photographs and videos to Instagram without compressing them or losing quality.
Read Also: WhatsApp users will soon be able to edit their messages. Here’s the latest News
How to Upload Instagram Photos, Videos Without Compression or Losing Quality?
When you upload images and videos to Instagram, whether through stories, posts, reels, or IGTV, they are compressed to reduce file size and bandwidth. At times, the compression may be high, causing the material to lose detail or seem pixelated.
Why Does Instagram Compress Images and Videos?
- To reduce the load on its servers
- To increases the speed of loading
- To improve user experience
1. Follow the upload guidelines
Follow the guidelines mentioned below for High-Quality Photos for Instagram
Instagram has strict upload guidelines in place to ensure consistency across the app and to provide an optimized and smooth browsing experience for all users. If you follow these instructions, Instagram will not downscale your images and videos and there will be no compression during the upload. Here are the basic guidelines for uploading photos or videos in Instagram.
- Download latest version of Instagram app or update it.
- Make sure images are at least 1080p in resolution and have an aspect ratio of between 1.91:1 (landscape) and 4:5. (Portrait).
- Use a good quality camera phone or a high mega pixels camera.
Follow the guidelines mentioned below for High-Quality videos.
Instagram Story
- Aspect Ratio: Portrait (9:16)
- Frame: 30fps
- Minimum Resolution: 720×1280p
- Recommended Resolution: 1080×1920p
In-feed videos
- Maximum file size: 4GB
- Maximum length: 60 seconds
- Frame: 30fps
- Aspect Ratio: Square (1:1), Landscape (1.91:1), Portrait (4:5)
- Minimum Resolution: 600×600p (Square), 600×315p (Landscape), 600×750p (Portrait)
IGTV
- The maximum size for short videos which is 10 minutes or less in length is 650MB
- The maximum size for videos which is more then 10 minutes or up to 60 minutes is 3.6GB
- Length: 60 minutes
- Aspect Ratio: Portrait (9:16)
- Minimum Resolution: 600×1067p
- Recommended Resolution: 1080×1920p
2. Resize Images before uploading
Instagram can compress your photos a lot more than required before uploading them. You may stop Instagram from compressing your image by scaling it down first. If your photo is 4000 × 4000 pixels, reduce it to 1080 x 1080 pixels. There are several photo editing applications available on the Play Store that will help you in resizing photographs for Instagram. Some Application are Photo Compress & Resize, Photo Resizer, Puma Image Resizer for Android smartphone. For Apple iPhone Image Resize, Image Compress & Resize Easily.
There are lots of software available for image resize on your computer or laptop. Some of them Are Paint, Photoshop, Lightroom, Caesium and for Mac OS PhotoScapeX, PhotoPea.com, Caesium.
Note: Make sure the resolution is 1080p and the aspect ratio is suitable for a landscape, portrait, or square frame. You have more control over the image’s looks if you resize it before uploading it.
3. Compress video before uploading
If your videos are high-quality, Instagram may reduce them before posting. It is good to compress them yourself so that you have better control over the output of your video. Instagram usually compresses videos more than required, therefore the quality of videos showing very low . You can compress your video using a lots of applications and online tools.
You can compress the video while maintaining the most of its quality by using the free software “ Movavi Video Converter“. Instagram supports uploads in both MP4 and MOV formats. H.264 MP4 is the preferred format for maintaining video quality after upload.
If your video is longer than a minute, you should post it as an IGTV video rather than an in-feed video. You can still post them as IGTV if they are too short by repeating the movie or adding blank footage.
4. Ensure that image quality is not lost during device transfer
If you want to post a picture from your DSLR or mirrorless camera to Instagram using your smartphone, be sure there is no quality loss while transferring the image from your camera to your phone. When uploading a photo to Instagram from your computer, you must verify that the image quality is maintained. AirDrop, Google Drive, and Dropbox will not affect the quality of your photos when it is transferred to another device. WhatsApp and other messengers, on the other hand, are known for downscaling photos sent through them.
5. Enable Uploads at High Quality On your Smartphone
Instagram reduce video upload quality by default to to increase the speed of page loading. Follow the step to disable it so that you always publish high-quality reels and IG videos:
1. Open the Instagram app on your Android or iOS device.
2. Tap the profile icon in the lower right corner.
3. Tap on Settings from the hamburger menu.
4. Then Tap on Account > Data Usage.
5. Enable High-Quality Uploads.
After enable this setting Instagram will always upload high quality video and not reducing the file size. But con is that its take little more time to upload videos.
6. Instead of Instagram’s app camera, use your smartphone’s native camera app
The default camera app on your smartphone is the best way to capture high resolution images. The in-build camera app is familiar with the phone’s hardware and is designed to get optimum use of it. The Instagram app’s built-in camera does not capture high-quality photos and often reduce the quality of Images while processing. It is better to capture the photos with the in-build camera app and resize them later according to Instagram’s requirements.
7. Set maximum Quality on your Camera Settings
Adjust your camera settings to get the best Instagram image quality. Always take images and videos at their high resolution. You can subsequently resize them. To take highly detailed photos at maximum quality, use the manual mode on your phone’s camera app. Later you can resize your photos according to Instagram requirement.
8. Do not include Music in Photos
Adding music to Instagram Stories photos might reduce their quality. This is mainly because Instagram restricts the size of each upload, and adding music increases the size of the uploading media. As a result, the picture quality goes down. To avoid this, do not include music in your photos.
Conclusion
These are the 8 best ways to upload photos and videos to Instagram without compressing or losing any quality. While uploading an image without losing any quality is nearly not possible. The methods discussed above can help you maintain a lot of important details in your photos and movies. I hope this methods help you post high-quality content on social media. Please let us know in the comment section how these methods work for you.