Why Are My Instagram Stories Blurry?
It’s time to start your new Instagram journey! Take a picture or video, select it, and upload it to your Instagram story to let others see an important part of your life.
Wait - why is your recently uploaded Instagram story blurry? Is something wrong with your phone?!
As weird as it might seem, photos and videos blurred on Instagram is something that frequently happens to many others on the platform.
Unlike Instagram posts on your feed, Stories can get blurry due to many different reasons.
Thus, today we will be talking about:
- Why are my Instagram Stories blurry?;
- How to fix blurry Instagram Stories;
- What to do if blurry Instagram Stories do not disappear.
- Table Of Contents
Why Are My Instagram Stories Blurry?
There are different reasons why your Instagram Stories might be blurred:
- The picture and video size don’t match the Instagram format;
- The picture or video quality isn’t the best, or you have used other video editing tools that have damaged the format of the file;
- There’s a little bug with the Instagram app that can be quickly solved;
- Your network settings are not working as they should;
- The Instagram Story video or picture does not fit Instagram story format.
Instagram lets you upload any Instagram Story video or picture you want!
The video length is usually pretty short, and it is clear that the aspect ratio must be respected as well.
Nonetheless, blurry poor quality isn’t always related to these matters.
Whether you want to add background color to your Instagram Stories or upload multiple photos in just one IG story, then it is imperative to do this without losing quality during the process.
How to Fix “Instagram Stories Are Blurry” Error
In order to fix blurry Instagram Stories, we first need to understand what is happening to them.
Thus, we recommend you follow the steps on this guide one by one so you don’t end up skipping the solution.
Without anything more to add, let’s fix blurry Instagram Stories once and for all!
1. Check Internet Connection
We cannot stress this enough - if you don’t have a more stable Internet connection, you won’t be able to upload high-quality stories.
All in all, if you have a bad Internet connection, even uploading bad-quality Instagram Story videos or images is hard!
Thus, make sure to reset network settings on your phone or simply get rid of your poor Internet connection by connecting to another network.
Users that have a slightly slow WiFi network will be able to upload Stories, but they will be blurred, bad-quality photos and videos - do you really want that?
2. Use Your Mobile Data
If you cannot reset network settings to a network with a better Internet speed, then you better turn your mobile network on.
In this case, mobile data usage should not have any limit whatsoever.
Thus, do this on your phone:
- Go to Settings on your device and find Cellular Data Use;
- Make sure that the Data Saver option is toggled off;
- Go back to Instagram, and try to upload different videos to your Story.
This works most of the time, so if you see that you cannot reset network settings regarding WiFi, use old-fashioned mobile networks instead.
3. Update Instagram App on Your Device
Instagram settings will go wrong if you don’t keep the latest app version downloaded on your phone.
To keep Instagram up to date, you must do the following:
- If you have an Android phone, go to the Google Play Store and search for the Instagram app;
- On the other hand, if you are an iOS user, go to the Apple App Store and download the latest version of Instagram.
After updating the application, you should be able to upload the Story without blurriness or quality loss.
4. Check If You Have Corrupt Photos
It might as well happen that the problem is not the app or your connection - perhaps the photo or video file is corrupted.
You can check this by doing the following:
- Send the photo that appears blurred to a friend using mobile data preferably (remember to remove data usage limits);
- If the photo looks blurry outside of Instagram, then the file is damaged and you need to create a new one;
- If the photo does not look blurry outside of Instagram, then move on to the following fix.
Blurry Instagram Story is a headache, but at least you are quite aware of what to do next.
5. Adjust Default Camera App Settings
Maybe the aspect ratio, video size, and mobile data aren’t the problems, and your default camera is.
In this case, you must adjust phone camera settings to reach the highest quality possible.
Android users must do the following:
- Open your default phone camera and tap on the settings icon shaped as a little gear;
- Go to Quality, and adjust camera quality to the maximum settings possible;
- Take a new story with your phone’s camera and check if it worked.
Likewise, iPhone users must do this:
- Open your camera and select the little gear icon;
- Adjust camera settings by enabling HDR;
- Once HDR is turned on, try to upload a high-quality video or picture to Instagram.
6. Use Instagram’s Camera Instead
Another simple trick that you could employ is to use Instagram camera instead of your classic camera.
Simply open Instagram, take the picture using filters, and upload it. You can also repost an Instagram story from here.
In most cases, your main camera has better quality, so only do this if the aforementioned fix didn’t work.
This little trick will let you know whether your main camera is the problem, or if we are talking about a problem with the app itself.
7. Turn On the Highest Quality on Instagram
Perhaps low-quality settings are enabled by default on your profile.
To fix this, do the following:
- Open Instagram, and tap on your profile picture;
- After you tap on your profile icon, select the three horizontal lines and scroll down to the Data Usage tab;
- Here, you will see an option that says “High-Quality Uploads” - turn on this switch, and upload an Instagram story video or picture with high quality.
8. Delete and Reinstall Instagram
Last but not least, this is a last resort alternative that should only be employed if other fixes don’t work.
Simply delete Instagram, and install it back. If, after doing this, you cannot fix blurry Instagram stories, then the problem might be related to your phone’s hardware, and that’s an entirely different story.
All in all, if you follow each fix mentioned here one by one then we assure you that your problems will be solved.
Need more Instagram tips? GrowFollowing has got you covered!
FAQ
Can Instagram Support Help Me Fix Blurry Instagram Stories?
Unlikely. As we have mentioned in this guide, a blurry Instagram Story video or picture is not a problem of the platform itself, but more about your account or device. Thus, try these fixes before contacting Instagram whatsoever.
Karen is a senior technical writer and copywriter here at GrowFollowing. Her area of expertize are social media apps and new media.