How to change your Instagram email or phone number safely

What to do first

Make sure you have access to both the old and the new contact. Instagram sends a confirmation to the new address, and the old address receives a notice that lets you reverse a change you didn’t make. Keep the old inbox open until you’re sure everything is correct.

Step 1: Add the new email or number

Open your profile, then Settings, then Accounts Center, then Profiles and personal details and Contact info. Choose Add new contact, enter the email or phone, and confirm it with the code Instagram sends. Don’t remove anything yet.

Step 2: Remove the old one

Once the new contact is confirmed, select the old email or phone and choose Remove or Delete. Instagram only lets you remove an email if a confirmed phone number remains, and vice versa, so you can’t strip both by accident.

Step 3: Update two-factor authentication

The number used for text-message codes is a separate setting. Under Accounts Center, Password and security and Two-factor authentication, switch to the new number and save the new backup codes. An authentication app avoids this problem next time.

Step 4: Check Instagram’s emails to you

Look at the list of recent emails in the app to confirm the changes you made, and nothing else. If an email says your address was changed and you didn’t do it, the message to your old address includes a link to secure the account. Use it quickly and then change your password.

If a team or agency uses the account

Don’t hand your login details to a freelancer or agency. For a business account, give people access through the Page, Business portfolio or the account’s professional tools where possible, so you can remove them without changing the recovery email. If a team member’s email is currently the account’s recovery address, move it to one you own now. People change jobs and mailboxes get deleted, and recovery is hardest when the only inbox that could confirm ownership belongs to someone who has left.

Three mistakes that cause lockouts

1. Removing the old contact before confirming the new one, leaving no valid method.
2. Typing the new email with a small typo, so the confirmation message goes nowhere.
3. Changing a number while two-factor codes still go to the old one.

Check each address twice and keep the old inbox open until the new one has confirmed.

What not to do

• Don’t switch to a shared or work email you might lose when you change jobs.
• Don’t give a recovery email to anyone else managing the account, such as an agency. Use roles and tools meant for sharing access instead.
• Don’t keep a number you no longer own as a contact, since the next owner could receive your codes.

A simple standard to follow

Keep one email you control for good and one current phone number. Review them every few months and after any time you change phone plans. That one habit prevents most recovery problems.