Guides

How to export Instagram chat history and turn DMs into a book

Request your Instagram messages export, download your DM history, and turn the conversation into a book you can hold onto.

Joshua Z

Founder, My Forever Books

Instagram DMs collect a relationship over time: flirting, check-ins, memes, voice notes, big news, everyday moments. This guide shows how to export that history and keep it outside the app.

If the file is already downloaded, you can start your Instagram book now. If not, follow the steps below and you will be ready to upload it.

Table of contents

1. Why export Instagram DMs?
2. What Instagram export file you need
3. Step-by-step guide
4. Tips for a better Instagram book
5. FAQs

Why export Instagram DMs?

The value of the conversation is usually obvious. The annoying part is getting Instagram to hand it over in a format you can use. Once you request the right file, the thread stops living only in your inbox.

• Instagram DMs are easy to treat as temporary even when they are emotionally important.
• Exporting gives you a copy outside the app and outside one device.
• A book makes a long DM history feel readable again.

Once Instagram hands over the .zip, you can start your Instagram book and see the DMs as a layout instead of raw files.

What Instagram export file you need

Instagram gives you more than one export option, but you only need one of them. Choose the version that keeps the messages intact and uploads without extra fuss.

• Request the export from Instagram Accounts Center.
• Choose Some of your information.
• Select only Messages.
• Change the format to JSON, not HTML.

JSON works best with My Forever Books, so it is the format you want here.

Step-by-step guide

Instagram does not hand the file over instantly, so this process is partly about setting up the request correctly and partly about knowing what to do once the .zip arrives.

1. Open the Instagram Accounts Center.
2. Choose Download or transfer information.
3. Select Some of your information, then choose Messages.
4. Choose where you want the export delivered.
5. Set the format to JSON.
6. Click Create files and wait for Instagram to prepare the export.
7. Come back and download the finished .zip file.
8. Upload the file to My Forever Books and continue in the editor.

Once the export is ready, you can keep editing on your phone too, with the same in-browser book and cover tools.

And if the thread is huge, that is fine. There are no file limits, and we split long conversations into neat volumes labeled by message dates so everything stays organized.

Tips for a better Instagram book

Upload first, edit later. Once the thread is laid out in the editor, it is much easier to see what belongs in the book and what does not.

• You do not need to cut down a long DM thread before uploading it.
• There are no file limits, and if the export runs long, we split it into neat volumes.
• Each project is labeled by the message dates so long chats stay organized.

Finished the download step? Continue in the book builder with your JSON export.