Why Are My Instagram Stories Blurry?

As a content creator, the last thing that you want is for your production quality to fall because of blurry images or videos. Just over 70% of users post photos and videos on Instagram. Many of these accounts post stories, and some are blurry.

And the Story’s blurriness often doesn’t mean that the user’s camera quality is low.

Why are My Instagram Stories Blurry?

Blurry Stories can be caused by many factors – some are in your control, but many are not. The following are reasons why your Story may be blurry:

1. You Aren’t Using the Instagram Camera

If you’re not using the Instagram camera app, it may result in poor Story quality. Users should test whether the Instagram app or their phone’s camera app offers better quality. The main difference between the apps is on the software level.

Android and iPhone offer Instagram API access to the camera hardware, meaning there’s no quality difference on this level.

However, Instagram’s app will offer different:

2. You Haven’t Cleared Your Cache

Your phone has a cache for each app. The cache is a location to store data temporarily, but the cache can also be too large. Android users will have an easy time deleting Instagram’s cache by:

Clearing the cache may fix your blurry Stories, but if it doesn’t, move on to some of the next recommendations on the list.

3. Instagram is Down

Instagram can be down in certain regions or worldwide, depending on the issue the platform is facing. If your Stories are normally crystal-clear but are now blurry, there’s a chance that the issue is on Instagram’s side.

Server issues can cause Story compression and uploads to error and lead to blurry Stories.

You can’t restore Instagram’s servers on your own, so you’ll need to wait for Meta to fix the issue. However, you can check to see if the site is down by using the following tools:

But there’s also a chance that the issue is on your side.

4. Your Internet Connection is Poor

One common cause of blurry Stories is a poor Internet connection. If your speed or connection is weak, your Story may only be partially uploaded to the server, or it may fail to upload entirely.

In either case, your Story may look blurry or pixelated.

5. You’re Adding Too Much Media

Your Stories may look blurry if you’re trying to add too many things to it. Are you adding GIFs, stickers and music? That may be the problem.

Instagram aims to keep Stories under a certain size limit to make sure that their app runs efficiently.

Try uploading just the image or video or only adding one element to your Story.

6. You Have the Data Saving Option Enabled

Instagram has a data-saving option that helps lower data usage. While there are some advantages to this option, it can compromise the quality of your media when you upload it using mobile data. 

If you have the data-saving option enabled, then this may explain why your Stories are blurry.

To disable this option:

7. You Haven’t Enabled High-Quality Uploads

If your Stories are blurry, it may be because you haven’t enabled the high-quality uploads option on Instagram.

To allow high-quality uploads, follow the steps listed in the previous section, but instead of toggling off “Use less mobile data,” enable the option to “Upload at highest quality.”

8. You’re Using the Wrong Format

If you want your Stories to look professional and high-quality, you need to ensure that you’re using the right format and dimensions.

If you’re posting videos or images to your Stories that aren’t the right size, they may look blurry or pixelated.

Also, make sure that you’re posting vertical images and videos.

These are some of the most common reasons Instagram Stories look blurry. Once you know why your Stories aren’t as high-quality as you want, you can take steps to fix the issue.