How to see and remove apps connected to your Instagram account

Why review your connected apps

Every time you log into a service with Instagram, or connect Instagram to a tool, you give that app or website some access to your account. Most of those connections are harmless and useful. But tools get replaced, agencies change, free trials end, and the list keeps growing. A periodic check is good account hygiene:

1. Security. Fewer connected apps means fewer places that can read your account. If you don’t recognize an app, removing it is a sensible precaution.
2. Clarity. If several people manage the account, the list shows which tools are actually in use.
3. Clean handovers. When an agency or freelancer stops working with you, the tools they connected can be removed.

The one thing to be careful about is removing a tool you still rely on. If your website shows your Instagram posts through a feed widget, that widget is in this list, and removing it ends the feed. We’ll come back to that below.

Remove an app or website on your phone

These are the steps Instagram’s Help Center gives for the Android and iPhone apps, as of October 12, 2026:

1. Tap Profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
2. Tap Menu in the top right.
3. Below Your app and media, tap Website permissions.
4. Tap Apps and websites, then tap Active at the top.
5. Tap Remove next to the app you’d like to remove.

Instagram moves its settings from time to time. If a menu name on your screen is different, look for “Website permissions” or “Apps and websites”, or use the search box in your settings if your app has one.

Remove an app or website on a computer

On instagram.com, Instagram’s Help Center gives these steps:

1. Click More in the bottom left, then click Settings.
2. Below Your app and media, click Website permissions.
3. Click Apps and Websites, then click Active.
4. Click Remove next to the app you’d like to remove.

The list is the same whether you open it on a phone or a computer, because it belongs to your Instagram account, not to a device. Removing an app in one place removes it everywhere.

Active, Expired and Removed: what the tabs mean

Instagram sorts connected apps and websites into three groups, depending on their state and how often you use them. Here is how Instagram’s Help Center describes each one:

A few details from the same article are worth reading carefully:

1. Public information stays public. Some information is always public on Instagram, like your username, bio and profile picture. Instagram says an app can still access that information after it expires.
2. Business and creator tools don’t expire. Instagram says apps with permissions used to monitor or manage information from business and creator accounts are not expired after 90 days of inactivity, because they may need continuous access.
3. Removal is not deletion. Instagram notes that a removed app may have stored information from when you were using it. Removing it only prevents it from continuing to access your non-public information through Instagram.
4. Apps can become active again. If you start using an expired app again, it may become active and regain access to what you previously shared. An app may also ask you for permission again.

Instagram’s 2019 announcement of this page made the same point in simpler words: once you remove a third-party service, it no longer has access to new data on your account.

What to keep and what to remove

There is no single right answer, but this table is a practical starting point:

If you’re not sure what an entry is, look at its name and think about which services you’ve logged into with Instagram. When in doubt about a tool that a colleague or agency uses, ask before removing it. Removal can’t be undone in place; the app has to be connected again.

A one-minute check before you remove anything

Removing an app takes one tap, and putting it back takes a full reconnection. Before you tap Remove, run through these questions:

1. Does any website show my Instagram posts? Open your own site and any landing pages or online stores you run. If a feed appears, find out which tool powers it before removing anything that might be it.
2. Does anyone else use this tool? A colleague might schedule posts with it, or an agency might report on your account with it. Ask first.
3. Is there anything to export first? Some tools keep reports or saved content only while they are connected. If you need that information, download it before you disconnect.
4. Is there a subscription? Removing an app from Instagram doesn’t cancel a paid plan with that service. Cancel the plan in the service itself if you no longer need it.

How often to review the list

Instagram doesn’t set a schedule, so pick one that fits how your account is run. A simple routine for a business account:

Doing this regularly keeps the list short, which makes it much easier to spot something that doesn’t belong.

What happens to your website feed when you remove Social Feed

Social Feed by grip space reads your posts through the Instagram API, using the access you approved when you connected your account. It requests one permission, instagram_business_basic, which lets an app read a professional account’s profile and media. If you remove Social Feed in Instagram’s list of apps and websites, you cancel that access.

Here is what happens on each side:

1. On Instagram’s side: Social Feed can no longer continue reading your non-public information through Instagram, and the connection can’t be renewed. Meta only allows a long-lived token to be refreshed while it carries the instagram_business_basic permission.
2. On Social Feed’s side: Meta’s app setup for Instagram includes a deauthorization callback address, which is how an app hears that someone has removed it. When Social Feed receives that notification, it deletes that Instagram account’s connection: the access token, the account information and the settings of every widget that uses that account.
3. On your website: the embed code is still on your pages, because nothing on your site changes by itself. But the code no longer has a widget behind it, so it shows nothing. There is no error message on your site; the space where the feed was simply stays empty.

The same handling applies if you ask for your data to be deleted through Meta, which lets apps register a separate data deletion request address for this purpose. Our privacy policy describes what Social Feed stores and how it’s deleted.

Disconnecting in Social Feed vs. removing in Instagram

There are two places to end the connection, and they are not quite the same:

If you are stopping for good, the tidiest way is to do both: disconnect in the dashboard, then remove the entry in Instagram, and delete the embed code from your website so the empty space disappears.

Other ways to stop the feed without removing the app

Often the goal isn’t to cut the connection, just to change what your website shows. Social Feed has gentler options for that:

For the first option, see how to hide your Instagram feed temporarily. To narrow down which posts appear, see showing only recent posts and filtering by caption keywords.

Removed it by mistake? How to get the feed back

It happens: you tidy up the list, and an hour later someone asks why the Instagram section of the website is empty. What to do depends on whether the account still appears in your Social Feed dashboard.

If the account still appears in the dashboard, Social Feed hasn’t deleted the connection yet. Open Settings & preview. If a red message says your Instagram connection has expired, click Reconnect Instagram account below it and sign in with the same Instagram account, on any plan. When you reconnect an account that is already in the dashboard, Social Feed updates its access and keeps the existing widgets, so your embed code keeps working.

If the account no longer appears, the connection and its widgets were deleted after Instagram notified Social Feed. Set the feed up again:

1. In the dashboard, click + Connect Instagram account and sign in with Instagram. Approve the permission when Instagram asks.
2. Open Settings & preview for the new widget and set the layout, columns, post count, click action and filters again.
3. Copy the new embed code. The old code belonged to the deleted widget and won’t come back to life.
4. On your website, replace the old embed code with the new one, and publish the page.
5. Open the page in a private browser window to check that the feed appears.

The new widget starts with a fresh view count. If you have the old settings written down, this takes a few minutes. Our platform guides for WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and plain HTML show where to paste the code.

If you manage Instagram for clients

Agencies and freelancers are often the ones who connect a feed tool, and clients are often the ones who later clean up their connected apps. A client who sees an unfamiliar name in the list may remove it without knowing it powers their website.

Two habits prevent that. At handover, tell the client which entry in their apps and websites list belongs to the website feed and that removing it empties the feed. And if you leave a client, remove only the tools you connected for your own work, and leave the website feed alone unless the client asks for it to go.

If the client takes over a feed you set up, remember that only someone who can sign in to the Instagram account can reconnect it. A shared business login, or the client themselves, needs to be available for that step.

Other things that end a connection

Removing an app isn’t the only way a feed connection stops working. If your feed went empty and you don’t remember removing anything, check these too:

1. A password change. Changing your Instagram password can end existing connections. See what an Instagram password change does to your website feed.
2. An expired access token. Social Feed renews tokens automatically, but a token that was cancelled or expired can’t be renewed. See Instagram access token expired.
3. Switching back to a personal account. The Instagram API that feed tools use works only with professional accounts. See Instagram professional accounts.
4. A problem on your website. The embed code may have been removed or blocked. Our checklist for an Instagram feed not showing on your website covers those causes.

Troubleshooting

I can’t find Website permissions. Make sure you’re in your account’s settings, not a post’s menu. Menu names can change between app versions; look for “Apps and websites” or search your settings. On a computer, start from More in the bottom left.

The Active tab is empty, but I know I connected a tool. Check the Expired and Removed tabs too. Also make sure you’re signed in to the right Instagram account, especially if you switch between several.

I removed an app, but it still shows some of my information. Instagram says a removed app can still access your public information and may have stored information from when you used it. To ask for stored data to be deleted, contact that app’s developer directly.

My feed is empty, but Social Feed is still in my Active list. Then removal isn’t the cause. Check the preview in the dashboard: if it shows posts, the issue is on your website; if it shows the red expired-connection message, reconnect.

I reconnected, but my website still shows nothing. If your account had disappeared from the dashboard, your old embed code no longer works. Replace it with the new widget’s code.

Frequently asked questions

Does removing an app delete posts it published for me? Instagram’s article describes removal as stopping further access to your non-public information. It doesn’t say anything about undoing what an app did before. Social Feed only reads your posts and never publishes, so this doesn’t apply to it.

Will Social Feed delete my data if I remove it from Instagram? Yes. When Instagram notifies Social Feed of the removal, Social Feed deletes the access token, the account information and the widget settings for that account.

Does Social Feed’s access expire after 90 days if I don’t log in? Instagram’s 90-day expiry, as described in its Help Center, applies to personal accounts set to private, which can’t be used for a website feed anyway. Social Feed renews its access token automatically while the connection stays in place.

Can I remove the app and keep the widget for later? No. Removal leads to the widgets for that account being deleted. If you want to keep your settings, switch the widget to Unpublished instead.

I removed the app on my phone. Do I also need to do it on my computer? No. The list belongs to your account, so removing an app once removes it everywhere.

Is it safe to keep Social Feed connected? Social Feed asks only for permission to read your profile and posts. It can’t post, comment, message or read insights. Our article on Instagram API with Instagram Login explains that permission in detail.

Need help reconnecting? Email us at info@grip-space.co.jp with the address of the page where your feed should appear.

Related reading

Wondering whether Instagram’s Embeds setting affects your feed? Read Instagram’s embeds setting explained. New to Social Feed? Learn what Social Feed by grip space is, compare plans and pricing, or sign up for free.

Sources

1. Instagram Help Center, “Manage the privacy settings for apps and websites that you’ve logged into or connected on Instagram”: https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/1144624522593085
2. Instagram, “Increasing Personal User Data Control” (October 15, 2019): https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/increasing-personal-user-data-control
3. Meta for Developers, “Data Deletion Request Callback”: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/development/create-an-app/app-dashboard/data-deletion-callback/
4. Meta for Developers, “Customize the Manage messaging and content on Instagram Use Case”: https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/development/create-an-app/instagram-use-case
5. Meta for Developers, “Refresh Access Token”: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/reference/refresh_access_token/
6. Meta for Developers, Permissions Reference: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/permissions/