Instagram Trick

Do you have an Instagram account? Does it annoy you that you can't upload photos from your computer, that you have to use your phone?

Instagram on my phone

Keep reading, I'll tell you how to upload photos from your computer to Instagram without an app in a moment. But first let me tell you what happened when I used Gramblr.

Have you tried apps only to have your account compromised? I used an app called Gramblr for awhile. It kept asking me if I wanted free followers or free likes or if I wanted to buy followers. I always said no. But unbeknownst to me they were using my account, and Snapper's account, to follow people who'd asked for free or paid followers and likes. I caught on real quick with my account and changed the password and had quit using Gramblr. But I hadn't changed Snapper's password. Next thing we knew, he had followed 7500 dodgy Instagram accounts! And Instagram won't let you mass unfollow. What a nightmare!!

I also for a while use an app called Bluestacks, which is an emulator that lets you run phone only apps like games and Instagram. That worked OK. But still wasn't perfect.

There is also an official Instagram app that is suppose to run on your Windows 10 device. Here's a link to it: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/store/p/instagram/9nblggh5l9xt ... I tried it. It almost works on my Windows 10 laptop. It does say after you install it that it is for Windows Tablets and might not work on other devises. Well, it looks good, but the problem I had with it on my laptop was that I had no control over what images came up when I wanted to upload a new image. There was no navigation, it was random. Perhaps if you don't have a lot of folders with a lot of photos then this might work for you. it did not work for me.

So, what does work for me? The F12 key. I'll explain.

So far I've tested this in the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers and it worked. I don't know if this will work on a Mac or any other browsers. Please let me know if you do, and I'll update this blog post with credit to you.

The formula to remember is this:

Open Chrome or Edge > go to Instagram > Log into your account > F12 Key > Refresh  

Do this and you should see the upload button at the bottom, like on your phone.

Google Chrome

Microsoft Edge

A few notes which might help if things don't work right away.

1. In Chrome, check that the site is set to Responsive. See photo above of Google Chrome. 
2. In Edge, I had to fiddle with the controls and refresh until I got usable controls. 
3. I found Chrome much easier to use. 
4. On my laptop I have to press the Fn key along with the F12 key. 
5. Tip from Jess Vines: Another way to open DevTools is to right click on page > Inspect. 
6. If you are having problems opening DevTools, have a look at this page: https://developer.chrome.com/devtools 

UPDATE: NOTE: What the F12 key is doing is opening up developer tools, AKA DevTools.

UPDATE WARNING: Do not touch anything in the DevTools side of the window, unless you know what you are doing :-) 

UPDATE: Ghene Snowdon over on twitter tells me that there is an Adobe Lightroom plugin for Instagram and that she runs several accounts from it. That's good to know!

UPDATE: For Mac users using Safari. I've not tried this, but I'm told.... Go to Safari > Preferences > Advanced. Check the box at the very bottom that says, "Show Develop menu in menu bar." Open a private browsing window. Head to Develop > User Agent > Safari -- iOS 10 -- iPhone. Go to Instagram.com, sign in and you should see the camera button at the bottom of the screen to upload a photo from your desktop.

If you have any Instagram tips please do share! I'll happily add them with credit to you of course. :-) 

Happy Instagraming!