The earliest Instagram videos have lost their audio; Know what will happen to them now

A strange glitch is causing frustration for many longtime Instagram users. Reports have found that the oldest posted videos on the platform are suddenly losing their audio without any explanation. This has not been reported on any of the newer videos, but the ones posted in or around 2014. This is also not a case of audio being intentionally removed from the video due to copyright issues, as Instagram informs the user both in-app and via email of the steps taken. Users who have reported the issue have not received any such message from the company.

What is this new glitch?

According to a report by The Verge, which was one of the first to spot the issue, almost a year's worth of videos between June 2013 to October 2014 have lost their audio, rendering them silent with a message popping “this video has no sound” when you attempt to play the audio. It should be noted that Instagram added the video feature to the platform in June 2013.

The report also found that the audio file is not missing from the video, which can be played perfectly fine when the video is embedded on a different platform. However, playing them on Instagram itself results in a muted experience. So far, there is no word from the company on why this issue is occurring suddenly.

This issue is concerning because many Instagram users store their favorite moments from life on the platform in both photo and video formats. This essentially ruins almost a decade-old memories for many veteran users, who likely do not have a copy of the file either. This can result in users losing their memories of their child’s younger days, special moments spent with a family member or friend who has passed away, and more.

What is Meta doing about it?

It turns out that Meta is aware of the issue, and is working to fix it. “We’re aware that a bug caused some people to have trouble accessing audio on older feed posts. The issue is being resolved, and we apologize for the inconvenience,” spokesperson Seine Kim told The Verge.

How to recover Instagram videos with audio intact

As long as the issue is not fixed, there is no real way to recover the audio on the platform. However, as per the report, the embedded files have been found to play the audio normally. This means any of these videos embedded in another platform will allow users some temporary relief to rewatch those memories.

Alternatively, there are plenty of third-party websites and apps that allow users to download their account’s videos. Since they use embedded links, this could be another workaround to retrieve the video with its audio intact. However, we would recommend not to use this step unless it is an emergency as many such websites and apps are also scammy and can drop malware or virus on your device.

Since Meta has promised to fix the issue, we would recommend sitting tight and letting the platform experts fix your Instagram videos, which should not take too long.