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How to quickly upload photos to Instagram from your PC or Mac

by 15 Comments

Many of us would find it convenient to upload the photos to Instagram from our computers. Windows 10 users have this option, at least if they use a PC with a touchscreen. But the Mac users and those with older versions of Windows can still only rely on their phones.

If you use Google Chrome, there actually is a way of uploading photos to Instagram, and it’s pretty simple. It doesn’t require Lightroom plugins or desktop apps, only a couple of clicks around the Developer Tools. And since I managed to do it – it means it’s as simple as it gets.

First, open the Instagram page. Then, click the three dots in the upper right corner of Google Chrome. When the menu opens, go to More Tools > Developer Tools.

The Developer Tools window will take up your right side of the screen. Here, you’ll see a small icon “Toggle Device Toolbar” in the upper left corner of the window. It looks like small tablet and smartphone, and when you click on it, it will allow you to change your browser’s user agent. From here on, you can post a photo to Instagram.

You can browse your computer for photos and upload the photo you like. You can leave it in square format Instagram offers by default, or make it the original size. If you opt for square, you can grab it and move it around the frame, and also rotate it.

When you click “Next,” you will have the option of giving your photo a caption, and after this, you can click “Share” and post it.

When I open Instagram on my laptop, here’s the photo, it’s the first in the feed:

You can also delete the photo from the PC or Mac if you change your mind:

The only downside of this method is that you can’t access the filters and the editing tools. However, if you use Instagram to post your work, you’ve probably already edited it as you wanted and there’s no need for the filters. For photographers, I believe that the option of choosing the format, giving captions and hashtags to photos are much more important anyway.

The main reason why I haven’t created an Instagram account to display my work is because it’s a waste of time (or I’m just too lazy) to transfer the photos from PC to a mobile device and then upload them to Instagram from there. But this makes things much easier and faster, so I may finally start using Instagram for something more than mobile snapshots of daily life. I hope you’ll find it useful too, and speed up the process of sharing your photos with the audience on Instagram.

[via Lifehacker]

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  • Yep, been using it for months, so good to not have to transfer to mobile for IG uploading.

  • No, I like bigger photos than VGA

  • Does not appear to work.

    • It doesn’t work with my personal account. But it does work on my 2nd account tho.

    • Hm, I tried it with my personal and my boyfriend’s business account, it worked on both. Don’t know what could have gone wrong.

  • Should be able to upload there from any web browser. #EpicFailForThem

  • Console block JS here. Can’t refresh the page after changing user agent on chrome mac

    • Hm, maybe some of the Mac users will know how to help. I’m the Windows kind. :)

  • What about using Gramblr?

    • Been using gramblr for a while, it’s not too bad.

  • mksystem

    it’s better to use some extension. I use “Custom UserAgent String” which let me to set useragent only for instagram site.

  • Adrian Lee, Benjamin S Tranter

  • David Shepherd

    Works with Chrome on MacOS…Just need developer tool and follow instructions.

  • Eil

    Hi there Dunja, many thanks for sharing this tip which is really useful. I was able to get this to work originally in windows but for some reason I can no longer find the option to browse my computer to upload a photo. I am in the mobile option and can see the instagram circle is active but not sure where to click on it to bring up the browser option? Appreciate any advice as it was a real bonus.. :-)

  • Margo Trushina

    Hi! I want recommend more simple way to post your photo from PC http://www.push.photo It helps you with posting from you browser without any problems and also you can schedule it. And without downloading any app (really hate having millions of apps). I use it for more than a year and everything is fine!

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