Backstory
My Instagram use lasted a bit longer after I deleted my Facebook account. I eventually tired of Instagram as it became an algorithm-churn of “memes,” reposts of Tiktok posts, and the basic suggested content (crafts, slime, and supposedly “satisfying” posts, “asmr” etc) no matter how many times I told IG that “I’m not interested in this.” Well, I downloaded my archives and deleted my account.
I had wanted to do something with my posts. For a while, I had hoped that Mastodon (probably Pixelfed) would provide a method to import from IG. Or at least backdate posts so that I could at least post some of my favorite IG posts with the correct date.
Approach
So my next best solution was to spin up a WordPress site and work on a script to parse the archive and import it. That way, I can continue to post new content when I feel up to it. And an eventual goal would be to enable the ActivityPub plugin to connect it to the Fediverse.
To see the final result, head over to my photo blog. To read more about the technical aspects and the code, head over to my IG Import Github repo and the companion block theme repo.
Screenshots
