Instagram Account Tracking Guide: Auto-Save New Posts, Organized by Person

Updated: 2026-10-28 · 9 min read

Saving a single link is perfect for "I want this picture now". But if you love a photographer, an illustrator or a friend and want a copy every time they post, you can't keep scrolling and copying links one by one. Account tracking is built for that: tell Meecut which public account to follow and it checks on a schedule, downloads anything new automatically, and files it in your gallery under the "person" you choose.

How it actually works

• Account: an Instagram username such as @someone. Type the username or paste the profile link; you can add several at once, separated by spaces or line breaks.
• Person: Meecut's unit of organization. One person often has a main account, a side account and a work account. Put them under the same person and the gallery browses by person instead of by account. Every person has a main account whose avatar becomes the person's avatar; you can change it any time.
• Check: Meecut regularly visits the account's public profile and compares it with what it has seen. The default interval is 6 hours, which is also the shortest on every plan.

Adding your first account

• Sign up and log in. Tracking needs an account because your follow list, saved photos and settings live in your own workspace. You can use email or sign in with Google.
• Open "Following" and enter one or more accounts. To group them, type the same name in "Person name"; leave it blank and the account name is used.
• Press "Start following". On success the page jumps to the gallery filtered to that person. The first capture takes a little while, so an empty gallery at first is normal. Refresh in a moment.

How Stories are handled

Stories disappear after 24 hours. For accounts you track, each check also looks for Stories that are live right now and saves them to the gallery too, marked with a Story tag. To be honest about it: checks run on a schedule, not as real-time push. A Story is captured as long as one check hits it during its 24 hours; if the owner posts and deletes it quickly, in between two checks, it can be missed. Capturing Stories doesn't use up extra captures.

Backfilling history

Tracking only guarantees new content from the moment you start following. To also save what an account posted earlier, use "Backfill history" on its card. It draws on a lifetime history allowance, counted in photos actually saved and never reset monthly: 50 on Standard, 300 on Pro, 2000 on Premium, with one-off packs of 100, 500 or 2000 when you need more. If the allowance runs short, what was fetched but doesn't fit is parked, and after upgrading or buying a pack, "Retry" fills in the rest.

Plans: how many accounts, how long kept

• Standard: 3 tracked accounts, 50 captures a month, 2000 MB, files kept 7 days on the server.
• Pro: 20 accounts, 300 captures a month, 20000 MB, kept 90 days.
• Premium: 100 accounts, 2000 captures a month, 50000 MB, kept permanently.

New accounts get a free 30-day Standard trial with no payment method, and yearly billing is 20% cheaper than monthly. A "capture" is one check of one account, so more accounts and shorter intervals use them up faster. Retention refers to the copy on Meecut's servers and is cleaned up automatically afterwards; if you connected your own Google Drive, the copy there is untouched.

Long-term storage: connect Google Drive

To keep things forever, connect Google Drive in your account settings. New photos then sync automatically into a Meecut folder in your Drive, organized by person, account and publish date. Authorization uses Google's narrowest file scope, drive.file: Meecut can only see and change files it created itself and can't read anything else in your Drive. You can revoke it at any time in your Google account's security settings.

Using the gallery

• Filter: switch between All, Last 7 days and Favorites at the top; the person chips below show one person only.
• Favorites: tap the star under a picture and find it later under Favorites.
• Bulk actions: tap Select for multi-select and bulk delete; "Download as ZIP" packs the current selection with folders by person, account and date.
• Immersive viewer: open any picture for a full-screen view, swipe up and down like short videos, and left and right to see the rest of a post.

A few practical tips

• Try one account for a few days first and see whether the pace and volume suit you before adding more.
• Always put one person's accounts under the same person, or the gallery splits them into several "people" that are hard to merge later.
• Private accounts can't be tracked. If someone switches to private later, new posts can't be captured, but what you already saved is unaffected.
• Tracked content remains the copyright of its creator. Please keep it for personal organizing and enjoyment.

Frequently asked questions

Can I change the check interval?

It is every 6 hours by default, which is also the shortest interval on every plan.

Will the account owner know I am tracking them?

Meecut does not use your Instagram account and does not follow the owner, so you do not appear in their followers or among Story viewers.

What happens if the account switches to private?

Items already in your library are not deleted and stay for as long as your plan keeps them; new content posted afterwards cannot be fetched.

What if my tracking slots are full?

Remove accounts you no longer need, or move to a plan with more slots.

A typical way to get started

• Day 1: add three public accounts you read most, give several accounts of one person the same “person,” and connect Google Drive.
• Week 1: see how much new content arrives each day, whether anything was missed and whether the gallery sorting works for you.
• Month 1: decide on a plan based on the captures you actually use and how long you need to keep things; you can cancel any time during the trial.
• Each quarter after that: review the accounts, drop the ones you no longer follow and free up slots for new ones.