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Slides cut off, text gone soft, a carousel that stops at 10 or posts in the wrong order. Each of these has a cause you can find, and most are fixed before you tap Share. Here is each problem, why it happens and what to do.
| Problem | Usual cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Slides cut off | Slides of different shapes | One size for every slide |
| Blurry or soft | Slides under 1080 px, cropping, data saving | Export at 1080 px+; Upload at highest quality |
| Only 10 slides | Posted through another app | Post in the Instagram app (up to 20) |
| Won’t post | A PDF, too many slides or hashtags | Images, 20 slides, 5 hashtags |
| Wrong order | Tapped out of order | Numbered files, tapped in order |
| Wrong first slide | Re-shown from slide 2, or the 3:4 grid | A second slide that hooks; a 3:4 cover |
| No music | A video in the carousel, or your region | Photos only, or an updated app |
| Can’t delete one photo | Only two left, or the bin icon is missing | Needs three or more; update the app |
The cause: Instagram uses the shape of your first selection for the whole carousel, and fits every other slide to it. A square cover followed by tall slides means the tall ones lose their top and bottom. A tall cover followed by a landscape photo loses that photo’s sides.
The fix:
The free Instagram size checker shows which of your slides will be cropped and resizes them all to one shape, on your device.
Soft slides almost always come from one of four things:
Judge the real post, not the upload screen: open the shared post on your phone and zoom in on a slide.
An Instagram carousel holds up to 20 photos or videos when you post it in the Instagram app or on instagram.com. If you are stuck at 10, the post is almost always going through another app, such as a scheduler or a design tool that posts for you. Those apps go through Instagram’s API, which has its own, tighter rules.
| In the Instagram app | Through another app (Instagram’s API) | |
|---|---|---|
| Photos and videos per carousel | Up to 20 | Up to 10 |
| Shapes | Portrait up to 3:4, square, landscape | Between 4:5 and 1.91:1 |
| Cropping | Every slide fits the first one | Every slide is cropped to the first one (square by default) |
| Picture files | Photos and videos | JPEG only, up to 8 MB, 320 to 1,440 px wide |
Instagram Help Centre; Meta for Developers (content publishing, IG User Media); Later Help Centre (10 items, updated 19 Jun 2026); PetaPixel (3:4, 29 May 2025).
The fix: to post more than 10 slides, or a 3:4 carousel, post it yourself in the Instagram app. If you must use a scheduler, keep it to 10 slides at 4:5, saved as JPEG. The full posting steps are in how to make a carousel on Instagram.
The cause: Instagram puts slides in the order you tap them. A small number appears on each one as you select it, and that number is its place in the carousel. Your gallery’s order doesn’t count.
The fix:
Slides downloaded from aiCarousels come numbered (yourtitle-01.png, yourtitle-02.png…) so they stay in order.
Two things can make your cover look like it changed:
It works only if two or more photos are left afterwards, so a carousel of two can’t lose one. Changed your mind? The photo waits in Your activity › Recently deleted for 30 days. Since January 2026 some people find no bin icon on the edit screen at all; Instagram hasn’t said whether it’s a bug or a test. Update the app, or delete the post and share it again without that photo.
Six slides, all 3:4 and 1080 px wide, numbered in order, with a cover that makes a promise and a second slide that could stand on its own.
Most of the problems above start before Instagram is even open. If you make your carousel in aiCarousels, it’s built in one shape from the start:
In Where will you post it?, pick Instagram and a size: 3:4 (recommended), 4:5, 1:1, or 9:16 for Stories. Every slide is made in that shape, and changing it re-flows all of them at once.
Press Preview and open the Instagram tab to see the post as it will look, caption included. The Ready to post on Instagram? list checks the slide count, the size and the cover. It’s part of ready to post.
Click Download PNGs: a ZIP with one picture per slide, numbered 01, 02, 03, at twice the size Instagram needs. Unzip it and upload from the folder in one go. Downloads come with a free account (with a small mark), Pro and Team. More on downloads.
Open the carousel in aiCarousels on your phone and tap Post. It copies your caption and hands the slides to Instagram, so you only pick Instagram, paste and share. See aiCarousels on your phone.
It was posted by another app, such as a scheduler, through Instagram’s API, which allows 10 items per carousel. Posted in the Instagram app or on instagram.com, a carousel can hold up to 20.
Instagram fits every slide to the shape of the first one. Make every slide the same size, and put the shape you want first.
Delete the post, resize every slide to the same shape, put the shape you want first and share it again.
Yes, for 30 days. Open Your activity, then Recently deleted, and restore it.
Instagram’s help says music can’t be added to carousels that include a video, and music isn’t available in every country. Update the app, and try with photos only.
Instagram can show a carousel again to people who scrolled past it, starting at the second slide. Make slide two work as a hook on its own.
Enter your idea and create your first carousel.
Welcome back: open the editor and pick up where you left off.
