Why Can't I Add Music to My Instagram Story?

Why Can't I Add Music to My Instagram Story?

Instagram is one of the most widely used and popular social networks in the world. Through our feed and stories, we share our activities, our mood and our daily life with friends, family or unknown followers. Today, the application has evolved to give us a resources that help improve the user experience. However, we don’t always notice all these new features and we sometimes feel that we are late to the trend.

Maybe everyone else has added music to their Instagram stories, but you haven't seen that option yet. Why is this? Is there a trick to manually activating the music sticker on Instagram? In the following article from oneHOWTO we will answer the question why can't I put music on my Instagram story?

What type of account do you have?

Believe it or not, the type of Instagram account you have can directly affect the services that the platform offers you. There are three categories of account: personal, business and creator. Determining your account type may be the solution to your question as to why you don't see the music option on Instagram stories.

While personal and content creator accounts usually have the music sticker for Instagram Stories (unless there's an update bug, which we will look at below), business accounts may not have this option available. The reason is simple: if you use certain music to promote your products without an agreement with the author, you could get into serious trouble.

As a result, many business accounts do not have access to the music sticker in Instagram Stories. The solution is to decide whether you as a business prefer to be able to tag your own products or whether you prefer to be able to access the music without a problem. Your type of account will make the difference.

You will see the settings for your account type as follows:

Outdated version of Instagram

If the problem is not due to your account settings and you still don't see the sticker to add music to your stories, it's probably because your Instagram app is outdated. This is one of the most common answers to the question why can't I put music on Instagram Stories.

App updates are necessary to enjoy the latest tools. Whether you have Android or iOS you can update the app with these simple steps:

Update Instagram on Android

  1. Open Google Play
  2. Click on the three lines that appear in the upper left corner of the screen and access the menu
  3. In "My apps and games" you can check if Instagram has pending updates and install the latest version of the App.

If updating the application is not sufficient, you should check if your Android device has a version higher than Android 5.0, as the option to add music to your stories is not compatible with lower versions. To update the version of your device you will have to:

Go to Settings > System > About device > Software update

As soon as you have your device updated, you should be able to open the Instagram app and enjoy tools like the music sticker.

Update Instagram on iOS

  1. Go to the App Store
  2. Click on "Apps"
  3. Search for Instagram and check for any pending updates and update the App

As on Android, if these steps do not work, you should check that your iOS device has a version higher than iOS7, since lower ones are not compatible with the music tool in Instagram Stories. To update the operating system you will need to:

Go to Settings > General > Software Update

Problem with your smartphone

Although many think that the smartphone can be a problem when it comes to enjoying certain Instagram tools, the truth is that your phone has little or nothing to do with the problems that the platform may present.

What may happen is that constant use of your phone, along with the accumulation of cache and memory related to the application produces certain issues when using Instagram stories. Fixing these errors is simple if you clear the app's cache, thus improving its performance, so here’s how to do it:

If you have Android, you can go to Settings > Apps > Instagram > Storage > Clear Cache. For iPhones, the only option is to directly delete the app and re-download it. It's not the same as deleting your account, so don't worry, when you log back into the app you'll still have pretty much everything, just as you left it. You may also find this article on how to remove your search history in Instagram helpful.

Data connection problem

Another common problem is that the ‘add music to a story’ option is not available due to a data connection problem. To see if this is the fault and resolve it, we recommend activating and deactivating your mobile data connection. You can also try this if you are using a Wi-Fi connection. This may seem like a very simple solution, but it is a common problem and has a much simpler solution than we may think.

The music I want does not appear

Sometimes, the issue may be that the music we want to add to our Instagram story does not appear. In this case, the problem may be that the song is very new or not yet known, or that for internal issues Instagram has decided not to add it to the platform. Remember that the music must be available on Instagram Music to be able to add it to a story.

Instagram story controls

Are you still wondering how to put music on Instagram because our tips have not worked for you? Then you must know the story controls. They are little known but they exist, so we recommend you access the configuration of these controls and check that all the options are activated. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to your profile.
  2. Select the three ellipsis or lines that appear in the upper right corner of your profile.
  3. Access the main menu and look for the option ‘Story controls’.
  4. Once inside, you can check and verify that the option to listen to music is activated, as well as the rest of the settings for Insta stories.

If you have solved your problem but want a more detailed guide, you can check our related articles on how to add music to Instagram stories or how to upload an Instagram story from your gallery.

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