You open Edits and your project is gone. The draft list is empty, or one project vanished while the others stayed. It is the most stressful problem in this guide, because the work behind a draft is hours of cutting, and the honest answer is that some drafts can be found again and some cannot.
The deciding fact is where drafts live: on the device, not in the cloud. That single fact explains almost every disappearance. An update, a reinstall, a phone reset, or a new phone can all take drafts with them, while a wrong account or a display glitch can make drafts look lost when they are still there.
By Alex Carter, Editor · Published October 24, 2026 · Updated October 24, 2026
30-second answer: First, do nothing destructive: do not reinstall, do not clear app data, and do not reset the phone. Check the account, restart the app, and confirm you are on the same device. If the app was uninstalled or the phone was reset, the draft is usually gone, which is why exporting finished work is the habit that matters most.
In this guide
- What you are seeing
- Likely causes, ranked
- Fixes, quickest first
- When it is a rollout or server problem
- Prevent it next time
- Where drafts actually live
- Still stuck?
- Frequently asked questions
What you are seeing
An empty draft list after an update or a reinstall is the most common shape, and it usually means the app data was reset. A single missing project, with the others intact, points at a damaged project file or a storage cleanup that removed that project’s media. Drafts missing on a new phone, while present on the old one, are not missing at all: they never moved, because drafts do not travel with the account.
Before you conclude a draft is gone, check the two look-alike cases: the wrong account, and a display glitch that a restart fixes. Both are quick to rule out, and ruling them out first stops you from taking a destructive step, like reinstalling, that turns a recoverable draft into a permanently lost one.
Likely causes, ranked
- App data cleared or app uninstalled. Clearing storage or data, or uninstalling the app, removes the drafts stored on the device. This is the most common permanent cause.
- New phone or device switch. Drafts live on the old device, not in the account, so they do not appear on a new phone.
- Phone reset or storage cleanup. A factory reset, or an aggressive cleanup that removes app files, takes drafts with it.
- Wrong account. Signing in to a different Instagram account shows that account’s projects, which may be none.
- Update glitch. An update can occasionally reset app data or fail to migrate projects, leaving an empty draft list.
- Damaged project file. A single project can become unreadable after a crash or a storage fault, while the other drafts stay fine.
Fixes, quickest first
- Stop and do nothing destructive. Do not reinstall, do not clear storage or data, and do not reset the phone. Every one of those can turn a recoverable draft into a lost one.
- Check the account. Confirm you are signed in to the same Instagram account that made the draft, and check the other accounts on the phone if you have more than one.
- Restart the app and the phone. Force-close Edits, restart the phone, and open Edits again. Display glitches and stuck draft lists often clear with a restart.
- Confirm the device. If you switched phones, the drafts are on the old phone. Open Edits on the old device before doing anything else.
- Update the app. Check the store for an Edits update, since an update can fix a draft-list bug, and check our updates page for the latest status.
- Look for exported copies. Check your photos and files for an exported version of the project. An export is not the editable draft, but it saves the finished video.
- Rebuild from the export if needed. If the draft is gone, re-cut from the exported video and the original clips. It is faster than it feels, because the decisions are already made.
When it is a rollout or server problem
Drafts themselves are local, so a server outage does not delete them, but an update rollout can. If drafts vanished right after an update, and other creators report the same thing, the update is the likely cause, and the fix is usually a follow-up update rather than anything on your phone.
In that case, do not reinstall. Wait for the next update, keep the phone as it is, and check the updates page for news. Reinstalling during an update problem removes the very data a fix might have recovered.
Prevent it next time
Export finished work the moment it is done, and export a rough cut at the end of each editing session for long projects. An export in your photos survives uninstalls, resets, and phone switches, while a draft does not. Treat the export as the save, and the draft as the workshop.
Never clear app storage or data casually, keep several gigabytes of free phone storage so cleanup tools do not target app files, and export before updating the app. Our export settings tutorial covers the export options that keep quality high.
Where drafts actually live
Edits drafts live in the app’s storage on the device that created them. They are not uploaded to a project cloud, and signing in to the same account on another device does not bring them along. That is why a new phone shows an empty draft list even though the account is identical, and why a phone backup that does not include app data restores everything except the drafts.
This is also why the export habit matters more than any backup setting. An exported video in your photos is a finished file that survives uninstalls, resets, and phone switches, while a draft is a workshop that only exists on one device. If the project matters, the export is the save.
When you switch phones, finish or export every open project on the old phone first, then move to the new one. It takes ten minutes and it is the only reliable way to carry work across devices. Starting fresh on the new phone and hoping the drafts follow is how projects get lost.
Still stuck?
If the draft is not on the old device, not under another account, and not recoverable after a restart, it is almost certainly gone, and the honest next step is to rebuild from the export and the original clips. Rebuilding feels slow, but the creative decisions are already made, and the second cut is usually faster than the first.
Do not pay anyone who promises draft recovery, and do not install a recovery tool that asks for account access. Drafts removed with app data are not sitting on a server waiting to be unlocked, and anyone claiming otherwise is selling something that does not exist.
Get the official app
If you are setting Edits up fresh, get it from the official stores. It is free, and it is the only download we recommend.
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Frequently asked questions
Can I recover a deleted Edits draft?
Only sometimes. If the draft still exists on the same device and account, it can often be found again. If the app was uninstalled or the phone was reset, the draft is usually gone, which is why exporting finished work matters so much.
Why did my drafts disappear after an update?
An update can occasionally reset app data or fail to migrate projects. Check the account first, then wait for a follow-up update rather than reinstalling.
Do Edits drafts sync to the cloud?
No. Drafts live on the device that created them, not in the account. Switching phones does not carry drafts along unless you export them first.
Will reinstalling Edits bring my drafts back?
No. Reinstalling usually removes them. Never reinstall to recover drafts.
Why is only one draft missing?
That project file is probably damaged, or a storage cleanup removed its media. The other drafts are unaffected, and the fix is to rebuild that one project from the export and the original clips.
How do I stop losing drafts?
Export finished work, keep storage free, never clear app data casually, and export before updating the app or switching phones.
Edits for PC is an independent, unofficial guide. It is not affiliated with Meta Platforms, Inc. or Instagram.
Rebuilding a lost project, faster
A rebuild starts from what survived: the exported video, the original clips in your camera roll, and your memory of the cut. Import the exported video first and watch it twice, noting the order of shots, the text moments, and the music changes. That watch-through becomes the blueprint, and it turns a vague rebuild into a checklist.
Cut the new timeline in the same order as the original, using the original clips where you still have them and the exported video as a reference for timing. Do not try to improve the project while rebuilding it: rebuild it as it was, export it, and only then make changes. Mixing a rebuild with a revision doubles the work and the frustration.
Recreate captions and text last, since they are the easiest part to redo and the hardest part to get exactly right from memory. If the exported video has burned-in captions, read them straight off the export. If it does not, write the lines fresh and keep them shorter than the original, because a rebuild is a chance to tighten, not to pad.
Export the rebuild the moment it matches the original, before adding anything new. That export is your new safety copy, and it closes the loop that the lost draft left open. From here on, the export habit in this guide is what keeps the next project safe.
The lesson of a lost draft is not that editing is fragile, it is that the save habit was missing. From today, every finished cut gets an export before the app closes, and every long project gets a rough-cut export at the end of the session. That habit costs seconds and it is the difference between a scare and a loss.
If this guide found your draft, keep the habit. If it did not, rebuild from the export, export the rebuild, and let the next project be the one that never goes missing.