The request is only half the job, and Meta does not hand you a status page. Four posts on the failure modes people actually hit: the wait, the email that never arrives, the link that expired, and the request that never finishes.
01 The Wait
How long should this take?
02 The Email
Where did my email go?
03 The Link
Why is the link dead?
04 The Queue
Why is it still pending?
Every post in this series uses data you already downloaded from Meta’s Download Your Information tool. Nothing asks you to upload anything, and nothing here is affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with Instagram or Meta.