Do you enjoy using Instagram to follow celebrities, influencers, and friends? Building a social network is fun and provides a sense of community online. One day, you open the app and try to view an account, only to receive an error message saying “Posts not Found.” What does that mean?
It means that the user probably blocked you from viewing their posts. Instagram doesn’t directly inform you if someone blocks your account from viewing their profile and posts.
This action leaves you feeling frustrated, wondering why you can’t access the user’s posts or what you did to offend them so much they blocked you. The reality is you might not be blocked. Maybe the user deactivated or deleted their account or switched to a private profile.
You’ll have to do some investigating to uncover the real reason why you can’t access their account of posts. Let’s look at a few strategies on how to know if someone blocked you on Instagram.
Strategy 1 – Search Instagram for Their Username
The first and easiest method to see if the person blocked you is to search for their username. If you type their username in the search bar and their account pops up with all their posts, they haven’t blocked you, and there’s something wrong with the app.
If that’s the case, you can follow our other posts on what to do if your Instagram isn’t working. If the message “This Account Is Private” pops up, it means they removed you from their following and turned their account private.
If your search doesn’t return any results, the user may have deactivated or deleted their account or changed their username. Or, they might have blocked you. If they delete or deactivate their Instagram, the account disappears from the platform for good.
Search for a tagged comment or photo they made and click their profile. If the person changed their username, you’d find all their new username and content under their profile is still available.
If your search turns up their username, profile, followers, and following, but you can see their posts, they probably blocked you. If you look at the post grid and see the message “No Posts Yet,” it means the user blocked you.
Strategy 2 – Check Your Comments
Instagram won’t delete the user’s old tags and comments from your posts. If the search method returns no results, you can click on their profile in a comment they left on one of your posts. This action takes you to their profile, where you can use the method described above to determine if they blocked you.
Strategy 3 – Use the Browser Search
If these two methods don’t yield the results you need, you have the option of searching for their profile on Google using a link. Every account on Instagram has an individual URL appearing as “Instagram.com/username” in web browsers.
If the person deactivated or deleted their account, it won’t appear in the search results. If they block you, their profile will appear in search results, but you’ll receive an error message if you try to access their profile and posts.
Strategy 4 – Check Your DMs and Group Messages
If the user blocked you, Instagram hides all message threads involving you and the other user. Check your DMs. If you see their profile and messages in previous chats, the user hasn’t blocked you. If the messages are gone, it means the user blocked you.
If the user is in any group chats with you and you can see them participating in the group chat but nowhere else on the platform, they’ve blocked your account. You’ll be able to see what they post in the group chat, but you can’t access their profile or view their content.
Strategy 5 – Refollow
There’s a chance the Instagram app is malfunctioning and giving you a glitchy experience on the platform. If that’s the case, clear your cache, log out of Instagram, and log back in. Visit the person’s profile to see if you can view their account.
If you suspect the person blocked you, try following their account again. If you’re blocked, you won’t be able to follow their posts. The “Follow” button appears, but you can’t press it, and it doesn’t change color the way it would when you follow unblocked accounts.
Strategy 6 – Try Accessing the Users Profile with Another Device
The final strategy to see if someone blocked you on Instagram is to access their account from someone else’s profile. If none of those methods works, ask a friend if they can find the user and follow them. The user blocked your account if your friend has the option to follow their account.
If your friend can’t find the profile in a search, the user deactivated or disabled their account. You can use the other strategy of checking for a change in their username to see if you have any luck with that method.
Wrapping Up – How to Know if Someone Blocked You on Instagram
Being blocked from user accounts on Instagram is frustrating, but it’s not the end of the world. The strategies in this post help you discover if it’s a problem with your app or device or if the user blocked your account.
While the methods in this post show you if the user blocked you, it won’t tell you why they took that action. That’s the real frustration with the issue, but don’t dwell on it, move on and forget about it.
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