Have you found an account that you want to follow, only to realise that something is preventing you from being able to follow the user and see their content?
There are a number of things which could be standing between you and the ability to follow a specific user – with this blog sharing some of the most common causes.
1. You’ve Hit The ‘Following’ Limit
Did you know that Instagram has set in place a limit of how many accounts you can follow?
In an attempt to block the growth of bots and spam accounts, Instagram users cannot follow any more than 7,500 accounts from a single profile.
So, if you’ve hit this cap and try to follow someone else, you will find the action blocked (until you unfollow another account to create space).
2. You’ve Done Too Much
Another example of how Instagram is seeking to limit bots and spam activity – if you try and perform more than 60 individual actions on Instagram within the space of an hour, you will find any further activity blocked.
3. The User Has Blocked You / Hasn’t Accepted Your Request
If you try to follow an account which is private, you will find that your request to follow has to be approved before you can see any of their content.
If the user doesn’t approve your request, or blocks you completely, you will be unable to see any of their updates and will not be able to follow them.
4. The Network is Bad
A simple and innocent explanation could be that your network is bad and simply cannot keep up with the request as you try and follow another user.
If the Wi-Fi you are accessing is playing up, then you can try turning it off and using 4G mobile network data instead. Alternatively, you could wait for a few hours to see if it’s a fault with Instagram itself.
5. Instagram Has Restricted Your Account
If any of your activity is seen to be in violation of Instagram’s terms, then it may be that your account has been restricted or blocked by Instagram.
Any suspicious activity that Instagram flags can lead to restrictions on your account, preventing activity for a period of time. If this seems to be the case, reaching out to Instagram to report the issue is often the quickest way to dispute and resolve the problem, and restore full use to your account again.
We hope that this helps you to make sense of what’s going on behind the scenes at Instagram, especially in light of account restrictions and the reasons why you may be unable to follow specific accounts and users.
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