As a social media platform, Instagram was never as diverse as it is today. The platform is constantly updating itself – adding new features, stickers, and filters to attract new users, creators, marketers, and businesses. The scope of this platform is widening as well. Those who once considered the platform to be just an online fun spot for Gen Z are now acknowledging its power and are driven towards it. And as is true about almost everything in life, more traffic also leads to more errors, glitches, and other issues.
Those who have been using Instagram for a substantial amount of time are reporting how the platform isn’t the same anymore. Are you one of these victimized users as well? Struggling to navigate your way on this crowded platform, facing issues you have no idea how to fix?
Well, we’re glad you turned to us for help. We assure you that you’ll learn something of insight from us before the blog ends.
Why Can’t I See Someone’s Followers on Instagram?
So, we understand that you’re facing an issue where you’re unable to check the followers of someone else on Instagram. Before we resolve your problem, let’s get into its specifics.
There are two different kinds of problems you could be facing: you’re either unable to see the followers of a particular Instagrammer, or are facing this issue for multiple or all users on the platform.
Because you could be going through either of these problems, we’ll divide them into two categories and find the possibilities behind them (and the solution) one by one. Let’s get started!
#1: This is only happening for a particular user
If your problem is with an individual user, any of the following reasons could have been causing it. Let’s inspect each one of them below:
Have they accepted your follow request yet?
We’re assuming that this user has a private account on Instagram. If that’s so, the first and most common reason why their Followers list isn’t visible to you could be because you’re not following them.
But how can that happen? It’s possible that you might have sent them a request that they haven’t responded to yet. To be certain this is causing the glitch, all you need to do is open their full profile on Instagram.
Under their username, profile picture, and bio, can you spot a blue Requested button? This indicates that your request to follow them is still pending. In this case, all you can do is wait for them to accept it. You could also resend the request so that if it had gone down on their follow requests list, it’ll be back up.
Doing this only requires you to tap on that Requested button twice. The first time, it’ll turn back to Follow, which means your request was deleted. The second time, the Requested button will re-appear, indicating that a fresh request has been sent their way.
They could’ve unfollowed you
If you distinctly remember this user following you back, we’re not saying you’re wrong. Perhaps they did follow you earlier but chose to unfollow you later on. The path to confirming this goes through your own Followers list.
Go to your profile, open your Followers list, and search for this person’s username on the search bar provided there. If their profile comes up in the search results, it means they’re following you.
On the other hand, if you get No results found, it’s a sign that they’ve unfollowed you, which is why you can’t access their Followers list.
A third possibility behind not being able to check someone’s Followers list is that they could’ve blocked you. But shouldn’t their whole profile disappear from your account in that case?
Well, not anymore. In the recent version of Instagram, when you search a username, and the user has blocked you, their profile will still show up in the search results. And when you tap on it, you’ll be taken on their profile as well.
However, once you’re on their profile, you’ll notice how there are no numbers on their Followers and Following lists. The blue Following button below their bio will also be changed to a grey one that says User not found.
If you can see all these changes on their profile, it’s a clear indication that they’ve blocked you. It’s either that or they could’ve disabled their own account. But in either case, there’s nothing you can do about it.
#2: This is happening for multiple/all users
On the off chance that this problem persists with more than one user, you can take it to mean that the issue is on your part, and not the users. But what kind of issue could it possibly be? Here are some of our suggestions:
Try refreshing Instagram
The oldest and classiest trick in the book is to simply pull your screen down and let the app refresh. With the crowd on the platform growing every day, there’s always the scope for glitches like these; the ones that can be fixed with a simple refresh.
Try it and see if it works. You could also try logging out of your account and then logging back in to see if it changes anything.
Clearing the app’s cache might work, too
If both of our suggestions above didn’t seem to work for you, perhaps it’s time you cleared your cached data of Instagram. Cached data, as it gets older, has the potential of going corrupt, which often results in major performance issues on your app, much like this one.
So, you need to open your device’s Settings app, look up Instagram, and navigate the Clear Cache data button there. Tap on it, and your job will be done.
Is your Instagram app up-to-date?
If clearing your cache didn’t seem to work either, there’s still one possibility of an error on your part remaining: updating your app.
While most users have set their App Stores on auto-update, which means that all the new updates on the apps they use are downloaded and installed automatically, in the background.
However, there could be a glitch in this function at times, which results in your app remaining un-updated. Fixing it is fairly easy; all you need to do is go to your Google Play Store (in case of an Android device) or App Store (in case of an iOS device), look up Instagram, and check if it’s up-to-date or not.
If it isn’t, update it manually, re-start Instagram, and see if the error is fixed.
Write to Instagram’s Customer Support
If you’ve tried everything we suggested so far and hit a dead end, we believe only Instagram’s customer care can solve your problem. You could either get in touch with them over a call or write to them describing your issue. Here are the contact details of Instagram Support:
Phone number: 650-543-4800
e-mail address: support@instagram.com
The bottom line
With this, we’ve reached the end of our blog. Today, we analyzed your problem – of why you can’t see someone’s followers on Instagram – and listed down every possible cause behind this error and their fixes.
Were we able to solve your problem with our blog? If there’s anything else you’d like our help with, feel free to tell us in the comments below!
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