So you’ve been action blocked on Instagram? Welcome to the club. Stop mashing your index finger into the “Tell us” button, take a deep breath and relax.
We’ve been there, and despite all of the advice out there on the interwebs, there are really only two things you can do to get yourself out of Instagram’s penalty box.
Skip to content
- Beware the “fixers” – no one but you can fix this
- How did this happen?! – we break down why you got blocked
- A’ight stop watcha doin’ – what you need to do (or don’t do) now
- The waiting is the hardest part – how long will you wait?
- Gettin’ nerdy with it – what happens during an extended block?
- Oops, I did it again – blocked for sharing your account with a service
- The private profile theory – one possible solution
- FAQ – answers to the most frequently asked questions
- Comments section – comments from users like you
Related book topics on Amazon
Beware the “fixers”
First things first: Be wary of anyone out there telling you that for a nominal fee they can resolve the issue. They can’t.
Instagram’s action block ban is time-based, and the length of your punishment is based on the severity of your crime. No so-called “Instagram technician” has the power to speed up the process.
These turds take your money, tell you to wait while they “get to work,” the Instagram ban naturally expires when time is up, and then the turd tells you they magically fixed it. Wrong.
Silly turds.
Also, don’t bother writing to Instagram about your woes. They don’t care and wouldn’t have the manpower resources to look into it if they did.
Of course, if it makes you feel better to rant, then by all means proceed. Screaming at a brick wall might be equally effective.
I tweeted mean things at Instagram’s founder.
A cathartic if not productive activity.
How did this happen?!
If you’ve been banned from following other accounts, you’ve likely done one of a few things:
1) You followed way too many people too quickly, or
2) you unfollowed too many accounts at once, or
3) evolution has given you super-fast hyper fingers and you’re secretly an X-Men.
The second reason might make you scratch your head. Why would Instagram block you from following others merely for batch unfollowing?
Well, it would honestly be kind of weird if Instagram tried to stop you from unfollowing someone, because let’s face it – sometimes you pick up some real weirdos (I’m looking at you, guy who only takes pictures of people on the toilet).
So the alternative is to block you from following anyone for a while. That’ll learn ya!
(AUGUST 10, 2019 UPDATE: Two of our readers told us today they have been action blocked from unfollowing as well, which we’d never heard of. Has this happened to you too? Let us know in the comments!)
A’ight stop watcha doin’ …
If you were using an app for automated follow/unfollow tasks like us, this activity is probably what landed you in jail. No, you don’t have to delete your apps.
Check your Instagram settings and you’ll see that your automation apps aren’t recognized as linked accounts. What you do have to do is change your ways.
Be mindful of Instagram’s hourly and daily limits and abide by them (there are theories elsewhere on the Internet about these limits, but the last I heard was to keep it under 200 “actions” per day and no more than 20 follow requests in an hour).
Yes, you can still use your apps to find that jerk who unfollowed you even though you had “liked” twenty terrible pictures of his ugly stupid kids.
Sheesh, bitter much?
Seriously, twenty damn posts.
What you can’t do is unfollow several hundred accounts in a few minutes. That’s what we did.
What you did.
I flirted with the long arm of the Instagram Community Guidelines and got the book thrown at us. There are also punishments for spammy comments, too many likes, batch rando DMs, copyright violations, rapid follow activity and other suspicious behavior.
The waiting is the hardest part
The other thing you can do? Wait.
As mentioned above, this is a time-based ban. Some crimes are apparently worse than others, although it’s not entirely clear which particular offense will earn which ban. The Internet is filled with blog post comments about bans being lifted after a few days to upwards of a month.
Our ban lasted three weeks on the dot. And now that you know you’re basically screwed for the next week or three, let’s dive into the anatomy of what happens when your account has been given the smackdown.
Gettin’ nerdy with it
Think anyone will get these retro music references?
Probably not, but I’m having fun.
1. Your follow activity stagnates. This is by design, and it’s pretty painful when tracked in a timeline.
2. You lose followers every day. This is kind of fascinating, really. With the inability to follow others, you not only lose the followers you were going to lose anyway from the whole garbage follow/unfollow tactic, you also lose those who were just fishing for more followers by following you.
Sounds like BS. How is that fascinating?
It points to a serious problem with Instagram. If you’re putting out good content regularly (which I think we were doing a decent job – judge for yourself at https://www.instagram.com/hiking.illustrated/ ), you’ve done your best with hash tags and you’re still not gaining followers, it poses the question:
Does anyone out there really care, and is Instagram’s model more broken than ever?
3. Your engagement rate plummets. If you look at Instagram’s JSON data feed for your account, the platform believes you are only as relevant as your twelve most recent posts. Using these last twelve posts, we can calculate our engagement ratio as:
((total likes for last twelve posts + total comments for last twelve posts) / 12) / number of followers
Huh?
Just look at the pretty chart.
If you’re interested in looking at your own JSON data, replace “hiking.illustrated” with your Instagram handle in the link below (note: you’ll have to copy and paste the link because Instagram recently updated their code to intentionally redirect all server calls to the root directory, which of course shows how petty they’ve become):
https://www.instagram.com/hiking.illustrated/?__a=1
Lastly, while you wait for the ban to be lifted, don’t feel like you have to stop posting or liking (if you’re lucky and Instagram hasn’t blocked you from doing that as well).
After all, the platform is supposed to be fun, and someone out there might actually genuinely like your terrible photos of ugly stupid kids.
Move on already, man!
Twenty photos. Twenty!
(◔_◔)
Oops, I did it again
One week after the ban was lifted, our account began to recover from a growth perspective. It was interesting to see engagement climbing as well, but that was happening more slowly.
I felt that we were still under the watchful gaze of Instagram at times, however, because some days our hashtag game seemed horribly off.
Kat was also worried about some of my other automated tinkerings running behind the scenes, which eventually got sniffed out by Instagram and earned us the threatening notification below.
Looking at a couple social automation threads, it was apparent this warning sent a few shockwaves, although no one reported that they actually had followers or likes removed that were gained by automation software.
I thought it may be time for me to stop thumbing my nose at Instagram and play by their rules. Botting is hard , they say. Husbanding is hard too, haha.
Still, I thought I’d found something that was starting to work. Instead of automating follows and likes with Socinator (a cheaper Jarvee ripoff with non-existent support as far as I can tell), I used the platform to simply scrape user hashtags.
After that, I’d dump a text file of usernames into the system and set it up to follow and like. It was working, but I got cocky.
You got us blocked again!
Yep, I got us blocked again. This time the penalty was shorter (one week as opposed to three), but we were banned from posting, commenting (even on our own posts), following and liking. That’s cold, Instagram!
![Instagram alert message: Action Blocked. Your account has been temporarily blocked from taking this action. Sharing your account with a service that helps you get more likes or followers goes against our Community Guidelines. This block will expire on [date] 2019-07-23. Tell us if you think we made a mistake.](https://www.hikingillustrated.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/action-blocked-with-date-tiny-4.png)
So have you learned your lesson?
I guess so. Although I did read an interesting article about writing your own automation software in Python.
Oh for the love of all that is holy.
I may be done with automation software as far as our hiking Instagram account goes, but I do find the process fascinating.
Getting blocked stinks, but it is also a peculiar way to see Instagram’s behind-the-scenes efforts to discourage botting on their platform.
All told, I don’t think we actually gained a single follower using third party software anyway (all we managed to do was grow the accounts of others), and in the end the action blocks cost us at least a few hundred followers.
From my experience, it just wasn’t worth the trouble.
Knowing what I know now, I’m not sure Instagram is worth the trouble either as far as being a platform for content marketing.
I’m not ready to give up just yet, but I think it’s also a sobering reminder of the potential consequences of building an empire on someone else’s property.
Related books on Amazon
The private profile theory
I’m going to get way less scientific and simply throw this out there …
Another user who had been action blocked responded in the comments section of this article about an anomaly he’d noticed: Even though he was blocked from following others, he noticed his “Following” total slowly rising.
He thought he’d been hacked, but after thinking about it for a bit, I realized what was most likely happening.
I think he had sent follow requests to private profiles, which do not count toward your following total until they accept the request.
So?
I hate to tell you this.
You didn’t! Oh, Andrew.
So when I managed to get our account action blocked for the third time, I immediately took screenshots of our profile page. The two below were taken an hour apart, both after our account had been blocked.
So here’s my theory: Instagram notices you’re performing too many actions in an hour or day, which it flags as suspicious behavior and enacts a temporary action block.
But, since you’ve previously sent follow requests to a handful of private accounts, these are now little ticking time bombs.
I think it’s possible that each time a private profile accepts your follow request after you’ve been blocked, it extends the length of your ban. It’s almost as if there is something in Instagram’s code that is trying to defend against what it sees as a hack (you’re still somehow following despite the block?), but in reality it’s fighting against its own algorithm.
Can I be sure about that? Nope. But I haven’t heard a better explanation.
The Illuminati?
I deserve that.
Instagram is also apparently more protective of private accounts. The platform realizes some of us are trying to grow our accounts, and doing so with public profiles is fair game.
But wouldn’t it make sense for Instagram to try to keep that tactic away from those who really don’t want to be bothered, a.k.a. the private profiles?
The real kicker is that, after a few days, I unfollowed those who weren’t following back, and it turns out that I had several private accounts in there who had accepted my follow request but hadn’t followed back. Hmph!
From now on, I’m going to avoid most private profiles as far as growth hacking goes, and I’d advise others to do the same. There’s something in that combination that is going to get you in trouble.
And yes, that means visiting each profile individually before following. That’s the only place where you can be sure an account is public (although after following on non-profile pages you can tell if the button changes to “followed” or “requested”).
Gone are the days of scrolling through another user’s followers and clicking the little blue follow buttons on the right. That activity is also too fast, and it’s sure to land you in the penalty box eventually.
But I was curious – how many little ticking time bombs did we still have out there? It turns out, there is a way to find out in your account data.
When you find yours, you might be surprised how many pending requests you have.
We had 88.
Shut. Up.
I know!
I wanted to make sure I went in and cancelled all of those requests, because otherwise they’ll just sit there for eternity (and some people think this counts toward your hourly/daily following limit). I learned that you can do this both on a smartphone and a desktop computer, but desktop is going to be way easier.
Here’s what you do:
(AUGUST 10, 2019 UPDATE: Although this worked for us, I’ll admit that by no means is this a proven tactic, and it’s hard to say if it actually had anything to do with lifting our ban or if it was just a fluke. One user had success with this tactic, another tried it with no luck, and two others said their action blocks were made worse after trying it. Yikes! Of course, we don’t know what else is going on with their accounts, but do with that information what you will.)
Go to Settings (the little gear icon) > Privacy and Security > Account Data > View Account Data > Connections > Current follow requests > View All.
Here’s a short video if that’s easier:
Once you’ve found your pending requests, open a second window in Instagram and begin copying and pasting those usernames one by one into the Instagram search bar.
You need to visit each profile, click where it says “Requested,” and then confirm you want to cancel your request to follow that account (this does not count as mass unfollowing because technically you aren’t following them yet).
Yes, I know, it’s a huge pain and Instagram doesn’t make it easy.
BUT, we did this, and our days-long action block ended early.
And it wasn’t your typical 24/48 hour block, nor was it a week or three weeks.
It was four and a half days. Now THAT is odd. Again, can I say for SURE that it helped lift the block prematurely? Nope.
The Freemasons?
Again, I totally deserve that.
I had to go into our account a couple times to finish the job, but for some reason there are still about 24 that show up in my pending requests that I simply can’t get rid of no matter what.
So if you don’t think Instagram has any bugs in its code, I present to you Exhibit A (here’s where I’d post the list of accounts I just can’t seem to scrub, but since they’re private profiles that probably isn’t cool).
After the second attempt to remove these pending requests, the action block expired at some point over night. The strange length of the block leads me to think there’s something to this theory, but only the devs at Insta know for sure, and they’re not talking.
The Shriners!
Yes, it’s all a conspiracy by the guys with the funny little hats in the funny little cars.
Instagram Action Blocked FAQ
Why is my action blocked on Instagram?
You performed too many actions too quickly. An action block is commonly caused by following too many users in a day or hour, or by mass unfollowing too many accounts. A ban may also be triggered for sharing your account with third party software that manages or automates follows and likes.
How do I fix action blocked on Instagram?
There is not much you can do but wait it out. If you have not been given a date for when your block will expire, try logging out and logging back in. It doesn’t always work, but occasionally it helps.
How long do you get temporarily blocked on Instagram?
If you haven’t been given a date with your action blocked message, the temporary ban can last from a couple hours to a couple days and onward to four weeks. We’ve never heard of a ban lasting longer than four weeks. If you have been given a date, the action block typically ends at the same time of day as when you first received it.
Can Instagram permanently block you from following?
Your action block is not permanent. Instagram can, however, completely disable and delete your account at their will, but that is rare.
Can I write to Instagram for help?
Yes. You can email them at [email protected] You can also write your message on a piece of paper and throw it down a well. This will provide a similar result.
Why didn't the action block expire on the date given?
There are a couple possibilities that may cause this. If you are a user outside western time zones (North and South America), we suspect a bug in Instagram’s code. You may also receive a “delayed ban” where an action block is enacted hours after your activity, in which case you’re likely looking at multiples of 24 hours for the action block to expire.
PLEASE HELP US OUT!
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Hi! I’ve been action blocked for about 15 days, you think I’ll eventually be unblocked? I wasn’t block for automation but for following and unfollowing too much. It’s on a fairly new Instagram account that I’ve made and I read stories online about people being blocked for months and if that’s going to be the case I don’t know what to do. I’ve linked my Facebook, stop being as active on the app, and even reported my problem.
Hi Tye! We connected via Instagram, but I’ll reply here as well in case others have the same question. The first time we got blocked wasn’t for automation either. We just unfollowed waaaaaaay too many people at once, which apparently Instagram saw as being spammy (or just being a bad Instagram citizen). Since we’ve been reinstated (and subsequently blocked for testing the limits again, lol), we have seen other warnings that lead me to believe that if Instagram intends to completely disable your account, they will tell you so. Hang in there. I think it’s possible your action block ban is of the three week variety, but only time will tell. I’ve heard there is a four week ban as well, which sounds particularly harsh. Give us an update if you can when your block has been lifted, and thanks for stopping by the blog!
(7/31/2019 FOLLOW UP: I direct messaged Tye to see if her ban had lifted. She replied that the action block had finally ended about four days prior, so it appears that she may have had roughly a three week ban.)
So, I currently serving a follow block. Everything else is working. Two weeks so far. I read your post and saw the bit about the follow request bomb. So I went into my profile and started rescinding my pending follow requests. Guess what, I had done about 20 and boom! Action blocked!
Hi Shaun, I’m so sorry, let me know if it lasts longer than half an hour. We had another user experience something similar, but his “extended” block was short-lived. He eventually had everything lifted, but then he got into trouble once more using a third-party app. I’ll keep modifying this post if what worked for us (if it wasn’t just a fluke) is actually making things worse for everyone. The last thing we want to do is spread bad advice. If only Instagram would give ANY advice, any at all on the matter, then all these assumptions and theories on the Internet wouldn’t be necessary. Again, my apologies, and hang in there.
Hi so I got action banned for unfollowing 200 people in one sitting. I could not like or comment or follow but shortly in 1 hr I went to see how manly follow request I had, it was a lot like 100 so I cancel only 5 request and then immediately my account go unbanned and I can like comment and follow
That’s awesome Nicole! I’m glad that worked!
Hi, i’ve been blocked for a week now and they gave me an expiry date which is today (4 january 2020) but nothing happened, i’m still blocked and I can’t do any activity on Instagram. So what shall I do in this situation?
Hi Zeina! This seems to happen a lot to users outside of the United States. Are you perhaps in a country other than the U.S.? I usually don’t hear back from other users with this problem, so I assume their action blocks expire a day after the date given.
Hi, this same thing has happened to me. It shows the action block expires January 5th but now it’s january 6th (outside America) and I’m still blocked from following people
Hi Natasha! I never hear back from anyone about this, so I’m assuming the action block lifts the next day after the expiration date. I think there is a programming issue on Instagram’s side. Unfortunately they’re so inundated with complaints that it’s probably hard for them to weed out legitimate problems. You SHOULD be ok tomorrow. If you have time, let us know either way. Thanks!
Glad I came across this article it explains why I got blocked and that my block end date today should lift tomorrow. Thank you so much!
I had a thought the other day about this possible programming bug. I think IG intends to ban users for a set number of days, but I suspect it is actually displaying a date 1 day less than the set period of time due to an incorrect time zone setting in the script. Unfortunately I don’t have a way to test that since I’m in the U.S.
GUYS CAN U PLEASE HELP I HAVEN’T BEEN ALBE TO FOLLOW FOR MORE THEN A MOUTH MAY U GUYS PLEASE HELP ME
@lildawgg3, you need to edit your bio – that’s the #1 priority. Someone probably reported you to Instagram, so go ahead and keep it PG13 for now. I think Insta probably frowns on that, although I commend you for your human tripod qualities, lol. How about this instead: “Just a lil jigga with a big donk.” I know it’s lame. I just sent you a follow request so I can dig around your posts a bit (*prepares self ?*). We gotta first get you ready for tha man. Only then can we wait on a parole.✊
Hey, I’ve been blocked by the follow & unfollow scheme. It says i will be blocked on the 19th of October which is today however I’m not? What could this be? How much longer am I going to be blocked for?!!!
Hi Karys,
The ban should lift at the same time of day when you first noticed it, so if you were banned at 6pm, the ban will lift at 6pm. Let me know if that’s not the case.
Hi, I am having the same problem. The ban said it will finish 01/01/2020 which was yesterday and the ban is still there. Pls advise, thanks
Hi Emma! By chance are you outside of the U.S.? This problem seems to affect international users primarily. I haven’t heard of the ban extending beyond the next day. Let me know how it goes.
I downloaded an app that caused me to be action blocked. It gave me the date of oct 20 to be lifted. I have waited all day and nothing. Now it’s is oct 21 and I’m still banned and this time no date shows. I really really want to go back to normal. Why did it not lift? 🙁
Hi! It’s hard to say. Try logging out and back in — that may clear your cache and lift the ban. Good luck!
Hi
I have the same problem and instagram said it would unblock me on the 27th but it is now the 28th and it still hasn’t unblocked me
I have tried logging out of my account and I have tried deleting the app and reinstalling but nothing has worked
Hi Mackenzie! I’m hearing from people more and more about this issue, and unfortunately I don’t have an answer. Let us know if you figure out a solution to your problem and we’ll share with others.
Hey! Iv been blocked for over a week now. Probably for performing too many actions in one go. I can’t like, comment or follow. If I post a picture the caption gets deleted! I have previously been banned for 2 days so I’m guessing a longer ban? But I have read that if you are banned for liking and then you carry on liking while your banned (meaning you get the action blocked message) this can extend your ban. That’s difficult then because how can you know when you are unbanned?? So difficult and frustrating!! I also don’t get why some people get told when the block will expire and others don’t?!
Hi Daniella! Yes, it’s a little maddening, and we’re not quite sure which factors decide if you get a date or not. If you don’t get a date, that usually means you’re down for a couple days to a couple weeks. Testing the like button isn’t going to extend your ban, so don’t worry about that. I tell everyone to try logging out and back in. It works occasionally, but not always. Good luck!
have you got unblock yet, if yes. how many days after it was supposed to…
Hi, I keep getting the shared my password action block to get more likes and follows , and I didn’t. Nor do I use 3rd party apps. This is the third time I’ve been blocked a week each time on two accounts. I use home wifi. Please tell me how to fix this. Thank you! LI
I cant even cancel pending request If i try i get the same action blocked pop up? How is everyone else managing to do this whilst they are blocked?
I have been blocked for more than 48 hrs, it said the block will expire on 2019-11-24 which is today & my block hasn’t expired yet ?
Hi, i’ve been blocked for a week now and they gave me an expiry date which is today (4 january 2020) but nothing happened, i’m still blocked and I can’t do any activity on Instagram. So what shall I do in this situation?
Hi Zeina! This seems to happen a lot to users outside of the United States. Are you perhaps in a country other than the U.S.? I usually don’t hear back from other users with this problem, so I assume their action blocks expire a day after the date given.
I have the same issue, says it ends today, but i’m still blocked.. It happened around 8 pm on Tuesday, so I hope the ban will uplift at 8 pm today (Norwegian time), but if it doesn’t i’ll get back to you!
Hi Isabelle! Thanks for stopping by. Yes, please let us know either way as this is happening to a lot of people. Thanks!
The ban was uplifted around 8pm, exactly 72h after I got banned!
I’ve been action blocked on Instagram a previous time at 9pm and it lifted on the date Instagram gave me at 9pm
I’ve recently been action blocked again for a week now and it’s supposed to expire today 2019-11-26 at 8am when I first noticed it but it hasn’t.I logged out of my account and it’s still not working
What should I do???
[MESSAGE FROM INSTAGRAM] Thanks for the info and great blog too. I wonder if the penalty time starts over fresh every time I try following someone again?
Thanks! No, I don’t think it does. We were still trying to follow while we were blocked and were wondering the same thing. But it lifted exactly at midnight at the end of three weeks, so I really don’t think any follow activity extends it. Hope it’s over soon for you! It’s pretty miserable.
I watched several videos on YouTube. It seems you should wait it out without performing actions (except posting stories). Dm s also count… avoid everything for: 24/ 48 …. 72 hours …. or a week.
More severe bans would go further… for mass unfollowing or using third party apps, IMO.
For manual actions, not too agressive actions, it shouldn’t take more than a week…. best thing to do is to log out the app and come back in a week.
My account is over 4 years old and i had only 470 followers, with the follow unfollow technique i got A LOT of followers like 100 every day for a few days until i got blocked for 24 hours, of course i continued following unfollowing after they unblocked me since i was feeling like a fucking influencer i was looking for copper and i found gold instead so i did some research and did it more carefully like no more than 100 follow/unfollow per hour this was bullshit of course it was still too much, they blocked me again and this time has been over 5 days. It sucks. I was over 1000 followers when i got the second and actual block and now im 950 after 5 days im losing them quite slowly i thought they will be all gone after the first two days so that’s a bonus i guess. Do you think if i temporally disable my account for a week to not lose followers (you know, like temporary close it, so you don’t appear at all, they can’t unfollow you because they don’t see you) they will still lift the block after 3 or 4weeks ?? And also, do u think that the fact i got so many followers in so short time has something to do with the block algorithm? Your post has been more helpful than the random bullshit i have found online about this so thank u anyway.
Hahaha, I really enjoyed your comment. You know, that’s an interesting question about disabling your account so others won’t “see” you. I had considered doing the same thing to see if that would stem the flow of unfollowers, but since I could still post, like and comment, I figured I’d at least try to keep from being flagged as a ghost follower in others’ third party software trackers. If you do disable your account, I don’t think it will affect your ban length because your account is still more or less active in Instagram’s eyes, even when it’s paused. However, you’ll still have to periodically log in to test if the ban has been lifted. After a while, my decline in followers did level out, and I was able to regain that number quickly after being reinstated. As for your other question, I honestly don’t think a person can be penalized for GAINING too many followers in a short period of time. Just look at those “Follow Loop” groups like Travelgainers and the like — those people easily get a good 1,000 followers in 24 hours. I think it’s when you get too hyper on the following/unfollowing that lands you in jail. I had followed a LOT of accounts early on, but I didn’t get banned until I dumped too many non-followers in an hour. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Yes, that makes sense, is not the following but the unfollowing what makes the alarm go off. I disabled the account yesterday because i read in some hole in the web that it can lift the block but i have little hope about that, i can like and comment but since i am on exams period i don’t care, the block actually came as a sign from the universe to dump social networks and focus on studying, but still here i am looking for solutions haha i will open it again on Monday or probably during the weekend being realistic, i still have the hope that they will unblock me after a week but i will let u know what happens, i like your blog also, i’m from Uruguay and really enjoy hiking, i will follow u on insta! if they ever unblock me .. thank u!
Awesome! Haha, let me know your insta handle so I can “whitelist” you, hahaha! Good luck on your finals, and I’m glad you dig the blog. Thank you. Hiking is especially good for the mind when everything else is a little crazy. Uraguay sounds AMAAAAZING for hiking.
SO it lasted one week- ish, yesterday i realized i am able to follow again, the block is gone, i guess i was lucky since my account is old and it was only the second offense, i will be extra careful this time! Also, i kept liking and posting during the block, and reported the problem regularly.
That’s great! Glad to hear your ban is lifted, and thanks for following up and letting us know. Happy ‘gramming 😉
How to check if the ban is lifted. In my case, i can’t follow people. I can still unfollow people who i was already following! Since this action block, i didn’t followed anyone. I read in some comments here, if i use dm in Instagram, ban will extend!!
@kishorekmr65 my insta!
Shall i log out and wait for 4weeks!?
Hi Kishore! You should still be able to continue to DM and post to stories. In our experience, this did not extend the ban, so feel free to occasionally test it by trying to follow someone. The only thing that can extend it is if you unfollow too many accounts in an hour (no more than 60!). Did you receive an action block with a expiration date in the message?
Hi andrew,
Thanks for the immediate reply. I didn’t receive any date in the action block message! I stopped giving likes, comments, following, unfollowing and dm as well ???
Hi. I’ve been blocked for many days now cause my friend used auto likes and follow here in my phone which my friend thought it was his account is going to have a lot of likes and follow but its not, it is mine.. the expire date was 2019-20-12 but it is already 2019-21-12 what should I do? I want to like some photos I saw but I can’t please help me 🙁
Hi Kai. Usually when it goes past the deadline, people are finding that it clears up in another day. Try logging out and back in. That doesn’t always work, but others have had luck with that.
HI! I’ve just been action blocked from following people on Instagram. I’ve had this ban before in May and this lasted for a month (pretty cruel right). I’ve only been following and unfollowing people before I go to sleep last week, so 200 following 200 unfollowing as that’s the max they allow at once anyways. So I’m wondering if my ban will be a month again like last time or that I should just let it rest until Wednesday or so. It didn’t say how long they planned on banning me since the message was in Dutch… I was 15 followers away from reaching 3000 and now I’m kinda sad/mad I’ll lose a lot again like last time and have to start over again.
Do you know if the ban will last longer than last time because I’ve been banned before or if I just keep calm for a week it’ll be solved?
Thank for the article by the way! I’ve saved it since I found it very helpful and more accurate than the BS I’ve read on other blogs. I’ll give you a follow once this problem is solved ?. Thanks in advance for replying and many greetings from Belgium ?.
Hi Eveline! If the message didn’t have a date, that seems to mean one of two things: You’ve got a 24/48 hour ban, or you’ve been hit with “the smackdown,” which I’m afraid can last anywhere from two weeks to four weeks (and in rare cases even longer). I recently read that others are saying to unfollow only 60 or so per hour to stay under the radar. I’ve pushed that to around 80, but I’ve been doing it manually and slowly as opposed to batch unfollowing with an app. That’s what got us in trouble last time. Instagram’s action blocking algorithm is apparently judging you not just by the quantity of unfollows but also by the speed. Lately I’ve been splitting up my routine unfollowing of non-followers, and I haven’t been flagged so far. And yes, unfortunately you do lose followers during the ban, but my feeling is that this is “the Instagram churn” — that daily following/unfollowing. It just appears more pronounced because you’re not gaining any new followers from your own follow activity. During our three-week long ban, I was still able to post, like, and comment. At first I was a little bummed about seeing all of the unfollows, but I eventually realized that if I was still posting and they were unfollowing, then they weren’t my tribe anyway. I wouldn’t think that your ban should be any longer than last time, but I really couldn’t say for sure. As long as you didn’t get a message about your account being completely disabled, then it WILL come back and you’ll be able to follow again. Just watch out on the unfollow activity as that is where I think the biggest problem lies.
Hi! Thanks for the reply. I’ve been action blocked before that long ban for 1-2 days and it didn’t gave me a date back then either. So I don’t really know what to expect… I’ll to see if I’m unblocked by wednesday or so by testing to follow a profile? I’ve never used a bot to follow and unfollow, I’ve always done it manually because I was afraid of the ban it comes with it in most cases. I haven’t received emails from Instagram in ages to I’m hoping it’ll be just temporarily.
Would you recommend me waiting until Wednesday to test it again or wait longer? I’ve put my setting into English instead of Dutch but I’m not sure if I should try today to see if they set a date on the message now… thanks!
In our experience, testing occasionally doesn’t hurt. Trying to follow someone while you’re blocked won’t extend your ban, so don’t worry. That said, I think it’s still possible to get into more trouble by continuing to unfollow too many people while the ban is in place. During our most recent block, we received our first notice at 8:07am on a Tuesday. This time it gave us a date when it would be lifted (7/23/2019). I tried to follow early that morning on 7/23, but I still received the “action blocked” message. I tried again at 8am, but still no luck. But when I tried again at 8:07am, the ban had been lifted. It had lasted EXACTLY one week right down to the minute. That’s why I’m confident that occasionally testing to see if you’re blocked is fine. Now the FIRST time when we were blocked for three weeks, I know that it expired at midnight, but I’m not 100% sure if I landed us in jail around midnight three weeks earlier. So it’s hard to say if the longer ban is EXACTLY two or three weeks down to the minute, or if they all expire at midnight. I know it’s a huge pain — I really do sympathize. Keep me posted on how it goes. In the meantime, keep creating! Instagram certainly isn’t everything. During our extended bans, I used that time to work on our website and wrote a few posts. Instagram can’t take that away from me ?. I feel bad for some of those who have HUGE Instagram followings, only to have them permanently disabled for one reason or another. Building an empire on someone else’s platform is a slippery slope, so be sure to diversify. Just my $0.02 ?. Good luck!
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for this article! I am facing “Action blocked” issue since a week. But in the meantime, I kept unfollowing the people who did not follow me back. But surprisingly, I see increase in my follow count slowly although nobody followed my account. I am not sure about the reason behind this automated activity. I use only 1 third-party tool to unfollow people. Could you please tell the reason behind this automated increase of follow-count? How will my follow-count increase when Instagram blocked the follow action? Is it because of third-party (But it doesnot have follow option)? Or is it because someone hacked my account? I am unable to find the solution. I also tried uninstalling that third-party app but the problem continues. Please can you help me solve this issue? Thank you in advance!
That’s really strange! I’ve never heard of that happening. The only thing I can think of is that others are responding to old follow requests, but you’re not seeing the notifications for some reason. You might double-check your account’s notification settings to make sure it’s set to receive notice of when someone follows you. Otherwise, that’s kind of a head scratcher. Or maybe I’m misunderstanding — are you seeing an increase in the number you’re following? Hopefully once your ban is lifted you’ll be able to get to the bottom of it! I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful. I’ll let you know if I hear of a similar problem.
Sorry for that! Instead of mentioning “following”, I told follow-count. I see increase in the following and not followers count. Can you please tell what might be the problem?
The only thing I can think of is that maybe before your action block you had sent follow requests for some private accounts. They won’t appear as someone you’re following until they accept your request. That’s actually how some people end up following more than the maximum number of 7,500. So if it has taken them several days to respond after you’ve been blocked, then that will cause your following count to go up. I really can’t think of another reason.
Thanks Andrew. I hope this is the only reason and my account is not hacked!! Let me wait till Instagram lifts the ban and see if the problem persists.
Even if your account were hacked, I still don’t think they could bypass the Instagram ban. Scammers might be able to hack into individual accounts, but it would be next to impossible to hack Instagram’s server. And if they somehow WERE that good, they wouldn’t bother messing with individual accounts. I really think you’re in the clear here.
Hi Ship! I’ve updated the post to include content about the phantom-like growth of followings after an action block. Yep, I managed to get us blocked AGAIN, haha! And I had a similar experience that you detailed. I’m pretty sure it’s due to private profiles, but I have a sinking suspicion that there’s more to it.
Hey I am literally at the 3 week ban mark, I was hoping it would disappear today! After reading about your experience now I’m hoping this is going to go over night, fingers crossed that it’s not longer!!
Hi Harriet! Fingers crossed that it will be lifted soon! I’m certain that ours went away at midnight after three weeks, but when we got banned again for one week, it was lifted at 8:07am, which was one week EXACTLY down to the minute. So it’s hard to say for sure if the 3-4 week bans expire at midnight, or if it just happened to be midnight at the time I got us blocked. If your ban hasn’t been lifted by tomorrow night, let me know!
I am still in Instagram jail! I’ve tried everything as well to try and lift it, connected my Facebook and Twitter, deleted and reinstalled the app, reported in numerous times, nothing has worked, so frustrating.
I have an interesting update, I had to report somebody yesterday for sending me over 100 messages in 5 minutes, this morning I received a message from Instagram saying they had looked into the matter, I had checked to see if my action block was still there about an hour before they contacted me, so I thought I would try my luck again (hoping someone from Insta actually looking at my profile might have done something), well it worked!! Out of jail finally, I think I shall go more gentle for a little while.
Hahaha, that’s great Harriet! So glad you’re free! Thank you for following up and letting me know. That’s interesting and it does make you wonder if it’s connected or if it’s a fluke. On my one-week ban, I reported a SPAM bot too. They later sent a notification that they had removed the bot, but my action block was still in place. Anyway, yes, maybe take things a little slow at first. We don’t want to see any repeat offenders on here, haha! 🙂
I unfollowed a looooot of people within like thirty minutes a few days ago and was also using third party apps to see who didn’t follow me back. I got an action block that said it should expire today and it hasn’t. Do I have to wait for the specific time? And if it doesn’t lift at that time what do I do?
Hi Andrew! HI! I’ve just been action blocked from using a third – app for gaining followers on Instagram. It is about to expire today. But I have lost a large number of my followers. I just wonder how long after the expiration time that I can use that app again? And how do I use it so I don’t get blocked again?
Thank you and looking forward to your answer ❤️
Thank you for making this post; this is the most relevant post that I have found so far regarding this subject. Every other post out there from what I can see Is dated by at least a year. Most of them say the ban will only last 48 hours which is clearly not true for many of us. I had hope after seeing this post that my ban would be lifted yesterday or after midnight last night (at my three week mark). Apparently I am banned for four weeks because that didn’t happen. I am currently only able to post stories and use the direct message function of Instagram. When I try to make a normal post, my caption does not show up and therefore my hashtags aren’t showing. I have stopped posting because of this. In addition, I am also blocked from liking, commenting and following. The crazy thing about this is, I have never used any 3rd party apps. The night I was blocked I was doing a combination of liking, following, and unfollowing. I was doing all actions pretty quickly. I think Instagram will block anyone who is doing several actions way too fast. I don’t think it matters if you are following, unfollowing or liking; it seems to be the speed and number of actions that is the problem. To make things more frustrating, I was 15 people away from having 5,000 followers when I was blocked 🙁
Thanks for stopping by the blog Haley. That is super frustrating! I really don’t understand why Instagram is punishing people for simply going a little fast. A ban for multiple weeks certainly doesn’t seem warranted. And here’s what gets me fired up — a few days ago I happened upon an account that didn’t seem to have very good content, but this person had 70k followers! I got curious, so I began to dig around to see who was following this person. Surely this person is royalty or something, haha! But no, I quickly found dozens of accounts following this person, and for each account their posts were all essentially the same five pictures. It was a bot farm! People are buying bot followers for pennies on the dollar. Some of these bots will even like your photos. If you then go and look at who else these bots are following, you’ll find yourself sucked into the darkest corners of Instagram with people who must be incredibly lonely. They have tens of thousands of followers, the majority of them fake. Each post has roughly the same number of likes. On one account I saw, this person had 3000 likes on every post, but not one single comment. I guess they haven’t built bots smart enough to comment yet. Anyway, these lonely people with thousands of bot followers somehow fly under the radar, but people like you and I get penalized simply for trying to grow our accounts with ACTUAL human beings that we think might really have a chance at enjoying our content? Instagram is so broken. Sometimes in my free time, I do love going into these accounts and zapping their bot followers with SPAM reports. Anyway, good luck to you Haley! Hang in there, and keep us posted on your ban.
After all this craziness, it turns out shortly after I stopped by your blog, I went back on ig and viewed someone’s story. Their story also said that they were action blocked from liking. I messaged this person and they said all they did was log out and log back in to get the block lifted. So I did this and it actually worked! My block is gone. This whole experience has made me want to be more intentional with instagram and chill out on mass liking and follow/unfollow.
Wow! I tried that as well during our ban, but it didn’t work for me. That’s awesome for you though! I’ll update the post and let people know they should give it a shot. It sure wouldn’t hurt!
I read your comment and tried the log out/ log in thing and it worked!
That’s awesome Nik! I’ll update the blog post and let others know this might work for them.
Hey Andrew, great blog!
I am now blocked since almost 4 weeks. The second time now.
before that all what I got in terms of blocks was from time 2 time 2 h for following and 2 days for unfollowing to fast.
The average per day was every 3-5 h 200-300 followers. …I guess to much …lol
I was assuming that if I wait 5h 200 should’t represent a problem.
I was wrong.
And it happens every time by following (I can still unfollow…).
And of course I am loosing something like 700-800 followers between the 1st and the 2nd block (overall 2 months with a unblock time of 17 days)
You wrote above that now you are splitting the number of following/unfollowing. what does it means concretely (how many per h/d ???)? thank you!!!
Thanks Luck! I wish I knew for sure how many is safe to follow and unfollow in a certain time frame. There are quite a few theories out there, and it seems to change all the time. By no means am I at all times pedal to the metal — I’d say lately I’m limiting it to no more than 60 follows in an hour. Then I’m breaking up my unfollow activity by anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, and no more than roughly 40 at a time. I think I could probably push those limits quite a bit, but since I’ve been bitten twice now I’m treading softly. I may expand those self-imposed limits eventually. Lately I’ve been trying harder to follow those who are following accounts similar to mine, which is a good strategy anyway. I think what initially landed us in jail was my plan to follow everyone and like everything, haha! I’m also focusing more on our organic game of researching better hashtags and putting out better content.
I have been blocked from following on IG since July 24 still today and I didn’t get any notification when this block would be over and really worried but I still get / gain followers during this period I have over 10k now. please what can I do I have been blocked before and it lasted for over 4 weeks or 2 weeks
Hi Jasmine. That is super frustrating! I am honestly not sure anymore as my track record hasn’t been so great. All I can say is that as long as your account hasn’t been completely disabled, the ban will eventually go away. Hopefully this will be a “short” one for you. I’m sitting here scratching my head as I’ve somehow managed to get us blocked yet again, lol. I don’t even know what I did this time! I had followed a few more accounts than I usually do at one time, but I never got a warning. Hours later, I logged back in, saw someone had followed us, so I tried to follow back. That’s when the “action blocked” message came up. I’m hoping we’ve got ourselves a 24/48 hour ban and not the punishing three-week variety. Good luck, and keep us posted!
I was using a like for like and got account blocked on friday at 7:30 pm and after I tried everything in the book to lift it even tried installing. And it states that it is supposed to expire today but during midnight it never expired and now i’m confused on when it will lift. Please help !!
Hi Akrem. We’ve been hearing this issue a lot lately where the block is not lifting on the date given. From what others are saying, it sounds like when this happens the block eventually lifts a day or two after the date provided. It sounds super frustrating, but hang in there. Your block SHOULD lift soon. Let us know if it still hasn’t lifted after two days past the provided date.
I got banned and it said it wii expire on a particular date but it did not, still banned what do i do?
Hahahahaha Andrew you kill me! I’m actually laughing so hard reading all these comments ? so I got blocked back in early June… after a week I paid a guy 20 quid… after a week I called him on his crap and was like ‘I want a refund right now because you are taking peoples money and letting their blocked time out’
anyways he justified himself always saying ‘support told me they would get back to me’ and I was like ‘ oh support…. fancy showing me one of these emails’ lol the refund was back in my account and he refunded me the £20!
So as I was fed up I restarted my instagram. 2 weeks later I am blocked again, as of last night… I thought I was being careful! Darn you instagram. I think all these little dweebs just chill in a basement somewhere laughing at us all ?
Hahaha, I loved your comment Mia! Welcome to our exclusive club! We should have a special robe and hat for you ?. Well I’m glad at least the little dweeb refunded you, lol. I can’t believe anyone has enough influence to have a direct line to Instagram’s apparently non-existent support. Anyway, we’re back in jail too. I honestly think we’re all somehow genetically superior and have robot-like reflexes able to confound Insta’s algorithm ?. Thanks for stopping by. If nothing else you got a good laugh. Hang in there and let us know how it goes!
Hi Andrew, thanks for the write-up. This is by-far the best article regarding the action blocked / temporarily blocked issue. I’ve recently been blocked (again) like your 2nd block mentioned in the article (can’t like, comment, follow, and post a photo with caption), and IG is telling me that my block will expire on 2019-08-11. I’m keeping in good faith that it will eventually expire on the stated date. In your opinion, if I were to leave the account untouched for a couple of days, do you think the block will expire sooner? Meaning to say, I don’t even test to see if I’m blocked (in fear that the block will be longer each time I try).
Also, what are your thoughts on the fact that we occasionally try to test to see if these blocks are lifted sooner than later? Will it “reset” the block?
Hear from you again soon. Cheers!
To add on, I read that you’re again in IG Jail? How long is the block this time round?
Hi Larry! I really don’t think it matters if you leave it untouched or not since you have been given a date. Of course, there’s not much that you CAN do from now until then. I’d say you’re fine to leave it alone or test it occasionally, but either way I think you’re in jail until 8/11 right down to the minute you first got the “action blocked” message. That said, it wouldn’t hurt to try, right? If you figure something out, let us know and we’ll share with the rest of the inmates, haha! Good luck!
Oh! Haha saw your second part — yes, I wasn’t free for very long and got pinched again ?. This time was really weird though — I didn’t get the action block until hours later, so I’m suspecting someone may have reported me? I really don’t know why as I think I play fair and generally follow everyone back. I’m hoping this isn’t another three-week ban, but it looks like the first one. Oh well, it will just give me more info to expand the article and pass on to others. Again, good luck to you Larry!
Hi Andrew! Appreciate the swift reply. As of now 8/7, I’m still in IG jail. Shrugs. I tried not touching it for 48 hours (8/6) but I think you might be right. It really don’t matter even if I leave it untouched for x amount of hours, since I was given a block expiry date. Hah. Just thought it’ll be worth giving it a shot. Oh wells.
I’m just hoping that Instagram will not pull any tricks and lift the block on the expiry date. In your experience, they would usually stick to the date, right?
In any case, I’ll update again should there be anything. Cheers.!
They will stick to the date as long as you correct the issue. For us, we were given our sentence AFTER we were hit with a warning. We changed our account password according to their instructions, but it’s almost as if a jury was deliberating our case in the background ?. It wasn’t until a couple hours later that the “verdict” came in, and that’s when we were hit with the ban.
I supposed it is possible to extend it if you were to unfollow too many accounts too quickly or send out a bunch of spammy DMs. I’m sure there are other creative ways, haha! But, since you can’t really do much of anything else, you should be safe.
I would be very surprised if your ban doesn’t lift on that date EXACTLY at the same time you saw your first message a week earlier.
Did it get unbanned on the date? Mine did not
We’ve recently received a 24 hour ban due to commenting on a single post too much. With 1,200 comments on a post about our products I felt it unfair that we couldn’t reply. Nonetheless, the problem has persisted on our Windows application for Instagram in which we are completely blocked from any action. We have no automated functions. Any idea what would cause an application specific ban? Giving product and contact information is much easier through the computer and we have been unable to do such for approximately 3 weeks. I have no idea what we could have done to initiate a ban.
Hi Alex! That’s a strange case. I’ve heard of Instagram blocking specific IP addresses. If you were blocked on Windows but were still able to comment, follow, like, etc. on a mobile device, then IP blocking might be the problem. One way to find out would be to log in with a laptop somewhere off-site and see if the problem persists.
But I might not be understanding the problem, are you blocked just on Windows, or is it also on mobile?
As for what could have caused it, if you can share the direct link to the post in question, I’ll dig around and see if I see anything. 1,200 comments on one post is a LOT, and something with that much volume might raise a red flag to Instagram. Computer code is very fast but also very literal and stupid, so it’s possible Instagram’s algorithm saw you or your team responding to all of the comments and thought you were somehow spamming your own post. And, if your responses are all the same or very similar, such as a simple “Thanks!,” then Instagram’s spam filter will go berserk. I can only imagine what is happening over on LeBron James’ and Kylie Jenner’s profiles.
First world problems, right? Haha. I wish I knew what to tell you about that popular post you have. I think Instagram’s filter is going to keep zapping you when you try to respond to comments on the post. It’s not fair at all. If the block gets lifted and you want to try commenting again on that post, I’d say you’re going to have to get very creative with your replies. I’ve heard that others out there with similarly popular posts simply have to choose to not respond to everyone and only pick a few comments to reply to. That might be the only way to fly under the radar. That, or just reply to everyone with DMs.
Hello Andrew..
Thanks for your article..I have been action blocked and it was not because I used a bot or something..It was because I used a third party app to just check the names of the people who I was following but who were not following me back..There was a option there to unfollow them but, I just used the info to manually go on Instagram one by one and unfollow them..Anyways, as per you had said, I went to see the requests that I had sent to private accounts that were pending..It turns out they are tooooo many..Apparently while doing mass following, too many pending requests get accumulated…My question is that if I sit for 2-3 hours and copy-paste each pending account and cancel/unfollow the request that I had sent them, , would that qualify as mass following and extend my ban more rather than helping me?? I am confused…
Hi Abhi! Cancelling your requests won’t count as mass unfollowing since technically in Instagram’s eyes you’re not following them yet. Go ahead and dump them all at once if you like, although it may take a couple tries for some (and there are still several I just can’t get rid of). The jury is out on whether cancelling these helps your situation, but it definitely doesn’t hurt. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
Hey Andrew
I did as u told and now my block has extended..You said removing my pending requests on private accounts doesn’t count as mass following since technically I am not following them yet..I did that and earlier I was only blocked from following people, and now I am blocked from following, unfollowing, liking or commenting on any post..In other words I am screwed..I have no idea when this block will get over and my page will continue to lose followers..I am so pissed at Instagram since I didn’t do anything wrong this time..I did not use any third party app, all I did was manually go one by one to private accounts that didn’t accept my request and cancel those requests..I am so frustrated..
Oh nooooo! Abhi, I’m so sorry. Damn, that IS frustrating, and it might be back to the drawing board for me on that private profile theory. Something also must have recently changed with Insta’s algorithm and action blocks, because up until today I’d never heard of anyone being banned from unfollowing, and you’re now the second one today I’ve heard that from. If you don’t mind, send me an email at [email protected] and let me know what your Instagram @ handle is. I’ll look at your profile and see if I see anything else that might be causing an issue. I’m just really stumped that your block would be extended for cancelling follow requests. All I know is that my block was lifted not long after I cancelled almost 90 requests, which I did all at once. Damn, damn, damn.
UPDATE: Abhi and I connected via email. He said shortly after posting his last comment, the ban from unfollowing, commenting and liking was lifted, but his follow action block remained intact. It was about a 30-minute ban, but he decided he shouldn’t press his luck by continuing to cancel his pending follow requests to private profiles.
Follow-up email from Abhi:
Hey Andrew,
Our follow block was lifted just now after 11 days..I thought to let you know about it..I was daily sending Instagram a ”something isn’t working” report asking them (basically pleading them) to remove my Action Block from following..I did everything you mentioned in your article like removing all hashtags from my posts, laying low for 48 hours, removing my pending requests on private accounts etc but nothing worked..A weird thing that happened today was that I switched my page from professional to private.That was the only thing I did differently today..A couple of hours later, my ban was revoked..Just thought to let u know as it might be of help to others..Cya ?
I have blocked action from yesterday of liking posts (only three…) and following new accounts(not the accounts from follow and unfollow spree). Help me!
Hi Olivia! Hmmm, how many accounts had you followed/unfollowed? I think Instagram has really been cracking down on the number you can follow/unfollow in an hour, and also the total in a day. I was being careful and got banned for four days and I wasn’t really all that sure what I did. Did you try checking your pending follow requests to private accounts? I cleared ours, and our ban lifted soon after. I can’t say if it was a coincidence or if it actually helped.
I umfollowed 19 people in per hour so maybe 50 in per day. But I can unfollow they still but can’t follow new people, not from unfollow spree. And can’t liking photos, I don’t know why. I have a bussiness account, my other personals account working very well. I remember when Instagram has a bug in the June and I have action blocked for 20 days. I hope it’s will not 20 days, but I am really worried…
Moreover, when I do unf/follow spree I don’t have new followers so maybe other people has this blocked action too. Yesterday I use only socialblade in the Web on computer only for checking my user on Instagram, only for fun… but I don’t think I have blocked action on following new people or liking photos from it.
I checked Again and I can’t now even unfollowing so when I want to unfollow someone I have blocked action. When I want to follow I have blocked action. When I want to like the photo I have blocked action. I hope there are only three limits but it’s horrible…
I have never heard of anyone being blocked from unfollowing! Can you share the name of your Instagram handle so I can take a look at your feed? You can reply here or email me at [email protected]. I don’t know if I can help, but I will see if anything looks like something IG’s algorithm might flag.
I send to you the e-mail but I see not only me has a action blocked from unfollowing. Instagram is going to down, they will lose their users soon, for sure, if they will continue this horrible actions.
Agreed, it’s pretty lousy. See the email I sent to you and see what you think about my theory on your posts. Good luck!
I’m a very popular individual in my country with over 100k followers my problem is how can I get verified as soon as possible to avoid impersonation
I wish I knew, Sophie. I wish I knew how to get a reply from Instagram for ANYTHING. It’s sad to say that I’ve never heard of anyone getting a personal response from them, and that’s a shame. I’ve heard it can take a few weeks to get verified, so I guess the good news is that if there are any potential impersonators out there, they’re equally flummoxed at the moment. Hopefully you get this settled soon without too much trouble ? Since it’s done with an ID, I kind of doubt Instagram will grant a verification to anyone but you, but I could be wrong.
My account won’t let me like or comment on anyone’s post!!! HOW DO I FIX THIS?!? It keeps saying “action blocked” but I haven’t done anything for this to have happened! Please help me!!!
Hi Halle! Email me your @ Insta handle at [email protected] and I’ll take a look at your profile and gallery to see if anything stands out. You may have accidentally set off a SPAM filter. Thanks!
Hi,
Can you please tell me when Instagram gives you a date of the temporary ban being lifted (I.e. I have a ban which expires on the 19/8) Is the ban generally always lifted one that exact date?
Hi Casey! From my experience, when a date is provided in the message your ban is lifted on the exact date. It is actually right down to the minute. The first time I saw a message with a date displayed, I took a screenshot of it. That was at 8:07 am. I was expecting our ban to end at 12:01 am on the date listed, but no, it was actually lifted at 8:07 am. That said, there are probably things you could do to EXTEND the ban, such as batch unfollowing or other things, but otherwise it should be lifted on 19/8 at about the same time you first received the message. Hope that helps!
Hey mate, I got a temporarily ban till 14-8-19 which is today and it’s stil not lifted, any idea what I can do? Or will it clear at 12am
Hang in there Ash. It should expire today. Our second action block, which had a date, expired exactly the minute we got it a week earlier. So whatever time of day you first got your ban last week, that’s when it will be lifted today. Let me know if that doesn’t happen. Good luck!
I got it back but was soon action blocked again for a week for checking a third party app, to see how much I lost.
deleting them all for good now to be safe, not worth it Cheers mate
I got a date for 2019/11/01 but still banned on 2019/11/02 what do i do?? Plz help
Hey!! one of my friend unfollow too many people in short period like she unfollow 1000 people with some app and now I see her Account as instagramer in Dm. Can it will be recover? And how long it take? And can I do something to recover her account?
5 days ago she is blocked. Actually she Is my crush ? And don’t have contact Number of her. And instagram is only thing where we are talking from past 4 month please help me.
Hi Jitesh. I’m sorry to hear this. I don’t think there is much you can do but wait, unfortunately. Are you still able to communicate via DM or is that blocked too? Does her profile page have an “email” button? Does her profile page show up at all? Feel free to contact me at [email protected] and let me know her @ handle so I can investigate a little more.
Hello sir, thanks for giving reply. Actually I am able to send messages in dm and my messages is delivered but I think she is not able to open her instagram and I don’t see any email button there. And her profile showing only number of post, followers and following but I can’t see her posts.
That’s a tough one. I don’t know why she wouldn’t be able to open her Instagram. I would normally suspect her account has been disabled, but if it had been disabled I don’t think you’d be able to see her profile. I’ve never heard of anyone being blocked from logging in ?. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.
Sir I just send you a screenshot of her profile please check that one’s
Hi Jitesh, I received your email. It is as you described, and I am still not sure, unfortunately. I’ve never seen that before! I would go on a desktop/laptop computer, visit her profile, copy the URL, and then share it with a friend and ask if they are seeing the same thing. That is just really strange, and I wish I could be of more help.
So, I currently serving a follow block. Everything else is working. Two weeks so far. I read your post and saw the bit about the follow request bomb. So I went into my profile and started rescinding my pending follow requests. Guess what, I had done about 20 and boom! Action blocked!
Hi Shaun, I’m so sorry, let me know if it lasts longer than half an hour. We had another user experience something similar, but his “extended” block was short-lived. He eventually had everything lifted, but then he got into trouble once more using a third-party app. I’ll keep modifying this post if what worked for us (if it wasn’t just a fluke) is actually making things worse for everyone. The last thing we want to do is spread bad advice. If only Instagram would give ANY advice, any at all on the matter, then all these assumptions and theories on the Internet wouldn’t be necessary. Again, my apologies, and hang in there.
Sir I just serach her from my friends instagram account but she is not showing there.
It’s been a week since my account got “soft” banned. I can like,comment,post etc but i can’t follow other users. From what i see here it’s going to last at least 3 weeks and at most 4 weeks right? Is there a chance that it will last more than that? Btw the action that blocked my account was that i followed around 70-80 users in just 1 hour. Also after the bad expires is it easier to get banned again or there are about the same ban “limits”?
Hi Rev! I’m not sure if it’s easier to get banned, but it definitely feels that way. We’ve been trying to let things cool off. Odd that you’re blocked for a week for following too many though. That’s what got us pinched for the third time, but it only lasted 4 and a half days. It’s hard to know for sure how long it will last, but I haven’t heard of a ban lasting longer than 4 weeks.
Thanks a lot for the response! So worst case scenario I will have to wait another 3 weeks 🙁 .
I will report back when my ban is removed.
Hi Andrew I am Avi from India as I wrote in the email which I just sent to you please reply as soon as possible
.
Waiting..
Hello.My action block says that my likes and comments are blocked because I used app to increase my likes and comments.I did long ago(why insta is blocking me for something I did months ago!) Anyway it got unbanned on 16 August as they promised.I posted a picture,liked some pictures and boom it extended date of my block and now they say it will expire on 24 August.Will the block extend again?what if I can’t post on my account ever again?!
Hi Mariam! That is really odd. I’d say between now and Aug. 24 be sure to change your password. It is hard to say exactly what is happening. Were you using a desktop application previously for your automation? If so, did you use your home IP address, or did you use a proxy server? Without knowing all the details, it almost sounds as though Instagram has taken issue with either a particular device or IP address, but that’s a far-flung guess. Definitely change your password as that will log you out of all devices and 3rd-party apps for sure. Your case is definitely a strange one, but I think you’ll eventually get your account back to normal. Getting a date is better than not in our experience.
It got unbanned on 24 August.I changed my password two or three times.For two days ,everything was normal.But today,I liked one post and suddenly notification of instagram told me the same thing that your account has been blocked again and now this block Will expire on 31st August! I was so happy a day ago that I am unblocked but now I am blocked for the third time!
Oh nooooo! Mariam, that is so frustrating to hear. Instagram is doing a poor job (an understatement) of communicating to you what you need to change. I wish I understood what is going on with your account. Frankly, I’m stumped. Is it possible you’re posting too much? Feel free to email me at [email protected] and let me know what your Instagram handle is. I’d be happy to take a look and see if anything jumps out at me. It’s possible you’re setting off a SPAM filter.
Thanks so much for this post. I got the date ban 2 days ago and have freaked out. I have contracts that I need to fulfill this week and can’t. Once the ban was lifted you were able to post with no problem or additional bans?
I have not EVER did the follow/unfollow thing. I just liked too many posts in a short time.
Hi Keki! That’s so strange to be banned for liking too much. You’re the second person I’ve heard that from in the past two days, so maybe that’s new. We didn’t have any trouble posting after the ban, but we did get another “short” (4 days) action block a week or so later for following too quickly. We’ve now been in the clear for a few weeks, but we’re trying to limit our activities. Our account is only a couple months old, so I think we’re more susceptible than others.
Hi Andrew,
just an update. I have been cleared from IG Jail since the last action blocked expire. However, I discovered something new today. I was randomly liking pics using the IG desktop (Mac, for the matter) and it got action blocked! However, I am still able to like pics (everything as per usual) using the IG app on my iPhone. Strange huh?
With that said, the action blocked showed on my desktop is one that is without expiry date. I hope it goes away soon enough. Pfft.
If this helps anyone else reading: I had exactly the same thing happen, same browsers too. At first it was only in Chrome the ‘Action Blocked’ was happening. I logged in from Safari to test it out, and at first I could still use Instagram normally from there. But about an hour later, I got completely blocked for 3 days, web and phone. So I’m guessing it’s a multiple logins issue too.
Hi Candice,
Thanks for sharing. Yeah I had a very similar issue like yours. I’m gonna be staying away from using web browsers for Instagram going forward. My block expires on Wednesday.
Let’s hope they fix this soon enough – else I can be really annoying tbh.
Hi I had an action block from doing everything, likes, comments, follows all all accounts on my iphone including ones which arent even in use. I was asked to change all passwords which I have done as it stated I used a 3rd party app to increase likes and followers – I hadnt, only an unfollower app. I was liking a lot of photos very quickly though – 60 per hour. my block does not have a date – what does this mean? you say its worse if theres no date. It does say “try again later” though which suggests it isnt permanent. has there ever been permament action blocks?
Hi John! An action block without a date isn’t necessarily worse. It MIGHT end after just a couple days, but if it lasts longer than a week you may have gotten the punishing two or three week variety. There’s not a “permanent” action block, although it’s entirely possible to have your account disabled, and that can never be recovered. It won’t show up as an action block — it’ll actually tell you your account has been disabled. I’ve seen screenshots of this and it’s kind of terrifying. You would have to do something waaaaaay bad for that to happen though. That’s not going to happen to you. If Instagram started disabling accounts for using a third party app or following/liking too fast there would be riots, haha.
Hello, I’ve been action blocked for no reason since yesterday and honestly I’m fed up already. I’m innocent. Wasn’t no third party apps connected to my account and i wasn’t violating anything i would do my normal routine when i go on my Instagram. Next thing you kno i unfollow somebody then boom it says i can’t because I’ve been actual blocked, then later that morning i like something then it says I’m action blocked until the 1st which is BS!!! I literally cannot wait a week to get unblocked like I’m ready to get unblocked ASAP. I’ve sent multiple reports still nothing from them like it’s starting to piss me off because i didn’t do anything wrong !!!
Hi Armani! Oh no, that sounds really frustrating! Yes, unfortunately Instagram’s “tech support” is nonexistent, so don’t be surprised if you never get a reply. I don’t know how many messages we sent, but we have never gotten a single response from them. I wish I understood why Instagram’s algorithm felt it was necessary to block your account, but it’s hard to say. It sounds to me like you were using the platform as intended. At least the “good” news is that it’s only until the 1st and not longer, but that still doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Hang in there!
Hello Andrew, indeed this is the best post about the recent action block notif from IG. Currently blocked for a week after manually unfollowing too fast. Here are my theories/observations:
-IG changed their algorithm to identify spammy accounts last July. Before getting blocked, I quit third party for a couple of weeks because I’ve been receiving warnings for my usual settings (max 200 follow, 200 unfollow)
– Last year, I used an even more aggressive setting (max 500 follow, 500 unfollow) but after that cambridge analytica hit, I had to be really gentle.
– Even tho I only unfollowed through one account, other accounts on the same phone were affected by the block. Even accounts I’ve left untouched for a year.
I think that IG is really cracking down on bots. Could this be the end of bots??
Hi Linda! Loved your comment, and thanks for your insights!
I don’t think it’s the end of botting — I see it as more of an arms race. Instagram certainly dealt these programs a serious blow recently, but as long as third party developers have clients, and as long as there is a desire by Instagrammers to get an upper hand, I think there will always be bot platforms. They’ll just have to get more sophisticated to remain viable.
I briefly used automation software because I was curious, and it was kind of amazing to see all of the possible settings options that were in the program to help focus on the audience I wanted to attract but appear human-like enough to not get caught by IG’s SPAM filter. If anyone thinks artificial intelligence is going to be perfected in the science realm, I think maybe they’re wrong — haha, it’s going to be perfected by the botters trying to game social media!
@join.along I’ve been action blocked because I have a month’s old account and doing the following/unfollowing thing to raise awareness of my page. I’m trying to contact instagram but ofcourse they won’t respond. The ban should have ended today, but i’m still unable to edit the caption of one of the many pictures I’ve uploaded.
Hi Pavlos! Were you given a date for when the block would end? If so, it will end at the same time of day that you first got it. We’ve had that too where Instagram was blocking captions and commenting — I thought that was particularly cruel.
I think you deleted my comment by accident? Anwyay, I got a device block, as in all accounts on my phone are action blocked from liking, following, etc, even ones not used. I was asked to change my password as id been using it for a 3rd party app to increase my followers/likes, this is not the case! However I had been spam liking on two of the accounts.
I have now got an action block message with no expiry date, what does it mean when theres no expiry?? have you heard of a device block before?
Hi Sabi! My apologies if I did accidentally delete it. I had to do a database restore due to a website issue and it wiped out a few recent comments. Sorry about that!
Yes, I’ve heard of a device being blocked. An IP address can be blocked too. Instagram will penalize you for doing too much activity, and if it sees lots of activity coming from multiple accounts that are all on one IP address, that’s likely setting off its spam filter. One way to get around this is to use a proxy server, which will mask your true IP address.
I’ve used a proxy server on my desktop computer before, but I haven’t tried it on a phone. I know it can be done though. The question you’ll have to ask yourself is if it’s worth the hassle. They aren’t terribly expensive — I think you can get one for a few bucks a month.
You might only need one proxy to “spread out” your activity, but you’ll have to be careful to switch back and forth between accounts. It sounds like a pain, honestly, but that’s probably what you’ll have to do going forward if you’re doing a lot of liking, following, etc. on one device.
The action block with no date is a mixed bag. I’ve had it last a few days, and I’ve had it last three weeks. I guess the silver lining is that your block will eventually be lifted, but I know it can be maddening because Instagram doesn’t explicitly tell you what you did wrong. That sometimes leads to getting blocked quickly again.
A ban from liking too much tends to be a lesser length, but it’s hard to say for sure what you’re looking at.
Hi ya! It seems like I am ‘action blocked’ ONLY when I use my computer to access Instagram and not when I am using my IPhone….Strange? I can post normally, accept friends, reply to comments, etc. but ONLY if I use Instagram via my iPhone. Its been about a week now since I received the action block notice….so I’ve been simply using my iPhone to do my IG business.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Hi Chy! Yes, we’ve had others mention something similar. Luckily you’re still able to conduct your normal business via phone, but I’m wondering if you can conduct an experiment. Is this a laptop computer? If so, take it somewhere and connect to Wi-Fi. If your Instagram isn’t blocked there, you’ll know it’s your IP address and not your device that has been blocked. Alternatively, you might try to connect it to your phone’s mobile hot spot. Let me know if it works (assuming it IS a laptop). Thanks!
Hi! I’m not 100% percent sure if I’m actually action blocked on IG because I’ve never received any error massages. But may users have messaged me screen shots saying they tried to respond to a comment and were blocked. Has this happened to anyone?
Hi Cosmo! That is a new one — I’ve never heard of others being blocked from someone’s account. I’m really curious about this. If you’d like for me to take a look, email me what your IG handle is at [email protected].
Hey there ?
I read all of the comments but I couldn’t find help so I’m trying it by commenting on my own now.
I got the action blocked for the 5th time in a row for always exactly 3 days long. Instagram told me after that time that I had to change my password, exactly after one day I got banned again from giving any third party my new password which I didn’t. I just changed the password a few hours before thats so ridiculous but its always the same message I get from them. Waiting 3 days, changing my password and bam – banned again!! Do you have any idea what I can do and how I can check why it is the same all over again?? My name on IG is whereismella.
Greetings from Munich
Hi Mella! I’m so sorry, that has to be super frustrating! I took a look at your gallery and everything seems to be normal. Great feed, by the way! You are not the first person I’ve heard this from — you do what Instagram tells you to do, your ban expires, and then BAM — you get blocked again. I’m wondering if it has anything to do with one particular device, but that’s a stab in the dark. Are you always using the same phone or computer when the ban happens? Also, are you the only one managing your account?
I wish I knew of a way to get a message through to Instagram. Even Tina Lee of @ofleatherandlace recently complained of issues, and she has a following of 200K. If you didn’t catch it, here’s the link: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1ZD1oIn-CI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
I like how she basically shamed Instagram by calling them out about her action block, but she didn’t get nasty about it. I wonder if anyone at Instagram noticed, because you can bet that her loyal 200K followers were complaining to Instagram on her behalf.
I wish I had better news for you, Mella. Your issue sounds like a legitimate bug in Instagram’s code. Once your ban has lifted, I would say to try using a different device than what you normally use to test and see if that has something to do with it. Also, try logging out and logging back in. That trick never worked for us, but it has worked for a few others. No idea why, but it’s worth a shot.
Good luck Mella, and let us know how it goes. Take care!
Yeah that’s exactly what’s happening to me ?
This has been the most helpful blog so far! I could not understand why after liking photos I got an “action block” stating that I had shared my account with a service (which was completely false) and subsequently was unable to like/comment/follow/post. It seems that this summer they’ve implemented some harsh changes (not to mention my organic reach fell drastically!). I’m so disheartened by this that I’ve gone on a digital detox. I blog about organic skincare at ORGANICBEAUTYLOVER
That is so frustrating! Yes, I don’t quite understand what Instagram is trying to prove by blocking users simply for liking photos. Isn’t that what the blog is supposed to be about? A digital detox is a good idea! I just had a short unintentional detox myself due to lousy cell service in the Nevada desert, haha! It was good for me. Good luck!
Hi Andrew,
My account was supposed to be action blocked until August 30th (expiration date), today is 31st and I’m still blocked! Is that normal?
Hi Hessam. That’s strange. Is it still showing a date? If so, try logging out and logging back in. Change your password as well. Let me know if you’re still having problems because it should have lifted.
For me it’s the strangest thing, I can’t figure it out. Almost all my actions are blocked when I try to use the Instagram Website from my computer. But from the app on my phone, I have no issues. This doesn’t really make sense. Am I blocked or not? What would cause this? It’s been going on for over a month now.
I’ve never violated community guidelines. About the only thing I can think of is that I’m traveling all the time for work, so my computer is constantly connecting from different IP addresses. But then again, so is my phone. So I don’t know. I’m effectively blocked from using the Instagram Website. The only thing that seems to work, strangely enough, is liking comments. Every other action seems to be blocked.
Hi Alexander! Sounds like you have a device block, but it’s hard to say what caused it. To be sure, log in from another laptop or desktop. Also, if you’re using Chrome on your laptop, go into developer settings (shift + control + i on Windows). There is a little icon that allows you to emulate phones and iPads. Click that and then refresh while viewing your profile. At the top is a drop-down menu that allows you to emulate various devices. Try doing a few actions in IG. Also, you might try using different browsers. This should at least help you rule out some problems. Clear your cache and dump your history. Log out of Instagram and log back in. You might also try changing your password. Not sure if any of that will help, but let me know if it does. You’re not the only one with this issue, and I’d love to get to the bottom of it.
Hi, new to the site. I recently got an action block on my Instagram account after going into the Instagram app on my iPad mini 4 right after locking my s9. I can’t post comments and like posts but I can send messages. I didn’t know what triggered the block. I thought that I had a third party app installed on my computer and laptop which is igdm.
I tried uninstalling igdm on my computer and kept the software on my laptop.
Interesting. Did your block give you a date when it will expire? I wouldn’t think a DM app would cause this, but maybe Instagram is either cracking down hard or they did a lousy update on their algorithm. I suspect a little bit of both.
Hi so my ban is suppose to lift today on 9/1/2019.
Today is that day, but the band hasn’t been lifted yet, what does that mean?
Hi AJR. If you were given a date, it will lift at the same time of day that you first noticed it.
Hi! Thank you for sharing this post! I just got a weel blocked from Instagram for using bots! But I don’t use any kind of third party app or bots. Don’t know if contacting them will really help or if I should just wait. But I really don’t understand how I got blocked when I am not even using any kind of bot or app…
Hi Alecia! Sorry to hear this. I’ve never heard of anyone having any luck contacting Instagram. That said, it wouldn’t hurt. Have you been traveling more than usual? And is the block on all your devices or just your phone? You’re not the only one having this issue, so let us know how it turns out. Good luck!
Hey there
So many frustrating stories about action blocks here… I’ve noticed kinda strange thing though – in 50-60% of cases (I manage a lot of accounts) just changing your profile’s password helps to lift action block.
Hope this helps at least someone.
Thanks for the tip Michael. I wish this worked for everyone. You’re right — it’s worth trying. Sometimes simply logging out and back in will work as well. I’ve never been lucky enough for that to happen though.
Any idea what time of day blocks usually get lifted? I’ve been blocked for a week and it said it would expire today, but I still can’t do anything on Instagram…
Hi CJ. Your block will expire at the same time of day from when you first noticed it. We got a one week action block that began at 8:07 am (I know because I took a screenshot of it), and it didn’t lift until 8:07 am on the date we were given. Let me know if that’s not the case for you.
From my experience it’s usually the time when you were blocked
So i was manually catching up with 24hrs telegram group ( yes i was going kinda fast ) on my mirror account bc my main account was blocked for a week 8days ago , and my mirror account got blocked, so I switched to my main account ( on same device) , liked 1 picture from the feed and immediately got blocked. Looked like a regular 24 hr like block . Was still able to post a picture as I planned. Didn’t do much on my account for 24 hrs except adding to my stories ; didn’t try to comment, reply to comments etc . 24 hrs later I tried to post , again didn’t like / comment anything just post and I didn’t let me , it said action blocked until Sep 9 , so its the week long block AGAIN which i think kicked in the previous day but for whatever reason I didn’t get that message the day of my actual block . This is really frustrating. I have been doing this for a while, im not doing anything new . It also told me to switch password bc i have used 3rd party apps which I didn’t- that part is really stupid. I did use telegram but i didn’t give them my password and i have always CU manually , this makes no sense.
Hi Dan! You’re not the first we’ve heard from who mentioned something similar. You’re right — it doesn’t make any sense. Hopefully someone will see your comment and have a possible solution. I’ve never used Telegram, but I’ve heard from others that they ran into trouble by going too fast in it.
Hey! Thanks for this article. I was action blocked by instagram and it’s my first time getting blocked and it’s weird I couldn’t figure out why, since the only activities recently are liking about 5 posts in perfectly normal speed and commenting 3 times on 2 separate posts in the course of 2 days. It must’ve been a mistake? And the blocked notice doesn’t tell me when this ban is gonna be lifted. Is there any way to know how long I am blocked?
Hi Holly! That’s really odd. None of that should have caused you to get blocked. I’d guess that it should lift after 24-48 hours, but it’s hard to say for sure. Try logging out and back in. It works every once in a while. Keep us posted!
I’ve emailed you. I’ve been action blocked for a week but looks like it’s blocked everything, liking, posting comments!!!? I’ve been overliking but not using a 3rd party app. Only to check unfollowers but don’t action from it. It’s been happening often in terms of soft ones that blocked for an hour just liking but now looks like a whole week the message says!! Can I do anything? Will normal activity resume after the week?
Hi Steph! Yes, it will go back to normal on that date at the same time of day you first noticed the block message. That said, I’ve heard from a few others that they resumed their activities as usual and were quickly blocked again, so BE CAREFUL. Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do but wait it out.
We’ve been using a 3rd-party app to check unfollowers, but a few weeks ago it stopped letting us unfollow directly from the app. Something happened, and I have a feeling that if we ever change our password and give the app access again, we’re going to land ourselves in hot water.
You might consider temporarily uninstalling your 3rd-party app before the block expires. Resume activity slowly. Give it a day or so. If everything appears normal, then I’d say try your unfollow checker. If that triggers the block again, well, then at least you’ll know what’s causing it.
Are you using Telegram as well? A lot of people seem to be having issues when connecting that app as well, but I really know nothing about it.
Good luck!
How would you recommend proceeded post block? Apparently it finishes next Thursday. Can I post on Friday? Can I like/comment things? What’s caused people to be blocked again?
I have uninstalled the app and won’t bother with it, I never unfollowed from the app just used it to monitor then unfollowed in Instagram.
Not sure what telegram is but don’t use it!
What about that linktree thing for multiple links in bio? Should I remove it?
It looks like I can DM at the moment but would it be best to just totally leave it?
Can I browse whilst on block as long as I don’t like / action anything?
Lots of questions sorry!
And do I need to be careful using hashtags on my return?
As a general rule, you should always be careful with hashtags. Avoid any potentially spammy ones like #follow4follow. Somewhere on the Internet I saw a list of tags Instagram frowns upon, but I can’t find it at the moment. I don’t think using spammy hashtags will get you blocked, but it might get you shadowbanned. I didn’t think that was real until recently when someone showed me some rather terrifying insights on their latest post. The shadowban is REAL! Lol, sounds like a conspiracy theory group.
Just go easy at the beginning and gradually increase your actions. Go ahead and post on Friday and continue liking and commenting. You should be fine, but don’t overdo it. I wish I knew what was causing others to be blocked again. I suspect they might be doing things that are flagging Insta’s SPAM filters, but I can’t be sure. There seem to be new reasons invented weekly by Insta for blocking people. Luckily we haven’t had any issues after our third block, but we’ve scaled things back considerably. Linktree is really just another external link, and using it should not cause any issues at all. Once someone clicks on the link, it’s basically out of Instagram’s hands (even though they do keep you in their crummy browser). But no, Linktree won’t hurt anything. You should still be able to DM without any issues. Sending DMs never caused us any issues. And yes, you can still browse during the block. It won’t matter if you try to like or comment on something to test it — doing so won’t extend your block. Hope that helps!
Thank you! One final thing … I don’t do them often, but as long as I’m back up ok I was going to post a giveaway In October, people have to like and tag two friends… any potential issue? It’s just so frustrating I now feel I can’t comment back all the time on people’s comments on my posts either!!
You know, I wouldn’t think that would cause problems. I’ve never heard of that being the reason for a block, but I guess it really comes down to the number of actions and the age of the account. You should never have a problem with other people liking or tagging too much, but I have heard from someone who had 44k followers that she got blocked simply for responding to comments on her posts. If you’re replying to a lot of comments, just be sure that you’re not using the same reply. A simple “thank you” or using the same emojis in the exact same sequence over and over might set off a spam filter, but otherwise you should be okay. I guess you have to take this advice with a grain of salt though, because without really knowing all that is going on I can’t be sure what the Instagram gods will do. Good luck and keep us posted!
I’ve been action blocked for two weeks now. 1-3 posts per week, the last 5 posts had a few recurring hashtags (self-imposed 5 tags limit in thedescription) and I did go on a bit of a following spree but a month before. The block arrived conveniently after posting a text-filled poster for an upcoming event which made me wonder if IG was being salty for me advertising without paying. The only 3rd party app I used was the one allowing uploads from a PC browser.
There’s no set date in any of my ‘action blocked’ dialogs and that’s the worst part for me as the only way to tell if it’s lifted is to ‘commit a felony’ again, which probably just makes it last longer. Completely ridiculous and paired with a total lack of support channels, downright infuriating. I get their intention but I’m nowhere near the profile of instagramers they’re trying to weed out.
Oh well, I’ll try the logging game for a while. Really hating the platform so far and seeing it as a necessary evil, esp with the silly image sizes and poor compression. Yuck 😀
Agreed! It’s super frustrating, and it does make me wonder if they’re doing something to limit text in images. Still, a few times shouldn’t get you blocked. That’s crazy. And I hear you on the weird sizes and poor compression. I DID figure out a good way to save images optimized for IG, but that’s a different thought altogether. If you have Photoshop and you’re interested in knowing more, just holler here in the comments. Good luck!
Thanks for co-venting with me 😀 I too ran into methods to make use of PS and maximize image quality but there’s only so much to be done. I hope they refine their algorithm soon, since support is out the window seeing how overwhelming the userbase size is. No wonder they said “oh f*ck this” when all their stats reached billions.
Hahaha! Thanks for the laugh. They must be so hopelessly overwhelmed. Just a good reminder for me to not invest too much effort on someone else’s platform. Hearing from so many people about this issue, it’s scared me straight!
Hi guys.. Got all my actions blocked 2 days ago (including posting and.. Unfollowing!) with the block set to expire on the 5th. It’s the 6th of September already and the block is still active! Extremely annoying.. Going to try and cancel all my pending request.. Good tip! Maybe it works! Thanks
Hi Octavian! That’s odd, it most definitely should have expired. Is it STILL saying the 5th in the message (it’s still the 5th here in the U.S. as I’m writing this)? If so, try changing your password or just logging out and back in. Try another device as well. I’m really curious to know what is going on with this one. I’ve heard of this happening one other time, and the user was able to get her account back to normal after logging out and logging in. It never worked for us, but it’s worth a shot. Good luck!
I am currently in an Action Block in which the block was/is for 1 week. The block notice said it would be expiring today. 2019-09-07. I am unable to like, follow, unfollow, unrequest follows, post. All I am allowed to do is post on stories. As one would do, at the stock of midnight when the date turned 9/7/19 (today) I tried to like a photo. Still blocked. I woke up this morning tried the same, still blocked. Does the expire actually lift tomorrow and not on the day of expire?
I checked my follow requests as well and there were too many to count, I stopped at 200…. so I think I’m just doomed. ? oh, I also have another IG account that got the same block with minimal activity following… I think it’s onto my IP address. That block is set to expire 9/10/19. Butttt I’m just so frustrated at this point.
🙁
Hi Jenn! Yes, when you’re given a date, the ban is apparently lifted at the exact same time of day when you first got the ban. We tried the same thing, checking right at midnight. Then again at 8 a.m. I knew I had taken a screenshot of the block the first time it popped up, so I went through my pix and found it, and I looked at the file info. 8:07. Then I looked at the time and saw that it was currently 8:07, so I checked the block again and it was gone. Let us know if it doesn’t lift today.
Hi Jen,
Did u manage to have ur account unblock ?
Omg what an amazing article with so many useful information about the issue! I got blocked last week and expecting my blocked to be lifted at some point during this day (according to the date I was given). I don’t play the follow/unfollow game but I’m active and have gotten some small bans before! However this time I got blocked for automation and “help with likes and followers” after allegedly having “share my information” with said apps! The weird this is I haven’t used automation for the account at all! However I have used such apps for another account I was managing, mainly for testing! But NOT for the account that was blocked??? The account that I actually logged in to the app and used the automation is perfectly intact! Does anyone now how this is possible? Cause I’m shaking my head in aw over here! Thanks in advance!
Hi Natalia! If I understand correctly, you got blocked on one account due to automation on a different account. If you’re going to use automation, you need to subscribe to a proxy server to mask your IP address for each account. Instagram can see that you’re using multiple accounts from the same location, so you need to obfuscate that. Proxies are cheap — a few bucks a month. Definitely worth the investment. It’s odd that the other account didn’t get blocked, but computer programs can be very literal and stupid, so maybe it’s combining your actions? Good luck!
Thank you for your answer Andrew! Very informative… But I don’t think I’ll be using automation anyway, I was just testing a few months ago from the other account (that weirdly didn’t get blocked)! Also would like to report since I’ve seen other users here that my ban wasn’t lifted today, although the exact time the banned happened last week has passed! I’m really starting to worry now!
Hang in there Natalia. Did the “action blocked” message say your ban would be lifted today? If you’re certain the time of day has passed, then I would suggest logging out of all of your accounts and logging back in. That seems to help every once in a while. Let me know if by tomorrow the block still hasn’t been lifted. Good luck!
Hi,
l was using app to filter the account only to unfollow how not follow me back manually. recived notification to cahnge the passward and chanded it. now l blocked for a week and l really not connect to app or sercive to get likes and comments as they said!
Hi Mai! Sorry to hear — that doesn’t seem fair. Which app were you using?
Hey, my instagram has been blocked for at least a week now. When I try to like, comment, or follow I get the same message you got at one point, “Your account has been temporarily blocked from taking this action. Sharing your account with a service that helps you get more likes or followers goes against our Community Guidelines. This block will expire on 2019-09-09. Tell us if you think we made a mistake.”. The block should’ve been lifted already but hasn’t. I never used an app to get more likes or comments, so I don’t know why there would be that problem in the first place.
Hi Talia. That’s really weird. Are you using any apps at all that connect to Instagram? It seems that IG’s algorithm is getting confused by something out there that isn’t doing what it thinks it’s doing (if that makes sense), but I don’t know what it is. Let me know if your block hasn’t expired by tomorrow.
I’m not, it’s weird. The message now says it’s blocked until the 12th…
This is the first article that actually seems helpful wow haha! My instagram actions have been blocked for over a week. They have prompted me to change my password twice to secure my account and I have. The message that blocks me from liking,commenting, or following says, I shared my password with a service to get more likes and follows, but I’ve never used anything like that. It said it will expire 2019/09/09 but now the message changed and it doesn’t have a date anymore.
Uh oh, that might be bad news if it no longer has a date. Is it still saying you’re blocked for sharing with a service to get more likes and follows? I’m scratching my head on this one. I’ve never seen the “third party block” without a date. I think you went and broke the Internet, Talia. Send me a screenshot of your block message at [email protected] . Also, let me know what your Instagram handle is — I’ll take a quick look and see if I notice anything that might be flagging your account. Thanks!
I just sent it over, thank you! @taliacape
Talia, nothing looks out of the ordinary. It’s just too weird. I want you to try something — change your IG handle. Just add like a period between your first and last name. If some service does have a hold of your data and that’s the cause, this might break it. It’s worth a shot, and you can always change back within 14 days. That’s the only thing I can think of that MIGHT help.
This is actually the most helpful article I’ve read about the issue. So I got a pop up message saying that my account has been temporarily blocked from taking an action (following, liking & commenting) for sharing my account with a service that helps me get more likes & followers when in fact, I DID NOT. Before that, Instagram even told me to change my password and I did, many times. And that pop up message says that the block will expire 2019-09-13 but it’s already the 14th today. Im still blocked. 🙁
Oh and I just saw that my comment above was posted Sept. 13 but it’s already the 14th here in the Philippines. Idk if it has something to do with the time zone. I guess I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow for Instagram to unblock me. 🙁
Hi Shaira Mae! Yes, it must have something to do with the time zone in some countries. You’re not the first one who has mentioned something similar. Hang in there, and let us know if it doesn’t expire.
Hi. Ive received a notification that the block will expire on 17th Sep but now it’s already 17th Sep but my account is still being blocked. How long do I have to wait then?
it’s already 18th Sep, sorry for the mistake
I’ve been blocked from most actions aside from messaging, and I don’t use automated apps at all………
l recived a notification to change the passawrd, it mean l will be blocked as they do in other accounts?? is there a way to not be blocked?
I followed too many people at once and I got that “You can’t do this action right now” kind of message. I accidentally clicked the ‘Tell us’ option instead of the ‘OK’ one and got that “You shared your password with third party apps to get likes and followers, change your password to prevent your account from being deleted” pop up message. I changed the password and now I’m too scared to follow people again normally. I’ve had this account for 5 years. If I follow too many people again will my account get deleted or I’ll be temporarily blocked?
Hi Jess! You should be fine — I really don’t think they’ll delete your account for overfollowing. I kind of doubt they’d do it for using an app either, but it seems like they keep changing the rules. Best to let things cool off for a few days.
Hi Andrew. Your article was the best one out there for the “situation” we are all in. I received the action block message with an expiration date of today. I checked this morning and still banned from liking, commenting, posting and following with no changes to the date. Based on your previous messages, I’ll check again right at the hour I was banned. Hopefully it gets lifted.
To be honest I don’t even know why I received the ban. I got my iPhone replaced downloaded the backup and did a giveaway post and got banned immediately. I’m wondering if it has something to do with repetitive content as 33 other girls posted before me. It’s never happened and I don’t use third party apps.
Fingers crossed. Any other thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve heard from others something similar about doing a giveaway. I don’t think you need to stop, but you’re right that it’s possible the repetitive content tripped a SPAM filter. I see travel loop groups all posting the same thing though, so I don’t know what causes one group to be filtered and the other one not. I guess it’s the giveaway aspect? If you try it next time, I’d modify the image ever so slightly – crop in on it just a smidge (do this outside of IG), and maybe change the brightness or something like that. For the caption, change that a little as well. This should fly under the SPAM filter radar since it won’t be an exact copy. That should at least rule out the repetitive content theory if you get blocked again. Good luck, and let me know if it doesn’t expire when you expect it to today!
I too was in Instagram jail…Read your post and after 2 days logged off and back on and problem solved. Have no idea what I did to get booted…
That’s awesome John! Glad it worked. Hopefully it was just a fluke. Be careful out there in Insta-land 🙂
Hey Andrew!!
I’ve been using a website for gaining followers and likes on gram, and I got it linked too..,I was been given several warnings to change the passwords, I changed and I repeated the same again!!
And two days ago midnight I got a pop up,that the action blocked temporarily, due to using an app for gaining likes and followers, and the date was given the block will expire after 2 days, and today is the 2nd day, and my account has not unblocked yet!!
Could you please tell me if this is common?? Does expiry automatically get unblocked by promised time??
Hey! Thanks for your message. Yes, from our experience the ban does lift on the date listed. It does not expire at midnight though — it should expire at the exact time of day when you first saw it. If that doesn’t happen, try logging out and back in. I’ve heard from a few others that they had to log out and back in when the block didn’t expire. Let me know how it goes. Good luck!
Hello,
I just shoot an email to you.
hope can get a reply soon from you.
Thank you
Regards,
Michelle
Thanks for these insights… I was on my third block for 48h+, tried logging out and back in and it worked! Also, the Settings>>Follow Requests Data is a real eye opener – I have over 120 pending out there! Fun times ahead going through them one by one to un-request… Ugh.
Hey guys, I’ve had my first sanction from following and unfollowing too many people and using one of the apps to track followers… Instagram said my ban would be lifted yesterday and I’m still blocked from commenting, liking and following even on my own posts… however the icon with the date of yesterday still continues to show….
I tried your concept of going into your privacy settings and un-requesting accounts but Instagram won’t let me do that either…
I’ve also tried logging out and in again and that hasn’t worked.
Is there any advice you can give me??
Hi Chyna! Dang, that has me stumped. I really wish I knew what was going on as you’re not the only one we’ve heard about this problem from. Let us know if the ban lifts and if you figured out what the issue is/was. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
just got banned, until the 7th of November, from posting, commenting, liking, following and unfollowing. Very brutal.
I tried the peding request, and aparently I have A LOT! like 250 ouch. But when I try to remove it, the ban message pops up again? Really hoped it could be my hack to unlock the ban.
Is it normal to get banned from retracting a pending request?
Hi Isabella! So sorry to hear that. Yeah, Instagram seems to have caught on to that hack, so I don’t know if it really works any more (if it ever really worked at all). Some tactics seem to work for some and not others, and I wish I knew why. Good luck!
Hi there, i was kind of surprising that there is this blog out of typical “why my action blocked by instagram”. The other stuff doesnt even tell why and what happen to your account, to be honest. So, i know that Im not the only one alone stranded in this crazy new algorithm of instagram.
It used to be not like this, u know. I have been using instagram for my product for years, and it used to be more carefree than now on. I can like follow 200 and unfollow 200 per hour, then will do another 200 follow and unfollow 4 hours later without getting blocked!
I can also follow more than 6500 new people per months, while now u can just get 6500 per month!
So yeah, instagram is suck as for now.
But well, there is no other choice to not continue instagram, since basically my business is grown from here.
So, actually I have alot accounts (probably 20 or more) and 3 devices, so I will share my knowledge abt this action blocked stuff.
First, u can get blocked by “your accounts only”, means that block that will let you know the date, and thus make u cannot do anything to your account except accept ur fate. lol. That kind of block only happen because its that specific account that violated instagram algorithms, but if you happen to have another account on same devices, you can still use the other accounts just fine.
Second, is accumulation blocked, which means if you have, lets say 5 accounts in instagram, and u spam follow and unfollow in all the 5 (like follow 100 and unfollow 100 per accts in 1 hour), IG will blocked YOUR DEVICE. That where i see “action blocked” without no specific dates. But its easier to encounter this one! If you have other devices like me, you can use other devices to login and tadaaa, you can just follow again. Or if you dont have, you can use applications like parallel space or multiple accounts to make new batch of instagram. That apps will run virtual spaces and instagram will think you logged in with new device and will let you do things normally again, as long as u dont spam again. Or, if you have rooted android u could also do refresh ur device id and clear instagram data, i think it will also make ur instagram normal again, as long as u dont spam it.
But ofc, I dont guarantee on the success, it was just my experience because I always encounter the “no dates action blocked” because I spammed several accounts by just installing parallel space etc, but maybe u can try!
Just sharing some knowledge???
Thanks for this article! Comments were also very useful. Although, my experience seems a little different. I received the Third Party App warning a week or so ago and selected the option to reset my password. I think I closed the warning too fast to notice or see a date when the ban would be lifted. Prior to reading this article, I also had the idea of looking into my pending requests for private users and I had quite a few, so I began to unfollow them and I can do that without any issues. I’m taking my time and only doing about 100 per day. The strange part is, I can like, post, comment, and follow on my phone and web browser, but FollowAdder actions are still blocked. Have you heard of that before? I’m thinking it’s my home IP that has the block since I’ve tried different computers, but it’s just weird that I can still perform tasks in the Web Browser. My plan is to unrequest all the pending users and give IG a break for a little while and hope the block lifts eventually. Note, for everyone unfollowing pending requests, I found that using iMacros in the Firefox browser makes this task super easy. There’s a YouTube video out there that shows you how to do this. iMacros doesn’t connect to IG API like many bots and the actions are natural, so I haven’t had any issues yet (knock on wood). Hopefully this works and if I remember to, I’ll update the status in a few days. Hopefully my comment can be as useful as the many others!
Hey Andrew! Great article. I am having the same issues with a one week ban for unfollowing too many people. I was unfollowing 50 people roughly every few hours. This seemed to be too many. Have you figured out a good strategy for unfollowing people?
Hi there! I have been blocked from liking, commenting, following & publishing any new posts it’s been a week now and the ban is suppose to have expired today but it’s still in action???
Has this happened to anyone else? Is there anything I can do? I’m so frustrated!
*The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I actually thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you could fix if you werent too busy looking for attention.
Lol, and the next time I see SPAM, I hope it’s being given to yo mama at a food bank. Haha, pretty clever though so I’m keeping it 🙂
It seems like Instagram has gotten stricter lately? I received a ban for 3 days today. The last few days I have just been following 20 people an hour, max 100 a day. My account is not new (from 2015) but haven’t really been super active, other than liking people’s posts. So maybe my account is seen as ‘new’ because of previous inactivity?
Is it possible that ALL actions on IG count into the daily allowance? For example if I block someone or unfollow someone, that means I must follow one less person that hour?
If I keep getting these minor bans, will my account eventually get permanently banned?
Hi Cass! I think you have to do something REALLY bad to have your account deleted. If IG deleted everyone with repeated bans they’d probably lose a lot of their users. I feel like we’ve been pushing the limits lately and haven’t managed to get blocked for a while, so I think there is something about how “warmed up” an account is as opposed to how old it is. We’ve been following as many as 200 accounts in a day. We spread out our unfollows to no more than 60 in an hour, but previously I feel like we were blocked for less activity.
I don’t know where I just commented but I’m gonna do it here too just in case… I got action blocked by y following too many people too fast and having “third party apps” I think. It said it would expire today (3 days later) does that mean I have to wait for the exact time? And if it isn’t lifted at that time, what should I do?
*unfollowing
Hi Helen! In most cases the block will expire at the same time of day as when you first saw it. Others have had mixed results though. If it hasn’t lifted after today, try logging out and back in. Good luck!
Hi
I’ve been action blocked recently for about a week,its supposed to end today 2019-11-26 at 8am(this is when I first got it) but it still hasn’t
When will it lift??
I’ve been blocked a previous time and it lifted at the same time I got it on the date Instagram gave me
I don’t know why it didn’t this time
Logging out and back it doesn’t work for me,what should I do?
Hi Michaela. That is a head scratcher. Unfortunately I don’t know why your block hasn’t lifted. It’s possible Instagram has changed how they’re handling blocks. Hopefully it will lift at midnight – that’s the only other possible time I think it might lift. Let us know either way!
Hi thank you so much for the reply.
I’ve checked once again this morning after logging back in and I have no Luck.Im still blocked
The ban still said
“Action blocked for sharing my account with a service that goes against their community guidelines it will expire 2019-11-26
It’s 2019-11-27(6:45)Here
I will admit I did use 3rd party apps to follow and unfollow people and After I got the block I was still logged into one and it still managed to like and follow people so I don’t know if Instagram maybe got confused and think that my ban is already lifted
At the moment I really feel doomed and that I’ll loose my account forever
I don’t think you are doomed, but it is definitely odd what is happening with your account. I think someone has to do something REALLY bad to have their account deleted (hate speech, porn, blatant copyright infringement, etc). If IG deleted accounts for using 3rd party apps, their whole platform would implode. We’ve been banned, ooohhhh, maybe 6 or 7 times now. We still use third party apps, but we try to fly under the radar with them. Definitely do not perform actions from within a third party app – doing so can flag IG’s sophisticated filters. You might try changing your IG password — that will automatically log you out of all 3rd party apps. Let things cool off for a few days and see if the ban lifts. Then sloooowly re-introduce your apps one at a time. If you’re using more than one, it’s likely just one of them that is the culprit. Hang in there and good luck!
Thank you x my block did lift
Im free, it just lifted so I’m very happy thank you for all the help
Guys, how do know for how long Instagram is blocking you? I have “Action blocked” already for a month and have no idea when it will end.
Hi Renute! I haven’t heard of an action block lasting longer than four weeks. Hang in there – it should be expiring soon! Some people have had luck with logging out and logging back in, but it never worked for us. I wish I had better advice for you, but the sad fact is Instagram isn’t saying anything about the extent of these action blocks or what precisely triggers them. It is maddening to say the least!
Hello, my case is eccentric because I’ve never used any third party apps and I’m action blocked from DMing new people. I’m still allowed to follow, unfollowing, like, comment, post, and DM those I’m already in contact with. My ban has started at least 1 day ago, and I’m curious to see how long this lasts. I believe this is my first offense.
Hello,
I was blocked 11/24/2019 around 10 pm. My block said ““Action blocked for sharing my account with a service that goes against their community guidelines it will expire 2019-12-01”. Its now 12/2/2019 and I am still blocked! I have changed my password, logged out and back in and deleted all extra apps that could have caused this! For anyone who were having the same issue, how long until the block was lifted if it passed the expiration date?
Hi Ashley. We’ve been hearing about this issue a lot. From what others are saying, their blocks are lifted within two days of the expiration date. We don’t understand why this is happening, and we feel your frustration. Hang in there!
Hi there. My action block is only on comments and captions, it didn’t state when it will be lifted. Do you know how Long will the block last?
Hi Agnes. That sounds like one of the lesser action blocks. I suspect it won’t last more than four days, but Instagram is unpredictable. You might try logging out and back in to see if it works. That trick never worked for us before, but it did on our last block. Good luck, and I hope it lifts soon!
Hi, thank you for this post. I am so confused as to why Instagram keeps blocking me for a day, literally every time I use it. I am not a pro user, use no automation, only have 34 followers, following maybe 20 people. I’m uploading benign travel photos, limited hashtags, activity every few days. I have no idea what I could be doing wrong. I’m at @jenricetravel. Thoughts? Thank you!
Hi Jennifer! Hmmm, that is a head-scratcher for sure. Nothing looks out of the ordinary. The only thing I can possibly think of is that IG maybe doesn’t like the white “window boxing” on the photos, but that wouldn’t make sense because I’ve seen other accounts doing it. Of course, IG is known to change on a whim, and it’s possible if you weren’t grandfathered in before they unveiled dark mode, maybe they’ve cracked down on the practice. It’s the only thing I can think of, unless you’ve really made someone mad out there and they keep reporting your account, but I still don’t think that would cause a block. Once your ban has lifted, try uploading a “normal” photo without the white border and see if anything changes. If you still get blocked, at least you’ll be able to rule that out. Also, don’t forget to try logging out and back in — it occasionally works. Good luck!
Hi. This post was really helpful. I see some people get action blocked with an expiry date and the block has not lifted for them. In my case, I get an expiry date for one day and by the end of that day I am able to do one action and I am immediately blocked again for another day as soon as I do a second action. End of the next day the same thing happened and now I am blocked until tomorrow. I’m not doing anything against the guidelines for sure so I’m pretty stumped as to why this is happening. Would be a little helpful if I knew. Do you mind checking out my account if you can see anything that might set off a red flag? @cakeby_sarah Thanks in advance.
Hi Sarah! Wow, those cakes are AWESOME!!! I checked out your page, and nothing looks out of the ordinary. The ONLY thing I can possibly think of is that you’ve gotten a lot of comments on some of your posts, which is great! BUUUUT most of your replies contain the words “thank you.” This might sound crazy, but it is possible Instagram’s spam filter is being set off by the repetition. That is a shot in the dark, and I don’t know what the alternatives are. Don’t comment and lose engagement? Reply in other languages? Lol, that might be fun. Otherwise, I really don’t know. You’re the second person who has mentioned this happening, and I was stumped by that one as well. All I can offer is to tell you to hang in there. Your account appears new-ish, so that’s adding to the equation. The problem should eventually resolve itself, and in time you shouldn’t have to deal with this strange bug any more. Keep in touch and let us know when things are back to normal. Good luck!
Thank you for taking a look. At first I thought replying back with “thank you’s” might be the issue but I try to include names in the comments and really everyone does it! Makes no sense to me. I was able to perform one action today when the block had expired. I waited an hour and performed another action which was successful but my second action right after the first gave me another block for tomorrow’s expiry. I really wish there was some way to contact instagram because I’m really not looking forward to starting a new account. Completely stumped.
There is one thing. My husband’s inactive account was recently hacked and the hacker had followed many accounts before my husband got his account back and he was eventually blocked as well. He has deleted his account now since it’s no matter to him but I’m not sure if this has something to do with it. I tried changing my password and logging on from mobile data for a change in IP address but no luck.
Dang, that just doesn’t make sense. Tomorrow, after the block expires, try doing some actions by logging into your account from a desktop computer. It’s worth a shot to rule out that at least it’s not some sort of device-specific issue.
Hi,
Very interesting post and even more interesting comment section!
I’m experiencing something similar to the last two posters, meaning daily action blocks which are set off again by just a few actions. What I also noticed is that testing the block to see if it has ended just extends its lenght.
Any idea / theory on why this is happening would be appreciated.
Hello! This is definitely something new that seems to be happening, and I don’t really understand what is going on. Feel free to email me your Instagram handle at [email protected], and I’ll take a look to see if anything stands out. It wasn’t apparent on the other profiles, but maybe yours will shed some light. Thanks!
Hi! Andrew this article is very helpful and I really appreciate what your doing trying to help everyone with what you know.
I was just hit with this action blocked yesterday saying it will expire on 12-29th. I tried the private account follow request method and it let me cancel about 100 follow request, then it gave me the same message action blocked, now I can’t cancel any more follow request and I think I may have about 1000 more! Before I got this action blocked message, I was getting “couldn’t refresh feed’ messages every time I would like a couple of pictures.
Do you think there is anything I can do to lift the block early, even when it gives me a date?
Hi Nikki!
Thanks for reaching out. No, unfortunately I don’t believe there is anything you can do to get out of jail early when you’ve been given a date. Since your block is due to using a third party app (according to Instagram, anyway), your number of private follow requests probably doesn’t matter. I go back and forth on that theory — I’m not totally sold that it has anything to do with action blocks, but I also just don’t like having those out there. I went back and cleared mine out again a couple weeks ago.
As for the “couldn’t refresh feed” issue, it’s pretty annoying to say the least — especially when you’re viewing someone’s profile page and the images in their gallery won’t display. I’ve heard from others who believe when you’re getting that message you’re walking a fine line of getting action blocked. Of course, Instagram isn’t saying anything about it, but it definitely doesn’t look like a bug. I’ve noticed that when that message pops up, IG will still allow you to look at the tagged gallery. I think it’s their way of trying to put the brakes on your actions so you don’t end up getting blocked. A bot won’t get that same experience, so if it’s able to still like images, etc., then I think that flags Instagram’s automation filters. If you keep tinkering with automation, start out at the slowest possible settings and be sure to run it only about half the day, maybe even less than that to start. Good luck!
Oops, I did it again … Actually Kat did. Lol, I think this is our sixth block, but thankfully it’s only a 24-hour ban (we think). The message has changed slightly:
“Based on previous use of this feature, your account has been temporarily blocked from taking this action. This block will expire on 2019-12-16. We restrict certain content and actions to protect our community. Tell us if you think we made a mistake.”
I’m surprised we got pinched this time as we were adhering to the rule don’t unfollow more than 60 people in an hour and no more than 200 in a day, which had always worked. Apparently we were living on the edge of Instagram’s algorithm and set it off. Oh well, a 24-hour break is nice sometimes. We first received this message yesterday at 1:16pm, so I’ll be expecting the block to lift at 1:16 today.
UPDATE: The 24-hour action block ended at 1pm today.
Hey Andrew, let me join the club too hehe.
Well I got the kind of ban that shows on your last video.. no likes, no comments, no follows, no posting with captions (I can post without captions which I continue to do..should I stop?)
BUT… the first day I got a 24hour ban.. when after 24 hours I went try the ban was renewed…another 24… and again.. and again… and it has been 5 days and all I am doing is posting without captions… and now I left it for 48 hours without trying any other action and the ban is yet again renewed with new date ..tomorrow. Any ideas?
Hi Jenny! This sounds similar to a few other recent commenters. First about the posting. You CAN post if it makes you happy. It won’t hurt anything, but since you can’t provide a caption or the all-important hashtags, your images won’t be discoverable except for by your followers. And since you can’t comment, your engagement rate will suffer and you might actually alienate some of your followers. You SHOULD be able to still DM and do stories, so now is a great time to pivot and hone your story game.
As for this recurring block, I think it’s kind of a bug. It used to be that IG would block you for weeks at a time if, say, you unfollowed too many accounts at once. Now it seems that they’ve changed it somewhat. I think IG intends to block you for a week or two, but for whatever reason they’re now doing it this way where you think your ban expires… and then you’re suddenly banned again. Psyche!
It’s insidious. Hang in there! I’ve not heard of a ban lasting longer than four weeks.
Keep us posted — your question seems to be the one everyone is asking lately.
Yeah I am posting stories and DMing some regular followers. But I also post pictures…less than before since they are without captions.. at least for my followers. And yes it is soooooooo annoying this repeatable ban thing… I just now went through to check on my time bombs too… had 85 of them haha.. now deleted and staying clear from private accounts from now on. I will keep you posted and hope to connect with you on IG ..WHEN it lets me 🙂
Haha, sounds good! We’ve actually made some good friends on Instagram just through commiserating about our action blocks. Our handle is @hiking.illustrated
I know I found you already but I can’t follow.. (Thaaaaaaaaaaaanks IG )
Mine is @thequoteteller 🙂
Hey Jenny! We’re also experiencing the exact same thing you are!
Hey!
Well I’ve read the first few pages of your article but I was too lazy to go through the entire thing and I don’t have enough time as well.
What I’ve been dealing with is something strange.
Firstly, I had created a new account and the same day I must’ve followed around 20 of my friends. I texted 6 of them saying that I created a new account but as soon as I would try to text another person this message would show up, “ ACTION BLOCKED we’ve restricted certain actions blah blah and threads not found.
When someone else texts me I’m able to text them but I cannot text someone first.
So basically the thing is I cannot slide into a new persons DMs and I don’t know what to do.
It’s been 18 hours since and nothing has changed
That is a head scratcher, and I’m afraid I’ve never heard of that. I’m leaving your comment here in case others might be able to help.
Hello I saw in the blog hiking you are helping people just 2 days ago I woke up went to check my Instagram and I first saw all must post gone then I could not see no news feed or performed any actions…. Then I could see all my followers and followed disappear everitngh is erased without any notice or ban warning or email from instagram, I could not log in with my Pasword but when they sent me the reset link I could get in just to see all erased..!!! I can’t do any action and when I check my nickname on the web my profile is nowhere to be found… But the strange thing is that I can still log in. Apparently I’m blocked??.. How do I get all back… Why no warning?
I could only thing I’m hacked but is unlikely.. If banned I usually like many post etc.. So I get likeds back..
But never received any warnings.. Can you please help me
Thank you happy Christmas
Hi David. That definitely sounds strange. What is the make and model of the device you are using? What happens if you try logging into Instagram from a desktop computer?
Huawei p smart, if I try from a computer it won’t recognize Pasword, also my profile is not longer visible in search I will send a picture how it looks from the phone, I don’t know how to contact instagram because in the page of help it says your profile is active. Yet not visible all erased and I can’t perfom any action.. Blocked by instagram!??
That is definitely strange. In the screenshot it looks like it is displaying the tagged photos gallery and not your feed. Does it look the same when you tap on the grid icon (the little box with the squares inside)? I’m puzzled why you can’t log in via desktop but you can on your phone. The fact you can still log in tells me your account hasn’t been deleted, but you’re right — I can’t find you in search. I’m sorry to say I don’t know what you can do but wait. I would try logging out and reinstalling the app, but beyond that I just don’t know. Good luck David.
Hello Andrew, after reading your first message I tried to log in from laptop, using a VPN, and it recognized my paswrod then a small window of”in order to continue you must read the new rules an conditions etc tab came up but it doesn’t allow me to click it, I tried like 10 times, so I downloaded the app in the phone again and Now it does recognized the Pasword!! , something it would not do for the fist 4 days (on the laptop also) but again right after paswrod is introduced a window of the new rules comes and immediately the screen goes completely blank, white,.. Over and over again..
Funny thing I used a VPN from laptop as if I was in onother country and it worked to sign in, but from the app same wifi…. .. An you are right nickname is nowhere to be found yet I can sign it.. I think instagram block me with no notifications it could be anithing, the other day 2 guys insulted me on a comment section, I usually don’t engage, I did get back to one of them just calling him a fool. That was Thursday by Friday morning this happen, so quickly?…… what a nightmare
Happy Christmas
It is possible that one of those users reported your profile to get back at you. Unfortunately I don’t know what to do to remedy it if Instagram has banned you for something like that, whether it was warranted or not. Can you send a screenshot of the message you’re seeing about agreeing to the new rules?
Hello sorry last pic sent was fist time I got in the app, now nothing can be seen except my profile pic, I clearly block, on the laptop I can read :instagram. Com/terms/unblock…..
Then the picture I send you is in Spanish I’m from spain but it says, changes in the conditions and data policy.. But the white square over says ‘revise and accept. Thank you is done..’
doesn’t allow me to click the blue tap bellow that says:revisar =review…. Frustrating, in the app in the phone screen goes blank then i can not even see this message stays blank.. Over and over..
That’s really strange David. I wish I had an answer, but I’m afraid I don’t know the solution. I’ve optimized your attachment image with alt text so search engines can find it easier. Hopefully that will help someone else find your comment on here who might be able to help. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see. Let me know if you find a solution that works, and I’ll do the same.
Action Blocked Based on previous use of this feature, your account has been temporarily blocked from taking this action. This block will expire on 12-18-2019. We restrict certain content and actions to protect our community. Tell us if you think we made a mistake.
Hey Instagram: You suck!!!
Hi.
I was unfollowing using Cleaner and received a 7 day full instagram ban for sharing my username with an app to get fake followers/likes….which I have never done! Just cleaner to unfollow. It said it would end on Dec 28th, it is now Dec 29th in Australia but I assume it means Dec 28 in USA. Anyway, I did work out that even though it is a full ban, you can still post without any captions and post stories. Hopefully the ban lifts in the next few hours as we are influencers and were not able to post over Christmas which was prime time. Not happy! But I did sign up with Tik Tok and started using that which I never would have done if I wasn’t banned. Im sure Im not the only person to look for other socials when banned on Instagram. They might want to be careful as they are actually being counterproductive by banning people and giving them time to get familiar with other platforms.
Jo
@themagicalozfamily
Hi Jo! You’re right — that’s not fair. After a bit of trial and error ourselves, we learned that it’s possible to fly under Instagram’s radar as long as you don’t unfollow from within a third party app. You can still use the app to track, but then be sure to unfollow inside Instagram itself. It’s a pain, but that’s the current reality.
You’re probably right on the date — I’ve heard the same issue from other users outside of the U.S. Hang in there! If it hasn’t lifted by the end of the day, log out and back in. That often fixes it. Also from experience, the ban doesn’t lift as soon as it hits the date you’re given. It will most likely lift at the same time of day as when you first received the action blocked message. So if you first noticed it at 9:30pm, the ban likely won’t lift until 9-ish. It used to lift right down to the minute, but now I think it’s the top of the hour.
We also tried out Tik Tok during a ban. It’s not really my cup of tea, but I think it’s a good idea to spread your reach across different platforms. We’re trying to get our Facebook to take off a bit more because it’s easier to drive those users to our website. But that’s the trouble with all of these social media platforms — we’re building empires on someone else’s property, and they can take it all away with the press of a button.
Hello ?,
Wow ? love your Instagram and bookmarked to follow once my follow ban is lifted. Lol ?. The post is exhaustive and I appreciate the information. Helped me clarify things!. I got action block with no date. I will let it rest for 48 hours without doing anything and then click follow to test if it is gone (I read 48 hours is a regular pattern… then comes the hard action block, as I wasn’t doing too much but following 10- 15 per hour and got the ban, I hope ? it will vanish soon).
I wanted to ask you, Andrew….can I still perform actions in my other account with a different device but with same home WiFi ?…. I am afraid to get blocked in that one too…
what do you ? think ?…
happy new year ? and thank you
Hi Christine! Thanks for stopping by. Sorry to hear you got the dreaded action block with no date, ugh! Yes, it is probably a good idea to take a break, although from personal experience we didn’t see our bans get extended for continuing to DM, post stories or occasionally check to see if the ban had lifted by trying a like or follow. Of course, Instagram is continuously tweaking this awful torture device of theirs, so you never know for sure …
I can’t be 100% certain about using the other account, but when our business account @hiking.illustrated got banned for three weeks, I was able to carry on as usual with my personal account using the same device on our WiFi service. I think it’s rare to get an action block that affects your actual device. But if you feel that it’s safer, if you use a different device it will have a different IP Address even though you’re on the same WiFi, so you are in the clear there.
Good luck, and let me know how it goes!
Hi!
Thank you so much for this incredibly useful article.
I just got my second block but can’t work out what I did wrong. I’m a ‘new’ account (I have a years-old account but recently started up a second, linked for a niche interest – books), and have been pretty strictly following a ‘no more than 30 actions an hour (including likes, comments, follows) and no more than 200 a day’ rule ever since my first block.
So it’s a bit frustrating that I find myself back in IG ‘jail’ despite all that! I also don’t do the follow/unfollow routine – have followed like 6 people total since the first block was lifted, mostly following back people who followed me, and haven’t unfollowed any at all.
The first block was for 48 hours, and I’m trying to work out if there’s any way to predict the length of this one (the answer is probably no, but…).
Would you or any readers know whether successive bans are usually longer than the first?
Also interested to know if there are any other reasons people could get a second ban so soon after the first – does a block usually lower the limit for actions (i.e. should I have been going much much slower than I have been?).
Thanks again!
Pen.
Hi Penny! That sounds super frustrating, and it doesn’t make much sense to me why you were even banned in the first place. From prior experience, there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to the length of the undated action blocks. Hopefully as your account ages you’ll have less of an issue. I suspect your block won’t last longer than 48 hours, but try logging out and back in if you haven’t already. That’s the only thing that occasionally lifts a block early. Hang in there and good luck!
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the reply. Just letting you know I think I worked out what I was doing wrong (after getting unblocked 24 hours later and then blocked AGAIN! WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME INSTAGRAM!?!).
I think the mistake I was making was commenting on posts from really big accounts (in this case, I was entering a competition run by a publisher…), while I was a relatively new account.
While I have no way to be 100% certain, the sequence of events following my block being lifted seem to suggest this is at least correlated? After my block was lifted, I literally scrolled through my feed, liked 3 posts, got to this fourth post, which I liked, and then commented on, and then boom another block!
Anyway, just updating this here so that others can be aware of this as a potential issue.
Thanks again for your help!
Hi Penny! That’s interesting. Yes, I think if you comment too many times on one post it MAY trigger Instagram’s SPAM filter. A lot of those promotions try to beef up their engagement rates by encouraging people to comment and tag one account per comment. Just curious — do you know roughly how many times you commented on the promotion?
Oh I only commented once! It was a different post that triggered my first action block. The comment was literally a sentence about why I loved a particular book – it didn’t even have emojis or tags. Super weird.
Hi
Just got out of instagram jail. Lol i wonder if we have “protocols” to follow post jail. I was blocked for a week. How many can i Unfollow from now on? Im seeing 20 Unfollow per day is the norm? Is unfollowing and blocking the same action for IG spam filters? Can I unfollow 20 and block 20 people per day? I need to weed out those who are not following me. I have around 200 not following me. Wanna get rid of them.
Hey Johnny! Congrats on getting out of Instagram jail! A lot of us have noticed what appears to be IG cracking down and tightening restrictions. From what I’m seeing, I think you’re safe to unfollow 50 in an hour, but don’t unfollow more than 200 in 24 hours, and then also don’t do much commenting or liking. I just got us blocked again for something similar. I was in the clear on my unfollowing activity, but then I was doing my usual liking/commenting and BAM! 24 hour ban. If I were you, I’d break up the unfollows over two days to be safe. Good luck!
I’ve been using the Followmeter app to track down my followers and unfollowers. I’ve used it to unfollow people. Got action blocked for couple of weeks. I’m now out of jail. I’ve logged out of followmeter, is it safe to logged in back to the app? I’ll just use it to see who unfollows me or would it slam me back to jail?
Hi Eric! I haven’t personally used Followmeter, but from previous experience with other apps you should be safe to log in again. Definitely don’t follow from inside the app, don’t batch unfollow, and go slowly. Don’t unfollow more than 50 in an hour, and no more than 200 in a day. Instagram has really clamped down harder lately. If you’re doing a lot of commenting, liking and following, you might get thrown in jail for a day if you’ve also maxed out your unfollows. But at least that’s just a day as opposed to the two week craziness. I wish IG would tell us the exact numbers on what it considers acceptable engagement… Anyway, ease back into it at first. Good luck!
I follow a lot of people manually and then I use the cleaner app to filter out who’s not following me back. Last summer when I did this a lot I got banned for a week several times. Always a week ban. I tried this out again now because I’ve been losing followers and I want some more, haha. But, BAM, yesterday I got blocked for a new week. It sucks so bad. I am banned from liking, commenting, following, unfollowing. I am even banned from remove following requests. I have hundreds of follow request just pending and I see my following number is rising each our even if I’m blocked. I bet instagram is happy with that, haha. Fuck. I really hate this week ban. And now I’m following over 2000 people and I need it to get down to 500 ish again when the block goes away in six days (there isn’t something I can do I guess?). But how do I do that without getting blocked again? I guess I shouldn’t use the cleaner app anymore to remove those who doesn’t follow back? Bahhhh i really hate this!!
Hey Marius! Yeah, I think Instagram recently tightened the limits for actions allowed in a day and hour. Keep it under 50 unfollows an hour, and no more than 200 in a day. You need to unfollow manually, and I’d say on days you unfollow a lot, don’t do many other actions. No promises you won’t get blocked again for 24 hours, but this should at least protect you from the week-long smackdown. Good luck!
“Please wait a few minutes before you try again.” — I get this from Instagram by and by. What does this mean? Is this IG way of saying “Your ass is about to be blocked again if you don’t calm your tits down”? LOL but after 15 minutes i can search and unfollow again then the cycle continues.
Hi James! We occasionally get that too. So annoying. I’ve suspected it’s a warning, but then nothing comes of it. When that happens I just open Instagram in Google Chrome. It’s not as good that way, but it usually eliminates this problem as well as the “couldn’t refresh feed” issue.
I have used an app that gives you more followers on Instagram I went into instagram and it said I had to change my password so I did and then I went to like a photo and comment but it said action blocked and that this action will be lifted on 2020.01.17 it is now the 2020.01.18 and I am still banned I have google searched and tried everything nothing has worked what can I do or when will my temporarily block be back to normal?
I got action blocked from sending Direct Messages near New Years, after messaging some people about some artwork stuff (only 3 people, in an hour). When I went to message someone else before I went to bed 3 hours later, it told me I was action blocked for sending direct messages. There was no timestamp.
It’ll be about 20 days now, and I’m still blocked from sending direct messages. I know I’ve been using Instagram a lot less since November, but I at least post once every two weeks. I’m hoping this does blow over and it isn’t a permanent thing.
Hey there! I’m on an action block. I just checked my follow requests and eek– I have a LOT pending. I’ve been manually trying to unrequest everyone over the past few hours but I’m worried this will be considered an action and I’ll be even further blocked. Can you share more thoughts on this? Thanks
Hi Mia! If you’ve been given an expiration date with your block, nothing you can do will lift it prior to that date. If no date was provided, first try logging out and back in. If that doesn’t work, you can begin removing your pending requests. Don’t do more than 60 in an hour. You MIGHT still get a “soft block,” but that can be cleared up by logging out and back in again. Removing pending requests has had mixed results, and it may just be a fluke. That said, if you’re like us, you want to exhaust your options before giving up. Good luck!
Hello there, Andrew.
I have currently had an Instagram Account known as @trevorholohan1976 since 2016, and for the first time in that four-year duration on that social media outlet, I have had the misfortune of receiving the dreaded “Action Blocked” message over here at home in London.
At approximately 9:11 PM on the date of Monday, March 23rd, 2020, I had received the “Action Blocked” message for a simple and silly mistake in which I had liked a total of 10 posts in a short space of time, and I had forgotten the recommended advice of leaving at least 10 to 15 seconds in between liking each post.
As soon as I had liked the final one of those aforementioned posts above, I had immediately been greeted with the “Action Blocked” message which I have attached in the accompanying screenshot from my Instagram Account.
Although I have been temporarily blocked from liking any further posts, I am still able to comment in reply to other people on their posts and I can still upload my own posts onto Instagram without any problems. I have refrained from liking any more posts and I have left my Account alone since I first received my “Action Blocked” message.
What I would please like to know is how long I should wait for that block to be lifted before I am able to like posts as normal again. I have had my Instagram Account for the past four years and I have had no prior issues with it until yesterday evening. I have several celebrity followers on my Account and I am even followed by my all-time favourite supermodel herself as well. I do NOT follow large amounts of people or use any third-party applications at all as I prefer quality instead of quantity on my Instagram Account.
I have always tried to obey the Community Guidelines laid down by Instagram to the best of my ability and I was greeted by the “Action Blocked” message as shown in my screenshot because of one stupid mistake that I unintentionally made by liking too many posts in a short amount of time. I would gratefully appreciate any assistance that you may be able to provide with this matter.
I look forward to your reply. I appreciate your time.
Thank You!
Hi Trevor! Sorry to hear about your block. Liking too many posts too fast can sometimes create a “soft block.” Usually when this happens, you can often get the block to lift simply by logging out and logging back in. Give that a try first. Let me know how it goes, and if it doesn’t work we can dig a little more into it.
Hello again, Andrew.
I will give that a try, then. Thank you!
Hello again, Andrew.
I did what you had advised by logging out of my Instagram Account (@trevorholohan1976) earlier this morning. I was able to like a few replies made to me by one of my regular followers – a well-known American female rock musician – with no problems at all. But even though that was successful, I worry that doing so may have increased the length of my Action Block (I logged into my Account by using Incognito Mode on my Chrome Browser instead of the Instagram app itself.)
However, I worry that I am still not able to like anybody else’s posts directly in case I still receive the “Action Blocked” message, so I have not dared to try it.
I am unsure whether I will still be able to upload any new posts as usual, even though it looks like I am only getting the “Action Blocked” message when I tried to like other people’s posts yesterday evening.
I have heard that such an Action Block can be lifted after 24 hours or 48 hours, but I have also heard that some people have also had their Accounts unblocked a good deal sooner than that.
I would please appreciate any further assistance.
Thank You.
Hi Trevor. You cannot extend an existing block by testing to see if the block is still in place. Try to like posts and make some comments. You should be able to make new posts also. Sometimes, however, the block strips out the caption (which is truly annoying). Keep me posted. I think your block was of the small speed bump variety 🙂
Hello there, Andrew.
Just to let you know that Instagram had fortunately restored my Account (@trevorholohaj1976) to it’s full capabilities once again, and I can now enjoy liking posts without any further issues.
I have learned to take it slowly and to allow myself at least 30 seconds in between liking multiple posts. As long as I keep doing that, Instagram should let me continue using the site in peace. Hallelujah!
Thank you for your assistance. Take care!
If the offenses continue to repeat, will Instagram disable your account?
Hi, sorry for the late reply. No, Instagram will not disable your account if you get too many blocks. You would have to do something really terrible to have your account removed such as hate speech, pornography, bullying, etc.
Hello, if my account has been blocked to a certain date, can I still look at what the people I’m following are posting without liking and commenting of course.
I also have another question sorry, people are still accepting my follow requests but I read somewhere that when people do this while your action blocked instagram thinks you’re getting around the block and could action block you for longer, I tried to unrequest but obviously I can’t do this at this time. Is this true that they can extend time period because of this?
Hi Mac! Yes, you can still look at other accounts and not have any issues. As for the the pending follow requests, that’s a little tricky. Technically, just following someone isn’t a request. What you might have to worry about is if you followed private profiles. I can’t be 100% sure if it will actually extend your block if someone accepts your follow request, but that seemed to be the case with us. Check out the section in our post with the heading The Private Profile Theory.