If you are an Instagram marketer and you have ever tried to get followers using the follow-for-follow strategy, you may have faced an error indicating that you are not allowed to follow people on Instagram. You may ask yourself why can’t I follow people on Instagram? In the following article, we find the reasons for this issue and then, teach you how to fix “Instagram won’t let me follow”. Keep on reading!
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Why Can’t I Follow People on Instagram and How to Solve?
To troubleshoot the issue of not being able to follow people on Instagram, first, you have to find the cause of it. Here are 3 major reasons for the “Instagram won’t let me follow” error:
1- Technical Reasons Won’t Let You Follow People on Instagram
The first reason that Instagram won’t let users follow people on Instagram are technical problems such as:
- Poor internet connection;
- Out-dated Instagram version;
- Full Instagram cache;
- And Instagram bugs or glitches.
In this case, you can simply solve the problem by following these steps:
- Check your internet connection and make sure you receive strong network signals.
- If you are using a Wi-Fi connection, switch to a data connection, and vice versa.
- Check your Instagram app and make sure you are using the latest version.
- If none of the above solutions worked, restart your phone to empty some space.
- Uninstall and re-install the Instagram app to clean your Instagram app cache.
- And finally, try to follow people on Instagram desktop or other devices to check if this is a worldwide problem and an Instagram glitch or not.
Usually, trying these tips solves your problem. But in case none of them answered your question, jump into the next paragraph!
2- You Can’t Follow People Who Blocked You on Instagram
The second reason for not being able to follow people on Instagram is being blocked. When someone blocks you on Instagram, to keep other users’ privacy and avoid losing users, Instagram won’t let you follow them. Actually, when someone blocks you, you can press the follow button, but after 1-2 seconds, you won’t see any changes and by pressing the follow button over and over again, nothing really happens.
In this case, there’s not much you can do! Just check if someone has really blocked you, and in case you know them in person, ask for the reason and solve this problem. Also, if you are managing a business on Instagram, to avoid being blocked by other users, stop acting like spam accounts.
3- Exceeding Instagram Follow Limits
Finally, yet importantly, the most frequent reason that you can’t follow people on Instagram is that you have gone far beyond Instagram action limits and now, you are being shadowbanned. These limits happen in 3 cases:
#1 Instagram New Follow Limits
Recently, Instagram set a new policy: No one can follow more than 7,500 users! This new rule helps stop Instagram spam. So, right now, if you have 7500 followings and try to follow a few more accounts, you’ll get shadowbanned and you’ll receive the “can’t follow people on Instagram” error.
#2 Multiple Users are Using an Account Simultaneously
Another action that causes being shadowbanned and makes you ask yourself why can’t I follow people on Instagram is that other users are using your account when you are using it and they are trying to follow people as well.
#3 Followed Many Accounts in a Short Time
The last cause of exceeding Instagram follow limits, which is also the most frequent one is that you have followed many accounts in a really short time. This happens because:
- You used an Instagram follow bot an Instagram figured it out;
- You are a new user and instead of following people gradually, followed many accounts in a really short time (300-400 users in 1-2 hours);
- Or you are trying the follow-for-follow strategy and follow more than 300-400 users every day and bulk-unfollowing them each day.
Actually, if you want to fix the problem with Instagram follow limits, you have to try different solutions according to the exact cause. Stay tuned and see how to fix it.
Instagram Won’t Let Me Follow due to the Follow Limits! How to Fix it?
In the previous sections, I told you how to fix the “not being able to follow” error for the first two reasons and they were really straightforward. But with Instagram action limits, it’s a bit complicated. Here’s a complete guide on how to avoid exceeding Instagram follow limits.
#1 How to Fix “Instagram New Follow Limits”
As mentioned above, Instagram won’t let you follow more than 7500 people on Instagram. In this case, the only thing you can do is to unfollow users that you least interacted with and free some spaces for new followings.
Instagram itself helps you with finding the “least interacted with” users. Open your profile, tap on your followings, and find them out:
To bulk-unfollow these users, you can use Instagram unfollow apps.
#2 How to Fix “Multiple Users are Using an Account Simultaneously”
If you are managing a business account, it’s natural to have a number of admins to manage DMs, comments, and posts. I recommend you not to do this at all, but if you have to, try to avoid using the same account all at once. Maybe you have to schedule your time to prevent this issue or hire an Instagram account manager.
But if you haven’t shared your login information with anyone else, check your Instagram login activity and terminate other sessions if needed. To do so, follow the steps shown in the following image:
#3 How to Fix “Followed Many Accounts in a Short Time”
Finally, if the reason for asking the question of why can’t I follow people on Instagram was that you tried to grow your account by following people, do the following things:
- First, wait for a couple of days after Instagram stopped blocking you from following people. Do not follow users just as soon as you can do it. You have to show that you are not a bot.
- If you used any bots or bought followers, stop doing it. Instagram bots are illegal to use and they get you into trouble.
- Make sure to keep yourself updated about the latest Instagram action limits and algorithms to prevent being shadowbanned.
- And finally, instead of trying the follow-for-follow strategy, use Instagram growth services like AiGrow for instant and real results.
Wrap Up
To sum it up, there are different answers to the question “why can’t I follow people on Instagram”. Here. we tried to find all the potential reasons and solutions to this issue. Read the article meticulously and feel free to leave us a comment if you have any questions.