Let’s face it – many of you are so consumed by/ addicted to Instagram and are constantly keeping track of who’s doing what, how many followers you’ve got, who’s following you and the list goes on…At one point, many of you must’ve wondered if you could check who unfollowed you on Instagram. Especially, if you’re an influencer or business account, retaining followers and understanding your Instagram footprint becomes supremely important. Let’s discuss if you can really see who unfollowed you on Instagram. And if yes, then how?
Instagram always notifies you when you get a follow request and you can either decline or accept the same. However, when it comes to unfollowing, Instagram doesn’t alert you when someone unfollows you to protect user privacy. So if the follower count on your profile goes down, there’s no notification.
Nonetheless, there are still some workarounds to determine who isn’t following you on Instagram. You can either do it manually, by using third-party apps or by requesting Instagram information. Let’s familiarise you with each of these ways in detail.
How to see who unfollowed you on Instagram?
image credit: Freepik
The manual method
Honestly, this is an archaic method that only works when you have a particular user or handful of users in mind whose unfollow you want to check. This manual approach won’t work if you have several thousand followers.
Simply tap on the ‘Followers’ tab on your Instagram profile. Search the person’s name in the search bar to see if they’re still following you or not. You can also go to the concerned person’s profile and click ‘Following’. Search for your name to see if they’re still following you.
Third-party apps
Not something we’d fully recommend, but if you’re really curious to know the details, take a call. There are a handful of third-party apps for both iOS and Android devices that claim to do the job. Some of the most recommended apps to see who unfollowed you on Instagram include FollowMeter and InstaFollow.
Please note that many third-party apps can put your account security at risk. Instagram strictly advises against what unofficial developers can do, which is why in 2018, the platform made major changes to keep your personal information safe. As a result, many third-party apps stopped working as Instagram’s API (application program interface) completely barred it.
Requesting Instagram information
Okay, so we spotted this hack on a Reddit thread and just had to share it.
Disclaimer: You’ve to be well-versed with Excel to successfully make use of this technique.
A Reddit user posted that the way they check who unfollowed them is by requesting their ‘Instagram information’. To request Instagram information, follow these steps:
- Tap on the hamburger menu at the top right corner of your Instagram profile.
- Click ‘Your Activity’ and ‘Download Your Information’.
- Select ‘Request a download’.
- You can choose what aspect of your profile you want to download, like only your photos or messages etc. You can also choose to download a complete copy, which will grant you access to all your data.
- Verify that the email Instagram has on the file is correct. Further, choose between HTML or JSON format for your data (both are user-friendly and readable). Select the media quality as well as the date range of the data you are downloading.
- Finally, click ‘Submit Request’.
According to the user, this data gets mailed within an hour. After receiving the data, follow these steps:
- Go to your followers and followings list and copy and paste everything in Excel in two columns.
- Select the two columns and click on conditional formatting > highlight duplicate cells. This “highlights the cells that contain information that appears more than once, aka a mutual following.” It allows you to filter the follower column for cells that aren’t highlighted, thus revealing who doesn’t follow you back.
Hope this guide helps you discover who unfollowed you on Instagram.
(Hero and feature image credit: Freepik)
This article first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Hong Kong
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
There’s no official way to check who unfollowed you on Instagram. However, you can do so manually, via third-party apps or by requesting Instagram information.
No, they can’t. Keeping in mind user privacy, Instagram doesn’t notify when someone unfollows another user. However, one can always go to your Following list and manually check who you’ve unfollowed.
You can always compare your ‘Followers’ and ‘Following’ lists to see who doesn’t follow you back on Instagram.
