5 Ways To Tell If You've Been Blocked On Instagram

Most people go through the five stages of grief after a breakup — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. But there’s a secret sixth stage that no one ever talks about: blocking your ex on IG. Seeing their account pop up in the Stories bar everyday is not going to help you get over them any faster, and honestly, it’s none of their business what you’re up to, either. Still, it always stings when you’re on the receiving end of an IG block.

If the account who’s Stories you always used to “like” has been MIA recently, there’s a chance you’ve been restricted from viewing their posts. But because Instagram has been known to be glitchy sometimes, it can be hard to tell if you’ve actually been blocked, or if the app is just experiencing some outages. (OK, maybe that’s just the “denial” phase talking, but if you’re going do some investigating, you’ll want to leave no stone unturned, and no IG hack un-tried.)

Similar to apps like WhatsApp or even iMessage, Instagram doesn’t explicitly tell users if they’ve been blocked by another account. But with a little bit of sleuthing, you can get to the bottom of this mystery pretty quickly. Just be prepared — you might not like what you find.

Search For An Account

Even if you have been blocked by someone, their username should still pop up when search for them via the Explore page. But to determine whether or not you’re in the clear, you’ll need to do more than type their name into a search bar.

On The Explore Page

The first thing you’ll want to do is try accessing their account. To do so, navigate to the Explore tab by tapping the magnifying glass icon on the bottom of the screen. Then, type the name you’re looking for in the search bar at the top of the page and tap to access their page.

If you haven’t been restricted, you’ll be able to see all their posts as well as follower counts, tagged photos, and more. If you’ve been blocked, you’ll get a message that says “User not found,” and the page will say the account has “no posts yet.”

On Your Profile

Once you’ve been blocked by a user, their account will no longer show up under your Followers or Following counts. If you suspect you’ve been put on the virtual chopping block, try searching for the name of the account under each tab to see if you’re still following one another. If not, that’s probably a bad sign.

On Incognito Mode

Incognito mode always comes in clutch when it comes to snooping, which is why you can also try searching for an account on a private, anonymous window. Theoretically, if you are blocked, the account should appear as it usually does, because the webpage won’t recognize you as a user. Just make sure you’re not accidentally logged into your account from a previous snooping session.

Re-Follow The Account

Another test you can run to see if you’ve been banned from viewing an account is to try following them again. If you’ve been blocked, the “Follow” button will briefly change to “Requested” before switching back to “Follow” after you tap it. Again, it could be another instance of Instagram just being wonky, but the likelihood of that is pretty low.

Ask A Friend

If you’re still not sure where you stand with someone, the easiest thing to do is ask your bestie if they can see the account on their end. If they can, that’s all the confirmation you need to know that you’ve been blocked. Just make sure to choose which friend you ask wisely — ya know, on the off-chance that they’ve been blocked, too.