When you block someone on Instagram, that user cannot view your profile; like, share, or comment on your posts; or mention, tag, or message you. Your account also will not show up in their search results. This may be the right move for protecting your privacy, but it doesn’t feel great when you’re on the receiving end.
If you can’t find someone you thought you followed on Instagram, it may simply mean they’ve deactivated or deleted their account, or they’ve removed you as a follower so their content isn’t at the top of your feed. It’s also possible they blocked you.
Instagram doesn’t notify users when they’ve been blocked or allow them to see a list of accounts they’ve been blocked by—but here’s how to figure it out.
Search for their username
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Users who have blocked you will not show up when you search for them, so this is the first potential giveaway. Go to the Search tab in the Instagram app and enter the account username. If the account is private (and you’ve been blocked), it won’t appear in the results at all. If it’s public, you’ll be able to click on the profile but will see “No posts yet” in the grid.
You can also use search to double- and triple-check:
- If you have more than one Instagram account, try searching for the user while logged in there. If the profile shows up, your primary account has probably been blocked. (Note that Instagram has the option to preemptively block new accounts a user may create.)
- Similarly, you can ask a friend to search for the user through their account.
- Go to Instagram on your browser. Make sure you are logged out and type /[username] into the address. If the account page is live, you may have been blocked.
Go through past comments and messages
If you’ve ever had a direct message thread with the user you think blocked you, or if they’ve ever liked or commented on your posts, you can use these to try to access their profile.
Your message history will still appear even if you’ve been blocked. Open the chat thread and tap the View Profile button. If their grid says “No posts yet” and you see a pop-up with the message “User not found” or “Sorry, this page isn’t available,” it’s possible they blocked you. The same thing applies to clicking on the person’s username from a comment or like.
However, these could also be indicators that the person deleted their account.