Your hashtags don’t work? You are experiencing lower engagement than usual?
In this article I will explain exactly what you need to do to avoid an Instagram Shadowban.
Let me start by saying that no one knows exactly what triggers an Instagram shadowban – simply because Instagram has not released any statements about it (hence the “shadow” ban) apart from this one:
The reason the “hashtags are broken” will make more sense as you read this article.
This article is important. It is for you to know exactly what Instagram allows and doesn’t allow us to do.
Based on our research and what people have reported, the following things seem to be linked to the Instagram shadowban.
There are 4 things you can do to avoid the Instagram shadowban now or in the future:
- Avoid automated apps and websites
- Learn how to spot dangerous apps & websites
- Learn about the banned hashtags and how to spot them
- Assess your online behavior
I will explain each point in detail, why they are important to know, and what you can do about them.
If you have already been banned, you can still follow these steps to get back in Instagram’s good books.
If Instagram deleted your photos or accounts, read this:
“Instagram deleted my photos”, “My Account Disappeared”: What’s happening?
Very quickly: what is an Instagram shadowban?
Normally, when you get banned from Instagram, you receive a notice that your account has been reported. However with an Instagram shadowban, you don’t receive any notifications. You only see your engagement drop, and drop… and drop.
Another clear indication that your account might have been shadowbanned is when your hashtags don’t work.
Do not rely on the Instagram Shadowban Tester website.
We have analyzed it from a technological perspective and can tell you that it is not 100% reliable. In fact, many people who used this test have reported that after checking manually, their account was in fact not shadowbanned.
Further read: How to Really Check if You’ve Been Shadowbanned – Step-by-Step
Instagram silently punishes accounts that are not playing fair… or those who might have got unlucky by simply… using the wrong hashtags… for example.
Keep reading.
1. Don’t use apps & websites that automate your Instagram
Are you allowed to use bots, automated apps & websites?
Short answer: No. They can get your account blocked or banned.
What does it have to do with the Instagram Shadowban:
- Bots & automated tools mess up your real online behavior on Instagram
- They are not approved by Instagram
- Instagram can very easily track if you’re using (or have used in the past) an automated service
Keep reading if you want to understand.
Instagram has recently updated their algorithms and Terms of Service to a much tighter security against bots and automated tools. These tools are to be banned from your toolkit right now.
Instagram clearly states in its Developer’s Policy (points 18 to 23) that no app or website should automatically like, comment, follow or post on your behalf.
(Above) Instagram’s Developer’s Policy as of April 2017
If you are using an automated tool, you might not think that it could hurt your account right now (and if you’re lucky, it might never). But Instagram has made it clear it does not like bots (back in 2014 if you remember). This year (2017) Instagram has made it even clearer.
Just last week, Instagram shut down the most popular Instagram automated tool, called Instagress.
Let us make this very clear: Instagram can recognize patterns (in the way you like, comment, follow & post).
If your behavioral pattern on Instagram looks suspicious (like the one of a bot), you are putting your account in danger.
Note: this is the case for apps & websites that use a different or the same IP address as you (read in the comments section for more explanation on this). So don’t be fooled.
One other thing to remember is that bots artificially drive up engagement and make accounts appear more popular and valuable.
If you are a business or influencer, this poses 3 problems:
- You have to think long-term. More followers doesn’t necessarily means higher sales. It’s artificial engagement.
- Do you want your business to be associated with a bot tool when major news, like the Instagress shutdown hits, and your engagement plummets?
- Instagram rolled out its Business Profile features. It wants you to pay THEM to get more engagement – not some third party app.
Keep that in mind.
To find out more which apps and websites to avoid, check this article by Alex Tooby.
Keep reading. Below, I will also show you how to instantly spot any app or website to avoid.
What should you do?
- Do not use these sort of apps and websites.
- Interact with other Instagrammers like a normal person (not a robot). That’s what Instagram wants you to do. And in turn, you will be rewarded by Instagram in the long run. Not only that, but you’ll grow strong relationships with your followers.
- If you are using an Instagram scheduling app, make sure you are receiving a notification when it is time to post (the app should not automatically post for you).
2. How to spot websites & apps to avoid Instagram shadowban
Following on from my previous point, I want you to be able to spot unapproved apps or websites. Not all of them are bad (Preview App is safe, don’t worry).
If an app or website has not been approved by Instagram, it can get your account shadowbanned or temporarily blocked (I am sure you have heard of this happen before).
There are 3 ways to tell if an app or website has been or has not been approved by Instagram.
1. Check the login screen
The first thing is to pay attention to the login screen when the tool asks you to login to your Instagram account:
- The login form should look like the one below.
- And you should be asked to give permission.
2. Check the URL
Second, if you are signing up to a tool on a browser, and you have to login to your Instagram account, the URL must include “instagram.com”.
In short, when you are asked to login to your account, the login screen should redirect you to the Instagram.com URL.
This is a compulsory step to keep your account safe.
3. Everything should be done by you
If you decide to sign up to an Instagram scheduling tool and you read “no phone required” and /or “automatic posting“, that is a bad sign.
If you don’t need to physically like, comment & follow, it’s bad. The tool is breaching Instagram’s Policy.
If any of the above criteria is missing your account is in trouble.
The service provider (app or website) you’re using does not follow Instagram’s Terms and Conditions and can also access your Instagram username and password. This is a high security risk. And if you are using any of these tools, please change your Instagram password right now.
Instagram’s algorithm is smart. Don’t play with fire. It will record your account and (eventually) punish you.
What should you do?
- Always look out for these 3 criteria.
- If you have used any unapproved tools, change your Instagram password right now to avoid more damage.
3. Instagram Hashtags: The Truth
There are 2 things you need to know about hashtags:
- Hashtags won’t work anymore because Instagram might have detected something suspicious with your account (yep, even if you’re not using a bot – and yep, it’s not fair). So they stop you from getting organic traffic. It doesn’t matter if you’re using hashtags (they won’t work anymore).
- Hashtags won’t work because some hashtags you’ve used recently (or in the past) could have been blocked or banned by Instagram.
As Alex Tobby said in her article:
“A hashtag as innocent as #beautyblogger can become overrun with inappropriate content such as nudity, spam or racially insensitive images. When this happens and Instagram takes notice, they either remove the hashtag completely or limit its usage. It seems that when you use one of these hashtags on your photo it can effectively “break” the rest of your hashtags and cause you to not rank for ANY of them.”
Other innocent hashtags to avoid include: #desk, #asia, #like, #date, #brain, #saltwater, #skype and many more. I’ve compiled some of them (share the image with your friends):
Click here for the full list of banned or blocked hashtags (Warning: Some of these words may be offensive to readers).
There is also a number of other things to take into consideration when using hashtags, which I’ve listed below.
What should you do?
- Research a hashtag before you use it to make sure it is not inappropriate or already blocked (it won’t show in the hashtag search results if it is blocked).
- Keep your hashtag sets fresh. Do not use the same hashtag sets over and over again on every single post (it might look spammy to Instagram).
- Avoid using too many high density hashtags (too competitive and sometimes very spammy).
4. Don’t look spammy
Even if we are not using any of the above unapproved tools and hashtags, we are still at risk.
Below are all tips based on our research of what other people have experienced so far. While no one is 100% sure what triggers an account from being shadowbanned, here are further precautions for the time being:
What should you do?
- Avoid editing your captions after you’ve posted a photo.
- Put your hashtags in the caption, not in the comments anymore.
- Don’t go on a mass likes, follows and comments spree or you will signal a red flag to Instagram’s algorithm, because you act like an automated application. As a rule of thumb, avoid going over 200 likes, 60 comments and 60 follows/unfollows per hour.
- If you’ve planned to, don’t switch from a personal account to a business account.
- Don’t post too many posts per day (keep it at 3 or less).
- If you received an email from “Instagram” to reset your password, be careful. Someone might try to hack your account. Ignore or report immediately to Instagram.
Are you victim of Instagram shadowban?
If you have been a victim of a ban, share with everyone in the comments what happened to you and how you think it might have happened. Has the ban been lifted? How did you do it?
Please help each other out if you know any more information.
We will keep you updated here and through our Instagram feed (@preview.app).
+400,000 Instagrammers are already using Preview App to edit, plan & schedule their feed. If you haven't tried it, you're missing out.
I was shadowbanned for approximately 3 weeks and I can say automated service has nothing to do with the shadow ban as I got out of the shadow ban later. I even think it’s really just something that Instagram has to fix and not something they created as there are so much “ways to fix it” that work for some people but not to others, so it seems is just a bug.
Anyway, great tips as for the forbidden hashtags!
Automated posting is definitely not allowed by Instagram. They allowed this a couple of years ago through their API. But then they removed it because people started spamming.
Now they want you to post manually using your phone.
There are services that will try to circumvent this by using phones to post for you. However these phones won’t have the same IP address as your phone when you’re using Instagram. So what ends up happening is that you access Instagram using your IP address from the US but the automated service might post with an IP address from India. This is quite easy for Instagram to track and will show red flags. Instagram could also blacklist the IP addresses these services use.
You can still like, comment and follow/unfollow using a third party service but are restricted to 60 likes/comments/follows/unfollows per hour.
Definitely not worth the risk especially if your account is valuable to you or your business.
I am not defending automation in no means. I have to stay by the point that to informate people that using automation is what causes a shadow ban is to create a false idea, so we should be looking at real causes or more accurate opinions instead of something that is proven doesn’t cause the shadow ban. I get you trust Alex Tooby, because yeah she is good, but she is anti-automation since always, so yeah, she will always talk against it no matter what.
The point is that it seems automation is not the cause of shadow ban in any way. It actually seems to not have any real cause and that it may be a weird bug or so. Why? Because even new accounts that do NOTHING except behaving like a normal user (not interested in Instagram attention) by just *posting a pic, using 2 hashtags, liking 5 pics a day, and following friends* also gets shadowbanned too. So, I even bet Instagram will be fixing this and/or later creating any other way to attack serious spam accounts.
How would an agency work in this environment, if their posting for clients who have business accounts? Would this mean that the CEO needs to post everything from his phone?
I shadowban since 10 day.
I saw that yesterday because my 3 last posts are only a dozen (or less) of likes.
I don’t know what I did for that.
So disappointed!
Oh no! I hope Instagram will lift the ban on your account soon. It’s a scary time at the moment because it could really happen to anyone at this point. Let us know when your shadowban disappears!
Hi Alexadra & team,
I’ve gone from 10k+ likes down to 2-4k likes in a matter of 2-3 days.. Incredibly frustrating, especially since I can’t quite figure out why.
– I haven’t used automated apps for over a year
– Not a business account (I share architecture, design etc.)
– I did find 4 third party apps attached to my account but have since removed them as of a couple of days ago (could this maybe take time to remove completely from my account)
– I’ve now changed my password too
– I don’t go on liking or following sprees
– I do try to change my hashtags as much as possible but do sometimes use the key ones in my industry; #architecture #design etc. because as you’ve stated, hashtags = growth
I’m now going to hold off from posting for a couple of days in hope that my ban will be lifted.
Can you provide any other explanations or ways to help lift the ban quicker?
Best,
A
Hi Aidan, A lot of people said that holding off from posting for a couple of days helped. It’s the main one we’ve read. Next time you post, you could do an Insta Story to tell your followers that you have a new post up (use it as a sneak peek). I’ve seen a lot of people doing that to avoid loosing too many likes and still stay engaged with their audience.
Two questions:
1. Which automated apps did you use back then?
2. Have you ever switched to a business account? Even if it was just for a short period of time (to see your Insights for example).
Since yesterday my account seems to be totally shadowbanned and I’ve got no idea why. I have never used a bot or done anything to my account, other than letting it grow organically. I logged in with my old account and searched my hashtags and NONE of my posts showed up. There is nothing I could think of that I’ve done to cause this. The only thing I noticed was that two days ago Iconosquare, which I started using, had a bug which they fixed with an update. I’m now wondering if I have to revoke access for the app?
Hi Kristin, have a look at our latest article: https://thepreviewapp.com/7-ways-remove-instagram-shadowban/ . These are all the ways people use to lift their shadowban (pay close attention to the hashtags). I hope it helps.
Thanks so much Alexandra, although I had read many of your posts, I hadn’t seen this one. Great information! I thought I had done all the steps already, like going through my old posts and make sure I’m not using banned hashtags and guess what: I found one hashtag that is banned. I have no idea what it even means but I used it about half a year ago when I was just starting out. I had no idea!! I guess back then I looked at what other people were doing and I even believe I got this hashtag of a guide from on of the influencers. In fact I found 3 hashtags that used to be recommended by social media influencers, that are now banned. Totally harmless hashtags but some people must have abused them. If you at my profile you can see that it’s totally harmless too https://www.instagram.com/kristinbrause/ Anyways, I have a feeling that could be it 🙂 I’ll leave my account alone for a a few days and hopefully everything will return to normal. Thanks 🙂
Did everything you did helped resolved the shadowban of your account? We are having some issues and don’t know what to do.
Yes it did :)! I also wrote about how exactly I did it on my blog. Are you affected? Hope it helps you!!
Yes and it’s been two month. I’ll search for your blog post. Thanks!
Hi guys!
Thanks for all the useful info! I think I’ve been shadow banned for quite some time now. My followers are still growing every day, but I had a huge drop in likes. I went from 1300-2000 likes to 700-1000 likes average. I did use the same hashtags on different posts, sometimes switching them up. I also un authorized some apps, except for one called Followers, wich keeps track of people following and unfollowing me. Had this one from the start. I did use the 60 hashtag glitch a lot (changing captions to put more tags in it). This might be the main reason for a shadowban?
I checked with another account and my posts do show up in the popular page at hashtags but do not in the timeline underneath it.
I also changed to a business account a couple of months ago, and I’m really thinking about going to back to a normal one, because of all this trouble. Is that smart and can it delete my whole account or pictures?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Mike, the issue could be with the fact that you have changed your account to a business account. Did your likes start dropping during the same time you switched your account to a business account? I have experienced this myself and have heard from other users experiencing this too. Try switching your account back and see if your likes go back up over the next few days (it won’t happen instantly). It won’t delete any of your content.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog post which will cover different ways you can try to remove the shadow ban.
Good riddance. Too many bad hubs and curators clogging up the place, posting a lot of medicore photos. Leaves more attention for my better higher quality content.
Thank you so much for saving my life 🙂 M nothing without preview app and your blogs.
Hi Niharika! I’m happy it helps. Thank you 🙂
I’m very confused about the point of having a business account on Instagram. If it’s a business account surly I’m going to be posting about my business and products and if I’m doing this diligently everyday and using consistent hashtags I’m going to be banned? Sounds like Instagram has become Facebook and unless you use ads your dead in the water.
Instagram is Facebook, so you are right about the ads. Like any business, they need to make money. They can’t continue to provide a service for free indefinitely.
All we can do, is to educate ourselves as much as possible, so that we can make the best decisions for ourselves. May that be organic growth or using ads.
There have been reports that switching your account to a business account will lower your organic growth so that you will be more likely to purchase ads.
But can I ask you Andrew, my Instagram account was a business but I switched it to personal since I read some where that if I have a business account I wouldn’t get likes as much as a personal account because Instagram want me to pay for it to get more like. So I switched my account to personal, and since then I have got fewer likes! Could that have been affected my account? I am sure I’m shadow banned some how. 🙁
Thanks for all the great info! there is a lot of talk about this going on right now and this post provided a lot more clarity and helped me sift through the rumors.
Thanks Stephanie! One thing I didn’t touch on in this article is the “Instagram Shadowban Tester”. That website that tells you if an account is shadowbanned or not. It is not reliable (despite everyone talking about it). So be careful. I’ve explained it in our last blog post: https://thepreviewapp.com/7-ways-remove-instagram-shadowban/
thank you confirming this for me! I actually tried this and it said I was banned and then realized I wasn’t after checking hashtags with an account that doesnt follow me. phew!
that site is useless. it said i was fine but images didnt show in the hashtag. I researched shadowbanin for over 4 hours today.. (i didnt realize that my last post from a wk ago wasnt showing up. .but i did wonder why it was way slower to hit a certain number of likes than usual) .. Then i posted a new pic yest and almost nothing. I deleted it thinking it was time of day issue. I reposted a different photo this morn and same thing.. and thats when i started cking from a test acct .. which led me down the rabbits hole of reading about shadow banning. After 4 hours of numbness. I decided to delete the photo . Revert my account back from business to personal (i had changed it over to business about 3 wks ago .. things slowly got slower but not obviously at the beg so it might be that?) and i logged out of my account intending to wait 48 hours. Then I got curious (bec i got emails on ig) so i loggd back in and said okay let me test ONE MORE THING before i delete the account and reload it in 48 hours. SO I REPOSTED the image from this morning and MANUALLY loaded my hashtags (i changed some of them too but the majority were the same ) .. and boom it worked.. SO Im gonna keep an eye on this and see what happens when i do my next post in 3 days. I think IG got a red light about me copy and pasting a batch of hashatags one time too many? and maybe moving to the business account? Too bad bec i did like their analytics (but since my account is so small I was able to figure them out on my own anyhow ).. I do got to say your article is clear and useful.. and pretty much what everyone says 😉
Very useful post. Thank you for sharing this…
No problem. Happy it helps you.
I have found that #s in the first comment get banned, but that #s in the caption itself work okay…
Yes, we have found the same. So for now put hashtags in the caption only. Have a look at this other post we wrote:
https://thepreviewapp.com/7-ways-remove-instagram-shadowban/
Thank you so much for this. I create my posts on my laptop, then post using instapic. I then go to my mobile and then just add a few graphics (hearts, etc) Is that a problem? Does that count as editing my captions? I like the freedom of using my laptop.
That should be fine, as long as you use your phone to post manually.
Thanks so much for this article, you have covered a number of great points and it’s nice to see you encourage us to utilise the comments section. We have a new product and needed to start a fresh Instagram account @htzhair . We did all the hashtag research and recorded their relevance and usage rates. Unfortunately, in our efforts to create a fresh colour themed account we posted the first 12 images in the one day. Our thinking was this would provide a quick snapshot and allow users to gain a feel for our brand and products to come. We didn’t and still don’t use any form of automation however, all of the hashtags were posted in the comment section (it looks much cleaner and classier.) After noticing very limited engagement we started doing some investigating and thus my shadowban research began. We have checked the images on numerous accounts that don’t follow htzhair and those images are not showing up under the designated hashtag. According to this article we are sadly one of the unlikely ones. We will definitely be re-evaluating the hashtags used, consistency they are used and where they are placed. Also after reading a few articles they have stated to wait 48 hours with no activity on your account. We will also be trying this and posting 3 a day for the next little while. Not ideal for a new account.
Hi Erin, try removing your hashtags from the comment and put them in the caption. This has worked for a lot of users.
We wrote another article covering all the different ways to remove the shadowban:
https://thepreviewapp.com/7-ways-remove-instagram-shadowban/
Thank you! I tried this and it didn’t help =(
Hi Erin, just out of curiosity. Was your shadowban lifted after awhile?
that’ was my question…i’ve gone from getting almost 3000 likes per pic to barely 500 and i’m getting no new followers…in fact i’m losing them now.
Did you fix it?
well…i think i did but with the new algorithm it feels like i’m dissappearing from peoples feeds anyways.
Tom was your ban finally
lifted? I’m thinking about changing my username
I am curious as well. Mine started in the middle of June..
i also have this problem. i used programs such as video views,likes for instagram,to add comments and likes on photos and this programs also doesnot work
Good article. I’ve been searching for the reason why Instagram does not allow posting from computer’s web browser?
It seems i have been shadow banned since the 13th of May, i juts realized it yesterday when i noticed zero engagement on a post that would have otherwise received some attention. I contacted Ig from the login page, they asked for the infamous ig mugshot..sent it..they replied saying this request cant be handled via this channel. Not sure what to do. I wrote down a few hashtags i use on every post and copy paste them everyday on my posts but i dont most more than one or two posts a day..n i had a couple days gap between each post since the 13th and yet my ban hasnt been lifted yet.
All my posts are related to yoga or hiking..so no sensitive tags. . I have ankther issue too. I tried to create another account but the ipad app just wont let me add another account. Its shows an error message or says i am blocked from adding new account. Any idea whats been going on?
Also i am not sure how true the hashtags in comments is..a lot of very famous people, people with huge legit following use hashtags in comments and they are doing just fine.
Hello, my account has been shadowbanned multiple times. Why? It happened 4 times, the way I solved was stop posting for 1 to 3 days. After that, I could posted with many hashtags and get the likes I spected. But each post needs almost 1 to 3 hours between. Also helped to use the account as I was a normal account, this means: give some likes to different posts, comment and follow some accounts, but not go to crazy, just like a normal person. I hate this “shadow banned” thing because this stop us from growth as fast as I stagram allowed us to do a few years ago.
Hi! As soon as you see your post is banned delete all the hashtags from the post. That worked from a lot of our followers. I’m not sure what type of hashtags you are using (some are blocked by Instagram, so avoid using them): https://thepreviewapp.com/check-hashtag-banned-instagram/ . Maybe try to go through your hashtags and avoid too competitive ones (with high number of posts) because they sometimes contain inappropriate content. Hope this helps!
If anyone is using computer app (like Flume) to post from your computer (to avoid using your phone) – stop using them. Go back to posting from the Instagram app on your phone. I think any third party app (computer or phone) that posts directly from their app and not the Instagram app is in violation of IG policies and will get you banned. As soon as I started posting from my phone again, the issue went away immediately (after about a month of not being able to figure out why I was shadow banned).
I think it’s possible I have been shadowbaned. I couldn’t say for sure. It all happened after my last advertising campaign ended on IG and FB. After I started to notice a decline so I started doing some of the things mentioned above. Not because I was trying to get more likes but because I thought I needed to change something with my normal posting routine. After three different sets of hashtags and posting up to 3 times a day around high traffic times. I am now down to 40 likes per picture on average. I think I’m going to back away from the tags for sometime and post once a day. It really has slowed me down because I’m trying to sell my photography and photography service. I wasn’t aware all the things I thought I was doing to help my exposure were ultimately hurting it. I just hope It can all go back to normal!
Hi Balmore, try to delete your hashtags from your last few posts. Check if some of the hashtags you’ve use have been blocked by Instagram (see this article: https://thepreviewapp.com/check-hashtag-banned-instagram/). I’m not sure what kind of hashtags you are using, but next time try to use hashtags that have low competition – just for now (less than 1 million posts related to that hashtag ). I hope it gets back to normal soon.
You can check some out on my page it’s @balmore31 I think I will change to some less competitive ones. Thank you!!
Just had a look. Yes, try less competitive hashtags. Use the Hashtag Finder in Preview. Here are some tips: https://thepreviewapp.com/new-instagram-hashtag-generator-preview-app/ . Have a look at our blog posts about hashtags. I hope this helps!
I think I made it work. Disabling my Facebook and business IG account seemed to help. Also I think my tags may have been a bit funny.
Will they eventually lift the shadow ban? I don’t use hashtags at all just a get likes app
Try to avoid using a likes app. It’s against Instagram’s Policy and can get your account banned or blocked. Yes, your shadowban can be lifted. Check out this article to see what you can do to help remove the ban: https://thepreviewapp.com/7-ways-remove-instagram-shadowban/ .
I used to get like more than 100-200 or even more a day. Suddenly 1 day I only got 10!! I don’t know what I’ve done wrong. Probably my hashtags? I use 30 (the most allowed) sometimes 2-3 more added in caption but rarely. I use almost the same hashtags but changing some every posts. Nothing offensive. I use followers app to check gain & lost followers but never used it to gain followers coz there’s no point as they unfollow eventually. I block unfollowers or people who blocked me (not sure if this would get me banned?). As of now for 12 hours I only gained 6 followers. I tried deleting my hashtags in comments and put a few only on caption but nothing is happening. Am I on shadowbanned? What should I do? I have almost 28K followers and I’m so frustrated this is happening I may consider deactivating my account coz what’s the point if noone can even see my account. I stopped posting already out of this.
Also, I tested searching hashtags I used on pc from instagram and my account is not showing unless I type my account name. Other with the same hashtag on the same name shows though.
Hun very interesting reading. Great article! I have an account that was hacked last year. I managed to retrieve it back from the hacker via the police (long story) however since I got it back my following strangely stops at 292k as if there is some kind of limit and all it seems to do is fluctuate between 291k constantly and been has been like this for months. I’ve reported it but I don’t expect a response from
IG
I do believe I have been shadow banned, possibly from being reported back when my account was hacked last year but I can’t seem to find a solution to overcome this.
One useful tool I use to find statistics without using my IG password is socialblade, just punch in the username and brings up growth, followers by day etc..according to my stats I will be in the same position in 6 years! Thanks
Article is relay good. I am using GramDominator “Instagram Marketing Software” for my Instagram business. And I m not facing above discussed problem with my account. This software is amazing and easy to handle. And protect your account from Instagram Shadow Ban (gramdominator.com) . Thanks for informative article
Cheers!!
I don’t use hashtags or any apps for likes but I have noticed a significant drop in the amount of likes I get. I was just out of the country for 2 1/2 weeks but am now back in the U.S. not sure if this has anything to do with it? Can you be banned for something other than using the hashtags? My likes are nearly cut in half. So frustrating.
Hi Rachel! Before we jump to conclusions, have you checked if your account was actually shadowbanned? https://thepreviewapp.com/know-shadowbanned-instagram/
There are 3 things I can tell you:
1. Time: The same happened to me on my other account. I had not posted for a long time. One theory that we’ve talked about in another article is that if we are not active for a long time and all of a sudden we come back, we might appear as a suspicious account to Instagram (similar to like & comment bots who appear out of nowhere).
2. The algorithm: Instagram doesn’t seem to rank us in the home feed of people who are following us if we don’t interact often with them. I’ve written about it here: https://thepreviewapp.com/8-reasons-youre-getting-less-likes-instagram-action-tips/ . If you’re active, Instagram pushes your content on top (in the home feeds and on the Explore page) and therefore you will get more likes.
3. Hashtags: Hashtags help other people find your photos, so if you don’t really use them, people will have a hard time finding your photos and let alone “like” them.
4. Bots: Bots apps & websites are being shut down by Instagram. So there will naturally be less “likes” on our photos from now on.
Check out this article https://thepreviewapp.com/8-reasons-youre-getting-less-likes-instagram-action-tips/. Try to interact with your followers as usual, give it some time. I know how frustrating it is. I hope all this information helps!
Hello. On Instagram, an app I authorized and that I want to revoke is not showing up under ‘authorized applications.’ Any idea what I can do to revoke access if it’s not showing up here? Will changing the password suffice for security? Thank you!
The worst article I’ve ever seen. It basically tells you to do nothing on instagram, it makes you feel suppressed and like we are slave to an online for-profit company – no WE’RE NOT !!!! Also, after every paragraph of this article there are spammy chunks to download their app and full of ads. Don’t trust this website. They are just trying to confuse you and they are making money out of these.
Very informative post. Thanks for sharing 🙂
What about the online URLs that do not ask you to login? Just want you to ‘connect’. Are they safe?
Do you see any of the 2 screenshots above (with the green check marks)? Sometimes the login won’t be requested when you’re on a website because you could already be logged in with your Instagram account on your computer (if you had logged in before).
Sharing this article on my blog. Thanks guys for such great information. I have tried these tips and still noting 🙁 (Linked back to this post)
I used the banned hashtag (not knowing was banned at the time) “beautyblogger” on my first post. I was surprised it didn’t get a lot of ‘likes’ but now I know why. 🙁
this was very helpful to me, I think I was being banned because of the #doterra since I was posting about my beauty routine as usual. I just recently added that tag and then shortly thereafter stopped seing my hashtags. I know a lot of doterra people are spammers because of trying to drum up business. I am not one of those types, I just love the products. I didn’t use it today after reading your article and BOOM my hashtags are back. Thank you for writing this post, it really helped.
I too have been shadowbanned. It’s going on week two now. And I’m seriously about to just stop using Instagram because of it. I’ve never used anything to automate any kind of like comments or posts. Never. I’ve built my account from the ground up all on my own. If I’m somehow being punished for the way I like my friends photos or pictures of puppies, then I have no interest in using their service at all.
That’s exactly my situation and how I feel. It’s the worst. I’m in week two of this also, have done everything on the list above and nothing worked. I feel like just throwing in the towel now too because it’s out of my control, and that’s SO frustrating and unfair. My account was growing steadily, now, not at all. ????
Right there with ya…. All that work down the drain!
was your banned lifted? I’m thinking about changing my username
I feel you!!!! I was the crazy girl liking fashion, outfits and makeup pictures!!!! Why is that a sin? It have been months since I don’t have an IG account because I was burn out of no getting engagement and like you, i gained my 1,498 followers by interacting. It is absurd that an app about pretty pictures punish people for LIKING something they saw!!!
Hi , i found out that i had been shadowbanned from 2 weeks ago , and i did every single thing mentioned in this article and I logged out for week then logged in and checked the shadowban tester it said that I’m safe i post a photo with ten good hashtags in the caption but i found out that my photo doesn’t appear on hashtags, I’m really disappointed ???? i dont know what should i do
My Instagram name : hanaahany_
Hi, has the shadowban been lifted for you?
Hi, having this issue on a Business account I run. We posted one image that didn’t fit the community guidelines, which was removed, and have since been losing followers (not just staying the same, they are actively going down). If anyone can help I’d be very grateful!
Thank you so much for this very informative article ❤️️ I’m a newbie at IG, and I have only recently returned to Twitter, so your articles helped me a lot. I have to ask though, would you recommend Post Planner and Crowdfire? I’ve been using them for about three weeks, and then I found your article. Is it safe?
P.S. I’m actually gonna use Preview starting today, so it’s okay if you don’t answer. I would still appreciate it though???? Thank You
Anyone else notice a drop in activity when they travel? I was in the Philippines a few weeks ago and made three posts from one island that received no likes from non-followers (I generally get about 40 such likes in the first couple of hours). I moved to a different island and on the posts I made there my activity level returned to normal, and they were normal when I was in Manila and have been since.
In addition, my girlfriend (who lives there) almost never gets likes from non-followers. So we did an experiment yesterday, each posting a pic from our recent travel, using the exact same hashtags and hitting the buttons at the same time. Mine was a very average street scene, hers was a beautiful pic of the bay, boats and sky. I got my normal 40 likes, she got zero. Non-followers are not seeing her pics under those hashtags. (I checked, and I can see them, of course.)
Is Instagram punishing her for living in a certain region of the Philippines? Is that an area that, by default, is considered suspicious? Is there anything else that could be causing this?
why would you say to not do a business account?
Hello Eugene! We talked about this topic in details in this post: https://thepreviewapp.com/warning-not-switch-instagram-business-profile-reading/ and also in point 6 of this post: https://thepreviewapp.com/7-ways-remove-instagram-shadowban/ . Many people have reported that their engagement dropped dramatically after switching. Also, there are rumors that Instagram penalizes people who are not businesses but use a business profile.
Wow. Thanks for quick response. I’ll look those up later. I manage 6 accounts and see so many differences between all of them. Nothing seems consistant.
That’s so interesting! What differences are you seeing?
Edit: Can you share your answer on this post please: https://thepreviewapp.com/warning-not-switch-instagram-business-profile-reading/ I think more people will benefit from it other there.
Will using an app that helps you to see who unfollows you get you shadow banned? I am using an account called followers.
If the app asks you to login to your Instagram account, you have to make sure it uses Instagram’s login screen (not another login screen). Look at the second section in this blog post – I show you what it should look like. Your account will be safe.
If the app doesn’t ask you to login using Instagram’s login screen, or you have to login to your Instagram account in a different way – that’s not a good sign. Be careful.
why “If you’ve planned to, don’t switch from a personal account to a business account.”?
Buy Instant Instagram Likes is the best strategy to promote your newborn business. So you can take support of this strategy for growing your business.
Link: http://milocalbuilder.com/story.php?title=buy-instant-instagram-likes-to-spread-business-2
hello. i have used programs such are likes for instagram,video shows and so on to add likes and comments on my pictures. now it requieres check point.what should i do please heeelp
Just use quality services like zen-promo https://zen-promo.com/free_instagram_followers and you won’t get banned.
I have a friend who genuinely has never used any third party apps or bots for her account yet gets removed on a daily basis.
Is it possible that the device they use has been banned in some way?
What about the IP address?
Can they be banned?
My point being can you buy a device or use an IP that will already be banned?
i have the same problem. i have 4 acc in my phone and 4 of them has the same problem. i can use instagram with np but hashtags are not working on my accounts. yes i used third part apps but only with 1 of those accounts. so why the hell all 4 of them are banned ? i think its possible they ban our device.
Hello, this article and all the linked articles were very helpful. I have not been shadowbanned but I did sign up recently with fuelgram’s autorounds. For now I am doing only one round which generates about 600-700 likes for me in one pic. Do you think this is too dangerous. After reading your article I am thinking if I should stop doing this? Other than that, I also do a follow/unfollow of about 150 accounts in my niche 3 times a day. I only F/UF popular accounts I do not do that with smaller, growing accounts. I don’t know if my strategy is wrong. So far I have not had an issues, but I think I need to be more careful. Any suggestion on how to grow organically without having to do any of these? Before this, I used to do only 30 hashtags and there was no growth but now I am slowly starting to see growth. Do you think I should do anything differently or keep doing what I am doing, specially using fuelgram.
Keep your hashtag sets fresh. Do not use the same hashtag sets over and over again on every single post (it might look spammy to Instagram).
I did this and want to rectify it. Can you please suggest me a solution?
From now on you can vary your hashtag groups.
If you have only recently seen that your posts are not showing up under a hashtag page, delete the hashtags from your recent posts.
I’ve been banned on a few images, but now I’ve stopped putting hashtags into the comments, and manually adding the tags rather than copying and pasting. I don’t really understand that list of hashtags you have here, as when you search for them people are still using them and are still showing in the hashtag, can you explain this a bit more?
I believe I was shadowbanned a couple days ago. In attempt to “refresh” my content, I removed hashtags from captions into comments on a couple of pictures. I had never done this before. Suddenly the likes began rolling in as if I had just posted. So I tried a few more pics to test this new trick. I had no idea this was a problem or considered wrong by Instagram standards. On about the 6th photo I received a notification as shown in the screenshot. I tried to report the problem as it directs but no response. I have not created a new post since. I did attempt to delete the comment hashtags & repost in the caption, this was not allowed & the same notice appeared. So now I have a post with no hashtags.
Now I am focusing on outbound engagement & shoutouts through my story to let our followers & ambassadors know we’re still here.
I do not know how to fix this or if it will ever be lifted. I am disappointed, we’ve never posted spam content or acted inappropriately. As I stated this was my first attempt to “boost” reach on my posts organically at that. I work with keywords to optimize product listings so I thought neat trick would be to optimize my content thinking of hashtags as keywords….. that’s a no no!
Hope this helps….
If anyone has a similar situation & knows the solution I am Interested in learning it.
Thank you!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61f896f92067a0aa3d5bc8040b4315d29220a3ebff7e739b164f5939eba6509c.png
has your ban been lifted? if so how long did it take?
What about Growgress beside the first point of this article?.
I have taken the manual test as explained above and I guess my business account is shadowbanned… if i search for my brand hashtag, i can find it along with the number of my posts, when i click, i see that there is no post yet under this hashtag. but what is scarring me the most is that half of my posts have disappeared and i am not sure if they will ever show up again! i have never used any automated app or bot, i do all the efforts myself. the only thing i can think of is that i have posted 9 photos the same day (i split one photo into 9 using a grid app). Do you think my posts will show up again once the ban is (hopefully) removed?
are u still banned?
You forgot to include, “Don’t debate black people” in your list. I was debating a couple of people in the comment section of a post about the land expropriation, and murdering of white farmers going on in South Africa. They were saying it isn’t true, that it isn’t happening and that I’m a racist for believing it. I never used one derogatory word, or resorted to name calling. Yet, I was shadow banned for violation of terms of service regarding hate speech.
I can’t really follow anyone new on instagram, do any of you have the same problem?
Great post, but I have two questions, Buffer is allowed or no because this app seems really legit…
And can you tell me more and explain why about this “don’t switch from a personal account to a business account.”?
Thanks
And if you love black ans white pictures, you can take a look to my Instagram: http://instagram.com/yohannlibot.photography 😉
I think i am using too many of the same #hashtags on every post… i was just recently shadowbanned for two weeks again. As soon as i got off of once being ban, well i got ban again.. lol. i am going to limit to 6 or 7 hashtags per post ans try to change it up more.
Hi!!
I’ve been having issues by uploading videos on the stories. I’m not sure if I’m banned… ig haven’t told me anything yet.
Can you or someone help me out??
??♀️??♀️??????
My caption is same on every single of my post, i think that might have triggered the shadowban on my account
HI
sunddely i do not get likes any more. i have insta for business how to fix this ? can i change to personal account ?
nowhere in the articke i see how to fix shadowban
Ever since I started my account I haven’t broken any of Instagrams terms. I’ve tried everything suggested in articles like this and nothing works. My account gets shadowbanned normally for a couple of weeks, then suddenly a post will have high engagement as the ban is lifted. This high engagement results in a fresh ban. The only way I can think of not getting a shadowban is not to post at all, but that sort of defeats the purpose of having an Instagram account.