Back in your teen days, when you saw someone new in class and were interested in them, how would you dig up more information about them? Some of the classiest tricks in the book include talking to people you saw them talking to, joining the tuition they were studying in, or even writing them a letter. However, today, the process has become much more simplified. Wondering how? All thanks to social media.
In a survey conducted among the netizens, it was found that the average time you need to dig up someone’s social handles is about 2-6 minutes on average, provided they are present on any platform.
In this age of speed, how early can you look someone up all the time? Or is there someone you just can’t find online, no matter what? If that is trouble, we’re thankfully here with its solution, which we intend to discuss at length further in our blog. Ready to get started? Great!
Why Can’t I Find Someone on Instagram If I’m Not Blocked?
Let’s get real here: the issue of not being able to find someone on social media can be frustrating in any number of cases. We all want things in our lives to go smoothly, and can really lose if nothing appears to be dependable anymore, and glitches like these are one such instance.
After all, how often does it so happen that you hit the magnifying glass icon on your Instagram app and end up with nothing? Not much, we’re sure. It must make one wonder what could have caused such an error. Are we right?
Well, we apologize for the inconvenience that has brought you here and promise not to send you back empty-handed. In this section, we’ll explore four possibilities that might be causing the User not found error on your Instagram.
But before we move on to these four possibilities, what’s the first thought that crosses your might when you fail to find someone on Instagram, although you know they’re on the platform? That they blocked you. It’s an instinctive thought, we understand.
However, luckily, you’ve already ruled that possibility out, as is reflected in the question you’re here to find answers to. Now, let’s get to the other possibilities:
Reason #1: Could this person have changed their username?
As an Instagram user, we’re sure you’d be familiar with how Instagram allows all its users to change their username at any given time into any name they wish to pick, as long as it’s not already taken.
As many users claim, this is the most common reason behind their struggle to find someone on Instagram. Are you ready to talk about how to rule this possibility out?
First and foremost, you need to check if you’ve spelled their name right. It’s a pretty common mistake we can make, so there’s no harm in checking.
If you’ve indeed spelled it right and this person’s profile still doesn’t show up, make sure that their username is still relevant. There are multiple ways of confirming it, and the closer you are to them, the easier it gets.
You can start by checking the follower and following lists of people that are mutual friends of you both. If someone has their tagged pictures, even better! Alternatively, you can also check your DMs if you remember having a conversation with them in the past.
Lastly, if you’re connected with them on other platforms like WhatsApp or Snapchat, you could also look them up there. And when you find them, ask them about this issue. They’ll be able to help you best in this matter.
Reason #2: They could’ve disabled their Instagram account temporarily/permanently.
Another possibility is of this person having deleted or disabled their Instagram account altogether. A large number of Instagrammers practice putting a pause on Instagram every now and then for a digital cleanse nowadays. So, it’s not all that uncommon for this person to have joined in on it.
To verify this possibility, it’d help if you had an old chat with them. Because when you go to your DMs section and look up this chat, in place of their username, you’ll simply find user with a blank display picture.
Did they ever comment on your posts? You could also check if their profile still shows up in the comments section to confirm if their account is indeed deleted.
Reason #3: Instagram might’ve suspended their account.
At the pace at which Instagram’s user base is increasing, it has become essential for the platform to work towards making it a safe and creative space for an audience of all groups and segments of the world.
And in order to establish such a thing, some rules, regulations, and policies are to be kept in place. It is for this reason that Instagram works rigorously and continuously on updating its security and privacy policies as well as general content guidelines.
If this person whom you’re struggling to find on Instagram could’ve posted content that appears to be in violation of Instagram’s policy, it is possible that the platform has banned or suspended their account.
It’s not really as big a deal as it sounds unless they’ve intentionally uploaded questionable content; in that case, they might lose their account forever. Otherwise, they can try reaching out to the Instagram Team, clarify this error, and set things straight in no time!
Reason #4: The possibility of it being a glitch is real.
The servers of Instagram have somewhat earned a shady reputation lately, mainly because of the various downs and malfunctions that keep happening on the platform in recent months.
While this poses no risk to the user base of the platform decreasing at the moment, it does create troubles for innocent users of Instagram, much like yourself.
The first thing you must do to ensure that your issue is caused by a glitch is shut down the app, close it from the tab window, and reopen it. To be safer, you can also try logging out and logging in again.
If you’re still unable to find this person’s profile after doing that, it’s time to get in touch with the Instagram Team and demand an answer for your inconvenience. You can do this by either reporting a problem from the app, or writing them an email about it at support@instagram.com.
The bottom line
With this, we’ve come to the bottom of our blog. Before we part ways, would you like to summarize everything we’ve learned today with us? Perfect!
We began today’s discussion by talking about finding people online, which led us to social media platforms; Instagram, to be more accurate. We discussed how it’s a 2-minutes job to find someone’s profile on Instagram, you should only have one of these things: their username, mutual followers between you two, or any other important information that they’d likely add to their bio.
Then, we moved on to explore all possibilities that could lead to you not being able to find someone on Instagram even though they haven’t blocked you. Above, we’ve talked about four possibilities and mentioned how you could resolve them. If there’s anything else on Instagram that we could help you with, feel free to tell us in the comments section.
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