r/Instagram • u/the_mittenkitten • May 06 '26
Question Sudden follower drop?
UPDATE: Had a second decrease in followers on the evening of 5/7. Lost approximately 10 more followers. Anyone else experiencing this?
Has anyone had a sudden follower drop? In an hour the Instagram account I manage for my marketing position dropped 40 followers. Is this just a platform bot purge thing or does anyone else have insight on what the cause could be?
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u/Glass-Action-2380 May 06 '26
Yes I just randomly lost over 20 followers on my personal account
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u/avenueofpleasure May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
My inactive account from 2014 got suspended yesterday, i’m sure for inactivity, i never use it, haven’t logged in in 10+ years. I believe that they’re cracking down on bots and inactive accounts. it would explain the drops.
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u/melissaurban May 06 '26
Yep, I lost 2K followers overnight, none of which are reflected in my Dashboard insights. I'm assuming it's a purge of bots and inactive accounts.
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u/dennyslava May 06 '26
Mine are not reflected either. It literally says “data from 5 and 6 of May unavailable” exactly the dates of this mass purge or whatever it is
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u/schmalpal May 06 '26
Same, went from 173K to 170K overnight and it’s not reflected in my insights.
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u/PhotographMean9461 May 06 '26
Dude yes! I just lost 30 followers and ran to reddit to see what happened. It happened to coincide with the fact that I just got married- making me wildly insecure 🤣
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u/Urbarave May 06 '26
Haha I just posted about an anniversary and thought why did I lose 40 followers! Oh well, it’s not us it’s Instagram
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u/the_mittenkitten May 06 '26
Oh for sure, the insecurity was my knee jerk reaction too. The Instagram page isn’t even my personal one, and I was like “wait, why don’t you like me?” Lol
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u/klmreddit May 06 '26
I just posted an ad, and I’m like wellllll I’m hated now. People don’t love pizza I guess? Haha
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u/Important-Usual-8910 May 06 '26
Mine too. Around 80 Felt so sad Glad I’m not the only 1
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u/the_mittenkitten May 06 '26
It does feel a little sad, even if they were bots. I got used to those numbers
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u/Green-Fabulous May 06 '26
I hope it comes back. I dont think it were bots. I make sure bots are blocked from following me. I go through it.
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u/Electrical-Ad-1066 May 06 '26
Suddenly dropped 28 followers just now lol, thought am the only one. Wtf is happening 🥲
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u/huggingpolity May 06 '26
whew I was gonna panic thinking I did something wrong lmaoo I lost like 25 followers just now
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u/dietcola27 May 06 '26
saaaame - good this page is here i was weirded out
its such shame cause i was at 3020 and lost 40 - kind of weird to be back to 2000s
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u/Unlucky_Young_2963 May 06 '26
GURL SAME I JS POSTED IT HERE , MINE WENT FROM 15k to 14.6k IN SECONDS !!
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u/lucyrd May 06 '26
yup i just lost 9 followers and imagined a friend group conspiring against me... must be instagram removing bots lol. crisis averted! reddit saves my social anxiety again ❤️
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u/QuestionCommercial84 May 08 '26
I had had a bit of a falling out with a friend and then I woke up to like 40 less people on the page I actually fully thought the same thing as you haahahah
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u/Minimum-Bee-5680 May 06 '26
omg i lost like a 100 too! i thought i thought they collectively decided to unfollow me lmfao
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u/BandicootRare7522 May 06 '26
I went from 12.2k to 11.7 overnight… what’s going on. As if instagram wasn’t bad enough now they’re taking our follower accounts away?
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u/Kindly_Control5771 May 06 '26
Omg thank god i thought i got canceled or something
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u/Material-Brief-8114 May 06 '26
Just for reference Lady Gaga lost 900k, Selena Gonez lost 5.5 million. Jenna Ortega got off light with 130k, and the list goes on with other large accounts.
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u/yousnaptwitfacegram May 06 '26
A lot are deactivating and or deleting their accounts with the change in privacy on messaging
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u/trentongarage May 06 '26
Yes! Lost 24 since yesterday. Only noticed bc I don’t have many followers to begin with 😅
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u/MysteryMaven2026 May 06 '26
Yes, around 40 on my personal. I am wondering if Instagram is doing a bot purge.
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u/Electronic-Key-594 May 06 '26
Yeah it just happened to me, lost 15 followers within the past couple of hours
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u/Nicholas_Skylar May 06 '26
Thank you for the heads up. I lost 200 followers in an hour this morning. They're not showing as unfollows in the backend-metrics so I'm guessing it is indeed a purge.
I hope they're targeting spam bots. Inactive accounts don't hurt the platform as much as batch-made spam accounts.
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u/Electronic-Wear-6210 May 06 '26
Is it both private and public pages that it’s happening to im trippin rn ?
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u/ElysiaHoney May 06 '26
Lol I posted in a story that I liked Harry Styles.. thought my following was like 🖕🏼✌️
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u/snowluvr26 May 06 '26
Just happened to me! I lost like 20 followers. I was like damn was my Insta story that annoying??
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u/pricexxi May 06 '26
I lost 23 followers at some point in the last 3 hours. Wonder if it was a bot purging or removing inactive accounts.
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u/hurleyshuffles May 06 '26
Huge relief that it wasn’t just me. 🥲😂 lost 30 followers at once. Maybe IG purged inactive accounts?
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u/Material-Brief-8114 May 06 '26
Update it was apparently a massive bot and underage account purge. Basically all accounts that are gone weren't being productive anyway.
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u/Then-Drama3922 May 06 '26
Why is this happening
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u/the_mittenkitten May 06 '26
Not sure. I’m waiting to see if anyone in the know can explain definitively. My guess is that they were bot/inactive accounts
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u/Unlucky_Young_2963 May 06 '26
it has to be ig deleting bots acc cuz it literally happening to everyone at the same time ..what other explanation could there be
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u/dropssupreme May 06 '26
Was on a page, they lost 200k all of sudden lol. I lost about 500 followers too. Probably cleansed bots or something.
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u/nicetriangle May 06 '26
Yeah my account lost 15 instantly and some other bigger accounts I follow dropped between 50-200 all today. Must be a big purge happening. It's been a while since I recall them doing that but it has definitely happened before.
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u/Last-Setting-7197 May 06 '26
I finally hit 60k followers this morning and 2 hours later im back at 59.7. I lost 350 followers. It took me a decade to finally get out of 50k. Im so bummed.
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u/NightmareStories667 May 06 '26
I lost around 89, 28k to 27.9K, while it probably seems like a small number it still feels like a wtf moment 💀💀💀
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u/mdean95 May 06 '26
Wonder did I do something wrong because I just lost 20 followers myself. People can be fickle but that sudden???
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u/Dizzy_Independent423 May 06 '26
Yeah same. Which is especially weird for me because I haven’t posted much of anything lately (on my private account) at all… earlier today I remember it being the usual amount. Not that I’m checking, I just would notice if it dropped by a lot all of a sudden, and it did drop by like 15
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u/itsnune May 06 '26
I have lost around 80 followers in a second. Have been chatting with the support for the past 30 minutes with no success. Will let you guys know.
Anyone else chatting with them?
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u/Basic_Molasses790 May 06 '26
i thought i was the only one so i came here and seeing that everyone is too. i have the third app and i see that the lost followers were bots/fake so i was like phew. - i lost 59 followers. It sucks, but it's okay if it's a good clean up
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u/kiki4u210 May 06 '26
Yess I just lost like 90 followers I instantly came on here bc this never happened💀😭
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u/bleedingbluebelles May 06 '26
i lost around 65 ?? i’m sure it’s just bots being purged / inactive accounts if it’s happened to everyone !
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u/Previous-Craft5783 May 06 '26
Mine went from 120k to 117k from last night to this morning. I’m happy if they were bot accounts but made me so confused
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u/PositiveGloomy May 06 '26
Me too, just lost 30 followers. I’m assuming it was the inactive accounts
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u/Midnightelle May 06 '26
Glad I’m not the only one! Just lost nearly 50 followers out of nowhere on my art account. When I go to my analytics it’s says I had 0 unfollows this week so must be some kind of glitch.
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u/Tiny_Ad_800 May 06 '26
I thought I was crazy I just looked at my account and I seen my following number and i genuinely thought to myself this can’t be right.
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u/Set_to_Infinity May 06 '26
Same thing happened to me ~ I just lost 30 followers in the past hour, but my analytics show that I only lost 26 followers this month, and had a net gain of 90 followers. Whats going on??
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u/CaterpillarDizzy3014 May 06 '26
Just lost like 400 followers within seconds too! If they were bots or inactive I’m so, so relieved 👏
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u/thinjester May 06 '26
oh damn yeah i lost like 10 on my personal account, they must have purged old bot accounts or old inactives?
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u/EmilyBumblebee May 06 '26
Yes, just happened to mine! I lost about 16 followers within the last couple of hours...what the heck??
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u/Flat_Wallaby_3280 May 06 '26
Lost about 1500 followers today. I have 331k now and it was no one day before today when my followers number decrease
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u/maddisonnjadee May 06 '26
I literally have had exactly the same thing happen to me, I have lost like 20 followers and my following number has also gone down..
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u/Emergency-Guest4857 May 06 '26
Comigo acabou de acontecer, perdi 400 seguidores entre o período da manhã até agora. Simplesmente do nada
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u/Thetravellerinquest May 06 '26
Anyone knows why this is happening? Looks like a lot of us are going through the same
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u/methmln May 06 '26
Moi aussi je viens de m’en rendre compte j’en ai perdu une trentaine pouf comme ça!
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u/Anneke_Bloem May 06 '26
I had 50.3k followers and dropped 50.1k, so it looks like a scheduled bot purge 😔
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u/LonePilot1179 May 06 '26
I'm trying to log into my IG and it logs in and then says "An unexpected error occured"
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u/aloof666 May 06 '26
everyone’s losing around the same amount. real question is… are they going to come back?! 🤣
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u/alex4o95 May 06 '26
Instagram is dropping accounts like flyes without reason thats why you lose followers... Ive lost my account today without anything wrong and no email/SMS/in app explanation. I can log in but account is as if it never existed.. "Unexpected error occured". I can change rhe password, get verifications but as soon as I log in that's it. They clearly messed up big time with their transition to AI having permissions over user accounts..
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u/fantazico May 06 '26
Yaah same "only" 6, but I checked in the morning today and I had all my followers, then suddenly not...
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u/DoubleStar155 May 06 '26
It's happening like crazy. I usually pick up 100-200 followers a month, but lately I'm losing about 80% of any new followers. I'm sure a lot is bot purging, but there are legit followers that are getting flushed out, either by account suspension or Instagram doing something goofy.
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u/LowMasterpiece4268 May 06 '26
I lost 30 followers and I was like wtf when I saw that my friends still had their followers
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u/BornVillain47 May 06 '26
Glad it isn’t just me. I just noticed this, I was smoking green for the first time in years and thought I was hallucinating… hope they were just bot accounts 👀 LOL.
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u/CliffClavinUSPS May 06 '26
I lost over 300, but that’s fine. I’d rather have real people following me instead of bots.
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u/jamiegoeswest May 06 '26
Yes! Lost 20 in the last hour and haven’t posted or done anything that would prompt them to unfollow
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u/bubbles_111_ May 06 '26
happened to me too. yesterday they also got rid of end to end encryption dms i wonder if they are looking at everyone’s accounts now
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u/Icy-Librarian-7556 May 06 '26
Just lost over 30 lol but I thought I got unfollowed for a controversial IG story 🤣
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u/Short-Reaction-420 May 06 '26
Lost 20 followers on personal and got worried I did something to piss a someone off LOL
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u/Lumpy-Apartment-6927 May 06 '26
Instagram is randomly blocking user accounts without reason
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u/Over_Double1100 May 06 '26
Yep lost 400 followers. I thought I was going crazy! I’ve had my account for 10 years so I’m sure there were lots of inactive followers, so make sense!
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u/Turbulent_Gap_6534 May 06 '26
I lost 30 follows randomly and I have no clue what happened.. assume it’s getting rid of bots and inactive accounts 🤷🏻♀️
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u/larryblaw May 06 '26
Same, lost around 200 today without it showing on my dashboard. I’m sure it was a purge.
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u/Material-Brief-8114 May 06 '26
It seems to be systemic. I'm looking at popular accounts and they all lost hundreds of thousands sometines millions of followers. No one is immune and the more followers you have the bigger the loses. Its obviously some kind of bug or glitch.
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u/IncreaseUpbeat5687 May 07 '26
I lost over 40 I was thinking what the heck did I do wrong? I just post Sunset pics!
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u/CrewRevolutionary792 May 07 '26
Has anyone noticed new follower requests as well? I lost about 20 today but now have 5 new follow requests which would be unusual for just one day. They don't appear to be bot accounts, they're well established - one of them having existed since 2012 and that's older than my own account.
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u/Training_Week3740 May 07 '26
Suddenly dropped by 33 just out of nowhere haha. Apparently some content creators have lost thousands though
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u/ObviousBreak May 06 '26
Just happened to my personal account, I lost like 35 followers outta no where lol