User Not Found on Instagram? (3 Possible Explanations)

Instagram has grown up from just a photo-sharing platform to a full-fledged social networking channel. It offers a lot of privacy features to the users and the most common is the “Block” feature. People usually understand that, if Instagram says ‘User not found’ on someone’s profile then they are blocked by the user but it doesn’t always have to be that way. There could be other possible reasons as well if you are seeing the message ‘User not found’ on your screen. Let’s see what they can be –

1. User Has Changed His Username

Instagram users choose funny, classy, and sassy usernames for their profile. So, they keep on changing their usernames. This is one of the many reasons that you are seeing ‘User not found’ error. There can be many such instances when you are trying to search friends writing their old username but they have changed it. In such a case, the search engine of Instagram wouldn’t be able to fetch the intended profile for you and hence show the error ‘User not found’.

To resolve this, you can search the person with their new username and if you don’t know the new username, you can try locating him searching through his first name, last name, any nickname, etc. You probably find the one you are looking for.

2. They have Temporarily Disabled their Account

Unlike Facebook and other social platforms, Instagram gives both the option to its users. They can permanently delete their Instagram account and can also temporarily disable their account. If they choose the former option, the Instagram account will immediately shut down and if they go with the latter option, their account is closed for a time being and it can be revived at any later point of time.

When the user you’re looking for choose to temporarily disable their account, you will see ‘User not found’ message on the screen. Because Instagram removes all data of such users from its database for a particular time span. So, you won’t be able to see such an account active.

3. The Account Has Been Banned or Suspended

You can also see the ‘User not found’ message when for any reason the account of the user is banned or suspended. The same also happens when the user willingly or unwillingly deletes his account permanently

It rarely happens that Instagram bans any account. There could be a number of reasons that Instagram ban any account say if the user is violating the terms and conditions of the platform or the user is posting such contents which are objectionable for the integrity of the country or any other inappropriate content found on his account. In such cases, it is likely that Instagram bans such accounts and when any other Instagrammer search those accounts, they see ‘User not found’ message.

However, in case if Instagram unbans their account in any case, you will be able to see the account normally as it used to be.

So, it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you are not able to see any Instagram account, you are blocked. There could be above possible reasons behind that and so, you can find your friends by searching through different probable usernames.