10. Account Blocks & Security Checks
Long gone are the days when you would just create a new account and start to like left and right up to 1500 times per day with no problems. Instagram has gotten a lot more paranoid lately and they block and ban accounts without prior warning or reason. They do this to block spam accounts, or so they say since a lot of regular folk also get hit by these blocks. So you’ll have to be careful how many actions you do and most of all, need to know what can happen and how to avoid or solve it. This is what this lesson is all about.
Action blocks
If you do too much of a certain action you can get blocked from doing that action. The block can last anywhere from several hours up to a month! Here’s how such a message looks like:
You can get this message for any action that you can do on Instagram that they consider you do too much of, be it: liking, following or unfollowing, commenting, sending messages, posting, mentioning other people and so on.
Unfortunately, there’s no exact number here, like stay below 100 likes per hour and you’ll be fine. It all depends on Instagram’s algorithm, how they see your account and also on certain account metrics like: age of your account, usage patterns, number of followers, IP/proxy. This means that your best bet is to take it slowly at first and increase the number of actions gradually until you reach a number you’re comfortable with.
You should also make your account look as human as possible, meaning do a couple actions of everything daily and not just one action all day long. Regardless if you do this manually or use instamaster's T.A.S. program to help you, make sure it looks completely legit.
The good news is that this action block will pass eventually and your account will come back to its previous state. Here’s what to do to ensure that happens:
Stop all actions for at least 2-3 days after you get the message. I know it’s a shame and it will slow down your growth, but it needs to be done in order to get back on track as fast as possible
After the ban is lifted, for 2-3 days thread really really lightly. Post a picture or two, do 1-2 comments and likes but no more. Just tell them you’re still there and not a bot that froze.
Have patience, you won’t be able to get back to the same number of actions you did before immediately, it will take several weeks in which you’ll slowly increase the actions number each day
Disabled account
Now this is the most serious of Instagram punishments. If they feel you’ve violated their community guidelines or terms of use they can disable your account. If you’ve got the time you should read these so you have a better understanding of what they expect from their users.
Of course people bend the rules here and there as everyone wants to get ahead of their competition, and many get away with it. However some don’t and it’s ideal that you don’t find yourself in this position. They can just say you’ve done it and block you with no warning or exact reason given.
Everything is not over even now though. As they do want every user they can get, there’s still a chance to get your account back and they say so in the message you receive. You can appeal the decision and if you do it correctly you should get your account back in 9 cases out of 10.
If you don’t see the “Learn More” button it’s either because there’s an issue with the login, your account might be deleted or they believe or know you did something really wrong and this is permanent without a possibility of an appeal.
If you see the “Learn More” button though, click it and follow the required steps to get your account back. Alternatively you can click on the “Get help signing in” button and again, follow the steps to get the account back. Both should ask you for your username or email and then send you a verification code in an email with further instructions on how to recover your account. They will want a picture with you holding a written paper with your details and the code they sent. After sending what they ask for, your account should be reinstated within a few days.
Don’t panic, it’s not hard to do what they ask and they say they delete the picture after that anyway. Alternatively if you really don’t want to show your face you can hire an actor from fiverr to do the picture for your for $5.
If you have several accounts you need to do this for it’s still ok. People managed to recover more than 10 separate accounts by taking a photo of them in different clothing and background holding the required sign. They don’t seem to have a way to check for this, just don’t do it the same day to be sure it will work.
Email or Phone verification
This commonly happens if you often switch IPs and devices from where you login. They will make you verify you are the owner by either asking for your email and sending a link to verify you have access to it, or making you enter your phone and entering the code you get via an SMS. In some occasions they also do this to check if certain accounts are bot/spam accounts, so if you start to get this constantly you should slow down for a while.
Note that not always you’ll have both options present, sometimes there will be only one of them.
What is interesting is that while the email is always the same, they let you enter any phone number every time you need to do this so basically they check you have access to a phone and not verify that you have the same number every time. That’s why there are services that offer phone numbers you can use to verify IG accounts all over the internet.
Keep in mind thought that the above statement is true at this time. Instagram could realize this is a problem and change it any time though. So, ideally if you have the possibility to keep the same number every time, do so and you’ll be prepared for the future.
Generally this is an easy check to pass, just verify your phone or email as they ask. There are times when this won’t work though. It’s called a “verification loop” because after you complete the verification you’ll get the same popup asking you to verify by email or phone and once you verify again you’ll get it once more and so on.
Opinions are split to why this happens, some say it’s an Instagram bug others say it’s a way for them to deal with spam accounts and they do it on purpose. What’s clear is that not only spammy accounts have this problem but normal users as well so there’s no way to know for sure.
There’s no clear way to solve this, but if this happened to you there are several things you can try that could solve this:
wait for a few days and try again
change your IP/proxy if you’re using one, ideally use a residential one
login from a different device, like on the web interface or another mobile
some even say to leave the verification page open and only enter the code and press submit after a few hours
Other actions that can cause problems
The 3 security checks above are the most common that you’ll even encounter. Though ideally you’ll never see them, it’s good to know what can cause them so you know what to avoid.
Doing any one action way too much can generally cause blocks, in extreme occasions and if you continue to get blocks and ignore that they can disable the account as well
Excessively frequent publications – yes, that’s a thing. Don’t post 20+ posts per day from day 1, in time you’ll be able to post more and more, however as with everything else, take it easy at first.
Copyright infringement – this is a serious issue with all online platforms and IG does take it quite serious. Usually the first few times your posts are reported they will just delete the image and send you an email that they deleted it. However if you keep doing it, block and eventually a disable will follow.
Images that don’t follow the community guidelines like sexual, violent and so on are also a huge problem and will get deleted fast and if you keep doing it will get your account disabled
User complaints – even if you do something fishy and somehow get away with it for a while, IG relies heavily on other users reporting bad behavior and take action on those reports quite fast.
I know that after talking for a whole lesson about problems that can occur, everything might sound bleak now. Don’t get turned away though, in most cases all these are reversible. Additionally keep in mind that sometimes IG also makes mistakes and one of the above can happen to you without fault of your own. Just follow the steps outlined in order to solve your problem.
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