InstaDAMN
August 17, 2016 12:12 PM Subscribe
I've logged in to Instagram after a longish hiatus to find that I'm following 1300 people I have no interest in following. Please help.
I understand my account must have been compromised at some point and have changed my password. Googling tells me that the most common cause is an authorized Instagram app that auto follows people, but I did not have any authorized apps on my account.
I managed to delete about 100 of the accounts I'm following, but now when I try to unfollow accounts, either nothing happens or it will unfollow a maximum of five at a time. (I've read that there's a 60 unfollows per hour limit if you're using a third-party app, but apparently it's not supposed to apply if you unfollow from Instagram itself. I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S TRUE ANYMORE.)
I'm open to burning this account to the ground -- I don't mind re-adding the people I actually want to follow, and I have very few followers who are real, live people -- but if I create a new account I'd like to a) use the same email address, and b) be able to download/reupload the few dozen photos that I have on there.
There is no easy way to do ANY of this, and Instagram support seems not to exist.
Please tell me what to do. (Mac and Android are my options.)
I understand my account must have been compromised at some point and have changed my password. Googling tells me that the most common cause is an authorized Instagram app that auto follows people, but I did not have any authorized apps on my account.
I managed to delete about 100 of the accounts I'm following, but now when I try to unfollow accounts, either nothing happens or it will unfollow a maximum of five at a time. (I've read that there's a 60 unfollows per hour limit if you're using a third-party app, but apparently it's not supposed to apply if you unfollow from Instagram itself. I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S TRUE ANYMORE.)
I'm open to burning this account to the ground -- I don't mind re-adding the people I actually want to follow, and I have very few followers who are real, live people -- but if I create a new account I'd like to a) use the same email address, and b) be able to download/reupload the few dozen photos that I have on there.
There is no easy way to do ANY of this, and Instagram support seems not to exist.
Please tell me what to do. (Mac and Android are my options.)
If your Android phone is rooted and you have the Xposed framework installed, you can easily download all of your pictures and anyone's pictures. There may be a way to do it without being rooted, but I just don't know. Uploading I think would require reposting of the pictures.
Instagram allows for multiple logins on the same device, so I assume they would be ok with more than one account associated with an email address, but that would be easy enough to test.
posted by AugustWest at 12:54 PM on August 17, 2016
Instagram allows for multiple logins on the same device, so I assume they would be ok with more than one account associated with an email address, but that would be easy enough to test.
posted by AugustWest at 12:54 PM on August 17, 2016
Try Crowdfire.
You might have to pay for some features, but the last time I used it when it was called justunfollowed it allowed me to trim a lot of people i followed on twitter.
posted by 81818181818181818181 at 1:04 PM on August 17, 2016
You might have to pay for some features, but the last time I used it when it was called justunfollowed it allowed me to trim a lot of people i followed on twitter.
posted by 81818181818181818181 at 1:04 PM on August 17, 2016
Also, InstaSave for Instagram in the Play store works if you are not rooted to download.
posted by AugustWest at 1:05 PM on August 17, 2016
posted by AugustWest at 1:05 PM on August 17, 2016
Response by poster: Try Crowdfire.
Limited to 60 Instagram unfollowers per hour. I'm hoping to find a solution that won't take literally 20 hours.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:09 PM on August 17, 2016
Limited to 60 Instagram unfollowers per hour. I'm hoping to find a solution that won't take literally 20 hours.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:09 PM on August 17, 2016
I don't know of a solution for unfollowing that is going to be able to get around Instagram's own coded limits. They're there to protect against someone compromising your account and deleting everything in one stroke. Whoever accumulated 1300 followers for you did it over a period of time, staying *just* inside of the Instagram limits, probably in an automated manner. Any third-party program like Crowdfire is designed to work within those limits; otherwise, they'd risk their own access to the Instagram platform.
Unless you can get Instagram to work with you [good luck], you're going to have to do this manually and over a period of several days/weeks. In addition to the max of 60 unfollows per hour, there's probably additional limits on how many unfollows can be done per day and per week, again for the same justification re account compromise.
I'd look into deleting this account and creating a brand new one with the same email [after rescuing the pics you want to save; you can email each one to yourself pretty easily if rooting is not an option.]
posted by Pandora Kouti at 3:16 PM on August 17, 2016
Unless you can get Instagram to work with you [good luck], you're going to have to do this manually and over a period of several days/weeks. In addition to the max of 60 unfollows per hour, there's probably additional limits on how many unfollows can be done per day and per week, again for the same justification re account compromise.
I'd look into deleting this account and creating a brand new one with the same email [after rescuing the pics you want to save; you can email each one to yourself pretty easily if rooting is not an option.]
posted by Pandora Kouti at 3:16 PM on August 17, 2016
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posted by hal at 12:37 PM on August 17, 2016