How to Find Inactive Users You’re Following on Instagram

It is very frustrating when you find out that you are following a ton of people that are actually inactive on Instagram – they never post anything, not a picture, not a story, and they might not even check their Instagram account. So if you would like to see how you can spot these inactive users and unfollow them, then you are in the right place. 

Before we move one…. Let’s define what inactive users are….

Well… inactive users are actually those who do not use Instagram anymore. They might belong to someone who just stopped using Instagram for some reason, or to someone that has forgotten their password and never logged back in, or they might also be some fake accounts that have been created for a special reason and are not currently being used. Another term for this that you might come across is a ‘ghost account’. Ghost followers are users on Instagram who are inactive. They are either created by people or by bots. So you might be following ghost accounts without realizing it or maybe these ghost accounts might be following you. There are literally hundreds of reasons why an Instagram user account is inactive and to be honest it doesn’t really matter. What really matters is how we can identify those inactive users and get rid of them because they are literally not adding organic Instagram growth to your account.

How Do We Recognize Ghost Accounts?

That is a very good question. Recognizing these accounts might sound simple at first but it actually might be quite hard as you go along the list. Because a lot of things are kind of subjective so you will need to use your critical thinking until you get the hang of it and be able to spot a ghost user in a matter of seconds. So some basic things that you should look out for are: 

1. Post Frequency

   Check out the feed. Does it have any content? If yes, how often do they post? Has it been a long time since their last post?

2. Profile Picture

   Does the account have a profile picture? Does it look real? Usually, fake accounts created by Instagram bots do not have a profile picture and they rather have that generic avatar. If you see that then that’s a definite warning of a ghost account.
   

3. Username

   What is the username like? Does it look realistic or is it something like okk835? Again, a username that does not look real is a warning sign of a ghost account. Just a word of advice here – usually (although this is not a rule) real users will have either their name or surname displayed in their username.
   

How to Remove Inactive Followers

Once you have identified inactive followers, remove that follower from your list. So this is a fairly easy process:

1. Go to their user profile

2. Tap the green button that says ‘following’

3. Tap unfollow

4. Done!

Now to remove an inactive user from your follower list, then follow these steps:

1. Go to their user profile

2. Tap the 3 dots (…) on the upper right corner of your screen 

3. Select ‘remove follower’

4. Done!

You can also block or report some accounts if you are suspecting that they are created from a bot or they are fake accounts. The process for this is:

1. Go to their user profile

2. Tap the 3 dots (…) on the upper right corner of your screen

3. Select ‘Block’ or ‘Report’

4. Done!

Using Apps to Identify Inactive Users: The Pros and the Cons

A fast solution would be to use apps. There are literally hundreds of apps that you can download from the app store that can go through your account and detect inactive users. Using apps is definitely a really fast and fairly accurate solution to the problem, but nevertheless, this might not be the best choice. These apps might not be authorized so you might end up getting your Instagram account banned. So, keep an eye on these apps and make sure that you first check whether the third-party app is authorized or not.

There is really no point in having inactive users following you, and there is no point for you following inactive users. The process is pretty simple. I hope you enjoyed this article and that you have found the tips and tricks useful!