Are you dealing with an issue on Instagram which prevents you from following more people? The ‘Action Blocked: Can’t Follow People on Instagram’ error is usually temporary, although some users have reported that it can take a very long time to resolve. In this article, we investigate when Instagram lifts temporary follow blocks and lets you follow people again, and why these follow restrictions occur in the first place.

Interested to see what we’ve discovered? Let’s jump right in!

Why does Instagram block you from following people?

In normal circumstances, you should almost never see this error message pop up. After all, it’s normal that you want to follow all of your friends, your co-workers, some brands, and celebrities… on your favorite social app.

However, Instagram heavily relies on a bunch of automated systems and algorithms, and it will intervene when it notices suspicious behavior.

In short, if you follow a large number of people in a relatively short time span, Instagram will put the brakes on your ability to follow additional people. This also applies when you like or comment on a bunch of people in a short amount of time.

The same thing can actually occur when you’re trying to message too many people with a private account.

Spamming emoji’s in the comments section, for example, isn’t exactly a good idea.

Sometimes, your account can also be put under review after it has been reported by someone – the Instagram support team (or automated algorithms) can then decide to block your following ability, at least temporarily.

Lastly, the use of any automated Instagram tools and bots is one of the main reasons why this error pops up. Bots and follow-for-follow tools are strictly prohibited on Instagram and should always be avoided.

In some rare cases, the block is done by accident and is usually due to a technical bug. These usually get resolved within a few hours, so there’s no reason to panic at all.

When will Instagram let me follow people again?

Well, the real question is, when exactly will the app allow you to follow people once again?

Sometimes, you’ll receive a detailed error message (or rather, a warning) which also specifies the date and time your temporary following block gets lifted. In this case, you just have to be patient until that date, and make sure you don’t do anything detailed above after the block passes to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

If you are blocked a second or third time for the same reasons, chances are that the block period will be (much) longer.

Continuous infringements of this rule might even result in your Instagram account getting deleted altogether.

Usually, it only takes a few days at most until the block has cleared. The first time, it’ll probably take no longer than 24 hours before Instagram will continue to let you follow more people on their platform.

As mentioned above, the Action Blocked error doesn’t always occur when you’re trying to follow people. If you see it popping up on your account and you’re doing something else, our guide in the link above might help out as well.

What is the limit of the number of people I can follow in a day?

The limits of actually following people on Instagram without it raising any red flags really varies, as their algorithms are also constantly updated and refined. Some people believe that you shouldn’t follow more than 150 – 200 people every single hour, and you should definitely try to spread out your followers a lot more.

Of course, if you’re just getting started on Instagram and want to follow a bunch of people, that might be an issue. However, following your contacts (or Facebook friends) won’t cause the action blocked error, even if there are hundreds of them (because Instagram already knows that you have a connection with them, and aren’t spamming users).

Additionally, there is also a hard limit on the number of people you can follow in total. If you’re trying to follow more than 7,500 people in total, you’ll have to remove and unfollow some of those before you can start following again.

What is the reason behind the following blocks?

Instagram wants to heavily discourage the use of automated bots, spam, and follow-for-follow systems that people try to achieve on Instagram in order to gain more followers.

By implementing these temporary follow blocks as safety measures, they want to ensure that connecting with people on Instagram is more natural.

Summary

If you’re blocked from following for a while and aren’t doing anything wrong, don’t worry about it! It will only take a couple of hours up to a few days before the limitation is removed. Simply don’t follow a bunch of people at once and don’t use any automated tools to prevent this error from happening in the future.