INSTAGRAM BROKEN HASHTAGS
ABOUT THE ISSUE
Your Instagram hashtags not working?
You probably hit this page because your Instagram hashtags are not working anymore and you would like to know the reasons why. The bad news is that I don't know either. The good news though is that you are not alone. There's thousands people on the internet that are complaining about the same problem. The purpose of this website is to gather information about the problem and provide everyone who's been struggling with this issue with all known facts. Continue reading to find out the possible reasons and solutions that might (or might not) work for you.
WHAT'S HAPPENING?
You are now probably through the same process that I've been about half a year ago. You post your regular stuff, use decent amount of hashtags relevant to your posts and get well deserved likes and maybe gain some new followers. But suddenly you start to notice that the amount of likes on your new posts dropped dramatically. You wonder what's happening so you start to investigate. Soon you find out that you only get likes from your followers (and maybe couple of random people). You realize that your hashtags are broken. You report the problem but nothing's happening. No response, no solution. That's when you decide to search the internet and get to this page.
What you should do first (if you haven't done it yet) is to check couple of hashtags that you used on your posts, but using different profile that is NOT following you. Just ask your friend to unfollow you and use his account to search for hashtags you used recently. If you find your posts there, you are fine, your hashtags are working well and your problem is probably not caused by broken hashtags. But you will most likely not find any of your posts there. Now you know that your hashtags are broken. While you and your followers are able to see all your posts through used hashtags, others are not. No one can discover your profile now because your posts are literally hidden from other users.
There are many people on the internet reporting the same problem but their experience differs a little. While some are able to see their posts in hashtag most recent feed using their own profile, others can't see it at all (or for a very short time before it disappears). The main issue however remains the same - they are no longer able to gain new followers and let their profile grow.
WHY ARE MY HASHTAGS NOT WORKING?
There are several reasons why your hashtags stopped working. I will now go through all of them starting with the most obvious and ending with those you might never even think of.
Probably the most obvious reason is that you are using hashtags wrong. Remember that there are some restrictions when using hashtags on Instagram. You can for example use only limited amount of hashtags which is now set to 30 for one single post. You may also be using banned hashtags. This might sound stupid since you probably don't post anything inappropriate but Instagram is actually banning completely innocent hashtags like #kansas or #popular. There is a list of banned hashtags on the internet (you can find it here) but is a bit dated so you should check the hashtags you are using by yourself. Using banned hashtags will block your post completely and it will not appear in any hashtag feed.
If you checked your hashtags and found nothing wrong with them but your posts are still hidden, there might be other issues that caused the problem. I believe that most of you have used your hashtags properly. So what are the other possible reasons for your hashtags to stop working? It certainly might be a bug, Instagram may have its app broken and it's not working the way it should be. However, it seems to be a bit strange that Instagram wouldn't have fixed it yet. People are reporting broken hashtag issue for at least half a year now, so if this was really just a mistake, the problem would probably be fixed by now or at least there would be a note about it in Instagram "known issues" support section.
What seems to be more probable reason now is that Instagram is intentionally blocking your hashtags. This is something called shadow ban and is often used on various social media to eliminate toxic users. Instead of banning these users completely (and letting them know that they are banned which can only make them to create new accounts), shadow ban will only hide their activity from the rest of the community. Shadow banned users can still post their content, spam and troll others, but nobody will actually be able to see their activity. This can be really powerful tool because it makes it much harder for banned users to realize their status, but it can also ruin thousands of profiles of innocent people if used improperly. If you want to know more about shadow ban, I recommend you to read this vtography's post.
The real question is what triggers shadow ban on Instagram (if it really exists). Probably no one (except the Instagram staff) knows the answer. Shadow ban is most likely to be triggered by any behavior that is considered to be toxic to other users and the whole community. It might be spamming, using bots to gain likes and followers etc. Lot of people got shadow banned for buying huge amount of likes on one of their posts - Instagram found out that something suspicious is going on with their profile and banned it. Taking into account the amount of active users on Instagram, it is very improbable that this process is done by real humans. Instagram is more likely using specific algorithm to decide whether the profile is toxic enough to be (shadow) banned or not. While this algorithm probably does very good job most of the times, it seems that sometimes it just bans innocent users like you or me. Please note that information written above is just one of the possible explanations of what's going on. As far as I know Instagram has never made an official statement about this hashtag problem so anyone doesn't really know any details.
THE REASON
THE SOLUTION
WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT?
To be honest, I don't know. Although there are thousands of people experiencing the same problem, Instagram doesn't really seem to care. There's no official statement, no verified solution. I did a lot of research on the internet and made a list of possible solutions that might help you. It's all based on what other people reported to help them. Speaking for myself, any of following didn't help me. It helped other people though so I think it is worth giving it a try.
1. Make sure that you don't have your profile set to "private". Hashtags are not working if you use Instagram in private mode. If you have your profile set to "public", then try to switch it to private and then back again.
2. Check if you are using your hashtags properly. This includes not exceeding maximum number of hashtags (30 for one post right now) and not using banned hashtags (check the list).
3. Make sure that you have your Instagram profile linked with your Facebook profile. If you do, try to unlink it and link it again.
4. Reinstall your Instagram app. Some reported that broken hashtags occurred after updating the app, so maybe installing previous version of Instagram might help.
5. If you use similar hashtags in every post, try to change it a bit. It seems that Instagram can be blocking users that are using same hashtags over and over.
6. Try to avoid any activity that could be considered as spamming. Do not follow many profiles at once, do not comment too much.
7. Make your profile look real. Have your profile picture set (or change it from time to time), have at least basic profile description written, try to post regularly. The point si to convince Instagram that you are real human being, not just a spamming bot.
8. If nothing helps, there's only one thing left to do. Just report the problem to Instagram. I know this seems completely useless as it probably really is, but there actually are few people claiming that reporting the issue every day helped them to fix the problem. You can also try to contact Instagram through other social media (Facebook, Twitter or even find it on Instagram and comment on their photos) but chances of getting any response are very low.
9. The only 100% working solution is to start your profile brand new. But be careful - Instagram might be tracking your personal information like e-mail or telephone number. Try to change it when creating your new profile. Also consider if it's really worth it. You can never be sure that the same problem will not occur again (since we do not know what triggers it).
It would be great if this list helped at least one single person but I suppose that most of you have already tried everything before and nothing has ever worked for you. There's thousands of people experiencing this broken hashtags issue and the saddest part of this problem is that Instagram is not helpful at all. Many users spent months with building up their business profiles on Instagram and now they are screwed with no explanation and no solution. Doesn't seem fair to me. The only thing we all can do is to report the problem again and again and hope that one day Instagram will notice us and eventually start to care.
Good luck to everyone!
CONTACT
If you have any comments, ideas or experience that you would like to share with me, please contact me using the form below. I would highly appreciate any information that would help me and others to solve the problem. You can describe your own experience, tell me what triggered your problems and how did you solve it (if you did). If you provide any useful information, I will definitely add it to the website so that everyone can use it. You can also support me by checking out my personal Instagram profile and hitting the follow button if you like the content. Any kind of support is highly appreciated!