If you can still open their profile and see their posts as normal, a block is unlikely. They may have unfollowed you, or may never have followed you in the first place. An unfollow does not change what you can see on their profile. A block can make the account difficult or impossible for the blocked account to find.
If their profile loads but shows no posts while a post count is still visible, or you cannot find them in search from your account while another account can, that pattern is consistent with a block. It is still not proof.
How can I tell if someone unfollowed me?
An unfollow is silent. There's no notification, no log you can open, and their profile looks completely normal afterwards.
One manual check works. Open their profile and tap their Following count. As of now, Instagram surfaces your own account at the top of that list when you're in it — shown without a follow button, since it's your account. Your username at the top means they follow you. If you're not there, they don't.
That tells you today's state and only today's — not when the follow ended, or whether they ever followed you at all. For that you need Instagram's official data export, requested from inside the app, and you need two of them taken at different times. Comparing an older follower list against a newer one is the only honest way to see who left and roughly when; how to see who unfollowed you without a password covers the request.
How can I tell if I've been blocked?
Instagram never announces a block. There's no message and no notification, so everything below is a symptom rather than proof.
- Their profile is unreachable from your account, or loads but shows no posts even though a post count is still displayed.
- Their username doesn't appear in search from your account, but does appear from another account.
- An existing DM thread stays in your inbox, but you can't open their profile from it.
Each has other explanations too. The account may be private, deactivated, deleted, disabled, or using a different username. Treat the signs as clues, not a verdict.
Blocked, deactivated, or deleted — what's the difference?
This comparison can help narrow the possibilities, but it cannot prove the reason an account is unavailable.
A block applies to the account or accounts the person chose to block. Instagram can also let someone block other existing or future accounts belonging to the same person. Deactivation and deletion generally make the profile unavailable to other people too.
Ask a friend to search the username from their account. If they see a normal profile and you do not, that supports the block explanation, but does not prove it. If neither of you can find it, the account may be deactivated, deleted, disabled, renamed, or otherwise unavailable.
Can an app tell me which one happened?
No, and it's worth being blunt about why.
A snapshot comparison — two official exports taken at different times — can show that an account disappeared from a follow relationship. It cannot label the reason. A block can remove the follow in both directions, so a comparison can look like both relationships ended at the same time. The data records the state, not the reason.
A tool cannot reliably determine from a single login why an account became unavailable. Be cautious with any service that asks for your Instagram password: it creates a security risk, and services that rely on unapproved automated access may conflict with Instagram's rules. Your own data can show who does not follow you back right now and, with two snapshots, which accounts are no longer in your follower list.
If what you actually want is who's reciprocating, who doesn't follow me back on Instagram is the better place to start.
Where do I check mine?
Right now, free, in your browser. Request one export and drop it into the Instagram unfollow checker. It shows your Not Following Back list in seconds. The file is read on your device and never leaves the browser, and there's no login anywhere.
Over time, on your phone. One export is one moment. UnfollowPeek (free, iOS 18+) keeps your snapshots on device and compares them, so your next export shows your Unfollowers, New Followers and Broken Mutuals. No password, and nothing to sign into.