If you are losing Instagram followers daily in 2025, it’s a sign that there’s something wrong with the content you post or the account itself. Identifying that is a real challenge, one most people often fail at for years!
Why am I losing Instagram followers fast?
- Your posts don’t align with the audience’s interest anymore
- You are posting too much promotional content, which often deters engagement and leads to an increased loss of Instagram followers
- Your account has bot followers, which were removed by Instagram’s algorithm
- Your account has been shadow banned
Table of Contents
How do I stop losing Instagram followers?
1. Find and remove the bot accounts following you
If you recently bought Instagram followers or participated in some shady collaboration with another account that promised followers in return, it’s time to clear up the mess. One of the key reasons behind losing Instagram followers is that Meta’s algorithm regularly detects bot accounts and removes them from the platform. If your follower list comprises these accounts, the follower count is bound to go down.
This will keep happening until you manually identify and remove all bot accounts from your profile. So, do that right away!
I am recommending this because acquiring followers through shady means is a violation of Instagram’s policies and you run the risk of getting your Instagram account suspended. Besides, bot accounts in the list of followers will deter real users from interacting with your account, affecting your reach.
Although this will lower your immediate follower count, it will ultimately send a positive signal, helping boost engagement and ensuring long-term success!
What you should do: Check your list of followers > identify any with unusually long usernames, accounts with no display picture and posts, and accounts with an unbalanced follower-to-following ratio > remove/block all these profiles.
2. Post regularly
Instagram keeps updating its algorithm periodically, and if you don’t don’t stay up-to-date with the latest changes, you may lose followers.
For instance, Instagram promotes accounts that post regularly. So, if your posting frequency is low, say 1 post per week or month, they won’t appear in your follower’s feed. This leads to a fall in engagement rate and, ultimately, a loss of Instagram followers. If your account is not visible in the feed, users are more likely to unfollow it, assuming that it’s inactive.
What you should do: Upload 2-3 engaging, high-quality posts per week > verify the engagement rate on each > post more on subjects/niches that resonate with your audience.
3. Don’t post too much promotional content
While promotional content is needed for financial sustainability and viability, too much of it can have the opposite effect. Your followers follow you for a reason, which is your organic content. If all they see are promotional posts, they will soon be repulsed and, at some point, unfollow your account.
What you should do: Find the perfect balance between organic, informative (your original niche) content and promotional posts. For best results, 7-8 out of 10 posts should be organic, while the remaining 2-3 could be promotional. Even then, the promotional content should align with the interests of your audience.
4. Engage with your audience/followers
While most of us expect followers to engage with our content, say like, comment, and share, we often overlook our part, i.e., encourage and promote that engagement. Followers, too, like to be acknowledged and appreciated, and accounts that do that tend to retain their base while adding new followers along the way!
What you should do:
- Regularly review the comments on your posts, like them, and post a reply.
- Respond to DMs.
- Host QA session, post polls.
- Check other accounts in your niche, and drop engaging comments on their posts. An active profile keeps everyone invested.
5. Elevate the quality of your content
Another key tip to stop losing Instagram followers every day is to post well-drafted, informative, and easy-to-understand content that resonates with your audience. For instance, if your page is in the automobile sector, post specifications of different vehicles, comparisons, honest reviews, and the latest trends. This is the type of content followers expect from you.
Also, check the insights and identify which type of content needs to be worked on the most, whether it’s the reels, posts, or stories, and focus on that. Remember, while your followers may like reading text-based posts, a reel on the same subject would be easier to understand, subsequently driving engagement. For the unversed, anyone can download reels on Instagram if the “Allow people to download your reels” setting is enabled.
What you should do:
- For reels, add English subtitles for easier understanding. As for the thumbnail, add a phrase that immediately captures attention.
- For posts, find the perfect color combination, use easy-to-read fonts, and draft a catchy caption.
- For stories, highlight your best-performing content, share key statistics, and host polls to understand what your followers want (and act accordingly).
6. Post when your audience is active
If your posting schedule doesn’t align with your followers, your posts won’t appear in their feeds, and yours will be the first account they unfollow during the next review. This is a key reason behind people losing Instagram followers, and surprisingly, it’s often overlooked.
Gone are the days when Instagram feed was only populated with posts from the accounts you followed. It’s now just a few of these at the top, followed by ads and reels/posts based on your interests. So, posting at the right time ensures that you manage to grab the top spot whenever someone opens up Instagram. How often they engage with your account is another key factor here.
What you should do:
- On a typical working day (Monday to Friday), posting early in the morning, 7-9 AM, in the afternoon, 2-3 PM, during the evening, 6-8 PM, and at night, 10-11:30 PM, will drive maximum engagement.
- On weekends (Saturday and Sunday), consider posting content in the afternoon, i.e., 12-3 PM. Posts made early morning, late evening, or at night won’t reach as many.
7. Check if your account is shadow banned
If, after employing all these tips, you still keep losing Instagram followers in large numbers, it’s time to check whether you have been shadow-banned or Instagram has placed restrictions on your account. Being shadow-banned is by far the most common reason accounts witness a drastic fall in the follower count.
Accounts that are shadow-banned don’t appear in the followers’ feeds anymore, ultimately leading to a drop in follower count.
As to recovering an Instagram account that is shadow-banned, you will have to raise an appeal against the decision, make a fair point, and try to get it lifted. For this, you must contact Instagram’s support team. In my experience, shadow bans are soon lifted if they were unfairly or inadvertently applied. For the rest of you, just give it some time. Things will work out in the long run if you adhere to Instagram’s policies, don’t violate any, and follow the best practices.
Editor’s Note: If it’s the first time you’ve noticed a sudden drop in followers, check for any losing Instagram followers glitch affecting users today. In this case, wait 24-48 hours for Instagram to deploy a patch, and your follower count should recover back to the original number.
Is it normal to lose followers on Instagram?
Yes, it’s completely normal to lose Instagram followers in this fast-paced world. For instance, an avid traveler planning a vacation in France will follow 10-20 accounts that share about tourist hotspots, local culture, and places to explore, but upon return, the user likely to unfollow them all and start exploring other locations.
The same applies to different subjects of interest, say crypto, stock market, technology, automobile, and meme pages. People’s interests change over time and they move on to pages that better align.
However, it’s vital to understand that an organic drop in follower count due to evolving interests is gradual and balanced out due to the addition of new followers, while with poor content, the follower count will follow a steady downward curve unless you revamp the current workflow.
Why do I lose followers on Instagram when I post?
When you lose Instagram followers after every post, it highlights that your content doesn’t resonate with the audience/followers, and every time a few of them hit the “Unfollow” button. To recover, you will have to come up with a better content strategy and posting schedule.
Perhaps, you could hold an Instagram poll and put up some quick questions that help you better understand your followers and the content they wish to see more of!
Why do Instagram followers disappear and reappear?
There are three reasons behind Instagram followers disappearing and later reappearing automatically:
- A glitch on Instagram (most common reason)
- Many users deactivate their account temporarily, resulting in a loss of followers, and when they re-activate it, the follower count automatically recovers. This can be seen even with smaller accounts having as little as 200-500 followers. Followers on my personal account fluctuate between 375 and 390, even when I don’t add any new ones.
- Instagram’s algorithm inadvertently suspends accounts for bot-like behavior but restores it upon a fair appeal and verification. If these accounts follow you, your follower count will initially go down and then back up.
That’s all for now. You now know why you are suddenly losing Instagram followers and easy ways to recover from it. So, employ these tips to ace the social media game, and witness not just stability in follower count but also a gradual increase!
Besides, if you are into boosting posts for enhanced reach, find out you shouldn’t boost posts from iOS devices.
For any queries or to share more tips that helped you recover from losing Instagram followers, drop a comment below.
