Are you being left frustrated by a persistent warning message from Instagram telling you that your action has been blocked? Well, not to worry as I’ll be showing you the reason why you’re getting the message, how to resolve this issue and also how to avoid getting it again in the future.
The reason for receiving an ‘Action Blocked’ message on Instagram is usually because you are abusing the platform’s features and likely becoming a hindrance to others. The most common reason for the Action Blocked message is because you are spamming likes, comments, follows and even unfollows during a short space of time.
The Action Block will temporarily prevent you from performing the specific action that was initially being abused. For instance, if you were liking too many posts in a short amount of time, the platform would place a temporary block on your account to stop you from liking any more posts. In more severe cases, you might find that all of the available actions have been blocked.
How To Resolve The ‘Action Blocked’ Issue
As mentioned already, this block is only temporary and as such will revert back to normal after a certain amount of time. The length of the block really depends on the extent of your actions and the level of respect Instagram has for your account. At the very least though, I would recommend that you avoid performing ANY actions on your Instagram account for 3 full days.
This means no posting, liking, commenting, following or unfollowing for over 72 hours. Yes, that may suck, but it’s a lot better than receiving a permanent ban – which can happen! The first thing you will need to do though is to click “Tell Us” on the Action Blocked message, which tells Instagram that you believe the block to be a mistake.
That aside, I can’t guarantee that 3 days will be enough to earn back Instagram’s trust. If after the 3 days you’ve tried to perform an action again, and you’re still getting the Action Blocked message then I would recommend leaving the platform alone for a full week instead (a further 4 days).
How To Avoid Getting The ‘Action Blocked’ Message… Again
There may have been a number of reasons why you had your actions blocked in the first place, many of which may seem obvious in hindsight, but there may also be some things holding your account back that you may be totally unaware of. Anyhow, here’s a list of them below…
Spamming
Okay, so this is one of the obvious points. The thing is that the Instagram gods will do everything in their power to make sure that their users are having the best possible experience on their platform. If they find out that you’re abusing Instagram’s features then they’re going to pull you up on it. The good news is that this issue is really easy to fix… Just stop! š
Using Bots
I understand that it can be quite difficult, time-consuming and draining when trying to build up an Instagram account from scratch, however, that’s not to say that you should start using unauthorised services to automate your account growth. Set aside the fact that using bots is only going to attract a fake following, Instagram has also been clamping down on bot-usage and banning anyone who uses them – so be warned!
Want to know how I managed to grow my Instagram account, @unreal.tattoos, to over 288,000 followers and counting? Check out this article I wrote on How I Gained Over 100k Instagram Followers today.
Follow/Unfollow
Can’t believe I still have to say this in 2020 but I’m still witnessing it today. People are still using bots to follow you for 1-3 days before unfollowing you again, with the aim being to get you to follow them back and somehow not notice that they’ve unfollowed you. Yea, it’s lame. Not only is it a sad way to gain new followers, but it’s also a surefire way to get yourself banned. Don’t do it.
Repetitive Hashtags
Something that not many people will have considered, is the fact that using the same hashtags over and over again may put your account under the risk of getting your actions blocked or even having your account shadow-banned. The reason is that the algorithm might automatically confuse you with a bot, a bot which would likely be churning out posts automatically using the same old hashtags each and every time. Again, Instagram doesn’t like bots.
If you would like more information on which hashtags you could, and should, be using to grow your account by up to 1,000 new followers a day, then check out this Ultimate Guide On How To Use Hashtags For Instagram.
Banned Hashtags
As well as not mixing up your hashtags regularly, you might also find that you’re using hashtags that have been banned by Instagram. Regular use of these hashtags can definitely lead to a shadowban, but may also result in an Action Block too!
It’s not always clear why a hashtag has been banned, but in cases like #follow4follow or #like4like, it’s clearly because it promotes unwanted behaviour on the platform. In any case, if you want to know which hashtags are safe to use, then you should check out Flick!
Not only will Flick do an instant scan of which hashtags have been banned by Instagram, but it will also recommend hashtags with low competition within your niche, making it that much easier (and quicker) to grow your account. Just input a single hashtag (like #marketing) and it will provide a ton of relevant hashtags with low competition. Feel free to give their 7-day free trial a try today!
Irregular Login Activity
Kind of related to the use of bots, but if Instagram detects that you’re constantly switching from one IP address to another, especially IP addresses that are from different countries or even continents, then they’re going to assume that something isn’t quite right. I would be cautious of which services you’re using to schedule your Instagram content, and only recommend using companies that are official partners of the platform.
If you’re interested in taking your account to the next level, then one Instagram partner you could try is Iconosquare. Their service is something I use personally, mostly for their analytics as it shows me exactly which content is performing the best and why, by breaking it down to time posted, hashtags used and more. See if Iconosquare can help you out today.
Repeat Offender
All things aside, perhaps you’ve been pulled up by Instagram before? If so, then it’s highly likely that you’re already walking on thin ice. If that’s the case then you need to be extra careful to stick within Instagram’s guidelines going forward, as any further misuse of the platform could result in further action blocks, a shadowban or even a permanent ban.
Conclusion
If you find yourself staring at the ‘Action Blocked’ message on Instagram, then I would recommend first clicking on the “Tell Us” button to advise Instagram that the block was a mistake, before you leave the platform well-enough alone for a few days. No posting, liking, commenting, following or unfollowing. After 72 hours you can try the actions again and see how it goes.
Do you have any questions or feedback on this post? Let me know in the comments below!
47 Responses
Really want this type of blog. I need this because my Instagram action blocked. Thanks a lot for this beautiful article.
Thank you Baibhab. Hopefully, this article helps you to get your account restrictions removed. Let me know how it goes!
I can’t access my Instagram account. I don’t know if my account have been blocked or have been deleted as when I search my name it says “User not found” but sometime in the app it show “try again later we limit how often you can do certain thing on Instagram to protect our community.” and also with Challenge_Required with the blank white screen on my phone. And I tried to log in from different phone or computer it show “There was a problem logging you into Instagram. Please try again soon.” Do you know how to fix it?
I’m not sure about that one. Did you have security measures in place to ensure that no-one could access your account? Something like two-step verification? I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful!
Whenever I am tagging someone on any of my posts, the message pops up saying “We restrict certain activities to protect our community”
That’s when I am tagging even a single person. It was working fine till now, but only a couple of days ago it started showing this error
That would suggest to me that you’ve been tagging people excessively in your previous posts. You should only be tagging someone if they are being featured in your content. By tagging loads of people in each post, not only do you risk facing the error message above – you’re also likely to have a lot of people block/unfollow you
I donāt do any of the mentioned Nonoās, I grow my followers 100% organic and mostly socialise and educate on my account ā¦, and still got this message from Instagram..
Hey Yoram, what’s your Instagram handle?
Gemconcepts
Hey Yoram, had a quick look at your account and can’t see any obvious reason why you’d get the Action Blocked message. I would have to assume that you’ve been over-doing things like Liking, Commenting, Following etc. If that’s the case, slow this down and only engage with accounts that you genuinely want to connect with. Let me know how it goes!
I am having the same issue as Yoram– my handle is @fleckofpaint and this is the second of these “bans” I have received in a week. I do not over engage on anyone’s content or content in general and cannot figure out where the ban could come from. Any suggestions? This is really quite a nuisance. Thank you!
Hey Colin, I can see that you are following a lot of accounts. Way more than you can possibly engage with on any given day. This would be an early indicator to Instagram that you’re not using the platform as intended. My advice to you would be to avoid all liking, commenting, following etc for a week or two, then revert back to engaging only with content (and accounts) that you genuinely like. Hope this helps.
So Iāve been getting āwe restrict certain activity to protectā¦this action will be unavailable for you until 2021-07-18ā. It gave me a date but the date has already passed and it still has that message popping up. I canāt do anything on it but log in, canāt even edit my profile to reassure them Iām a real personnn. Itās getting me so frustratedā I got this Sunday morning.
Hey Zoea, don’t think I’ve seen that before. Is your account still restricted? Let me know
I have around 250 followers, I am trying to grow my account organically and I posted a reel and was experimenting with hashtagsā¦ it got more likes and views than normal and then I get the we want to protect our community message. I will follow ur advice and not post or do anything for 72 hours.
Hey Priya, how did it go after not posting? Are you still getting the error message? Not sure why you’d have gotten it in the first place for just posting a Reel. Surely there was something else that you were doing?
I got this notification but when I had reset my password then this issue was solved.
My question is that does becouse of this notification my instagram account growth will reduce?
It is very likely that your account growth will slow or even decline in the near future, however, if you continue to use organic methods of growth then you should see improvements after a few weeks
I got this tooā¦ help
Hey Julia, feel free to visit my contact page for assistance
Got this message yesterday and it will not resolve, it says it will be removed today but it hasn’t I don’t know what to do….
Hey RJ, just seen this comment. Is it still not resolved? Let me know how it goes
I got this notification a second time in two days when I didnāt even do anything the second time? what can i do now?
I would suggest taking a break from the platform and not engaging with any content for maybe a week or so. It’s clear that you’ve been doing something that Instagram doesn’t like, so you’ll have to be patient in order to win back their trust. When you return to the platform, stick to using more organic methods of growing your account
Hello, I downloaded an app yesterday to see who unfollowed me and I went back to Instagram and this message pops up, “We restrict certain activity to protect our community. Based on your use, this action will be unavailable for you until 2021-07-27. Tell us if you think we made a mistake.” I have tried everything from deleting the app, changing my password etc. Please help me!
Hello Ana. When this happens, I suggest you leave Instagram alone for a week as a kind of a reset, both for you and your account. If I were you, I would use this time to focus my energy on something productive. After a week or so, return to the app and avoid doing anything that would annoy Instagram. Basically, use the app as it was intended to be used. That being said, thereās no good reason for seeing who has unfollowed you. If they unfollow you – thatās their loss.
Hello. I just got this message today, saying we restrict certain activity. Most actions have been blocked. I can’t message, follow, unfollow, like or comment. I can’t even see my DM’s, people’s posts, my own posts or my follower count as posts followers and following are just left blank. I don’t know what I did wrong. I tried resetting the password, which didn’t work. It said the actions would be unavailable until 2021-07-28, which is tomorrow. I read that some people have passed that date and still can’t access their account. I am very worried now that I may not be able to get back in. But I don’t believe these action blocks are permanent right? Also, should I even be worrying about this?
You should be concerned in the sense that this doesn’t just happen out of thin air, this must have been as a result of you doing something that you shouldn’t have. It’s true that some people have experienced this Action Block beyond the proposed deadline, however, your best course of action is still to be patient. I suggest taking a week away from the app and focusing your energy elsewhere. Upon your return, make sure to use Instagram in the way it was intended to be used.
When I log onto home page, āTry again later: we limit…ā message pops up and after I press āTell usā, I cannot see my or anyone elseās stories and cannot DM certain users – when I go to the chat, same message pops up and the rest of the screen goes black, I cannot get rid of it and have to reopen Instagram. I havenāt used any bots/third party apps, or performed any action many times. I also havenāt DMed users more than I usually do. Would this be due to a limit on number of DMs?
Hey Holly. Yes, that could be the reason but only if you were sending a lot of DM’s, especially if they were copy & pasted messages.
There is a bitcoin mining person who wanted me to invest with them and I told them no, and then I will open up my Instagram and try to click on a message and then that would pop up. So I guess Iām a wait three days then, thanks for posting this.
Hmm, not sure that that would cause an action block. Perhaps you were doing something else that was against Instagram’s T&C’s?
Thank you – this just happened to me too.. I will leave it alone for a few days.
I think Instagram is doing a mass-action block right now! Let me know if it fixes itself for you
I got this message when I havenāt even been on Instagram for days. Besides looking at stories I hardly ever post/like/message, etc. Do they sometimes make mistakes because I know for sure I havenāt done any of the things mentioned above!
Maybe. It would certainly seem like it if you haven’t done anything on your account for days.
Please I have been facing this for more than 2 month now but I am allowed to unfollow and like but I am not allowed to comment,follow and write captions but feed and stories
Kindly help me out
What methods have you tried so far Hameed?
me too!!! did you resolve this?
I am not able to view my friends stories nor my own. Not being able to view my likes either. I keep getting this message saying āWe limit how often you can do certain things on Instagram to protect our community. Tell us if you think we are making a mistake.ā What does this mean and will Instagram fix this issue?
Hey Deva, is this still an issue?
Hi!! Please help! I unfollowed too many people at once just to clean out my following and received the message āwe restrict certain activity to protect our communityā I have not done anything on the platform in hopes to get it back but Iām still not able to post with captions, follow/unfollow, comment or like. Iāve been restricted for 18 days now. I have tried everything I know to do. Any other advice?
Hi Brittany, sorry to hear that. It’s worth checking out my Instagram Revival service here… https://theunrealoffer.com/instagram-audit/. More than happy to help you get your account back on track (and growing!)
I’ve been unable to post stories, comments, captions, or follow new accounts for over 3 weeks now. The message says “your story has been removed because it goes against our community guidelines”. I barely ever post or engage on instagram so i have no idea why this has happened! I’ve tried everything. When I try and submit a support request, it says “support request failed” … please help!!
Hello Kaila, sorry to hear that. Have you used any third-party software or apps for Instagram in the past? Perhaps you’ve been a part of engagement groups/pods? What’s your Instagram @?
I have been getting the we restrict certain actions like dm to protect the community message and it has been a nuisance for me since having my previous account by someone overseas. It’s leaving me with no choice but scale back on my activity likes, follows/unfollows and dms but I am faced with a ban for the second time expiring on 01/18/22. If it doesn’t improve, what are my choices for keeping my account and growing it as sending numerous requests to have my dm and other features restored have failed?
I’m guessing you bought the account off of someone? If so, you have no idea what they’ve done with that account before you purchased it and unfortunately, it may be permanently blacklisted so to speak. As in, any time you try to push the limits in terms of likes, comments, follows/unfollows etc, Instagram’s going to come down hard on you. I suggest slowing it down and focusing more on the quality of engagement (and posts) rather than quantity. You’ll get to your goals faster at a slow and steady pace, rather than going all-guns-blazing and getting banned every other week.