Instagram - Troubleshooting

While configuring your Instagram connection, you may encounter several issues. Understanding these common errors can help streamline the setup process and facilitate quick resolutions.

Data discrepancy in "lifetime" report types

Solution

To resolve this data discrepancy, you need to use the created_at_datetime field in your lifetime report type to find data within a specific date range.

I don't see my account / account been disabled in UI

Solution

Verify Instagram accounts are correctly linked with Facebook Pages, and that the user have enough permissions:

• Verify Instagram accounts are correctly linked to Facebook Pages. You can learn more about how to connect your Instagram accounts to Facebook Pages here.
• Check Instagram account visibility in Facebook Business.
• Account/page should be owned by Business.

Metrics and the 2025 Meta metric changes

Impressions return 0 for Reels

Meta removed impressions from media insights (v22.0+, and all versions from April 21, 2025), and Reels expose fewer metrics than feed posts, so some fields come back empty or as 0. Use views and reach for Reels instead of impressions. Metric availability per media type is listed in the Instagram media insights reference.

Use views instead of video_views and plays

Meta deprecated video_views (January 8, 2025) and plays (April 21, 2025) and replaced both with the universal views metric, which the integration already requests. Report Reel and video view counts from views — the older video_views and plays columns are no longer populated by Meta. See the Instagram Platform changelog.

You see more views in the Instagram app than in your reports

There are two common causes:

1. 1The Instagram app used to display the ig_reels_aggregated_all_plays_count metric for Reels. Meta deprecated it on April 21, 2025 and replaced it with the universal views metric, which the integration already requests — compare the app against views.
2. 2If a post is published to both Facebook and Instagram at the same time through Meta Business Suite (cross-posting), Meta may treat them as a single asset and aggregate views across both platforms, which inflates the figure shown in the app.

Boosted or promoted Reels also add paid views to the figure in the app. The Instagram Organic integration returns organic data only.

The views metric counts differently than the old impressions

views is usually higher than the impressions or plays values in your historical data. For Reels, Meta counts every play and every replay as a view (see View insights on your Instagram reels), whereas impressions counted deliveries. Expect a step change when comparing new views data against historical impressions — this is a Meta definition change, not a collection error.

Reach discrepancies

Choosing the reach aggregation window

Reach is aggregated over a fixed window rather than an arbitrary date range. Use the Account Insights Period setting on the connection to select day, week, or days_28. Two constraints apply: the setting affects the reach metric only, and it can only be used together with Day time granularity. If reach comes back empty, check that both conditions are met.

Total reach does not equal organic reach plus paid reach

Instagram calculates each reach figure independently and de-duplicates people who were reached by both organic and paid content, so total reach is not the sum of the two. This is expected platform behavior rather than a data error.

Post metrics

Metric values decrease for posts older than about two years

Lifetime metrics for a post can fall over time instead of holding steady once the post is around two years old. This is a limitation of Instagram's insights API — it stops counting part of the older engagement — and Facebook Pages behaves the same way. Posts that had a sharp spike about two years ago show the steepest decline. Your reports match the values Instagram returns, so this is not data loss on the Improvado side.

Daily metrics are not available for posts

Instagram returns post insights as lifetime totals — the value accumulated since the post was published — rather than per-day figures, so there is no daily post report type.

To get daily numbers, calculate the day-over-day gain from the Post Lifetime Incremental report type in a transformation. Raise a request via the Service Desk if you would like help setting one up.

Followers and demographics

Demographic splits do not sum to the total follower count

When followers are broken out by country, city, age, or gender, the sum can be lower than the total follower count, because only viewers that Meta has demographic data for are included in the split. Meta documents this in the Instagram user insights reference.

online_followers and follower time series cover only the last 30 days

Meta keeps online_followers data for the last 30 days only. If the data is not synced within that window it cannot be retrieved later, and a re-sync will not restore it — keep these metrics on a regular extraction schedule so history is not lost. online_followers is also unavailable on accounts with fewer than 100 followers. Both limits are documented in the Instagram user insights reference.

No demographic data for accounts with fewer than 100 followers

Instagram does not return audience demographics — age, gender, city, or country — for accounts with fewer than 100 followers, so those report types come back empty. Check the follower count on the account before investigating further. This is a privacy threshold on Instagram's side and cannot be lifted.

Historical follower data beyond the last 30 days

Because Instagram only returns follower counts for the last 30 days, the extraction depth for the account insights report is capped at 30 days. Requesting a longer date range does not return older follower data.

If you need a longer history for the other metrics in that report, raise a request via the Service Desk — it takes a one-off change to the extraction settings that has to be scheduled carefully.

Content-type limitations

Stories with fewer than 5 views return no data

Meta applies a privacy threshold to Story insights: a Story with fewer than 5 views returns error code 10 — Not enough viewers for the media to show insights — instead of metrics. Story metrics are also available for 24 hours only. Both limits are documented in the Instagram media insights reference.

Collaboration posts authored by another account return no insights

For a collab post where the media was authored by a different account, Meta exposes insights only to the account that authored the media, so metrics cannot be collected for the collaborating account.

The post report type does not include stories

The Post report type reads from Instagram's media endpoint, which does not return stories, so stories never appear in it. Story metrics are also only available for 24 hours after publication, even if the story is archived or saved to a highlight.

To collect story data, use the story report types of the Instagram Webhooks integration, which receive story insights before they expire.

Extraction errors

Media published before the conversion of the business account

Instagram does not return data for media that was published before the account was converted from a personal account to a business account. Requests for that media fail with error code 100, sub-code 2108006, and the message Media published before the conversion of the business account.

Improvado handles this error and skips the affected media, so the extraction finishes normally. If an extraction fails with this error instead of skipping it, raise a request via the Service Desk.

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