Did you end up following a lot of Instagram accounts and now have too high of a following/followers ratio, or you want to improve your engagement rate? If so, then you need to know how to mass unfollow on Instagram.
In this article, we will go over how to identify what accounts to unfollow, how to unfollow them, and how to do so without getting restricted or banned by Instagram.
How to Select Accounts to Unfollow
The first step you should take if you want to start unfollowing a lot of IG accounts is to decide who to unfollow.
The process of determining what accounts to unfollow could be a very time-consuming one, especially if you are not using any particular method. Additionally, you want to avoid accidentally unfollowing accounts you still want to follow.
There are four categories of IG accounts you should consider unfollowing to improve your engagement rate and follower/following ratio. These are:
- Inactive Users – People who rarely, if ever, post or share content. A good rule of thumb is if an account has not posted for a year or longer, you should probably unfollow them.
- Bot Accounts – Accounts used by automation tools with little to no posts or followers. These accounts are unlikely to engage with your content, so you can unfollow them.
- Users Who Unfollowed You – Whether someone unfollowed you because they are no longer interested in your content or are also trying to improve their engagement ratio, you could safely unfollow these accounts.
- Users Who Never Followed Back – If you followed others who never returned a follow back, you can drop these as well to improve your followers/following ratio.
Identify the accounts that fall into these four categories and you will find it much easier and faster to mass unfollow.
How to Mass Unfollow IG Accounts
The next step in the process of how to mass unfollow on Instagram is to start unfollowing. You can take a slightly different approach to unfollowing each of the four types of accounts we shared above, but in general the process is very similar.
While there are many tools that automate the process of unfollowing users, we are going to look at the manual ways in this article. If you want to be very precise to avoid potential issues third-party apps have, follow our guide below.
Mass Unfollow Inactive Users
To mass unfollow all of the inactive users you are currently following, take these steps:
- Open the Instagram app
- Tap on your profile photo icon in the bottom-right of the screen
- Tap on Following in the top-right of your profile page
- Go through your followers list and start going to each profile, one by one
- Once on a user’s profile, tap on the Follow tab below their profile picture
- Tap Unfollow
Mass Unfollow Bot Accounts
To mass unfollow fake and bot accounts, follow these steps:
- Open the Instagram app
- Tap on your profile photo icon in the bottom-right of the screen
- Tap on Following in the top-right of your profile page
- Sort your Following list by either Date followed: latest or Date followed: earliest depending on when you mass followed bot, fake, and ghost accounts
- Tap the Following button to unfollow accounts in succession
Mass Unfollow Users Who Unfollowed You
When you want to mass unfollow accounts that were following you but no longer follow you, take these steps:
- Open the Instagram app
- Tap on your profile photo icon in the bottom-right of the screen
- Tap on Following in the top-right of your profile page
- Tap on Most Shown in Feed if these are accounts whose content you see often in your IG feed, or go through the Default sorting list
- Tap the Following button to unfollow each account of the person you suspect unfollowed you
Mass Unfollow Users Who Never Followed You Back
If you followed accounts that never ended up following you back, you can take the steps below to mass unfollow them:
- Open the Instagram app
- Tap on your profile photo icon in the bottom-right of the screen
- Tap on Following in the top-right of your profile page
- Under Categories, tap on Least interacted with
- Unfollow these accounts that you followed but both do not interact with often and who never followed you back
How to Mass Unfollow on Instagram Safely
Now that you know how you can mass unfollow unwanted accounts, you should understand how to do so safely.
As a safety precaution, avoid unfollowing more than 200 people every hour. If you go over this amount, you place your account at risk of getting temporarily restricted or permanently banned.
Instagram has various anti-bot and anti-spam safeguards in place to protect the platform. If you are unfollowing a large number of accounts in a short period of time, it could flag your account as potentially being a bot. The good news is that you are unlikely to get to a point where you are unfollowing more than 200 accounts in a single sitting. However, keep this number in mind if you want to play it safe. You could further reduce this down if you want to err on the side of caution even more.
Protip: Start by unfollowing accounts in the Least interacted with list that Instagram curated for you. This will help Instagram see you are not a bot as it is not you simply going through a default sorted account list.
Conclusion
If you want to maintain higher engagement rates and have an attractive following/followers ratio, mass unfollowing accounts is a strategy you should employ every so often. Instagram’s algorithm is highly complex and takes many things into account, including these we just mentioned. Now that you know how to mass unfollow on IG you can tidy up your Instagram account and enjoy the benefits that come with it.
