Have you ever been scrolling through Instagram, only to be hit with a frustrating message that reads, “We limit how often you can do certain things on Instagram to protect our community“? It’s a buzzkill—to say the least. You were just trying to check out some photos, after all.
It turns out that Instagram’s massive social networking platform is equipped with an efficient artificial intelligence system that monitors users’ activity. When the system detects suspicious or problematic accounts, it takes action to protect the community.
Unfortunately, this can result in that dreaded message popping up on your screen, indicating that your account has been blocked.
To make matters worse, recent changes to Instagram’s user policy have left many users feeling unhappy and turning to other apps with similar features. And despite reporting the issue to Instagram multiple times, users often receive no response.
If you’re one of the many people affected by this frustrating issue, fear not. In this article, we’ll dive into the reasons behind the block action, what you can do about it, and how to prevent it from happening in the future.
So, let’s dive right in!
Why Am I Getting This Message?
First things first, why are you even getting the error message ‘We limit how often you can do certain things on Instagram to protect our community‘ in the first place?
Well, the reason behind you receiving this message is that Instagram thinks that you’re a bot acting suspiciously.
You probably have used Instagram in such a way that made Instagram think that you’re a bot doing spammy stuff. You’re probably acting weird lately—according to the platform.
For instance, you followed so many accounts at the same time or got followed by so many accounts, liked too many random posts (above 100 to 800 posts daily), commented a lot, or posted too much content.
This made Instagram think that an inhuman entity has control over your account and it sent you an action block message to restrict your activity.
In such circumstances, it can take from weeks to months to get back to normal. However, the duration of an action block depends on several factors like what action you did, how many followers you have, your age, etc.
And for sure once your account is fully unblocked, you never want to get back to doing spammy actions. Therefore, you’ll try to maintain a high trust score and never get back into trouble (*wink).
How To Fix The Action Block?
If the Instagram action block has no expiry date, and it’s a minor one, then you can fix it through different methods.
Make an attempt using the following effective methods to get an unblock:
- Assure Instagram you’re not a bot
- Uninstall third-party apps
- Try logging in from another device
- Use mobile data
- Log In, Log out
- Reinstall or update Instagram
- Isolate your account for 4-24 hours.
Assure Instagram you’re not a bot
After receiving the action block from Instagram, it’s a good attempt to make Instagram notice that you’re not a robot. Sometimes this attempt eventually leads to the unblocking of a user’s account.
Therefore you have to report this error message to Instagram. Here’s how you report an issue:
- Click on your profile icon to open it. Tap on the upper three lines at the right corner of the screen.
- Track Settings and tap on it. Tap on Help after.
- Now by tapping on Report a problem, you can report the issue.
However, don’t expect to hear back from Instagram anytime soon. You made this step to assure Instagram that you’re not a bot.
Uninstall Third-Party Apps
Third-party apps are likely to cause spammy actions, therefore it’s best to uninstall them as soon as you receive an action block message.
Instagram discourages the use of third-party apps which are mostly apps that show who followed or unfollowed you, etc.
Try Logging In From Another Device
It may happen that Instagram imposes an action block on the device you operate your account. Thus it’s always better to confirm if the account is logging in from another device or not.
Check if your account is active through mobile data on another device.
Use Mobile Data
Instagram may have blocked your WiFi connection’s IP address thus check if you are able to use Instagram on mobile data.
If you’re able to use Instagram on mobile data, it means you can no longer access Instagram via a stable wifi connection. However, you can change the WiFi IP address instead of using your mobile data.
Log In, Log out
Try to refresh your Instagram account after receiving a block action by logging out and logging in after a few minutes.
- Log out, and log in after a few hours if you’re still receiving the message, tap on your profile icon
- Hit the three lines, go to Settings, and scroll down to log out
- Click on Remember My information
Reinstall Or Update Instagram
Despite not performing any of the spam actions and you receive the error message, ‘We limit how often you can do certain things on Instagram to protect our community‘ the first thing you should make sure of is that if Instagram is updated to the latest version.
This might be happening due to a glitch or some error occurring from Instagram’s side. For this, go to Google or Apple Play store and download the updated app version of Instagram.
After you update the app, make sure to report the action block taken against your account to Instagram.
Isolate Your Account For 4-24 hours
Without being impatient, it’s essential to wait and isolate your Instagram account for at least four to twenty-four hours.
It may take three days or more than a week for Instagram to unblock your account from restricted actions.
What Are Instagram’s Limitations To Avoid Action Block?
After getting unblocked by Instagram, you want to ensure that you don’t get an action block again for the mistakes you made before. Therefore it’s essential to obey the limitations of Instagram on different actions.
Instagram’s limitations for different actions are as follows:
| Instagram Action | Limitations |
| Following or Unfollowing | You can make 200 actions daily for following and unfollowing people |
| Comments | The maximum number of comments you can post per day is 200 |
| Likes | You can post daily 100 likes |
| Direct message | You can send 80 direct messages daily |
| Hashtags | Under one post, you can put 30 hashtags maximum |
| Tags | Under one post, you can tag 20 users |
There are some things that need to be noted first:
- Follows and unfollows mean the same, there’s no separate counting of them.
- Follow limit varies from 150 to 200 users per day.
- For a regular user, the like limit is set to 100 likes however this doesn’t apply to renowned figures.
- The comments limit is set from 180 to 200 per day.
Conclusion
The main takeaway points from this article are:
- You probably have used Instagram in such a way that made Instagram think that you’re a bot doing spammy stuff. Thus it did an action block on your account.
- If the Instagram action block has no expiry date, and it’s a minor one, then you can fix it through different methods.
- It’s essential to obey the limitations of Instagram on different actions like posts, likes, comments, direct messages, tagging users, and hashtags.