You likely know by now that neither Facebook nor Instagram informs you when you’ve been blocked by another user. If you’ve been suspecting that someone might have blocked you, here’s how you can check if they’ve blocked you on both social networks.
Now third-party tools are claiming they’ll notify you when you’ve been blocked by someone, but these things hardly work at all. That being said, how can you know for sure?
Well, it can be a tedious job, but you’ll have to let your inner sleuth out. Follow the steps to find out if you’ve been blocked. Let’s start with Instagram first.
How to Check If Someone Blocked You On Instagram
On Instagram, you can use a few different methods and figure out whether anyone has blocked you. To be certain that the user has blocked you and not just deleted Instagram, consider the following strategies before choosing to block them back.
1. Use Instagram Search
If you suspect that someone has blocked you on Instagram, the first thing you need to do is try to check for their account on the app. If you can find the person on Instagram, that means you’re blocked. Follow the steps below to locate somebody using Instagram Search.
- Launch the Instagram app.
- Select Search from the menu to go to the Explorer tab.
- Select the bar and enter the Instagram handle of the user into it.
If you can’t find the person you’re searching for, it could mean you’ve been blocked on Instagram. However, it may also mean that they changed their Instagram handle.
2. Use Instagram Web
You may also use Instagram Web to confirm your suspicion. Using your browser, type in the link below. Make sure that you got the username correctly.
www.instagram.com/username/
If you’re getting “Sorry, this page isn’t available” from Instagram, that means that the person you’re looking for has either blocked you or deleted their Instagram account. Of course, this technique only works if you remember the Instagram handle for that user correctly.
3. Use Comments or DMs
Use the comments on an old Instagram post or a common DM chat to find the user profile. Find the Instagram post that the user you’re looking for has left a message on and use it to go to their Instagram page.
You can also open your DMs and find an old conversation with that person and use it to go to their page. If you get a message not found on the Profile page instead, the user may have blocked you on Instagram.
You can be certain that they haven’t blocked you when you open their profile and see their usual account details. The “Account is Private” message on the user’s profile indicates that they have switched their public Instagram account to private and have opted to delete you as a follower. It’s still not the same thing as blocking you, and you might ask to follow them again.
However, if after you open the user profile, it says “No Posts Yet,” even though the details at the top of the profile shows that the user has posted a range of photos on Instagram, it means that they have blocked you.
4. Ask Your Friend to Help You Search
The last thing you can do to be positive is to ask someone else to look for the Instagram user in question. If your friend happens to find that person’s profile and see their details and posts, that user has obviously blocked you.
You can do this on your own if you have several Instagram accounts. You don’t risk someone else finding out why anyone has blocked you.
How to Check if Someone Blocked You On Facebook
People usually begin to suspect that someone has blocked them on Facebook when they stop seeing that person’s posts on their Facebook feed. If this is your story, don’t jump to any conclusions yet. It could be the failure of the Facebook algorithm that’s responsible for not showing you content from one account to the next.
To make sure whether someone has blocked you on Facebook, use one of the following strategies instead.
1. Use Facebook Search
You can use Facebook search to figure out whether anyone unfriended or blocked you. To look for someone on Facebook, open the main Facebook page, and find the search bar in the upper left corner of the screen. Then enter the name of your friend or email in the search bar. This strategy would only work if you know for sure the right username or email address that the person is using on Facebook.
If you can’t find a page with your friend’s profile picture and latest updates, you may have been blocked on Facebook.
2. Use Your Friends List
The best way to check whether you’ve been blocked on Facebook is to use your Facebook friends list. When someone blocks you, they’re going to vanish from your Facebook friends list. Here’s how you can find out.
- Open the Facebook app on your computer or smartphone.
- Go to your Facebook page.
- Select Friends to browse the list of your friends.
- Type the name of a friend you think has blocked in the Search bar or attempt to locate them manually by browsing through your friends page.
If your friend doesn’t show on your friends list, you’ve either been blocked or unfriended.
How to Check If Someone Blocked You on Messenger
Do you prefer to use Messenger over Facebook? It’s even easier to tell that you’ve been blocked by someone on Messenger. What you need to do is attempt to give them a direct message by following the steps below.
- Open the Messenger app.
- Select New Message in the upper-right corner of the screen.
- Under To: type the name of the person that you suspect blocked you.
If you see your friend’s name and profile picture show on the list, you’re not blocked. If they’re not on the list and you are unable to send them a message, it means they’ve blocked you on Facebook.
What Now?
Finding out why someone has blocked you on social media can be upsetting, particularly if you don’t know why. If that’s the case, the safest plan of action is to try to figure out what happened and what made the other person block you in the first place.
If someone has blocked you and it bugs you so bad, you can always block them back and move on.