Your Instagram Story Is No Longer Available (10 Causes, Fixes)

Instagram is a social networking platform that allows you to share your activities, images, and videos with your followers.

The story feature lets you share as many photos and videos as you want without any over-posting issues.

However, sometimes the story feature might show you some issues, especially the story being hidden without any notifications.

Let’s discuss why this happens and how to fix it.

Your Instagram Story Is No Longer Available (10 Causes, Fixes)

The most common reason for your story being unavailable is that it has passed its overall duration.

Instagram errors can also cause similar issues, which most Instagram users are not aware of.

That said, Instagram stories get hidden from users for obvious reasons most of the time.

As Instagram is a unique social media platform that works on a completely different algorithm, it has its own rules for removing or making the story available for its users.

Sometimes an Instagram story pops up with a message showing that you or your follower’s story is no longer available.

It gets frustrating and annoying sometimes when you see these Instagram errors.

If you are a non-technical person, you will not be able to identify what these errors mean.

Let’s take a look at the ten major reasons your Instagram story is no longer available.

1. Story Is Deleted

Typically, Instagram deletes stories after 24 hrs.

It is quite possible that the time limit of your story has elapsed, and Instagram has removed it automatically.

Sometimes, some glitches can make the story available even after 24 hrs.

However, it is a temporary issue and your story will disappear as soon as Instagram fixes the glitch.

If someone from your followers has sent you a story via direct message and it has expired, then you will receive an error message saying, “This story is no longer unavailable.”

The other common reason your story is unavailable to other users is that you have deleted it.

If you delete your story from Instagram, even if the story hasn’t reached its maximum time limit, your followers will not be able to see it.

The best way to keep your story even after 24 hrs is to put it into the story highlights.

This way, your story will remain available on your page.

However, it won’t appear on your followers’ home feed, and refreshing the page will remove the ring around your profile picture from the story as well.

2. Instagram Bugs

Sometimes, you might not delete the story, but it will disappear before completing its time limit.

This is a glitch that occurs due to some of the additional features of Instagram, resulting in errors on the front page of your profile.

Also, you might sometimes start experiencing that the app may stop working, and posts and stories are not opening, or any other similar issues.

Instagram apps often start acting up themselves, which is one reason your Instagram stories won’t load.

It is called platform-side glitches, and you won’t be able to do anything except refresh your feeds rapidly unless Instagram fixes the bugs.

The only way to keep your stories safe from disappearing is to wait for Instagram to fix the glitch.

You can also try logging out of your account and logging in after some time.

This will reload your profile and the bug might get fixed immediately.

3. Public Account Shifted To Private Account

If you follow public figures on Instagram to explore their feeds without even following them and their stories have disappeared suddenly, there are high chances they have made their account private.

If you have recently made your account private, users will see a story ring update on your account, but when they tap the story ring, it won’t open.

This is because they haven’t refreshed their feeds, and even after visiting your profile, it will still show them that your account is public.

However, refreshing the page will show them that your account has shifted to private.

The only solution to make your story available on Instagram feeds is that your followers must drop a follow request on your account.

This is because most users shift their accounts to private for privacy reasons, so you have to follow the user to unlock their profile.

After accepting the follow request, it will enable your stories to appear once again on their home feed.

4. Story Hidden

Another major reason that results in a hidden story is that the Instagram user has enabled the hidden feature for you.

This feature enables Instagram users to limit the reach of their stories to certain users.

Once this option is enabled, certain users won’t be able to see the stories from that particular profile.

You can hide the stories from some followers you don’t want to show.

There is an option to limit followers to close friends, which enables you to limit followers from viewing your stories.

This option is only activated when you want to share some personal images and don’t want all of your users to see your Instagram account.

Ideally, you must activate the close friend option before uploading the story.

It means that your followers will never know that you posted the story.

The close friend story appears with a green ring on your story tab which means the close friend option is applied to your story.

5. Account Block

Sometimes your follower sees your story update on their home feed, but it doesn’t open when they tap on it.

This is because you blocked them a few minutes back, and they haven’t refreshed their profile.

Refreshing the page by visiting your profile shows them the message, “User Not Found,” which means the user is blocked.

Blocking a particular follower can be unintentional sometimes due to identical usernames.

The only way a blocked user can watch your stories is when you unblock them.

Just go through your blocked user options to see if you’ve unintentionally blocked someone you don’t want to block.

The other possible way to ensure that any particular user is blocked by you is to create a fake account and visit that particular account.

6. Violation Of Community Guidelines

Instagram has a strict policy about sharing or posting unauthorized content on the platform.

One reason your story is no longer available could be a violation of Instagram’s TOS.

Since Instagram can detect your content easily before publishing it to your story or feed, they immediately hide it if it violates any of its terms.

If the story comprises hate symbols or speech, bullying comments or harassment, sexual content or nudity, then Instagram removes it without any notification.

These are some of the major policy violations that lead to immediate story removal.

The best solution is to go through the Instagram terms and conditions before uploading a story that is at a high risk of violating Instagram’s TOS.

The other way to know what happened to your story is by checking your messages since Instagram messages the user as soon as it detects some violations.

7. Not Removing & Deleting Cache

Not removing cache from your device also makes some users face the story not available issue.

Instagram cache grows extraordinarily large oftentimes.

If your device is running short of storage, it can make Instagram cause uneven behaviors, causing several malfunctions.

If you have a low-memory phone, you must rapidly remove the app from the background to make it work properly because Instagram needs large memory to handle its stuff.

However, clearing the app from the background and re-launching it will enable your app to work in a fresh and efficient manner.

Try deleting some unnecessary files from device storage or moving them to external memory cards.

It will open your phone’s storage and enable the Instagram app to work correctly.

The only way to fix the issue is by clearing the cache from your Instagram application regularly.

Here is how you can do that.

Go to your phone’s Info Settings.
Select the Installed Applications option.
Search for Instagram.
Enter the platform and choose the Clear Cache option.

After completing these steps, you will be able to remove all the cache files from your Instagram application and it will start working fine.

8. Weak Internet Connection

A weak internet connection is one of the most frequent issues that cause Instagram stories to become unavailable.

Instagram needs a strong internet connection with excellent speed to process its huge size.

Being in a crowded place or far away from the router also minimizes access to Instagram stories and feeds.

Also, ISPs problems can affect connectivity, such as DNS errors which show that you are online, but in reality, the connection is dead.

When Instagram’s servers are down, you also get a poor internet connection error.

Instagram host servers cause the app to show connection errors when you try to watch your story.

It also happens with other users from your area when they try to watch your story.

In this situation, users must wait for the Instagram networking team to fix their servers.

However, it can take a few hours to restore it.

The other way users can view your story is by restarting their routers or keeping their patience.

Restarting the app or smartphone can also sometimes lead to the recovery of poor connections, enabling you to view the story.

9. Check The Date & Time

It seems unusual when your time and date don’t match your time zone.

However, this leads to numerous issues with Instagram.

It is a typical Instagram error restricting you from viewing stories and feeds.

Also, it restricts the users from getting full advantage of the app.

Usually, the smartphone’s operating system automatically updates the time zone and date, so most users don’t have to face this problem.

However, the users having outdated smartphones must regularly check the update notifications to update their applications as well as their date and time zone.

You can also turn on automatic updates for your device, and it will automatically remove the glitches and malfunctions from your device.

10. Using Outdated Version Of The Application

Instagram’s outdated version causes issues like improper feed loading, stories not opening, etc.

Sometimes an outdated version causes problems in the functionalities of the application.

It gets glitchy, laggy, and slow.

However, this behavior affects the users as it makes the story unavailable to them.

Updating the Instagram application enables users to watch Instagram stories and feeds easily.

The update also improves the application’s functionalities, enhancing the UI/UX and increasing user engagement with the application.

The app update removes the complexity of the application and makes it effective.

However, users must update their Instagram app once a month to view Instagram stories and feeds properly.

Can You View Someone’s Story When It Has Reached Its Time Limit?

Such tricks are impossible to implement on Instagram as the platform is very serious about its security measures.

They are wrong if someone thinks they can do any trick to view someone’s story even after the time limit because there is no way you can view someone’s story after it has completed its time limit.

Instagram servers save your content, whether it is a feed, story, or message, but if the user deletes the content, it gets deleted from the Instagram servers, too.

This leaves no room for any conflict.

However, there are two choices for the users to view a story that is no longer available on Instagram because of the completed time limit.

One way is to hope that the user has added the story to their highlights.

However, adding stories to highlights makes them permanently available on the account until they delete them from highlights.

The other way is to ask the person to share their story again with you.

This is almost impossible because no one does that.

What Are The Two Ways To View A Private Instagram Account’s Stories?

A mutual friend is necessary to view private account stories.

If you have a friend who is following the private account you want info about, you can ask your friend to let you view the private account with their phone.

Another way is to create a fake account if the user is not accepting your follow request from your actual account.

It is not illegal to create a fake account, but it is considered unethical.

Sometimes the user does not want to share their account activity with you.

Pushing yourself to view their activity is a waste of your time.

You need to respect that person’s boundaries and refrain from following them through fake accounts.

How To Fix Instagram Not Showing Story Views?

Instagram usually shows the message, “No One Has Seen This Yet,” when you try to see views on your story.

Although users are watching, reacting, and replying to your stories, Instagram won’t show any activity on the story view list.

Let’s discuss several ways you can try to fix Instagram not showing story views.

1. Log Out Of The Instagram App & Log Back In

Log out of your Instagram account for a few minutes, and then log back in.

This is one of the most effective methods to fix this issue.

2. Restart Your Device

Try restarting your phone and launching the Instagram app to see if it has resolved the story views issue.

If this doesn’t work, shut down your device for some time, restart it, and launch the app.

There are high chances it will fix the Instagram story views problem.

3. Delete Instagram App

Delete the Instagram app and re-install it.

The outdated version of the application can cause this issue.

Try installing the latest version of the app to solve this issue.

4. Use Instagram Web

You can also try using the Instagram web to check if the story option is fixed or not.

The Instagram web version doesn’t face this problem unless you have a poor internet connection.

This will ensure that the problem is with the mobile version that is irritating you, and updating the app will fix this issue.

5. Reach Instagram Support Team

If none of the methods helped you in resolving the issue.

Try reaching out to the Instagram support team and directly address your case with the team.

Follow these steps to report your issue.

Go to your account and tap on the horizontal lines menu in the top right corner.
Select Settings and then tap Help.
Click on Report A Problem.

Briefly explain your issue, attach a screenshot, and submit it.

Instagram will look into your report and may fix your issue.