Here’s Why IG Story View Counts Haven’t Been Showing Up For Some Users
Thankfully, it’s fixed now.
Instagram users were met with an unwelcome bug at the tail-end of the 2021 holiday season. According to tweets from users on Dec. 29 and into 2022, they were unable to see who had viewed their Instagram Stories. The complaints of not being able to see Instagram Story viewers trickled in on Twitter and really ramped up around Jan. 3 and 4, 2022. So, if you’re wondering why you can’t see Instagram Story view counts, here’s what you need to know.
According to a statement from a Meta spokesperson on Jan. 4, the company was “aware that some people were having issues seeing their Instagram Stories view count and viewer list.” There was no shortage of these kinds of complaints on Twitter in early January 2022, with Instagram users saying things like, “Instagram is being weird and not showing me who has viewed my stories,” and “Why is Instagram not showing the story views??”
After a few days of not being able to see who was checking out your holiday gift haul or expertly made hot chocolate, the Instagram Story view count issue appears to be solved. A Meta spokesperson told Elite Daily on Jan. 4, “The issue is now fixed, and things should be back to normal for any new Stories posted. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
This wasn’t the first time people had their IG Story views interrupted. A test in May 2021 resulted in many Instagram users facing the same issue, where they couldn’t see who had viewed their IG Story and only saw the word “views” at the bottom of their screen. Following a test feature that would allow people to choose if and how they see "likes" on their content, which was implemented in May 2021, Instagram tested a similar "views" feature for Instagram Story in late 2020. If you were part of the small test group of iOS and Android users, you were no longer able to see the total number of views your Instagram Story had gotten at the bottom of your mobile device screen. Instead, you only saw the word "views" or "seen by" and had to tap on that in order to see an actual number of people who'd viewed it alongside a full list of the account names who had watched your Story.
Instagram stopped the test of removing the number of views on the corner of your Story in mid-May 2021. In an email to Elite Daily, a Meta spokesperson said at the time that it "[planned] to fix the issue and restore the view count for people." A fix was available for users "within the next week.”
Meta confirmed the more recent glitch wasn’t related to the May 2021 issue, and as of Jan. 5, 2022, all users should be able to see their Instagram Story viewer counts. If you still don’t see it, try restarting the app.
The May 2021 Instagram Story view count issue was made more complicated by accusations of Instagram "shadowbanning" accounts that spoke out on the escalating violence in Palestine at the time. Many accounts took to social media to complain that their Instagram Story posts about the conflict reportedly received far lower views than their other Instagram Stories. Elite Daily reached out to Meta at the time for comment on the reports, but the company was unable to provide a comment on the reports at the time of publication.
Prior to the issue of reported lower Story views for posts about Palestine, Instagram addressed a similar issue on May 5 and May 6 of content not showing up in Stories that affected users in Colombia, the United States, Canada, and East Jerusalem. Instagram told Elite Daily at the time that this issue was due to a bug that targeted all Stories that contained re-shared content, Highlights, and Archives, and was not meant to impact Stories about a certain political issue.
Instagram told Elite Daily at the time, "It was not our intention at all to remove posts about any cause in particular." It's important to note that this issue was separate from the claims about IG Stories about Palestine reportedly receiving fewer views.
As for the Instagram Story view count issue many users rang in 2022 with, make sure to update and restart your app for the fix.
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