Wanna Know Who Unfollowed You on Instagram?

First, we need to get your Instagram data. No sketchy third-party apps, because they can get your account banned. Just your own data.

Step 1: Download Your Instagram Data

Go to Instagram settings and request your data download. When selecting what to download:

• Only select Followers and Following
• Choose JSON format (important)
• Ignore everything else otherwise it'll take forever

Once Instagram sends you the file, download it and unzip it.

Step 2: Find the Right Files

After extracting the zip open the folder and navigate to:

connections/followers_and_following

Inside, you should see:

followers_1.json following.json

If you don’t see these, congratulations, you downloaded the wrong thing.

Step 3: Create a Python Script

Inside the same folder, create a file called process.py. Name it whatever you want.

Step 4: The Code (We’ll Break It Down)

Here’s the full script first:

import json

followers_str = open("followers_1.json", "r")
followers = json.load(followers_str)
follower_names = []

for follower in followers:
name = follower["string_list_data"][0]["value"]
follower_names.append(name)

followings_str = open("following.json", "r")
followings = json.load(followings_str)
following_names = []

for following in followings["relationships_following"]:
name = following["title"]
following_names.append(name)

for following_name in following_names:
if following_name not in follower_names:
print(following_name)

Now let’s go through it piece by piece so it actually makes sense.

Step 4.1: Load Your Followers

followers_str = open("followers_1.json", "r")
followers = json.load(followers_str)
follower_names = []

Opens your followers file, converts JSON into usable Python data, and prepares a list to store usernames.

Step 4.2: Extract Follower Names

for follower in followers:
name = follower["string_list_data"][0]["value"]
follower_names.append(name)

This loop goes through each follower, extracts their username, and stores it in a list.

Step 4.3: Load Who You Follow

followings_str = open("following.json", "r")
followings = json.load(followings_str)
following_names = []

Same idea as before, but now for accounts you follow.

Step 4.4: Extract Following Names

for following in followings["relationships_following"]:
name = following["title"]
following_names.append(name)

This builds a list of everyone you follow.

Step 4.5: Find Who Unfollowed You

for following_name in following_names:
if following_name not in follower_names:
print(following_name)

This is the important part:

• It checks who you follow
• Compares it with who follows you back
• Prints the ones who don’t

Basically, your “fake friends” list.

Final Output

Run the script: python process.py

And it will print all the accounts that you follow, but they don’t follow you back.

You now have a simple, no-nonsense way to find out who didn’t follow you back using your own Instagram data. No shady apps. No risking your account. Just a bit of Python doing the uncomfortable truth-checking for you. Let's meet in another blog post. Ciao!!!