Why Instagram counts do not tell you how many accounts do not follow back

Four fictional profiles, two equal counts

Suppose you follow Alex, Camille and Lou. Your followers are Camille, Lou and Noor. You have three following and three followers, so subtraction gives zero. Yet Alex does not follow you back. Noor follows you, but you do not follow Noor. This example uses no real account data.

• Alex: you follow them; they do not follow you. They belong in the non-reciprocal result.
• Camille and Lou: you follow each other. They appear in both lists.
• Noor: you do not follow them; they follow you. They are outside the result you are looking for.

Sources : UnfollowTracker — comparaison des identifiants dans runScan

What subtraction actually measures

Mutual follows are counted once on each side and cancel out in the subtraction. Following minus followers therefore equals the number of accounts you follow without a follow back, minus the number that follow you without a follow back from you.

In our example, that is 1 − 1 = 0. The count you want is still 1. If two more profiles follow you without you following them, you have three following and five followers: 3 − 5 = −2, with Alex still the only account that does not follow back. Having more followers does not mean all your follows are mutual.

Subtraction would give the correct count only if every follower was also someone you follow, using the same lists at the same moment. Counts alone cannot establish that condition.

Sources : MDN — ensembles JavaScript, appartenance et différence

How UnfollowTracker calculates the result

The scan collects follower IDs, then checks each account in your following list. It keeps accounts whose IDs are absent from the followers. It compares list membership, rather than totals or display names.

The panel shows the sizes of the lists in the complete result: followers, following and accounts that do not follow back. Our fictional example would display 3, 3 and 1. Search filters the profiles shown; it does not turn the result count into an arithmetic difference.

Sources : UnfollowTracker — comparaison des identifiants dans runScan · UnfollowTracker — compteurs du résultat dans applyResults

How to check your result

For a specific profile, search for its username in your Instagram followers, making sure you are signed into the correct account. To understand a panel result, check its date and list rather than trying to reconstruct it from the two totals.

1. Check the scanned account and the latest complete scan date.
2. Read the list of accounts that do not follow back; search for a profile if needed.
3. To refresh the data, start a scan manually and keep the signed-in Instagram tab open.
4. Visit the profile before deciding to unfollow. A one-way follow does not require you to take action.

Sources : UnfollowTracker — comparaison des identifiants dans runScan · UnfollowTracker — compteurs du résultat dans applyResults

The result is limited by the lists read

This explanation assumes you compare the same lists at the same moment. The scan reads the lists in sequence, so relationships may change during that process. It cannot reconstruct information Instagram does not provide. When it detects a restriction or an incomplete response, it keeps the previous complete result instead of replacing it.

A saved result may therefore be older than your visit. Its date is the scan date, not the date of an unfollow. Alex may never have followed you: this calculation provides no history. The extension’s Chrome Web Store release is still in preparation.

Sources : UnfollowTracker — comparaison des identifiants dans runScan · UnfollowTracker — compteurs du résultat dans applyResults