How to Fix Instagram Tagging or Story Mentions Not Working? - Pletaura

How to Fix Instagram Tagging or Story Mentions Not Working?

Are you unable to mention your friends and family on your Instagram Stories or find that tagging, in general, isn’t working?

Do you want to tag someone on Instagram but can’t seem to get it to work? Others find that the tags don’t appear and link 🔗 correctly after they’ve uploaded a post on Instagram. Plus, many Instagram users also report that as soon as they tag someone, it disappears. Conversely, some users expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that their friends cannot tag them in their photos.

Overall, Instagram is a fantastic platform for keeping in touch with family and friends. Most of us have utilised this platform to reconnect with long-lost friends, relatives, coworkers, and many more.  Sharing photographs 📷, posts, stories, and memories on Instagram has become certainly entertaining thanks to their multitude of fun and quirky features and filters.

Other than that, many people use Instagram to make money mainly by collaborating with big brands to promote their businesses to get a larger following. So, it’s critical to be familiar with Instagram’s tagging and other hashtag capabilities to achieve this goal, as it enhances the reach of a post.

Instagram post tags

 

Product tagging on Instagram can be especially useful if you’re running a business page to direct your post’s incoming traffic to your product page to drive sales.

Instagram product tags in posts

 

Therefore, in this guide, we’ll provide you with a step-by-step manual to help you solve your problems with Instagram’s tagging feature. Whether it’s to help you earn an extra buck from the platform or just tag your family and friends in your post to create memories, we got you!

In this article, you’ll learn 6 common reasons along with 9 possible fixes to help solve the Instagram tagging feature that’s not working. For more information and fixes for Instagram hashtags not showing up or working properly on your posts, Reels, or Stories we recommend checking our other more comprehensive post here.

 

Note: This guide provides pictures and steps taken from the Instagram app or website on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

 


Table of Contents 

How to Tag or Mention Someone in an Instagram Story?

How to Tag Someone in an Instagram Post?

Why is the Instagram Tagging or Story Mentions Feature Not Working?

9 Fixes for the Instagram Tagging or Story Mentions Feature Not Working

  1. Restart the Instagram App
  2. Check Instagram’s Server Status
  3. Update the Instagram App
  4. Follow the Particular Instagram Account That You’re Trying to Tag
  5. Try the Web Version of Instagram on a Mobile or PC Web Browser
  6. Tag the Instagram Account Through the Post’s Caption or Comments Section
  7. Clear the Instagram App Cache
  8. Reinstall the Instagram App
  9. Report the Tagging Problem to the Instagram Support Team

 

How to Tag or Mention Someone in an Instagram Story?

In August 2016, Instagram introduced the Stories feature, which allows users to share photographs and videos for 24 hours. Along with that, Tagging stickers were one of the new stickers added to Instagram’s Stories that allows users to mention people through uploaded stories.

 

Steps to Tag or Mention Someone in Your Instagram Story

  1. First, capture or upload your Instagram story.
  2. Then, tap the Sticker symbol at the top of the screen.

select Instagram story stickers to add mentions or tags to Instagram story

 

  1. To tag someone, use the @Mention symbol.

select the Mention sticker to add tag in Instagram story

 

  1. After that, enter the account’s username or Instagram handle.

adding a tag in an Instagram Story

 

  1. The tag can be edited, resized, moved, or changed in colour.
  2. To post the story with all of your Instagram followers or close friends, tap the send button.

 

 

How to Tag Someone in an Instagram Post?

Next, let’s review the steps to tag someone in an Instagram post! The steps are very simple and similar to the ones mentioned above.

 

Steps to Tag or Mention Someone in Your Instagram Post

  1. First, open Instagram and create a new post.
  2. Then, tap Next after selecting a photo to share.
  3. After that, select the Tag people option.

tagging someone in an Instagram post

 

  1. On this next page, tap a section of the image you want to tag and enter the username of the account you wish to mention.

tagging someone in an Instagram post

 

  1. Finally, select Done and you’re all set! Just tap on Share and your Instagram post should be live with the tags you’ve just made!

 

Steps to Tag or Mention Someone in Your Instagram Post That Has Already Been Posted

  1. To access your profile, tap your profile picture icon in the lower-right corner and choose one of your posts.
  2. Then, tap the menu icon at the top-right corner of the photo or video.
  3. After that, select Edit.

edit Instagram post to tag someone in Instagram post that's already posted

 

  1. Next, tap Tag People, then tap on a person in the photo to tag them.

tagging someone in an Instagram post

 

  1. Begin by tapping a section of the image you want to tag and enter the username of the account you wish to mention.
  2. To confirm, tap Done in the top-right corner.

tagging someone in an Instagram post

 

Note: If you can’t tag someone, it’s possible that their privacy settings have changed to disable certain people from tagging them.

 

 

Why is the Instagram Tagging or Story Mentions Feature Not Working?

 

1. Your Instagram Account Is Brand New

Firstly, one of the most common reasons why the tagging feature isn’t working on your account is because your Instagram account is too young or in other words, new. 👶

As a security measure, new Instagram accounts have limitations on how many people they can follow/unfollow, posts they can like, and tags/mentions. So, many people had reported that when they created a new account, they could not tag people in their Instagram posts or stories.

Through this, Instagram is working on cutting down on spam, bots, and automation on its platform. As a result, Instagram includes several temporary blocks 🚫 that prevent users from repeating actions. Hence, limited tagging is an example of such a block.

Instagram Action Blocked error

 

It’s similar to a “sandbox”, in which a new account’s actions are limited to prevent platform abuse. With that said, you don’t have to worry too much about it as this is only temporary. So, you should soon be able to tag your loved ones in your posts or stories on Instagram again. Fortunately, we still have more fixes just in case this doesn’t apply to you.

 

 

2. The Tagging Feature Has Been Disabled

Moving on, the user you’re trying to mention may have turned off tagging. In this case, if the user you’re trying to tag has their privacy settings set to “manually approve tags” in the privacy settings, their tag won’t appear on your post until they approve it.

This is a setting that Instagram offers that allow users to choose who can tag them in posts. Typically, this is a helpful addition for regular users and business accounts to prevent themselves from getting tagged in unwanted or spam-like posts.

Therefore, if you can’t tag another user because of this, there’s nothing much you can do from your end. Nevertheless, you can try direct messaging the account to ask them for permission.

Conversely, if others report that they can’t tag you in their posts, you’ll need to reconfigure your tagging and mentioning permissions in the app’s privacy settings.

 

Steps to Reconfigure the Tagging and Story Mentions Privacy Settings on Instagram

So, the following are the steps to check and configure your Instagram account’s tagging settings:

  1. To access your profile, tap your profile picture icon in the lower-right corner and choose one of your posts.
  2. Then, tap the menu icon at the top-right corner of the photo or video.
  3. After that, select 🔒Privacy.

select Instagram privacy settings to allow other users to tag you in their stories and posts to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

  1. Next, we’ll start off with allowing other users to tag you in Instagram posts. For this, select Posts.

check and reconfigure post privacy settings to allow other users to tag you in posts to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

  1. Here, under Alow Tags From, you can choose either Everyone or a more secure option would be People You Follow.
  2. Then, for more control over which posts you can be tagged in, you can turn on the Manually Approve Tags option.

check and reconfigure post privacy settings to allow other users to tag you in Instagram posts to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

  1. Now, we’ll configure who can mention you in Instagram Stories. For this, go to the previous Privacy page. This time select Mentions.

check and reconfigure story mentions privacy settings to allow other users to mention you in Instagram stories to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

  1. Here, under Alow @mentions From, you can choose either Everyone or a more secure option would be People You Follow.

check and reconfigure story mentions privacy settings to allow other users to mention you in Instagram stories to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

For post tags, if you want to prevent tagged posts from being automatically added to your page, use the “Add Manually” option. It’ll let you add or remove the post from your profile page. It will also notify you when you have been tagged in a new photo, allowing you to easily remove yourself from the post.

 

 

3. The Account That You Are Trying to Tag Is Deleted/Deactivated

Another common reason why you can’t tag someone on Instagram is that their account no longer exists. This can occur if the particular Instagram account has been deactivated or removed by the former owner.

Hence, if no one else has claimed the username in this situation, you won’t be able to tag the desired username at all. If the ID has been taken by a new user, however, you will wind up tagging someone else!

 

 

4. The Account That You Are Trying to Tag Has Blocked You

Unfortunately, tagging people on Instagram regularly can also lead to them blocking you 🚫. In such cases, you won’t be able to see the person’s account, direct message, tag, or even mention them in your posts. So, you have no prospect of solving the problem in this situation, unless you can talk them into unblocking you.

All in all, you won’t be able to mention someone in a post if they ban you or deactivate their account. As a result, even if you’re not making any of the errors discussed above, you may still be unable to tag them.

It’s also conceivable that their account has been disabled. This is because accounts that have been deleted or disabled cannot be tagged in new posts. So, you can get a friend to check if the account still exists on the platform

However, to check if you’ve been blocked, try searching for their profile. Then, if the follower list is blank, you see the “User not found” error, or you can’t follow them, chances are you’re blocked.

Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing because you were blocked

 

 

5. You Tagged an Excessive Amount of People

On your Instagram post, you may have tagged too many people. Instagram has a policy whereby they only allow a maximum of 20 people to be tagged in a post or story on Instagram.  

So, in that large group photo you upload to your feed, you can only identify up to 20 of your friends. Besides that, perhaps you want your friends to see a funny meme you stumbled on Instagram, there’s a restriction as to how many friends you can tag in one comment.

It’s also possible that you won’t be allowed to share the photo if you tag more than 20 people on Instagram. Overall, as Instagram strives to avoid spam, there’s a limit instated on how many people you can tag in an Instagram post.

 

 

6. Check the Spelling of the Username

This is another common reason for not being able to tag other Instagram users. When you want to tag someone on Instagram, you must write at least the first three characters of their username, and then all the IDs that contain those characters will be displayed for you to choose from.

However, when you have a poor internet connection, you may have to manually spell out or enter the entire username, which can often lead to misspellings.

The most crucial step is to ensure that there are no spelling errors or typos in the person’s username or Instagram handle that you’re trying to tag. As this is one of the most common errors people tend to make, it’s important to be aware of the username by double-checking everything you’ve typed out is correct and accurate. This ensures you’re linking to the correct account as well.

check the spelling of the Instagram handle or username to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

However, if this, unfortunately, isn’t the case for you, don’t worry! We still have many fixes that might be just the right solution.

 

 

9 Fixes for the Instagram Tagging or Story Mentions Feature Not Working

 

1. Restart the Instagram App

Although simple, a quick app reboot can refresh your Instagram session and resolve temporary issues with the app. Hence, it’s considered an effective fix for a multitude of app problems. So, suppose the problem was indeed an app bug. In that case, chances are, after restarting the app, you should be able to tag people in your Instagram story or post again.

Below is a simple 2-step method to restart the Instagram app on your mobile device:

  1. Firstly, close the Instagram app completely. This can be done by removing it from your Recent Apps or App Switcher.
  2. Then, reopen the Instagram app from your homepage.

restart the Instagram app to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

If you’re using the web version of Instagram you can try reloading or hard-refreshing the Instagram page instead.

 

 

2. Check Instagram’s Server Status

If you’re still having trouble tagging people on Instagram, it’s quite likely due to a server-side issue. As a result, we recommend checking Downdetector’s page for Instagram to see whether other users are experiencing similar problems or if Instagram is experiencing server problems in general.

On this website, you may refer to the live map to see the affected regions if there are any. You can also refer to the comment section located at the bottom of the page.

check the Instagram server status on downdetector if Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

If you notice a sudden spike in problems reported in your area, it’s possible that Instagram is to blame. So, what are your options to help fix your issue?

To begin, you have the option of waiting it out. Instagram, being the social media behemoth that it is, usually resolves platform issues in a matter of hours or days. As a result, it’s better to remove your story or post for now and try again later.

Fortunately, we still have a few more tricks up our sleeves that could help you resolve this problem!

 

 

3. Update the Instagram App

It is best that you update the app frequently and timely. This will ensure that the Instagram app on your device is running in the latest version. Hence, it’s very likely that the developers would have fixed the minor glitches and bugs. All in all, having an up-to-date app is crucial to preventing unwanted glitches including this Instagram tagging problem.

Therefore, the steps to update the Instagram app are similar on both Android and iOS devices:

  1. First, head over to Google Play Store (Android) or Apple App Store (iOS).
  2. From there, search for the Instagram app.
  3. Then, find the app from the search results and select to visit the Instagram app page.
  4. Finally, if an update is available, tap on the Update button.

Update Instagram app to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

Alternatively, you can use these links redirecting to the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, respectively, to save you the hassle.

 

 

4. Follow the Particular Instagram Account That You’re Trying to Tag

This is yet another minuscule reason why users find that they can’t tag other Instagram accounts. This may occur as the other account has disabled tags from accounts that aren’t following them (in this case, you!).

So, try visiting their account and tapping that Follow button and then check if you’re able to tag them again.

Follow the particular Instagram account that you're trying to tag to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

 

5. Try the Web Version of Instagram on a Mobile or PC Web Browser

Perhaps this tagging problem is limited to the Instagram app on your device and isn’t present on the web version. Therefore, another workaround you can try is accessing the Instagram website on either your mobile device’s or PC’s web browser to upload your post or story with its tags and mentions.

use Instagram through your web browser app if Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

Overall, you should find that Instagram’s web version appears similar to its mobile app counterpart. Thus, navigating through it and adding tags on posts and story mentions is a cakewalk!

Plus, you don’t have to worry about installing any updates like with the mobile app (step 3), as updates for the website are integrated directly by the developers. Instead, you can try clearing the web browser data and cache to ensure you’re loading the latest version of the Instagram page.

 

 

6. Tag the Instagram Account Through the Post’s Caption or Comments Section

Suppose you’re finding it difficult to tag users within a particular image or video that you’re trying to upload. In that case, you can tag them in a different section of the post as well. Sure, this may not be your ideal solution as you can’t position the tag right next to the particular person in your photograph. However, it’s still a workaround to notify or bring up the post to your tagged friends’ attention.

Plus, this can serve as a temporary measure to notify the tagged accounts. Later on, once everything is resolved, you can tag the accounts properly within the image as to your liking!

In this case, you can choose to tag the accounts in the caption section of the post.

Tag the Instagram account through the post's caption to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

An alternate option is to tag the accounts in the post’s comments section.

Tag the Instagram account through the post's comments section to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

 

7. Clear the Instagram App Cache

It’s a frequent misperception that clearing the cache means erasing your important info. In fact, when you clear the app cache, you’re simply getting rid of old and inessential files that the programme no longer requires.

Any software that displays images is likely to have cache. Basically, these cache save information about the images so that they can be loaded more quickly in the future.

Thus, as you might know, Instagram’s cache can quickly grow and occupy an enormous portion of your internal storage space. So, if your phone is running out of capacity, Instagram can become a significant data eater. Plus, the accumulation of this app cache can lead to various Instagram app issues, such as this tagging and story mentions problem.

That being said, here’s how to clear the Instagram app’s cache data:

  1. Firstly, open the Settings app.
  2. Then, tap on Apps & notifications.
  3. After that, select Instagram from the list of apps.

clear instagram cache and app data on android to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

  1. Next, tap Storage & cache.
  2. Following that, start by tapping Clear Cache, and then you can choose Clear Storage.

clear instagram cache and app data on android to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

 

8. Reinstall the Instagram App

Another simple yet effective method when tagging on Instagram isn’t working is to completely reinstall the Instagram app on your mobile device. This method speaks for itself.

Simply uninstall the Instagram app from your mobile device and install it again from your native app store. Afterwards, log back into your account once done.

This solution might just save your day and allow you to tag users on Instagram once again! Because Instagram can be unstable at times, this problem could just result from unintentional bugs and glitches or a result of installation issues.

Having that said, here are a few simple steps to reinstall the Instagram app on your mobile device: 

  1. First, uninstall the Instagram app, whether by long-pressing for the selection menu or through the Settings.
  2. Then, select Uninstall, Remove or Delete app.

reinstall instagram to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

  1. Lastly, you may choose to restart your device or to go to your App Store or Play Store right away to install the Instagram app. 

 

After the installation is complete, open the Instagram app and log in to your account. Then, try tagging someone in your post or story to verify if this fix worked for you!

 

 

9. Report the Tagging Problem to the Instagram Support Team

If all of the previous fixes came to no success and you still find that tagging and story mentions on Instagram isn’t working, it’s best to get in touch with the support team.

By doing this, the customer service team will be able to troubleshoot the root of your problem from the backend. Especially if this tagging error is caused by an account-related problem, they should be able to identify it. Along with that, you can obtain more suitable potential fixes to resolve it. 

On that note, let us guide you through a few steps to contact Instagram’s support team: 

  1. First, go to your profile page, by clicking your profile picture icon at the bottom-right.
  2. Then, select the menu button (三) at the top-right, and at the menu select Settings (cog icon ⚙️).

Open Instagram app settings to report tagging problem to Instagram Help to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

  1. Proceed to select Help, and then tap on Report a problem.

contact Instagram help to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

  1. Then select Something Isn’t Working.

contact Instagram help to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

  1. Proceed to briefly describe the Instagram tagging problem at hand. It’s critical to offer useful information that will assist the support team in resolving the issue. Important details such as your device’s model, a screenshot, and information on when the problem first occurred will be quite helpful. Finally, press the Send button.

Report the tagging problem to the Instagram support team to fix Instagram tagging or story mentions not working or showing

 

With that out of the way, all that’s left is to wait for Instagram’s support team to respond. So, they should most likely contact you within 72 hours.

Don’t worry; several people have claimed that their problem went away within a few hours of contacting them, and everything returned to normal.

 

 

Conclusion

To sum up, this is our complete guide with 6 reasons why Instagram tagging problems occur as well as 9 fixes to try when tags and story mentions on Instagram aren’t working. We hope that by following these steps, you’ll be able to resolve this issue once and for all and be able to tag your loved ones or business partners on Instagram again without any inconvenience.

Finally, let us know in the comments below:

  • Are you facing similar problems when you try to tag people on Instagram?
  • Did any of the above fixes help you solve the problem?
  • Are there any fixes that you think we should add to the list? It might be helpful for a fellow Instagram user. 🙂
  • What other Instagram problems are you struggling with? We might be able to help!

 

Feel free to share this post with your friends and family, who find that tagging on Instagram posts and story mentions isn’t working. They would be delighted! 😊

Written by Pavithira Eliatamby

Pavithira Divya is a talented tech content writer and Cybersecurity Consultant at a multinational corporation, with a Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology specializing in computer networking and security. With her extensive knowledge in technology, Pavithira is an avid and enthusiastic user of new technology and online platforms/services. Her experience in tech also makes her a valuable contributor to Pletaura.com's content, providing readers with valuable insights and tips to troubleshoot errors with devices and online services. Contact at pavithiradivya@gmail.com or via LinkedIn.

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