Most Instagram settings pages are about privacy. This one is about your follower count, which makes it easy to miss. If you plan to add followers by any route, a single toggle can decide whether the new accounts land in your list straight away or wait in a queue for you to approve.
What the setting does
Instagram's help article on managing unwanted followers says the platform may flag accounts that are "potentially spam, bots or irrelevant". The setting is usually called Flag for review. With it on, follows from accounts Instagram has flagged do not join your list automatically. They arrive as requests that you approve or delete, even if your profile is public.
It also works on people who already follow you. A Flagged for review notice can appear at the top of your Followers screen. Tapping it lets you remove flagged accounts one by one or all at once. Removed accounts leave your follower count and list, and they are not told.
Instagram announced a related spam filter on 13 December 2023. Suspected spam accounts are filtered into a separate inbox, where you can approve accounts you recognise or delete them all (Instagram for Creators). The flagged queue you see today is the descendant of that filter.
Where to find it in 2026
Menu names move around between app versions, so treat this as the path reported as of October 2026:
- Open Instagram and tap your profile picture (bottom right).
- Tap the menu icon (three lines, top right).
- Choose Follow and invite friends.
- Find the Flag for review toggle.
- Check whether it is on. Tap it to switch it off or on.
- Back on your profile, tap Followers and look for a Flagged for review notice or a Flagged folder in your requests.
Tip: If the toggle is not where this guide says, open the menu, use the search bar at the top, and type "flag" or "follow requests". Some accounts also may not see the toggle at all. One write-up says Instagram began applying the system to accounts with more than 1,000 followers, so smaller accounts may see nothing.
The settings at a glance
| Item | What to know |
|---|---|
| Typical menu path | Profile, menu, Follow and invite friends, Flag for review |
| Default | Reported as on by default for public accounts |
| Which accounts get flagged | Ones Instagram judges to be potential spam, bots or irrelevant |
| Flagged follow requests | Confirm or delete each one, or use Delete all requests |
| Unanswered requests | Reported to be declined automatically after 30 days |
| Removing flagged followers | Remove one by one or Remove all; they leave your count silently |
| Turning the toggle off | Does not guarantee that suspicious accounts stay out of your list |
What happens to pending follows
A pending follow is a request that Instagram has parked rather than counted. Three things follow from that:
- It is not in your follower count. The number on your profile only rises when you confirm a request.
- It has a clock. Reports say requests you ignore are declined automatically after 30 days. They vanish without a notice, and a real person who followed you gets no reply.
- It can be bulk-handled. Delete all requests clears the folder in one tap. Confirming works per account.
Say you run a public account with 1,800 followers and you check the Flagged folder after a busy week. It holds 40 requests. If you scan it and find 6 people you know, confirm those 6 and delete the other 34. The week's count goes up by 6, not 40.
Why this matters before any follower order
Buying engagement is against Instagram's terms of service, and the accounts that deliver a follower order are the sort of profiles an automated filter may judge to be low quality. That is the reason to look at this setting first. If it is on, some of an order could sit in your requests instead of your count, and you would see a total that looks short.
That does not mean anything has gone wrong with delivery. It means you should know where to look. Before you place an order on Instagram followers, do three things:
- Note your exact follower count and the number of items in the Flagged folder.
- Decide whether you will leave the toggle on and review the queue, or turn it off.
- Keep your account public until delivery finishes. A private account blocks delivery, and orders on accounts made private mid-delivery fall outside Followium's cover (see our refund policy).
Ordering only needs your public username, never a password, so there is nothing to hand over. Delivery is gradual by default, which suits this check: you can open the folder at the start, middle and end of the run.
Two choices: on or off
Leave it on
This is the cautious option. Your list stays cleaner, and you decide who gets in. The cost is a weekly job: open the folder, confirm real people, clear the rest. If you forget for a month, real followers can be declined by the 30-day rule.
Switch it off
New follows then join your list without waiting for approval. Instagram's own guidance, as relayed in reports, is that turning it off does not guarantee suspicious accounts stay out of your list, and flagged followers that join can still be removed later.
Whichever you choose, the setting only moves accounts between a queue and a list. It does not change how engaged your audience is. Followers who never watch or like anything will still weigh on your engagement rate, which is why likes and views on real posts matter as much as the headline number.
Review your flagged list in five minutes
- Open Followers and tap the Flagged for review notice (or open the Flagged folder in your requests).
- Scroll the first 20 accounts. Look for a profile photo, any posts, and a username that is not random digits.
- Confirm anyone you know or who engages with your posts.
- Delete the rest with Delete all requests or Remove all, as the screen offers.
- Write down the new follower count and the date.
- Repeat weekly. Put it in your calendar on the same day as your post analytics.
Clearing flagged accounts also protects your numbers. Counts can fall for plain housekeeping reasons too. In early May 2026 several large accounts reported drops of millions in a week, which Meta described as routine removal of inactive accounts (HowSociable). For a wider look at why totals dip, see how follower refills work.
If your count still looks short
Work through the list in order: the Flagged folder, then the Followers list sorted by newest, then a refresh after a day, since counts can lag. If an order completed and the number later falls, Followium's lifetime refill applies, with no time limit. Email [email protected] with your order number. Our guide to how refills work explains the process. If an order never starts, you get a full refund. If delivery stalls for more than 72 hours, we complete it or refund the undelivered part.
Ready to add followers with your settings checked?
Pick a size, enter your public username, and check your Flagged folder as delivery runs. A boost to social proof works best on top of good content.
See Instagram follower options