Instagram this user does not exist

user2529173 picture user2529173 · Nov 26, 2015 · Viewed 17.4k times · Source

I'm trying to get medida data from Instagram via their REST service. I've got an access token and tried to get some media data, I'm using this query

https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/184692323/media/recent/?access_token=

I get this response

{"meta":{"error_type":"APINotFoundError","code":400,"error_message":"this user does not exist"}}

The user ID does exist, I actually tried to use Lady Gaga's user ID, which I got from here: http://jelled.com/instagram/lookup-user-id# When I use my user-id, it works. It just seems to not work with other user ids.

What can I do? Is this something related to these new "sanbox" rules?

Answer

Dennis picture Dennis · Dec 15, 2015

I think you are still running in Instagram Sandbox-mode: https://www.instagram.com/developer/sandbox/.

Citing their page: For example, if you query the /users/{user-id}/ endpoint and the {user-id} is a sandbox user, then you will get the normal API response; but if the {user-id} is not a sandbox user, you will get a APINotFound error.

I have the same issue for non-Sandbox users, which are public but nevertheless Instagram returns it's not a valid user. So the docs seem to be correct.