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How to Fix Instagram Stories Not Showing Up

Are Instagram stories not showing up on your feed?

When your Instagram stories are not showing up, your stories timeline will be completely blank.

You can only see your profile picture with the “+” icon, but you won’t be able to see anyone else’s stories.

Maybe Instagram stories were working fine previously, but when you open the Instagram app, they aren’t showing up anymore.

It’s frustrating because you can’t keep up with the stories of the people that you are following.

So why is this happening? In this guide, you’ll learn why are Instagram stories not showing, and how to fix them.

Why can’t I see Instagram stories?

Instagram stories not showing

You can’t see Instagram stories because you’ve either changed your date and time recently, or you used a sticker in one of your stories.

If you changed your date and time recently, you will not be able to see stories on Instagram.

This is because an incorrect date and time causes issues on the Instagram app, and will prevent stories from showing up.

In rare cases, Instagram may be down, so you need to check if it’s down first before you attempt to fix the error.

Secondly, if you used a music button on your story, it may cause a glitch.

The Instagram music sticker is known to cause errors in the app.

So, if you used the music sticker in one of your stories, it may cause a glitch where stories will not show up on your timeline.

Using other stickers in your Instagram stories might cause other stories to not show up on your timeline as well.

However, if you used other stickers, that might be the cause of the error as well.

Some Instagram stickers glitch out your story timeline, so using them on your story might cause other people’s stories to not show up.

How to fix Instagram stories not showing up

To fix Instagram stories from not showing up, you need to set your date and time to automatic or delete your Instagram stories from a desktop if you used a sticker in one of your stories.

If your Instagram stories are not showing up, it’s either caused by an incorrect date and time or because of a sticker glitch.

To fix these errors, you need to set your date and time to automatic and delete your Instagram stories from a desktop respectively.

There are lots of generic and ineffective solutions out there on the internet.

For example, a lot of people might tell you to uninstall and reinstall Instagram, clear the app’s cache, etc., but none of it actually works.

But based on my extensive research, these two solutions work the best.

Here are 2 ways to fix Instagram stories not showing up:

1. Set your date and time to automatic

Set date and time to automatic iPhone

The first solution to fix Instagram stories from not showing up is to set your date and time to automatic.

If you’ve changed your date and time recently, it may not be in sync with Instagram’s.

Did you recently change the date and time on your phone? If you did, you may have forgotten to change it back.

An incorrect date and time will prevent stories from showing up on your timeline on Instagram.

To get stories to show up on Instagram again, you need to set your date and time back to automatic.

Additionally, you may have forgotten to change your date and time back to automatic.

The most common reason why Instagram stories are not showing up is because of an incorrect date and time.

In order to get stories to show up on your timeline again, you need to set your date and time to automatic.

Otherwise, other people’s stories won’t show up on your feed.

Here’s how you can set your date and time to automatic on an iPhone:

  1. Go to your phone’s settings.
  2. Tap on “General”.
  3. Tap on “Date & Time”.
  4. Turn on the switch for, “Set Automatically” to set your date and time automatically.
  5. Force close the Instagram app in your background.
  6. Open Instagram, and stories should be back on your timeline.

Here’s how you can set your date and time to automatic on an Android device:

  1. Go to your phone’s settings.
  2. Tap on “Date & Time”.
  3. Tap on “Automatic” to set your date and time automatically.
  4. Force close the Instagram app in your background.
  5. Open Instagram, and stories should be back on your timeline.

Now that you set your date and time to automatic, stories should return on your timeline.

After you set your date and time to automatic, don’t forget to force close Instagram before opening it again.

But when you set your date and time to automatic, don’t forget to force close the Instagram app before opening it.

Otherwise, your stories will not be able to show up.

To force close Instagram on an iPhone X or later, swipe up and pause, find Instagram, then swipe up to close it.

If you want to force close Instagram on an older iPhone, double-tap your home button, find Instagram, then swipe up to close it.

On the other hand, if you’re using an Android, open your settings, tap on “Application manager”, tap on Instagram, then tap on “Force stop”.

This will re-sync the date and time on your phone with Instagram.

2. Delete your Instagram stories from a desktop

Delete Instagram story

The second solution to fix Instagram stories from not showing up is to delete all your Instagram stories from a desktop.

If you happen to use a music sticker or any other sticker in one of your stories, deleting it from a desktop will get stories to show on your feed again.

If you happen to use a music sticker or any other sticker in one of your stories, it may cause a glitch where stories will not show up.

In order to fix this, you need to delete your Instagram stories from a desktop using Instagram Web.

Here’s how you can delete your Instagram stories from a desktop:

  1. Go to Instagram on your desktop.
  2. Login to your account.
  3. Go to your profile.
  4. Tap on your story on your profile picture.
  5. Tap on the “triple-dots” icon at the top-right hand corner.
  6. Select “Delete” to delete your Instagram story.
  7. Repeat the process on all of your stories.

Instagram stickers (especially the music sticker) are known to cause issues on Instagram.

Using a music sticker on one of your stories may prevent other people’s stories from showing up on your timeline.

Hence, deleting your stories from Instagram on a desktop will fix stories from not showing up.

Similar to the first solution, make sure to force close the Instagram app before opening it again.

Otherwise, stories may not be able to show up.

How to prevent Instagram stories from not showing up

Now that you’ve managed to fix the error, you need to take some measures to prevent it from happening again.

Whenever you have an error on Instagram, it can be really challenging to fix it.

Instagram support is unreachable, so you’ll have to make sure to prevent these issues from happening from the get-go.

This is because Instagram support is unreachable.

If you ever tried contacting Instagram before in the app, you should know that you won’t get a reply back.

Hence, you should always prevent errors before they even happen on Instagram.

Here are a couple of measures you can take to prevent it from happening again.

1. Don’t change your date and time

The first measure you can take is to not change the date and time in your phone’s settings.

When you change your date and time on your phone, it can cause issues in some apps.

An incorrect date and time may cause issues in the Instagram app.

Make sure to set your date and time back to automatic whenever you change it.

An incorrect date and time is the root cause for certain issues in some apps.

For Instagram, changing your date and time will prevent stories from showing up.

This is because your date and time are not in sync with Instagram’s.

In order to prevent Instagram stories from not showing up, you have to make sure that your date and time are set to automatic.

If you happen to change your date and time for some reason, don’t forget to change it back to automatic.

2. Try not to use Instagram stickers

Instagram stickers

The second measure you should take is to try not to use Instagram stickers in your stories.

Certain Instagram stickers might cause glitches in the app.

In order to prevent stories from not showing up on your feed, try not to add Instagram stickers when you’re posting a story.

Some Instagram stickers might cause glitches in the app.

For instance, using a music sticker in one of your stories might prevent other people’s stories from showing up in your feed.

In order to prevent this, try not to use any stickers whenever you’re posting a story.

Conclusion

In this article, you’ve learned how to fix Instagram stories from not showing up.

To recap, here are a couple of solutions you can use to fix it:

  1. Set your date and time to automatic.
  2. Delete your Instagram stories from a desktop.

The two most common causes for the issue are an incorrect date and time, and an Instagram sticker.

Setting your date and time to automatic and deleting stories that contain a music sticker will help to solve it.

Further Reading

⚡️ How to Unfollow Everyone on Instagram at Once

Instagram Couldn’t Create Thread (How to Fix)

What Does “Active today” Mean on Instagram?

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About the author

Lim How Wei

Lim How Wei is the founder of followchain.org, with 8+ years of experience in Social Media Marketing and 4+ years of experience as an active investor in stocks and cryptocurrencies. He has researched, tested, and written thousands of articles ranging from social media platforms to messaging apps.

Lim has been quoted and referenced by major publications and media companies like WikiHow, Fast Company, HuffPost, Vice, New York Post, The Conversation, and many others. One of his articles about the gig economy was quoted by Joe Rogan who hosts The Joe Rogan Experience (arguably the most popular podcast in the world), in the This Past Weekend podcast by Theo Von.

In his free time, Lim plays multiple games like Genshin Impact, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Hearthstone, RuneScape, and many others. He creates guides, walkthroughs, solutions, and more on games that he plays to help other players with their progression.