Your Quick Answer:
To stop Instagram from suggesting your account to your contacts, you’ll need to log in to the Instagram account from the web and then click on the profile picture icon.
Next, you’ll need to click on the Profile option, then click on Edit profile. You’ll be taken to the next page. Uncheck the box next to Similar account suggestions.
It won’t show your account to others as recommendations to follow. You can even turn off the Contact syncing button on Instagram.
Delete the contacts with whom you don’t want to find your Instagram account or get it as a suggestion.
Remove the phone number linked to your account or you can even deny permission to Instagram from accessing your contacts.
You can also remove the linked Facebook account from your Instagram account to stop Instagram from suggesting your account to others.
Block those users whom you don’t want to follow your Instagram profile or find you on Instagram.
There are some steps if you want to stop contacts from finding you on Instagram.
How To Not Suggest Your Instagram Account:
There you can follow the below methods:
1. Turn Off the Suggestions Box
If you want to stop Instagram from suggesting your account to others then you need to uncheck the suggestions option from the Edit Profile section of your account.
Instagram recommends and suggests your account to potential people who may be willing to follow your account. However, it might not be liked by certain users as Instagram may suggest your account to people whom you don’t want to be your followers. This can be easily solved.
Instagram provides an option that asks you if you want Instagram to suggest your account to other potential followers. If you check mark that option, only then Instagram will suggest your account to other people who may be your potential followers so that you can gain followers.
If you don’t checkmark the option, then your account won’t be shown as a suggestion to follow to others.
This method can be performed on the web Instagram only. Here are the steps you’ll need to follow to perform this method:
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: You’ll need to go to instagram.com and then log into your account.
Step 2: You can either use a mobile browser in desktop mode or use your laptop to perform the login through a web browser.
Step 3: Next, you’ll be taken to the homepage of your Instagram account.
Step 4: On the top right corner, click on the profile picture icon. Next, click on the Profile option.

Step 5: You’ll be taken to your profile page. Click on Edit profile.

Step 6: On the next page, you’ll be able to see the option Similar account suggestions at the bottom of the screen.
Step 7: Next to it, there’s a checkmarked box. Untick the box. Then click on Submit.

2. Turn off Contact Syncing
Instagram shows and suggests your account to those users who are in your contact list or have your phone number saved on their devices. The primary intention of uploading contacts or syncing them is to find the accounts that are linked to the numbers in your phone book.
This feature is helpful when you want to find your friends or may want to show your account as a suggestion to others. But on the contrary, if you don’t want your contacts to find your Instagram account or get it as a suggestion, turn off the contact syncing option.
Instagram periodically syncs your contacts so that they can find each other’s accounts. Turning off the syncing of contacts can help you to avoid your account from getting suggested to others.
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: Open the Instagram application.
Step 2: Log into your account.
Step 3: Then, you need to click on the profile picture icon.
Step 4: You’ll be taken to the profile page.
Step 5: You need to click on the three lines icon.
Step 6: Next, you’ll need to click on Settings. Then click on Accounts.


Step 7: You’ll get a list of options. Click on Contacts syncing from it.

Step 8: Disable the switch on the next page by swiping it to the left. Click on Disconnect.

3. Remove Phone Number from Account
Your profile is shown as a suggestion to those users who have your linked mobile number saved to their devices. Most of the users link their Instagram accounts with phone numbers. If someone has your phone number saved on their device, then your profile would be shown to the person’s Instagram profile as a recommended account to follow.
You can just remove the mobile number linked to your account to solve this issue. An Instagram account needs to be linked either by a phone number or by an email ID. Make sure that an email ID is linked to your account or else you won’t be able to remove your linked phone number.
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: Open the Instagram application.
Step 2: Next, log into your profile.
Step 3: You’ll need to go to the profile page and then click on the Edit Profile option.

Step 4: Then you’ll need to click on Personal information settings which are displayed in blue on the next page.

Step 5: You’ll be taken to the next page. On the page, you’ll find your phone number added to your account.

Step 6: Click on it and then erase the number.
Step 7: Then click on the arrow icon to submit it.

4. Delete Particular Contacts
If you don’t want some people from your contacts to find you on Instagram, you can consider deleting those contacts from your phone book so that your account won’t appear to them as a suggestion on their Instagram profile.
If you delete their contacts from your device, then chances are less that they would see your profile as a suggested or recommended account to follow.
5. Deny Permissions to Access Your Contacts
If you deny Instagram permission to access your contacts, then your contacts won’t be uploaded to your Instagram account in the first place. This would also help you to get rid of the annoying suggestions shown on Instagram.
Even if you don’t have someone on your contact, but have the number of a mutual follower, then chances are there that your account would be shown to the person as a suggestion because you have got a mutual follower with him. Denying permission to Instagram from accessing your contacts will solve this issue right away.
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: Open the Settings app.
Step 2: Then click on Apps and Permissions.
Step 3: Next, click on App Manager.
Step 4: You’ll be taken to the list of apps on your device. Click on Instagram.
Step 5: Then click on Permissions. Click on Contacts and then click on Don’t allow.



6. Remove Linked Facebook from Instagram
Instagram shows your account as a suggestion to those users with whom you’re friends on Facebook. But this happens only if you’ve linked your Facebook and Instagram account in the first place. Facebook too lets you upload contacts to find the Facebook account linked to them.
If you don’t want your Instagram profile to be shown as a suggestion to other users, then unlink your Facebook account from your Instagram account.
Unlinking your Facebook account can also help you to get rid of suggestions to follow accounts with whom you’re friends on Facebook. Here’s how to unlink your Facebook account from Instagram:
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: Open Instagram and log in to your account.
Step 2: Next, go to your profile page and click on Accounts Center.

Step 3: You’ll be able to see your linked Facebook account under the Profiles header.
Step 4: You’ll need to click on Accounts under Account settings.

Step 5: Click on the Remove button next to your Facebook account option.

Step 6: Confirm it by clicking on Continue. Then click on Remove (profile name).
🔯 Alternative method: Block Accounts Whom You Don’t Want to Find You:
If you don’t want some users on Instagram to find your account, you can just manually block them. If you block their accounts before they can find you on Instagram, then they won’t be seeing your account as a suggestion to follow. This is a clever way of getting rid of people whom you don’t want to find or follow on your Instagram account.
Here’s how you can block users on Instagram:
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: Open Instagram and log into your account.
Step 2: Search for the user and then get into his account.
Step 3: Then you need to click on the three dots icon.

Step 4: Next, click on Block. Confirm it by clicking on the blue Block button again.


Frequently Asked Questions:
1. How do Find Contacts on Instagram?
If you want to find the accounts linked to your contacts, you’ll need to upload the contacts so that Instagram can show the accounts that are linked to those phone numbers from your contacts. Here’s how you can find it:
🔴 Steps To Follow:
- Open Instagram.
- Click on your profile picture icon.
- Then click on the three lines icon and click on Settings.
- Next, click on Follow and invite friends.
- Click on Follow contacts.
- Then click on Allow access.
- You’ll be able to see the accounts linked to the contacts of your phone book.
2. Continue without Syncing Contacts – What Does It Mean?
If you’re choosing to continue without syncing contacts, it means that you’re not allowing Instagram to show you the suggestions and recommendations of accounts to follow based on the contacts of your phone book. In that case, Instagram will show you suggestions based on your mutual followers and search results.
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