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Here is a problem I encountered recently and have not found a solution. This might affect people buying Instagram accounts.
The first question I see is “Can you send me the stats by PM?”…
The problem with buying an Instagram account that can display the stats is that it needs to be switched to a business account for stats to show. For this, it has to be linked to a Facebook fanpage.
The person that buys the Instagram account will have problems linking it to one of their own fanpages because even if you unlink it from the current one, when you link it to another-one you get the error “this Instagram account is already linked to a facebook page”.
I don’t think many here are aware of this glitch. It has many people frustrated on the Facebook forums. So if the owner of the Instagram account you’re about to buy sends you screenshots of the stats, then it’s already linked to a fanpage and you will encounter this problem for your new business. You might as well ask to buy both the Instagram account and the fanpage it’s linked to as a package.
Hey! Thank. you for this post. You actually gave us an idea to open a “knowledge base” section for these types of things. Anyway, regarding the glitch, I will have to test it. I know this isn’t a solution, but wouldn’t converting back to a normal account somewhat solve the problem? I guess before purchase we have to ask sellers now to log into their Facebook accounts and disconnect the Instagram? Wouldn’t that work?
Awesome! It would be very useful to have that section.
As for your question, unfortunately not. I’m having this problem with 2 Instagram accounts and found lots of people on the Facebook forums with the same problem. I converted both Instagram accounts back to normal accounts, unlinking them from Facebook and then back to business accounts and linking them to a different Facebook fanpage. It does let you then choose a different fanpage but then you get a notification on Facebook asking you to confirm this and that’s where you get the error. I also tried unlinking them from within the Facebook fanpages but they don’t even show up as linked to that Instagram account anymore. Yet you still get the error message.
If you google this error message you’ll find the Facebook forum threads about this problem.
I guess the one last thing to try is to unlink from Facebook FIRST and not from within Instagram and see if this would work. Unfortunately I can’t try that myself because I had already done it from Instagram first.
Hi there, I have an account that is a business account that is currently not linked to a Facebook page? Not sure how to check if it is or isn’t but perhaps this is a new thing that has popped up.
Hi, in order to have access to stats on Instagram, you have to switch it to a business account and in order to do that, it asks you to link it to a facebook fanpage. The problem arises when you unlink it from the fanpage to sell the account or if you decide to link it to a different fanpage. It gives the error that it is already linked to one even though you unlinked it.
I tested this out from my phone. In the Instagram app go to settings then Switch Back to Personal Account. Then go back to Switch To Business Account. By doing this it allowed me to select one of my pages not just the one it was originally linked to.
My only issue I could see happening would be losing all your previous analytics.
Did you then get the Facebook notification asking you to confirm linking to this other fanpage? That’s where I get the error. And when I go to the new fanpage it does not show linked to the Instagram account.
If the buyer takes the Instagram Account and the Facebook Fan Page, would that work do you know, or is the Instagram Account linked to the Person as well as the Fan Page? Thank you.
Yes that would work. It would be a good idea to buy both the Instagram account and the fanpage it’s linked to. Then you wouldn’t run into this problem.
I just tested the entire process and it was successful.
Reverted to Personal Profile.
Updated back to Business Profile, selected facebook page (different than before), then entered a form of contact.
Success with Welcome notice.
Did you get a notification from Facebook asking you to confirm this linking to the fanpage?
I go through the same process and it all looks good. But then after I’ve done all of this, on Facebook I get a notification asking me to confirm the Instagram account and that’s where the error occurs.
Also, did you double check it took by going to the fanpage settings and checking if it’s linked to that Instagram account now? Mine shows it’s not linked to any Instagram account even though the whole process inside the Instagram app looked successful.
Like I mentioned before, the error occurs when confirming on Facebook (see screen shot on this thread). There are no error messages from within the Instagram app. You need to confirm on Facebook to finalize the linking process.
The account I was testing on is new so I hadn’t gone through the process of linking from Facebook.
I started over and linked my IG account to Facebook under Instagram Ads.
I went through the process of switching the page my IG is linked to by removing it from Facebook first, then switching to personal, then back to business under a different page, and linking it to that page on Facebook.
I didn’t have any errors doing this so I think the issue might come from not removing from the facebook page first.
I haven’t tried removing from Facebook first. So as you say, that might be the solution.
The process I’ve done is exactly as you’re describing. Except for one last step. At the end, (after doing everything you say on the Instagram app), I get a notification on Facebook asking me to confirm the Instagram account and that’s where the error occurs. My question on my last reply was if you have since logged into that Facebook page, gone into settings and double checked the new page is linked to the Instagram account?
I did go back to Facebook and verify it was linked to the new page. Everything looks good, so it looks like you just need to remove from Facebook’s end first. Pretty stupid, and good catch we will have to keep this in mind when managing these types of trades.
