Something not looking right in your inbox? Here are the most common situations and what they mean.
"My older conversations are missing"
DM Tracker imports conversations with activity in the past 90 days, with the most recent messages of each. If a conversation you expect is not there:
It may be older than 90 days. Conversations whose last activity is older than that cannot be imported.
You may have skipped the import when connecting. Go to Settings > Connections and click Sync inbox to bring it in now.
The import may still be running. Look for the orange banner at the top of the app. Contacts appear as the import progresses, for up to an hour.
You messaged them first and they never replied. Those conversations show as Unknown contact, not under the person's name. See Outbound Contacts and "Unknown Contact" Conversations.
Full details in Importing Your Instagram Conversations and Using Sync Inbox.
"New messages are not showing up"
New messages normally appear in your inbox within seconds. If they don't:
Go to Settings > Connections and check that your Instagram account still shows as connected.
If the connection shows a problem, reconnect the account. Instagram connections need to be renewed from time to time, and reconnecting fixes most sync issues. After reconnecting, click Sync inbox to bring in anything that arrived while the connection was down.
Still nothing after reconnecting? Message us through the chat bubble and we'll take a look.
"DM Tracker says it lost access to my Instagram account"
Changing your Instagram password, or removing DM Tracker from your Instagram settings, ends the connection. When that happens, owners and admins see a Reconnect Instagram banner at the top of the app and get an email from us. Until you reconnect, new messages do not sync and you cannot send from DM Tracker.
Go to Settings > Connections and click Reconnect Instagram.
Log in with the same Instagram account and click Allow.
DM Tracker offers to import your conversations again. Accept it to fill the gap, or run Sync inbox later.
"Sync inbox says I can try again in a few hours"
You can run Sync inbox once every 24 hours. The button shows when it is available again. If you need it sooner, message us through the chat bubble and we'll run it for you.
"I can't send a reply from DM Tracker"
Two possible reasons, both by Instagram's design:
The 24-hour reply window has closed. You can reply from DM Tracker within 24 hours of the contact's last message. After that, DM Tracker forwards you to Instagram to continue there. See the article Replying from DM Tracker: the 24-Hour Window.
The contact has never replied to you. Conversations with contacts who haven't replied yet can only be continued on Instagram. See the article Outreach Contacts and "Unknown Contact" Conversations.
"A conversation shows 'Unknown contact'"
That's a conversation with someone you messaged first who hasn't replied yet. Instagram shares a contact's username only after they reply. When they do, DM Tracker updates the conversation and marks the contact as Outbound automatically. If you want a named follow-up before that, add the person as an outbound contact and DM Tracker will merge the two when they respond. Full explanation in Outbound Contacts and "Unknown Contact" Conversations.
"An image or attachment says it's no longer available"
Instagram media links expire after some time. When that happens, DM Tracker shows a placeholder instead of the image. The original media is still visible in the Instagram app.
"A message disappeared from a conversation"
If a contact unsends a message on Instagram, it is removed from DM Tracker too. That's Instagram's unsend feature working as intended.
Need more help?
Message us through the chat bubble in the app. Include the contact's username and a screenshot if you can, it helps us find the issue faster.