# How come my instagram DMs refuse to load? Anyone know how to fix this? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Tags:** instagram\ **Created:** [July 23, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://community.redact.dev/t/how-come-my-instagram-dms-refuse-to-load-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/471 "2026-07-23T19:05:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![phillydoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e480ec/32.png) [@phillydoe](https://community.redact.dev/u/phillydoe)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://community.redact.dev/t/how-come-my-instagram-dms-refuse-to-load-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/471/1 "2026-07-23T19:05:23Z")
Anyone know wtf is going on here? Have you ever seen something like this? I am not sure if its my acct or something is broken on IG itself ![img](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/uploads/redact/original/1X/5884e557989df78499a251d3acbc96f608ca86ae.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![sheesh](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/community.redact.dev/sheesh/32/248_2.png) [@sheesh](https://community.redact.dev/u/sheesh)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 7:06pm UTC](https://community.redact.dev/t/how-come-my-instagram-dms-refuse-to-load-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/471/2 "2026-07-23T19:06:54Z")
Probably relating to this, I’m guessing [https://www.instagram.com/p/DbGI1-kAvpU/](https://www.instagram.com/p/DbGI1-kAvpU/) ---
**Author:** ![bugsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@bugsy](https://community.redact.dev/u/bugsy)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 7:17pm UTC](https://community.redact.dev/t/how-come-my-instagram-dms-refuse-to-load-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/471/3 "2026-07-23T19:17:21Z")
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on this because the thing that was bugging me was why some peoplecompletely destroyed and other people are saying their app is totally fine. My girlfriend was sitting next to me on the same wifi with her dms working perfectly while mine were dead like OP. that made no sense to me at first. I think the answer as far as I can see is that your messages are not all sitting in one big database some where. A service that size splits users across a lot of separate storage clusters and you get assigned to one. so when one of those goes unhealthy it only takes out the people who happen to live on it. everyone else does not notice a thing. thats why these threads always have a pile of me too replies and then a bunch of people going works fine for me, and both groups think the other one is making it up. youre just on different servers I think. ---
**Author:** ![derekfrancisc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@derekfrancisc](https://community.redact.dev/u/derekfrancisc)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2026, 12:42am UTC](https://community.redact.dev/t/how-come-my-instagram-dms-refuse-to-load-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/471/4 "2026-07-24T00:42:11Z")
If anyone finds they can reply to existing conversations fine but cannot start a new one with someone they have never messaged, thats a useful detail and it points at something specific. Starting a brand new conversation is a different operation than sending into a thread that already exists. A new one has to create the thread record, run the checks for whether that person accepts messages from you, decide whether it lands in their inbox or in message requests, and then write the first message. Sending into an existing thread skips almost all of that and just appends. So if new conversations fail while existing ones work, the thread creation path is whats broken, not messaging in general. same reason some people can receive but not scroll back. these are separate services that happen to sit behind one button. ---
**Author:** ![alianna](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/community.redact.dev/alianna/32/206_2.png) [@alianna](https://community.redact.dev/u/alianna)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2026, 2:41pm UTC](https://community.redact.dev/t/how-come-my-instagram-dms-refuse-to-load-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/471/5 "2026-07-27T14:41:32Z")
A bit off the main topic but relevant to anyone who thought they had been restricted rather than caught in an outage. If youre in the EU and your account genuinely does get suspended and the in app appeal goes nowhere, there’s an option most people have no idea exists. Under the [Digital Services Act](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-services-act) you can take the dispute to a certified out of court dispute settlement body. Its independent, its not Meta reviewing their own decision again, and their ruling is meant to be acted on. The part that surprises people is the cost. If you win, the platform pays the fees. There are documented cases of exactly that, someone gets their account back and Meta covers several hundred euro in costs.Does not help with an outage obviously. But the first assumption in every one of these threads is that youve been banned with no recourse, and thats worth correcting. ---
**Author:** ![GSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/82dd89/32.png) [@GSD](https://community.redact.dev/u/GSD)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 10:39pm UTC](https://community.redact.dev/t/how-come-my-instagram-dms-refuse-to-load-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/471/6 "2026-07-30T22:39:53Z")
I would say to check downdetector before touching anything, if there’s a spike its them not you. And dont delete and reinstall during an outage, login runs through the same broken pipes and people lock themselves out for days. Use your offload app on iphone to clear cache safely it keeps your login. But since it’s been a few days since you made this post, I’m guessing it’s not a service down situation. ---
**Author:** ![sheesh](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/community.redact.dev/sheesh/32/248_2.png) [@sheesh](https://community.redact.dev/u/sheesh)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2026, 10:40pm UTC](https://community.redact.dev/t/how-come-my-instagram-dms-refuse-to-load-anyone-know-how-to-fix-this/471/7 "2026-07-30T22:40:59Z")
Are you direct messages still not loading? OP hasn’t posted since the OP.