Instagram feed no longer working

Skip to the bottom of this page for instructions on fixing your broken Instagram feed, or keep reading for an explanation on why it broke in the first place.

On April 4th, 2018, Instagram made some sudden changes to their API that affects all Instagram feed plugins. These API changes should only affect clients who purchased  theme installation from us, or your Instagram feed was installed by our team for another reason.

What happened? Why does it only affect certain people?

In short, Instagram has removed the ability for anyone to display an Instagram feed that is not their own personal profile.

So, why does this affect theme installation purchasers? Until now, whenever we installed a theme for a client, we logged into our own Instagram profile to obtain an access key for the Instagram Feed plugin. Then we linked to your Instagram profile via your user ID to display your Instagram feed in your theme.

This method allowed us to set up your Instagram feed WITHOUT needing to directly log into your Instagram profile. We felt this option was better than requesting you send us your Instagram username and password (and Instagram often blocks remote logins anyway). Of course we had no way of knowing that Instagram would one day revoke the ability to link to other Instagram profiles. See  this article from the Instagram Feed plugin developer for more information.

If you installed and set up the Instagram feed yourself, you would have logged in with your own profile to begin with, so these API changes do not affect you.

How to restore your Instagram feed

This is a slightly tedious process, unfortunately, but you'll only need to do it once!

1. In your Wordpress dashboard, go to the "Instagram Feed" tab in the lower left corner of your dashboard.

2. Click the big blue button that says "Log in and get my Access Token and User ID."

3. Log into your Instagram account and follow the prompts.

4. You'll be directed back to the settings page in your dashboard, where you will see your Access Token and User ID in a white box.

5. To the right of the Access Token, click the blue button that says "Use This Token." That will replace the current Access Token with YOUR Access Token.

6. Copy the User ID from the white box.

7. Paste the ID in the "User ID" box in the "Shows Photos From" section.

8. Save changes.

9. Lastly, go to Appearance > Widgets in your dashboard. Open the "Instagram Footer" widget area. Depending on your theme, it could be called "Instagram Feed" or "Instagram Footer Area."

10. Open the Custom HTML or Text widget. Replace whatever is in the box with the following, and then save:

[instagram-feed]

12. All done! Your Instagram feed should be working perfectly now.