Instagram feed not showing on your website? Causes and fixes

Start here: what exactly do you see?

Different problems look different on the page. Before changing anything, open the live page (not the editor of your website builder) and note which of these matches:

A quick way to narrow it down: if the account header (your avatar or initial, @name and the Follow button) appears, the embed code is running. The problem is then with the posts themselves, not with your website. If nothing appears at all, the code either did not run or decided to draw nothing.

A 2-minute check with your browser’s developer tools

Your browser’s built-in tools show whether the embed code loaded and what it said. In Chrome, open them with F12 or Ctrl + Shift + I on Windows and Linux, or Cmd + Option + I on a Mac. Ctrl + Shift + J (Cmd + Option + J on a Mac) opens the Console directly.

1. Open the live page that should show the feed.
2. Open the developer tools and click the Network tab, then reload the page.
3. Type instagram/widget in the filter box. You should see one request for the embed code’s script.
4. Click it and open the Response tab. Look at the first line.

The first line tells you a lot. When Social Feed decides not to draw anything, it says why in a short comment at the top of the response:

If there is no request at all, the script never ran. That points to the code being missing from the page, removed by your website platform, or blocked before it loaded (causes 4, 6, 7 and 8). Then switch to the Console tab: a security policy or blocked request usually leaves a red error message there.

1. The widget is unpublished

Every widget has a Published switch at the top of “Settings & preview”, next to the connected account. When it is off, the embed code stays on your site but shows nothing. The widget card in the dashboard shows a Published or Unpublished label, so you can check this at a glance.

This is easy to miss because the dashboard preview keeps working while the widget is unpublished.

Fix: turn the switch on. It takes effect right away, without pressing “Save settings”. Reload your page and the feed should appear. If you switched it off on purpose, for example during a rebrand, this is also the way to bring the feed back later without touching your site.

2. You went over the monthly view limit two months in a row

Each plan includes a number of widget views per month, counted across all the widgets of your account: 3,000 on the Free plan, 30,000 on the Light plan, and no limit on the Standard plan. A view is counted each time the feed is drawn on a page. Visits from known bots and crawlers are not counted.

Going over the limit does not switch the feed off immediately. Here is exactly how it works:

1. First month over the limit: the feed keeps showing until the end of the month. The dashboard tells you that you went over.
2. Second month in a row over the limit: the feed still shows for the rest of that month, and the dashboard warns that it will stop on the 1st of next month.
3. The month after that: the feed is not shown on your site. The embed code returns the “monthly view limit exceeded” line shown above. Views are still counted during this month.

One month over the limit, followed by a month under it, never stops the feed. We also email you when you reach 80% and 100% of the monthly limit, and when the feed is stopped, so check your inbox (and spam folder) for those messages.

Fix: change to a plan with a higher limit. The feed comes back right away; allow a few minutes for the change to reach your site. You can see this month’s views and the limit at the top of the widget list and on the plan screen. For prices and limits, see the pricing section.

3. The embed code belongs to a widget that no longer exists

Each embed code points to one widget. If that widget was deleted, or if the Instagram account was disconnected, the old code has nothing to show. Disconnecting an account also deletes its widgets, their display settings and their embed codes, and the dashboard warns you about this before you confirm.

This often happens after an expired connection (cause 5) was fixed by disconnecting instead of reconnecting: you disconnect, connect again, set up the widget again, and everything looks fine in the dashboard, but your website still has the old code.

Fix: open the widget in the dashboard, copy the code under “Add the embed code to your website”, and replace the old code on every page where you pasted it. Codes are not interchangeable between widgets, so check that the code on your site matches the widget you are editing.

4. The code is not on the page you are looking at

The code might be in an unpublished draft, on a different page, or in a template that only applies to some pages.

The feed appears directly after the embed code, exactly where you paste it. That means the code must go in the body of the page where the feed should appear. A few places do not work as you might expect:

1. Header or “head” code fields. Many platforms have a site-wide field for code that goes into the page head. Anything the widget adds there is not visible on the page.
2. Tag managers. A tag manager inserts code at a place it chooses, usually not where you want the feed. Paste the code directly into the page instead.
3. Content loaded later. If your page loads a section after the page has opened (for example inside a pop-up that fetches its content), the code may never run there. Put the feed in regular page content.

Fix: open the live page, use your browser’s “View page source”, and search for instagram/widget. If it is not there, the code is not on that page. Our platform guides show the right place for WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and plain HTML.

5. The Instagram connection is no longer valid

Social Feed reads your posts through Instagram’s official API with a permission you gave when you connected your account. Instagram’s access permissions last 60 days at a time and must be renewed before they run out. Social Feed renews them automatically, well before they expire, so you normally never need to do anything.

A connection can still stop working for reasons outside Social Feed, for example after you change your Instagram password, or if you remove Social Feed from the apps and websites connected to your Instagram account. Instagram’s own announcement on third-party apps explains that once you remove a service there, it no longer has access to new data on your account.

On your website, a broken connection usually looks like the account header with no posts under it. In the dashboard, the preview shows a red message: “Your Instagram connection has expired”.

Fix: follow the steps in that message. Click “Reconnect Instagram account” below it and sign in with the same Instagram account. This works on every plan, including Free, and keeps your widget, its settings and its embed code, so nothing on your website has to change.

6. Your website platform removes or does not run the code

The embed code is a script tag. Some website platforms remove script tags from page content, or keep them but do not run them, depending on your plan or the type of block you use. When that happens, the page looks fine in the editor, but nothing appears on the live site, and the Network tab shows no request for the widget.

Two examples from the platforms’ own help pages:

1. WordPress.com: the Custom HTML block can only keep script tags on a paid plan with hosting features activated. On the free plan, script tags are not allowed. A paid plan alone is not enough; hosting features must also be active.
2. Squarespace: JavaScript in Code blocks needs the Core, Plus or Advanced plan.

Other platforms have similar rules for their embed or custom-code elements, and these change over time. If you paste the code and nothing happens, check what your plan allows in your platform’s help center. If your plan does not run scripts, no setting in Social Feed can change that. The options are to upgrade the website plan or to place the feed on a site that allows scripts.

Fix: paste the code into the element meant for custom code (for example a Custom HTML block or a Code block), not into a normal text block, which usually turns the code into visible text. If you see the code itself printed on your page, it went into a text block. Our WordPress and Squarespace guides cover these details.

7. A Content Security Policy blocks the script or the images

Some websites send a Content Security Policy (CSP), a security setting that tells the browser which other sites may load scripts, images and videos on the page. The script-src part of a CSP controls where scripts may come from. If the host in your embed code is not on that list, the browser refuses to load the feed and writes an error in the Console.

Social Feed needs three things allowed:

A typical symptom of a partial block is a feed with gray squares instead of photos: the script ran, but the images were refused. The Console names the exact address that was blocked, so you can add that host to the right directive.

Fix: Ask whoever set the CSP (a developer, a security plugin or your host) to allow the hosts named in the Console error. If you are not sure whether your site has a CSP, the Console error will say “Content Security Policy” when it is the cause.

8. A browser extension or privacy setting blocks it

Content blockers and some privacy features block scripts from other sites. If the feed shows for you in one browser but not another, or for your visitors but not for you, try the page in a private window with extensions turned off. If it appears there, an extension is the cause. Social Feed does not set cookies or use browser storage, but blockers can still block third-party scripts based on their own lists.

9. Your filters leave no posts to show

If the account header appears with nothing under it, and the connection is fine, check the filters in “Settings & preview”. All filters apply together, so a post must pass every one of them to appear. These combinations often leave nothing:

The dashboard preview applies the same filters, and shows “No posts to show.” when nothing passes. Keyword matching ignores upper and lower case, and you can list several words separated by commas; a post matches if it contains any of them.

Fix: loosen one filter at a time and watch the preview. Then press “Save settings”. Saved settings reach your website on the next page load. For filters hiding only new posts, see why your Instagram feed isn’t updating.

10. You are checking the editor preview, not the live page

Many website builders show pages inside their editor in a special preview mode, and some of them do not run custom scripts there, or show them only after you publish. Squarespace’s help page, for example, notes that code sometimes doesn’t appear while you are logged in, and suggests previewing in Safe Mode. Theme editors in other platforms behave in similar ways.

Social Feed’s own dashboard preview is different from your live site too. Here is what can make them disagree:

Fix: always judge by the published page, opened in a new tab, ideally in a private window so you are not logged in to your site. If the feed is there, the editor preview simply does not run scripts, and visitors see the feed.

11. Your account is a personal Instagram account

Instagram’s current API, which Social Feed uses, is made for professional accounts: Business and Creator. You cannot connect a personal account, and if you switch a connected account back to personal, Social Feed can no longer read its posts. Switching to a professional account is free and keeps your posts and followers.

Fix: switch the account to Business or Creator, then connect it again if the feed does not recover. Our guide to Instagram professional accounts has the steps. If your feed stopped long ago and was made with an older tool, also read what happened to the Instagram Basic Display API.

Page caching can hide a fix you already made

Social Feed sends its embed script with a header that tells browsers and caches not to store it, so your browser always gets the current version of the widget. Your page itself is a different matter. Caching plugins, CDNs and some hosting companies keep a saved copy of your pages. After you add or replace the embed code, visitors may see the saved copy, without the new code, until the cache is cleared.

Fix: clear your site’s cache (in the caching plugin, your CDN or your hosting panel), then check the page in a private window. If the code appears in the page source now, the feed will follow.

The full checklist

If you prefer to go down a list, this order catches the most common causes first:

1. Open the live page in a private window, not the site editor.
2. In the dashboard, check that the widget shows Published.
3. Check this month’s views against your plan’s limit at the top of the widget list.
4. Make sure the embed code on your site is the one shown for this widget now.
5. View the page source and search for instagram/widget.
6. If the code is missing, check that your platform and plan run scripts, and that you used a custom-code element.
7. If the code is there, look at the first line of its response in the Network tab.
8. If the header shows without posts, look for the expired-connection message in the dashboard preview, then check your filters.
9. Look for red errors in the Console, especially ones mentioning Content Security Policy.
10. Clear your site’s page cache and try again.

Frequently asked questions

Can I put the same embed code on several pages? Yes. Each page that shows the feed counts toward your monthly views. If you want different settings on different pages, create more widgets (plan limits apply: 1 widget on Free, 3 on Light, unlimited on Standard).

The feed appears, but some videos have no play button. The widget only shows a play button when Instagram provides the video file. When it does not, the post shows its cover image. A post for which Instagram provides no image at all is skipped.

I tried everything and it still does not show. Email us at info@grip-space.co.jp with the address of the page and, if you can, a screenshot of the Console. We will look at it with you.

Related reading

Feed showing but stuck on old posts? Read why your Instagram feed isn’t updating on your website. Choosing how the feed looks? See grid or slider. New to the tool? Start with what Social Feed by grip space is, or sign up for free.

Sources

1. Meta for Developers, “Instagram API with Instagram Login”: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/instagram-api-with-instagram-login/
2. Meta for Developers, “Refresh Access Token”: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/reference/refresh_access_token/
3. Instagram, “Increasing Personal User Data Control”: https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/increasing-personal-user-data-control
4. WordPress.com Support, “Custom HTML Block”: https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/custom-html-block/
5. Squarespace Help Center, “Code blocks”: https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206543167-Code-blocks
6. MDN Web Docs, “CSP: script-src”: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Security-Policy/script-src
7. MDN Web Docs, “Cache-Control”: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Headers/Cache-Control
8. Chrome for Developers, “Open Chrome DevTools”: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/open