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Whoops…

Instagram removed the ‘following’ tab, which allowed users to snoop on their friends’ activity and see things like who they are following and what they liked or commented. 

Therefore, no more misery will be spread by this feature that brought countless couples to despair.

And I can almost hear you thinking…

‘What will Instagram be used for now, then?’

All jokes aside, similar to the taking down of Facebook’s graph search, the removal of Instagram’s ‘following’ tab leaves us with very limited publicly available data to investigate in our pursuit of a cheating partner. 

Hence, secretly accessing your partner’s Instagram account may be your only alternative to unmask their cheating business.

Before you do that, let’s review what can be done to investigate someone’s Instagram account without resorting to such an extreme option. 

Part #1: Catch a Cheating Partner on Instagram Without Illegitimately Accessing Their Account

Now, I’m assuming you don’t know your partner’s Instagram password.

Or, maybe, you have strong morals and you refuse to access their account without authorisation. 

Unfortunately, Instagram’s publicly available data will unlikely contain any proof that your partner is cheating.

Yet, in some cases, what is publicly accessible on Instagram could give you an indication of an existing affair or provide you with precious information that, if investigated further, may expose the truth. 

Without further ado, let’s see what you can dig into without illegitimately accessing your partner’s Instagram.

#1 Multiple Accounts

Someone who puts effort into their cheating business will likely use a secondary account to avoid detection.

First of all, enter your partner’s full name in the search bar. This will return all profiles associated with that full name. 

Secondly, check your partner’s main account for who they’re following and who their followers are, as chances are they will have linked their secondary account to it. 

Have a look at each user’s profile picture to try to detect your partner, or simply search usernames that may be your partner’s. Do the same with your partner’s closest friends.

Also, sync your phone contact lists and Facebook friends. Your partner’s old mobile number or current Facebook account may be linked to a secondary Instagram account. If that’s the case, it will pop up under ‘Settings’-> ‘Discover people’.

As a last resort, on the Instagram login page, enter each one of your partner’s emails or phone numbers that you know of, along with a made up password of your choice. 

When a login is attempted, Instagram will explicitly indicate if no account is linked to that specific email or number that was entered. If an account exists, Instagram will only indicate that the password is incorrect. You’ll then know that a secondary account exists.

#2 Suspicious Interactions

Lengthy but worthy.

Review other people’s interactions with your partner’s content, such as likes and comments.

Compile a list of recurring names consistently interacting with your partner’s content, especially if these individuals don’t seem to belong to your partner’s social group.

Similarly, try to identify signs of intimacy among your partner’s comments. 

You may think that a cheater would never want to expose their secret relationship online through cheeky likes or intimate comments. 

Wrong!

It is common for cheaters to attempt to sabotage their current relationship. An unhealthy relationship justifies the cheating and relieves the cheater’s sense of guilt. It is for the same reason that unfaithful partners continuously pick unnecessary fights.

Once you have compiled a list of primary suspects, it is time for a little bit of digging and surveillance.

Your surveillance will likely be halted by a private Instagram account. If that’s the case, simply open a fake Instagram account, nowadays called a ‘finsta’.

Tailor your ‘finsta’ so it is appetising to the person you want to keep an eye on. Pretend to live in the same town, attend the same school or like the same food. Anything that will facilitate the creation of a fake bond, in turn leading the person to accept your follow request.

#3 Tagged Photos

Most people don’t even remember tagged photos exist.

These are videos and photos in which you have been tagged by other users. To show tagged photos, go on your profile and tap on ‘tagged’.

Have a look at your partner’s tagged photos. Chances are they may have forgotten to filter out content that is not relationship friendly.

A careful cheater will certainly get rid of tags from such content, thus removing inappropriate pictures from their personal profile. 

However, these pictures will remain in the owner’s profile, which is why checking your partner’s closest friends’ Instagram accounts becomes worthwhile. 

Identify their closest friends through tagged photos and embark on an exciting stalking journey. 

#4 Last Active

Last but not least.

Consistent overnight social media use may raise significant red flags.

Discrete cheaters commonly exploit late night hours to safely communicate with lovers.  

Head to ‘messages’ to see when someone was last active on Instagram. This won’t work if the user in question has the activity status feature turned off.

Is That It?

Unfortunately, yes.

Often times, publicly available information on Instagram exacerbates your state of anxiety and paranoia without providing any convincing proof of an affair.

The fear of being cheated on can be shockingly overwhelming and can lead to desperate actions.

Violating a partner’s privacy is commonly perpetrated by the fearful partner desperate for answers. 

Thinking on snooping through your partner’s Instagram?

Let’s take a look to see if it’s worth the risk.

Part #2: Browsing Your Partner’s Instagram With No Consent and What to Look For | Catch an Instagram-Cheater

Unauthorised access to someone’s social media account constitutes an offense in most countries. 

Unless you are monitoring underaged children, unauthorised surveillance is illegal. 

Beyond its unlawfulness, violating your partner’s private space will inevitably harm their trust toward you and therefore your relationship.

Should you be convinced, based on your circumstances, that snooping through your partner’s Instagram is the right thing to do, below are a few tips you’ll find useful.

Let’s start.

In order to gain access to your partner’s Instagram account you need their email and password, unless you plan to access it directly from their device.

I assume you know your partner’s email.

Shouldn’t you not know your partner’s password, the following section is for you.

If you already possess or don’t need your partner’s credentials, jump to here.

5 Ways to Obtain Any of Your Partner’s Passwords

#1 Sneak a Peek

Risky.

Peep at your partner whenever they are inputting a password.

Quickly catch a glimpse of them typing the characters and attempt to make sense of it. 

You may be able to see a combination of letters and perhaps realise that they are typing their date of birth, their hometown or anything easily recognisable. 

#2 Access a Password Manager

This is absolutely the best method.

In today’s digital world we are required to have multiple passwords. Most of us, even unknowingly, use password manager softwares these days.

Anything like Keychain (iOS) or Credential Manager (Android).

For iOS devices, whenever you save a password, this is automatically stored within the ‘Keychain’, retrievable on the launchpad or through the search function on your MAC. 

To display passwords saved in Keychain you just need your partner’s computer screen lock passcode. 

You can easily access your partner’s saved password from an iPhone too, again by entering your partner’s screen lock passcode (‘Settings’-> ‘Password and Accounts’-> ‘Website & App Passwords’).

The above is also valid for Microsoft’s Credential Manager, where your partner’s Windows PIN is needed to view saved passwords.

We discuss in detail how to crack your partner’s password manager on our guide available here.

#3 Find Stored Passwords

Old-fashioned.

Your partner may be using the old way to store passwords in some remote, hidden computer folder.

Back in the day, my dad used to keep his passwords in a hidden folder called ‘passwords’ (*hilarious*), easily retrievable through the search function. 

Try to locate a similar folder in your partner’s PC, if present.

#4 Hack If You Can

Are you computer-savvy?

You may be able to obtain someone’s password by using semi-advanced hacks, such as social engineering tactics. 

You may not be the tech-savviest, but the Internet offers a lot of free content about social engineering methods to gain unauthorised access to someone’s account.

Give it a try.

Personally, I would avoid this route if you are the average Internet user due to its complex and time consuming nature. 

Also, it’s quite out of context. At the end of the day you are trying to snoop through your partner’s Instagram account.

#5 Use Spy Tools

You may ultimately try to resort to an array of spy applications or key loggers available online.

A keylogger is a software that records each keystone typed on a computer keyboard, including passwords. 

The Internet is filled with these products, some are free of charge.

If you are thinking of going for the free option, always ask yourself why anyone would market a spying software online free of charge.

Because it sucks and it’s probably fraudulent. 

For the sake of writing this blog post, I spent several hours attempting to hack my own Instagram and Facebook accounts through different free services online. 

Of course I failed.

Paid products are not a guarantee of success either. Here’s my review of two of the most popular spy applications on the market.

Finally, stay away from hacking generators.

The Internet is littered with these scams pretending to provide you with access to anyone’s social media account in exchange for surveys and credit card details.

Incredibly, people keep falling for it.

How Not to Get Caught Snooping on Your Partner’s Instagram

Alright, I’m assuming you can access your partner’s Instagram without them knowing.

Maybe you’ve obtained their password or maybe you are brave enough to access their profile directly from their phone as they are taking a shower. 

Before you start though, make sure you don’t get caught.

How?

#1 Log in From a Recognised Device/Browser

Instagram’s security is tight.

Try to access your partner’s Instagram from a device your partner previously used to log in.

Instagram will likely flag up login attempts from an unknown device, giving out its geographical location. A verification code will be sent to the account owner by email or SMS. 

You may be able to get around this if you log in from an unknown device within your home WIFI network, provided that your partner shares the latter with you.

I tried to access my Instagram from 3 different unknown devices at home using my WIFI network and none of them were flagged, as Instagram would recognise my WIFI IP address.

#2 Watch Out For the Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Your partner may have ‘2FA’ active on their account.

A text message triggered by the 2FA may raise your partner’s suspicions.

This security feature sends a verification code by SMS to the account owner every time a login is attempted on any device.

The code needs to be entered to successfully access the account. 

The only way to get past this security measure would be having immediate and unsupervised access to your partner’s text messages.

Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing beforehand if ‘2FA’ is active on your partner’s account without directly browsing their account settings (‘Settings’-> ’Security’-> ‘Two-factor authentication’).

#3 Mask Your Login Activity

Instagram records each access on the website, indicating when, how and where you logged in from.

This means that your unauthorised access may still be discoverable even from a recognised device if your partner were to scrupulously check their login activity under ‘Settings’ -> ‘Security’ -> ‘Login Activity’.

However, ‘Login Activity’ would not show the model of the device used to access or the specific address where access was gained (just the town), making an unauthorised access slightly easier to cover up.

Also, no one checks their login activity, let’s be honest. 

 #4 Turn Off Activity Status

Don’t let others know that you are connected.

Someone may try to interact with you. 

How to turn activity status off:

1. Head to the three lines at the top right corner of your Instagram profile.
2. Press ‘Settings’-> ‘Privacy’-> ‘Activity Status’
3. Switch off ‘Show Activity Status’

Remember to switch it back on before logging off.

#5 Do Not Clear Notifications

Be careful!

Needless to say, you cannot repristinate the red mark of an unread notification that has been cleared. 

Clearing notifications may raise your partner’s suspicions.

If unread messages exist, you can press the top right arrow to enter the chat section without clearing the red mark. The red mark will disappear only when the individual chat where the unread message exists is opened.  

Unfortunately, you cannot mark read messages as ‘unread’ on Instagram.

And…

You’re all set!

Where to Find Evidence of Cheating on Your Partner’s Instagram

#1 Read Direct Messages (DMs)

Pardon my French…

If there’s sh*t going down, it’s among your partner’s DMs.

If there are no obvious signs of an affair, try to identify intimate conversations that may indicate the existence of a relationship and compile a list of potential lovers. 

Try to gather as much information as possible on these individuals through social networks. 

#2 Review Recent Activity

Try to find a recurring name.

Someone your partner is showing an unusual amount of interest in. 

Start by reviewing your partner’s search history to see who they have been creeping on lately. Simply head to the search function, hit the top search bar and switch to ‘accounts’.

Continue by reviewing your partner’s liked posts.

Use the ‘Posts you’ve liked’ function to have a detailed overview of what pictures have been liked by your partner.  There is no way of deleting these if not by unlinking the post itself. Head to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Account’ -> ‘Posts you’ve liked’.

Unfortunately, Instagram does not currently own a function to review commented posts. 

It is also possible to check which accounts your partner has followed in a chronological order, with the top one being the most recent. Simply head to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Security’ -> ‘Access data’ -> ‘Accounts you follow’. 

Finally, of course, use the ‘Activity’ tab (the little heart symbol) to review other users’ comments and likes on your partner’s content. Look for an overwhelming presence, someone who suspiciously seems to be all over your partner’s Instagram. 

#3 Check Linked Accounts 

Your partner may be running their dirty business through a second account.

Instagram allows you to link up to 5 different accounts.

To find out whether your partner has one or more accounts linked to the original, simply tap on the username at the top of the screen. You’ll be shown different accounts to switch to.

Your partner may also have other social media accounts linked to Instagram that you may be unaware of. Head to ‘Settings’-> ‘Account’ -> ‘Linked Accounts’.

#4 Find Restricted Accounts / Hidden Content

You may be surprised to be in your partner’s black list.

Instagram allows you to hide stories from certain users. Go to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Privacy’ -> ‘Story’ to see who has been prevented from seeing all your partner’s stories.

Contrarily to stories, Instagram posts are public by their very nature and cannot be hidden to specific users. Posts can be concealed through the ‘archive’ function and will be visible by the account owner only. 

Go to ‘Settings’ and tap ‘Archive’. Press ‘Archive’ on the top bar to switch between hidden posts and old stories. Yes, you’ll find all your partner’s expired stories in this section.

It is also possible to hide certain stories from certain users through the ‘close friends’ function. These stories will still be visible in the archive section.  

#5 Review Login Activity

Instagram login activity tells you where you logged in from.

You may find it suspicious that your partner logged in from their home town when they were meant to be on a business trip miles away from the office. 

Unfortunately, login activity only broadly indicates the city where someone logged in from, not the specific address. 

Also, your partner needs to specifically log out and log back in for Instagram to record the access.  

Go to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Security’ -> ‘Login Activity’.

Still worth a check. 

Conclusion

The very erotic nature on Instagram makes it an irresistible place for cheaters.

Often times, cheating partners will use Instagram and social networks in general to maintain a safe low-key form of interaction with their lovers.

Unfortunately, we have established that it is hard to pick up on these subtle clues without directly accessing your partner’s account.

If you ended up with no answers whatsoever, you may consider monitoring your partner’s texts messages, to continue your investigative journey.

For instance, did you know that there is a free, effective way to secretly read someone’s WhatsApp conversations using the WhatsApp Web version, without resorting to unreliable spy softwares?

We discuss it here: ‘How to catch a cheater without hiring a private investigator’.