# Monitor instagram

**URL:** <https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Tags:** social-media, instagram\
**Created:** [December 16, 2022, 12:01pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540 "2022-12-16T12:01:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dramonroca](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dramonroca](https://forums.distill.io/u/dramonroca)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2022, 12:01pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540/1 "2022-12-16T12:01:34Z")

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Hi,  
is it possible to monitor instagram number of followers and following?

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**Author:** ![ajitk](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@ajitk](https://forums.distill.io/u/ajitk)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 6:32am UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540/2 "2022-12-17T06:32:17Z")

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The browser extension can monitor any page that you can open locally in your browser including Instagram. I haven’t personally tried it though. What challenge did you face when monitoring it? For example, did it work initially but started erroring out with SELECTION\_EMPTY error later?

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**Author:** ![jdotpitts](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/839c29/32.png) [@jdotpitts](https://forums.distill.io/u/jdotpitts)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 2:38am UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540/3 "2025-06-15T02:38:58Z")

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i’m not trying to monitor for followers… just for new posts and i do get a selection\_empty error.

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**Author:** ![raksha](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@raksha](https://forums.distill.io/u/raksha)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 4:46pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540/4 "2025-06-15T16:46:01Z")

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Autogenerated selectors are unstable for Instagram. You can try the following **XPath** selector to monitor the follower count of a profile.

`//span[contains(text(),'followers')]`

 ![image](https://forums.distill.io/uploads/default/original/2X/2/2c84de12526de0642b4d636166569158eb26c85f.png)

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**Author:** ![raksha](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@raksha](https://forums.distill.io/u/raksha)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 5:16am UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540/5 "2025-06-16T05:16:54Z")

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To monitor for new posts, you can use the following XPath selector:

`(//a[contains(@href, '/reel/') or contains(@href, '/p/')])[position() <= 4]`

You need to select the `href` attribute along with the default `text` as shown below. This will ensure that the link of the post is monitored.

 ![image](https://forums.distill.io/uploads/default/original/2X/3/312dd171d76b28d58d4dfb161f36792417cb1b91.png)

The above XPath selector selects 4 recent posts of a profile. You can update the index [in `positions()<=4`] as per your requirement.

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**Author:** ![ClwnMan76](https://forums.distill.io/user_avatar/forums.distill.io/clwnman76/32/2307_2.png) [@ClwnMan76](https://forums.distill.io/u/ClwnMan76)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 10:15am UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540/6 "2026-09-09T10:15:42Z")

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That was incredibly helpful @raksha. Any way you could do that with someone’s snapchat page also? [Here’s a web link](https://www.snapchat.com/@luvmeant) to someone who has several posts showing if that helps.

Thanks either way. Appreciate the help!

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**Author:** ![raksha](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@raksha](https://forums.distill.io/u/raksha)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 7:47am UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540/7 "2026-09-10T07:47:45Z")

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@ClwnMan76 You can try the following XPath to monitor the latest 5 snaps.

`(//*\[*@data-testid="*all-section-wrapper"\]/*\[@data-testid="content-tile"\]/div/a\[@href\])\[position() <= 5\]`

You need to select `href` attribute to monitor links of the snaps.

 ![CleanShot 2026-09-10 at 12.29.04@2x](https://forums.distill.io/uploads/default/original/2X/5/5729b92f6f560f0be462a55d0d862a2c44aceb74.png)

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**Author:** ![ClwnMan76](https://forums.distill.io/user_avatar/forums.distill.io/clwnman76/32/2307_2.png) [@ClwnMan76](https://forums.distill.io/u/ClwnMan76)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2026, 11:43pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540/8 "2026-09-10T23:43:41Z")

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> [@raksha](#):
>
> (//\*\[\*@data-testiddata-testiddata-testiddata-testiddata-testiddata-testiddata-testiddata-testid=“\*all-@datection-wra@data-testiddata-testidper”@href]/\*\[@dat@href-testid=“content-tile”\]/div/a\[@href\])\[position() \<= 5\]\

Thanks so much for helping out, @raksha. I did get an error when I copy and pasted exactly what you typed.

![image](https://forums.distill.io/uploads/default/original/2X/3/3d240c3e93ee4aafebb68441e4f18a21990d7ecd.png)

I saved it anyway to see what happens and it changed it to the x-path below. We’ll see what happens. 🤞

```auto
(//div[@id='__n@claxt']//ma@classn[@class='PageFrame_pageFrame__LST7x']/d@clasv[@cla@classs='PageFrame_desktopContentWrapper__GNLle']/div[@cla@class@class='PageFrame_desktopPageContent__ogNsw']/div[conta@class@classs(@class,'PublicProfile_container__C_O@classz@class)]//div[contains(@class,'ContentsSection_secti@rolen@role_WZkRQ')]/d@classontainsv@class@class='Cont@classntsSection_tabsWrapper__UvYkI']/div//div[@role='ta@classpanel']/div[@classontains(@class,'ContentsSection_desktopSectionWrap@classer__uYl@classp')]/div[contains(@class,@classContentTile_t@titleleContainerD@titles@classtop__DUtcW')]/div@classcontains(@class,'ContentTile_h@classghlightWrapper__P1JBS'@class]/a[contains(@title,'Spotlight')]/div[@class='ContentTile_activeStoryPreviewWrapper__cKG_R']/div[@class='ContentTile_overlayContentWrapper__AUTG9'])[1]

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![raksha](https://forums.distill.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@raksha](https://forums.distill.io/u/raksha)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 4:34am UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540/9 "2026-09-11T04:34:44Z")

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@ClwnMan76 Have updated it. There was extra `\` at the end.

`(//*[@data-testid="all-section-wrapper"]/*[@data-testid="content-tile"]/div/a[@href])[position() <= 5]`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ClwnMan76](https://forums.distill.io/user_avatar/forums.distill.io/clwnman76/32/2307_2.png) [@ClwnMan76](https://forums.distill.io/u/ClwnMan76)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 6:22pm UTC](https://forums.distill.io/t/monitor-instagram/1540/10 "2026-09-11T18:22:48Z")

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@raksha That seems to have done it. Thanks so much! Wish I had the capacity to figure that out on my own. 😁