Instagram Stories not showing up in story bar for many users, only visible via profile visit [U: Fixed]

Update (April 23, 20:44 IST): The issue seems to have been fixed, as we are seeing reports from users who confirm everything is working as expected now.

Original story follows:

A widespread bug is currently hiding fresh Instagram Stories from the top feed bar, leaving users to think their posts have completely vanished.

The glitch started hitting a huge chunk of accounts at least a couple of hours ago. If you post a story right now, it likely will not show up in the normal carousel for your followers.

The only way anyone can actually view your update is by manually searching your username and clicking directly on your profile. The familiar colored ring simply does not appear anywhere else.

As you can tell, it’s a pretty bad scenario for anyone trying to reach their audience. View counts are predictably tanking.

Scores of frustrated users have flooded Reddit over the past few hours to figure out what went wrong. Many initially panicked and assumed they were shadowbanned. Of course, that’s not what is going on.

Several users noticed their engagement flatlining almost instantly. Some said they were getting just one or two views after leaving a story up for hours. Others archived their posts entirely rather than let them sit unseen.

But it’s not just Reddit where people are complaining about the issue. Posts are also coming in on X in real-time. 

Standard troubleshooting seems to be completely useless here. Users have tried logging out and logging back in. They have deleted the app and restarted their phones. Reposting the story does not trigger the feed to update.

It is clearly a server-side problem on Meta’s end. The app simply refuses to pull new story data to the home screen.

We have not seen any official acknowledgment from Instagram regarding the issue just yet. But given how widespread the reports appear to be, it’s likely that the team is already aware of the problem.

For now, your best option is to just wait it out. There is no magic setting you can toggle to fix this.

If you have something important to share, hold off. Posting right now basically guarantees nobody will see it unless they are actively browsing your profile.

We will keep monitoring the situation and let you know if Instagram rolls out a proper fix or if there’s any workaround that helps.

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