FAQ & Common Errors for Instagram Channel
Some Instagram User don’t have Profile Image
There are some cases that the profile image is missing for some Instagram User.
The reason behind this, for some user, especially if the user is coming from Instagram post comments, meta isn’t sending full user information through their API.
Hence we don’t have their profile image.
Also once the user engaged or talked to the bot, meta is creating new user for that, so the previous user will remain without profile images.
For the other users, the “update user profile” action can be used to refresh their profile & timezone information.
Error: “Message not sent because outside 24 hours”
This limit applies to meta channels(Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp). If the user hasn't engaged with your bot for the past 24 hours.
You can’t reach them directly. For WhatsApp, you will need to send a template message, for Messenger, you will need to send recurring notifications or one-time notification.
There aren't any good options to reach the Instagram user if they are outside of a 24-hour window. A work around is to gather the email of the user and reach them out via email.
More information here:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/policy/policy-overview/
Error: (#230) User consent is required to access user profile
Solution:
The issue is about the user's Consent,
User consent is required to access a user's profile. It is set only when a person sends a message to a business or clicks icebreakers or the persistent menu. If a person comments on a post or comment but has not sent a message to a business, your app will receive an error.
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/instagram/features/user-profile/
Instagram automation don’t work
If Instagram DM automations dont work however other automations such as comment automations work normally, it could be an issue with the user approval enabled on your profile.The approval stops UChat from creating a bot user and since no bot user is created, DM automations are not triggered.
This does not happen with Comment triggers since the approval system is bypassed as users usually don't require to be invite-accepted to comment on posts.
The solution for this is to go inside your Instagram profile settings and turn off User approvals. Once it's turned off, UChat will be able to create a bot user and the DM automations will resume to work.
To manage who can send you message requests on Instagram:
Click More in the bottom left, then click Settings.
Below How others can interact with you, click Messages and story replies.
Click Message controls.
Choose message requests to receive them at all.