Parsing Instagram's connections.json Followers and Following Files

Step by step

1. 1

   Download your data as JSON

   In the account settings, request a download of your information and choose JSON rather than HTML.

2. 2

   Find the connection files

   Inside the archive, open connections/followers_and_following/. Followers may be split across several numbered files.

3. 3

   Extract usernames

   Each entry has a string_list_data list; the username is in its value field and the follow time in timestamp.

4. 4

   Compare the sets

   Subtract the followers set from the following set to see who does not follow you back.

Example

import json
from pathlib import Path

base = Path("connections/followers_and_following")

def usernames(entries) -> set[str]:
    return {item["value"] for e in entries for item in e["string_list_data"]}

followers = set()
for f in base.glob("followers*.json"):
    followers |= usernames(json.loads(f.read_text()))

following = usernames(
    json.loads((base / "following.json").read_text())["relationships_following"]
)
print(sorted(following - followers))

Frequently Asked Questions