# Weird.. people can't find my username? **URL:** \ **Category:** Instagram Marketing\ **Created:** [July 12, 2019, 10:54pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656 "2019-07-12T22:54:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alex408](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alex408/32/29829_2.png) [@alex408](https://mpsocial.com/u/alex408)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 10:54pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/1 "2019-07-12T22:54:13Z")
I have a strange situation where half the people that search for my @handle cannot find my page. My handle isn’t showing up in the search results if you type it in. Has anyone encountered this before? The account is less than 1 month old and I had transferred the name over from an old account that I stopped using. It’s @alexanderthegreat if you want to see how it doesn’t show up in search results. Thanks for your help! ---
**Author:** ![Arthuditu](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/arthuditu/32/33020_2.png) [@Arthuditu](https://mpsocial.com/u/Arthuditu)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/2 "2019-07-12T23:02:24Z")
I also have a problem today, as someone types my username is not able to search or am somewhere at the end. But today I even noticed it in a few very popular people in my country. As I typed their name, they were also not in the first place. And they always were there! Interesting, maybe IG wants to give chances to smaller accounts. ---
**Author:** ![alex408](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alex408/32/29829_2.png) [@alex408](https://mpsocial.com/u/alex408)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 11:13pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/3 "2019-07-12T23:13:56Z")
I don’t think IG is that nice! haha. Plus my page is a smaller page, so that can’t be the reason ---
**Author:** ![PierreDOlain](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/pierredolain/32/39514_2.png) [@PierreDOlain](https://mpsocial.com/u/PierreDOlain)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 11:27pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/4 "2019-07-12T23:27:47Z")
After getting phone verification you become shadowbanned plus you will rank much worse in instagram search, for accounts with 12 letters even if I type in first 8 ones it wouldn’t show up in recommendations. ---
**Author:** ![alex408](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alex408/32/29829_2.png) [@alex408](https://mpsocial.com/u/alex408)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 11:29pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/5 "2019-07-12T23:29:04Z")
are you saying that if you create your IG account with a phone number (as opposed to email) then you will rank worse in IG search? ---
**Author:** ![PierreDOlain](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/pierredolain/32/39514_2.png) [@PierreDOlain](https://mpsocial.com/u/PierreDOlain)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/6 "2019-07-12T23:33:17Z")
No, phone verification can happen for every account, even those created with an email. It usually happens when you log in from a new device. ---
**Author:** ![alex408](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alex408/32/29829_2.png) [@alex408](https://mpsocial.com/u/alex408)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2019, 11:34pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/7 "2019-07-12T23:34:09Z")
I never had to do a phone verification on my account before ---
**Author:** ![Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alexnvo/32/31498_2.png) [@Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/u/Alexnvo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 12:01am UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/8 "2019-07-13T00:01:30Z")
It was the first account that popped up. What’s the problem ? ---
**Author:** ![alex408](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alex408/32/29829_2.png) [@alex408](https://mpsocial.com/u/alex408)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 12:36am UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/9 "2019-07-13T00:36:52Z")
works for some people, but not for others… so i’m not sure ---
**Author:** ![Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alexnvo/32/31498_2.png) [@Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/u/Alexnvo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 12:41am UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/10 "2019-07-13T00:41:42Z")
Probably because search feed for followers is following ER paths as only few followers see it compared to a normal feed ---
**Author:** ![runninx77](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/runninx77/32/34251_2.png) [@runninx77](https://mpsocial.com/u/runninx77)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 1:05am UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/11 "2019-07-13T01:05:16Z")
Could you elaborate? ---
**Author:** ![Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alexnvo/32/31498_2.png) [@Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/u/Alexnvo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 1:19am UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/12 "2019-07-13T01:19:41Z")
When I tag one of accounts for a shoutout post, I can put in the first letter of the account and it often shows up as the first account – in the past week I have to type in more letters for it to show up in the search. This tells me it the feed does not really know what accounts I prefer, even when I tag it everyday. Translated to the feed – those accounts we engage with most often should by nature come up first or near the top of the feed, this is not happening now – hence low ER across the board. This also effects explore to. Every one my accounts hit explore, with only a few hundred seen. This is way, way below normal. ---
**Author:** ![alex408](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alex408/32/29829_2.png) [@alex408](https://mpsocial.com/u/alex408)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 2:48am UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/13 "2019-07-13T02:48:11Z")
Hey I’m wondering if the problem is because my @handle used to be on an old account that was shadowbanned. So I made a fresh account on a new phone and new IP but I switched over to keep my original @handle on the new account. Could this mean that IG has also flagged the new account as spam like the old one was? ---
**Author:** ![Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alexnvo/32/31498_2.png) [@Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/u/Alexnvo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 2:56am UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/14 "2019-07-13T02:56:07Z")
the account is shadowed, not the name i think. plus the shadow should of lifted if over a few weeks ---
**Author:** ![Agent242](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/agent242/32/33992_2.png) [@Agent242](https://mpsocial.com/u/Agent242)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 6:21am UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/15 "2019-07-13T06:21:39Z")
Usually when people can’t view or find your page means that you’re shadow and/or have a low trust score. ---
**Author:** ![alex408](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alex408/32/29829_2.png) [@alex408](https://mpsocial.com/u/alex408)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/16 "2019-07-13T17:40:26Z")
I don’t see how I can have a low trust score on a brand new account created on a new phone. Do you think that it will get fixed with time? ---
**Author:** ![Micky](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/micky/32/34477_2.png) [@Micky](https://mpsocial.com/u/Micky)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/17 "2019-07-13T19:11:29Z")
You are shadowbanned my friend. Been there. You gotta wait your time, but it will be fixed. Only matter of time. ![_20190713_211248](https://mpsocial.com/uploads/default/original/3X/5/7/57afcf65268dd72aa30182a965048da97d4d5eba.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alexnvo/32/31498_2.png) [@Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/u/Alexnvo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 8:07pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/18 "2019-07-13T20:07:40Z")
@handle is not the account name – its @alexanderthegreat – read the first thread, ---
**Author:** ![Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/alexnvo/32/31498_2.png) [@Alexnvo](https://mpsocial.com/u/Alexnvo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/19 "2019-07-13T20:08:43Z")
new accounts have really no trust score – it takes few months to get it established ---
**Author:** ![Micky](https://mpsocial.com/user_avatar/mpsocial.com/micky/32/34477_2.png) [@Micky](https://mpsocial.com/u/Micky)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 8:23pm UTC](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656/20 "2019-07-13T20:23:47Z")
But @alexanderthegreat isn’t showing either! Only similars. ![_20190713_222046](https://mpsocial.com/uploads/default/original/3X/1/8/1857668b3744b1f78c8a2a8e0caa90ccf79b26e0.jpeg) If he recently switched names, and no one else has taken the old name yet, the bann follows the account, which includes ealier used names. Until someone else takes that username. That is my experience. As mention I have tried thsi before. Bit the shadowbann is only temp. He just has to give it time. [Next page](https://mpsocial.com/t/weird-people-cant-find-my-username/74656.md?page=2)