Where Is the Followers File in My Instagram Data Export?

You requested your Instagram data, the ZIP finally arrived, you opened it — and it’s a maze of folders with names like "connections" and "personal_information". Somewhere in there is the list of who follows you, but it isn’t obvious where. Here is exactly where to look.

The folder that holds it

Inside the export, your follow data sits in a folder along the path:

connections → followers_and_following

The exact name of the top folder can vary slightly between exports, but "followers_and_following" is the part to look for. Inside it you’ll find a handful of files:

• followers_1.json — the people who follow you.
• following.json — the people you follow.
• pending_follow_requests.json — requests you sent that haven’t been accepted.
• recently_unfollowed_profiles.json — accounts you recently unfollowed (a short retained window).

If you have a large account, your followers may be split across followers_1.json, followers_2.json, followers_3.json and so on — that’s normal; together they make the full list.

The setting that decides if you can read it at all

There’s a catch that trips most people up: when you request your data, Instagram defaults to the HTML format. HTML files are made to look at in a browser, not to analyze, and a lot of tools can’t read them. The format you want is JSON — that’s the machine-readable version your followers and following live in cleanly.

If you opened your export and found .html files instead of .json, you picked the wrong format. There’s no way to convert it — you just request a new export and choose JSON. We explain the difference in JSON vs HTML.

You don’t actually have to read the file yourself

Opening followers_1.json shows a wall of raw data — usernames, links, timestamps. You can read it, but comparing it against following.json by hand is miserable.

That’s the whole point of Unfollowly: you drop the export in and your browser reads those exact files for you, on your device, and shows who doesn’t follow you back, your mutuals, your fans, and your pending requests. Nothing is uploaded — you can open the network tab and watch it stay empty.

How to get the export (if you don’t have it yet)

1. In Instagram: Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Download your information.
2. Select only "Followers and following" and choose the JSON format.
3. Instagram emails you the file, usually within 5–30 minutes.
4. Open it in the checker — or see exactly who doesn’t follow you back.

The full walkthrough with screenshots is in our download guide.

Bottom line

Your followers and following lists are in the connections/followers_and_following folder, as JSON files — provided you chose JSON when you requested the export. From there you can read them by hand, or let a tool do the comparison privately on your device in seconds.

See who doesn’t follow you back →