What to do when a platform pauses your cleanup
Platforms limit how fast one account can delete. When one pushes back, Unpost waits and tries again by itself. What happens if the platform keeps refusing depends on the platform.
- 01
A countdown appears during the run
A banner such as “Instagram limit reached, Next retry in 72 seconds” usually means the platform asked Unpost to slow down (on Facebook and LinkedIn the same banner also covers a dropped connection or a server error); the run carries on when the countdown ends. On Facebook a rate-limit wait is a full hour, so the countdown starts at 3600 seconds (a dropped connection gets a shorter wait). If you wait it out, keep the app open on iPhone; on Android it keeps running in the background. You don’t have to sit through a long wait: tap Deleting, not the back arrow, to stop. The result then reads Stopped early, and everything already deleted stays deleted.
In the app Delete screen
- 02
If the platform keeps refusing an item
On X (Twitter) and Slack, Unpost keeps waiting and retrying the same item while the platform keeps asking it to slow down. On Discord, TikTok, Reddit, LinkedIn and Instagram, an item still refused after three tries is set aside for that run, so a run can end as Deletion Complete! with items left behind: run it again later. Instagram also skips an item it refuses outright at once, and many refusals in a row end the run as Couldn’t finish. On Facebook, see the next step.
In the app Delete screen
- 03
When Instagram or Facebook pauses a selection
On Facebook, a selection ends as Rate limited after up to four one-hour waits; the post types under Delete Posts run together and pause together, except Posts on Others’ Profiles and Archived Posts, which run on their own. On Instagram, a selection ends as Rate limited when Instagram stops serving its list (posts, reels, carousels, followers or following). The other selections still run, and the result reads Paused by and the platform’s name. The screen explains that it is the platform’s limit, not the app’s and not a problem with your account; it normally lifts on its own after a few hours.
In the app Result
- 04
Check what finished
Under By selection, Done means that selection is complete and Rate limited means it stopped partway. Not finished means it was stopped partway for another reason, such as you tapping Deleting; Failed means the run hit an error on that selection and the result reads Couldn’t finish; Not started means the run never reached it. Everything deleted so far is gone for good.
In the app Result → By selection
- 05
Come back in a few hours and start again
Tap Try again on the result, or open the account from Main, and start the run again: it only finds what is left. On Instagram, wait at least a couple of hours first, as the app’s banner advises (the result screen says a few); LinkedIn’s banner also asks you to wait a while. If LinkedIn signs you out during a run, the result reads Couldn’t finish: tap Try again (or Back to Home, then the account), tap OK on the LinkedIn signed you out message, then on Main tap the row that reads Not connected — tap to log in, and sign in.
In the app Result → Try again
Good to know
- Premium lifts Unpost’s daily allowance, not the platforms’ own limits.
- Don’t open or use the account anywhere during a run, in its own app or on another device: the app warns that it can interfere.
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