why can’t people share my Instagram story

(6 Reasons) Why can’t People Share my Instagram Story [Workarounds]

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Why can’t I share someone else’s story on Instagram?

Or your friends are not able to share your stories or posts on their Instagram?

Have you tagged your friend to your story, and still they can’t share it?

If your friends can’t repost your Instagram story, you have landed on the right page. Here we have talked about why your friends won’t be able to share your story and how to fix it.

So, let’s get started.

Why can’t people share my Instagram story

Short answer: Other people can’t share your Instagram story because you haven’t tagged them, your Instagram profile is private, you have turned off the story sharing permission, or there may be a technical glitch or servers of Instagram are down.

Also, as per Instagram:

You can only share someone’s post from feed to your story if their account is public and they’ve allowed resharing of their posts. Sharing posts from feed to stories isn’t available to everyone.

Well, there can be many other reasons why your friends can’t repost your Instagram story, such as there could be an Instagram glitch or the servers of Instagram are having a tough time.

Below, we have explained all the reasons why others can’t share your Instagram post or story to their story or feed.

Instagram logo

1. Your Instagram account is private

The first reason your friends cannot share your story to their Instagram story or feed posts is that your Instagram profile is set to private.

Instagram allows users to keep their profiles either private or public.

And, according to Instagram, When your account is set up to:

  • Public: Your profile and posts can be viewed by anyone on or off Instagram, even if they don’t have an Instagram account.

  • Private: Only your approved followers can see what you share, including your photos or videos on the hashtag and location page, and a list of your followers and followers.

How to change Instagram account from Private to Public:

  • To go to your profile, tap on or on your profile picture in the bottom right.
  • Tap 3 dots icon in the top right, then tap Settings.
  • Tap on Privacy.
  • To make your account public, turn off the toggle, next to private account.

So, if your Instagram profile is set to private, other users won’t be able to share your feed posts to their stories if you haven’t tagged them.

2. You haven’t tagged your friend in your story

The second reason your friends can’t share your story could be that you haven’t tagged them in your story.

Note: Even if your Instagram profile is set to public, and you haven’t tagged your friend in the story, they won’t be able to share it directly to their story.

Well, if your account is public, anyone can easily share your Instagram feed posts to their story, no matter if you have tagged them or not.

But, this is not the case with Instagram stories; you will have to tag your friend in your story, then only they will be able to share it to their story.

So, this is the main reason you can’t share someone else’s story. Instagram only allows you to reshare stories if you were mentioned in them by the person who posted them.

How to tag a person in your Instagram story:

  • Select a photo or video to share to your story,
  • Tap. Type @ followed immediately by their username,
  • Now, select the person you’d like to mention.
  • Tap Done.

In case you have tagged your friends on your Instagram story and still they can’t share it there may be other reasons as discusses below:

3. Your story sharing permission is turned off

Another reason others can’t share your story to their Instagram story could be that you have turned off the story sharing feature in your Instagram privacy settings.

Yes, Instagram allows users to disable the story-sharing feature of other people.

In case somehow your ‘Allow sharing to story’ feature or option is turned off, other people won’t be able to share your posts even if your profile is set to public.

Note: If you tag other people in your post or story, they will be able to share it even if you have turned off the “Allow sharing to the story” feature.

How to turn on the ‘Allow sharing to story’ feature:

  • Open Instagram
  • Go to your profile 
  • Tap on hamburger menu (three lines) present in the top right corner.
  • Tap on Settings.
  • Now, go to Privacy
  • Here, Tap ‘Story’
  • Now, turn on ‘Allow sharing to story’

Allow sharing to story Instagram

4. Technical glitch

Another reason your friends are not able to share your story to their story even if you have tagged them could be an Instagram glitch.

Instagram is known for glitches and bugs. There are several issues and bugs that people experience with Instagram such as unable to tag friends, DM post unavailable, etc.

So, if your friend is not able to share your story even if you have tagged them, you can ask them to perform the following things:

Update the Instagram to the latest version:

Not using the Instagram’s version could cause certain problems as the latest version comes with all the bugs and glitches fixes.

To update the Instagram app, follow the steps below

Once, the Instagram app is updated, simply remove it from recent apps and open it again and see whether sharing option is working now or not.

Clear Instagram app cache:

Another thing, you would like to suggest your friend would be clearing the Instagram cache.

To clear Instagram app cache, follow the steps below

  • Open your device settings
  • Tap on ‘App’ or ‘Applications’
  • Now, search Instagram
  • Here, tap on ‘storage and data’
  • Now, tap on ‘clear cache’

Note: These setting will differ slightly from device to device.

Report the glitch to Instagram:

Finally, if nothing is working, ask your friend to report the problem to Instagram support.

  • Tap or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
  • Tap in the top right, then tap Settings.
  • Tap Help, then tap Report a Problem.
  • Follow the on-screen instructions.

5. Instagram servers are down

Lastly, if the Instagram servers are having a problem or facing a downtime, users could face several problems such as can’t post, can’t share stories or posts, etc.

So, it’s always good to know whether the problem lies on your side or the client’s side.

That being said, we would suggest visiting the downdetector page for Instagram to check its server status. Here check the user’s reports and comments; if these are significant, it means the servers of Instagram are having a problem.

instagram server status

In this case, you and your friend would like to wait to share stories and posts till the servers get back to normal.

6. Post in an Advertisement

Also, if the post type is an advertisement, you won’t be able to share it to your Instagram story.

Workarounds : Friends can’t share my Instagram story even when they are tagged in

There are a few workarounds you can try if your friends are unable to share your Instagram story that they are tagged in:

  • Ask them to try again in a few minutes

Ask your friend to try sharing the story again after a few minutes or hours. Sometimes, this issue can be temporary and may resolve itself with time.

  • Re-tag them

Remove the tag and then re-add it to the story. This may refresh the tag and make it shareable.

  • Ask them to take a screenshot and then share it

If your friend is still unable to share the story, you can ask them to take a screenshot of the story and share it on their own Instagram profile.

  • Download the story and share with them

You can also download the story and send it to your friend, who can then share it on their own Instagram profile.

Final Words

In case you and your friend have done everything and still your friend is not able to repost your story, you can simply send the photo or video as a direct message to your friend and ask them to upload it to their story.

Your friend can also simply take the Screenshot of your story and post it to their story.

So, that’s all for now folks. After reading this post, I hope you were able to figure out why your friends were not able to share your Instagram story or post.

If this post helped you, then you would love to visit our Instagram section for more such guides or simply follow a few related posts below.

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