Instagram this user does not exist

Question

I'm trying to get medida data from Instagram via their REST service. I've got an access token and tried to get some media data, I'm using this query

https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/184692323/media/recent/?access_token=

I get this response

{"meta":{"error_type":"APINotFoundError","code":400,"error_message":"this user does not exist"}}

The user ID does exist, I actually tried to use Lady Gaga's user ID, which I got from here: http://jelled.com/instagram/lookup-user-id# When I use my user-id, it works. It just seems to not work with other user ids.

What can I do? Is this something related to these new "sanbox" rules?

Answer 1

the user exits, but you may be blocked by instagram for spamming, usually you get that response if spam was detected by an account, try with different user access_token, it should work.

Answer 2

I think you are still running in Instagram Sandbox-mode: https://www.instagram.com/developer/sandbox/.

Citing their page: For example, if you query the /users/{user-id}/ endpoint and the {user-id} is a sandbox user, then you will get the normal API response; but if the {user-id} is not a sandbox user, you will get a APINotFound error.

I have the same issue for non-Sandbox users, which are public but nevertheless Instagram returns it's not a valid user. So the docs seem to be correct.