Solution: Instagram Graph API - Comments Data Returned with Empty Data (No Verification Required)

The Problem

White making requests to the Graph API for media comments retrieval (e.g. GET /{ig-media-id}/comments) , the response comes back empty like this:

You might have already followed:

• Used a Businiess or Professional account.
• Embed URL with correct scopes.
• Verified that the media contains comments.

Yet, still… no data.

Solution

This often overlooked issue is from the one simple reason:

Your Facebook App is in Development mode

When the app is in development mode (which is the default), it can only access test data from Instagram. Live data fetches need the app to be in live mode.

To Fix this:

1. Go to Facebook for developers
2. Navigate to your app.
3. Under the App Settings -> Basic, fill in:
   1. Privacy Policy URL (e.g. https://pepper.mrbotz.com/privacy-policy )
   2. Terms of Service (e.g. https://pepper.mrbotz.com/terms-of-service )

4. Then, switch you app into the Live Mode.

Default Settings (App in development Mode)

After (Turn on to Live mode):

⚠️ No App review or verification is required to access your own business account's comments since you should have already added the Instagram account into test user for that particular application, However for the users to use it is necessary to submit the application for a review so make sure the privacy policy and TOS are valid and proper while submitting for the verification to Meta.

Final Notes

• The solution works for the first party usage where Instagram account is added as test user.
• If you plan to access data from other users, you will need to go through the APP verification process with a proper Privacy Policy and Terms of Service URL.

Share this post with anyone who is new to Instagram Graph API - it might save hours of debugging.

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