Which File in the Instagram Export Has Your Followers

You've downloaded your Instagram data archive and now you're looking at a folder full of files with no obvious labels. The question is simple: which one has your followers list? The answer is equally simple: it's in a file called followers_1.json, inside the connections/followers_and_following/ folder. This guide shows exactly where to navigate, what the file contains, and what to do once you've found it — including the one-step shortcut if you'd rather not dig through folders at all.

What's inside the Instagram data archive

When Instagram sends your data download, it arrives as a ZIP file containing several top-level folders. The structure varies slightly by account history, but most archives look something like this:

• connections/ — your follower and following relationships, blocked accounts, and restricted accounts
• content/ — your posts, stories, reels, and media
• messages/ — your direct message history
• preferences/ — notification and feed settings
• personal_information/ — your profile details, email, and phone number

Everything relevant to followers and following lives inside the connections/ folder. The other folders are unrelated to unfollower tracking, so you can ignore them for this purpose.

The two files you need

Open the connections/ folder, then open followers_and_following/ inside it. You'll find a handful of files here. The two that matter for understanding who follows you — and who stopped — are:

followers_1.json — A list of every account currently following you, along with the Unix timestamp of when each person followed. This is the file that tells you who is on your list right now.

following.json — A list of every account you follow. Compare this against followers_1.json to find the accounts you follow who do not follow back.

These two files together are what makes an unfollower comparison possible. The gap between them — accounts in following.json that are absent from followers_1.json — is your list of non-followers.

A note on numbered files

If your account has a large number of followers, Instagram splits the list across multiple files: followers_1.json, followers_2.json, and so on. Each file holds a portion of the full list. You need all of them to get a complete picture. If you upload your ZIP to hooleft.me, it handles multi-part follower files automatically, so you don't have to worry about combining them by hand.

How to navigate there, step by step

1. Unzip the archive. On Mac, double-click the ZIP file in Finder. On Windows, right-click and choose "Extract All." On iPhone, long-press the ZIP in the Files app and tap Uncompress. The archive expands into a folder with the same name as the ZIP.
2. Open the extracted folder. You'll see the top-level structure described above.
3. Open the connections folder. It's usually listed near the top of the file list.
4. Open followers_and_following inside it. This is where all the relationship files live.
5. Look for followers_1.json and following.json. These are plaintext files, readable in any text editor, even Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac.

If you're on a mobile device and the archive hasn't been requested yet, the full process from the request through to opening the file on your phone is covered in detail in the Instagram data export step-by-step guide.

What the JSON actually looks like

Each entry in followers_1.json is a small block that holds the account's username and the timestamp of when they followed you. The structure is consistent across all followers:

{
  "string_list_data": [
    {
      "value": "their_username",
      "timestamp": 1720000000
    }
  ]
}

The value field is the username. The timestamp is a Unix timestamp — seconds counted from January 1, 1970. To convert it to a readable date, you'd use an online converter or a spreadsheet formula. following.json follows the same structure.

For most people, reading raw JSON is not the goal — finding out who unfollowed is. If you open the file and it makes sense to you, you can do the comparison manually by scanning both lists. If not, that's what hooleft.me is for.

Comparing the files: DIY versus hooleft.me

The DIY route works. If you enjoy comparing JSON files, you can absolutely do this without any tool. But for most people, the folder navigation, JSON syntax, and manual diffing add up to more friction than the actual answer is worth. hooleft.me takes the ZIP as-is, finds the relevant files on its own, and shows the comparison in seconds.

Common problems people hit

The file looks empty or full of symbols

If you open followers_1.json and see <!DOCTYPE html> at the top, or a block of characters that isn't JSON, you've downloaded the HTML format of your export rather than the JSON format. The HTML version shows the same data but in a web page layout that tools cannot parse.

To fix this: re-request the export from Instagram's settings, and on the format step, select JSON rather than HTML. The Instagram data export step-by-step guide shows which screen to look for.

If the export email isn't arriving or the request seems stuck, the Instagram data download troubleshooting guide covers the most common causes.

I can only see a connections/ folder with different files inside

Instagram has changed the internal folder structure across different export batches. In some older exports, the files may be named differently or sit at a different path. The file names to look for are followers_1.json and following.json regardless of where they appear. Use your operating system's search function inside the extracted folder if you're having trouble navigating.

I have followers_1.json but where is followers_2.json?

If your account has fewer followers than the file-split threshold, all of your followers appear in a single followers_1.json. You only get numbered extras when the list is very large. A single file means the list is complete as-is.

The JSON file won't open

Any text editor works. On Windows: right-click the file, choose Open With, and select Notepad. On Mac: right-click, Open With, and choose TextEdit. If TextEdit shows the file in a formatted view, go to Format in the menu bar and choose Make Plain Text. You don't need a specialized JSON viewer, though they make reading the file easier if you want something cleaner.

FAQ

Where is the followers list in the Instagram data export?

Your followers list is in a file called followers_1.json, inside the connections/followers_and_following/ folder of the exported ZIP archive.

What file has my Instagram following list?

The accounts you follow are in following.json, in the same connections/followers_and_following/ folder alongside your followers file.

Why does my followers_1.json look empty or show odd symbols?

You may have requested the HTML format instead of JSON. If the file starts with <!DOCTYPE html>, re-request the export and choose JSON format. The HTML version is human-readable but cannot be parsed by tools.

Can I have more than one followers file, like followers_1.json and followers_2.json?

Yes. Instagram splits very large follower lists across multiple numbered files. If you see followers_2.json or higher, you need all of them. hooleft.me handles multi-part archives automatically when you upload the ZIP.

Do I have to open the JSON files manually, or is there an easier way?

You do not have to open them at all. hooleft.me reads the full ZIP archive directly and shows your comparison in seconds, with no file navigation required.

Once you have the files

Finding followers_1.json and following.json is the first step. The actual comparison — cross-referencing both lists to see who you follow that doesn't follow back, or comparing two snapshots of followers_1.json taken weeks apart to see who left — is the second step. For a deeper look at what the JSON contains and how each field maps to the data you can see in the app, the guide to reading your Instagram data export JSON covers that side of things.

If you'd rather skip the folder navigation and JSON reading entirely, you can upload your ZIP directly to hooleft.me and let it handle both steps. The comparison is instant, timestamps display as readable dates, and there is nothing to open or convert by hand. The free tier shows the first results at no cost; the full list is available on the Pro plan with snapshot history for tracking changes over time.