Max besties exceeded Error While Adding Followers to Close Friends List

Description

While adding followers to the close friends list, I encountered a 400 Bad Request error with the message "max besties exceeded" after adding 9,999 followers. There were no issues during the process of adding followers in batches up to this point, but once the close friends list reached 9,999 users, the error consistently appeared. The error occurred after attempting to add more followers using the setBesties endpoint.

The error encountered:

Retry failed: IgResponseError: POST /api/v1/friendships/set_besties/ - 400 Bad Request; max besties exceeded
    at Request.handleResponseError (C:\Users\hamza\Desktop\instagram-close-friends-automation-ts\node_modules\instagram-private-api\src\core\request.ts:172:12)
    at Request.send (C:\Users\hamza\Desktop\instagram-close-friends-automation-ts\node_modules\instagram-private-api\src\core\request.ts:83:24)
    at async FriendshipRepository.setBesties (C:\Users\hamza\Desktop\instagram-close-friends-automation-ts\node_modules\instagram-private-api\src\repositories\friendship.repository.ts:76:22)

Relevant code section:

await ig.friendship.setBesties({ add: batch, remove: [] });

// Function to add followers to the close friends list
async function addToCloseFriends(ig: IgApiClient, followerIds: string[], batchSize: number, requestDelay: number, batchDelay: number) {
    let totalAdded = 0;
    console.log(`Adding ${followerIds.length} followers to close friends list...`);
    for (let i = 0; i < followerIds.length; i += batchSize) {
        const batch = followerIds.slice(i, i + batchSize);
        try {
            await ig.friendship.setBesties({ add: batch, remove: [] });
            totalAdded += batch.length;
            console.log(`Added batch ${Math.floor(i / batchSize) + 1} to close friends. Total added: ${totalAdded}`);
            await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, requestDelay))
        } catch (error) {
            if (error instanceof IgNotFoundError) {
                console.error('An API endpoint was not found:', error.message);
            } else {
                console.error('An error occurred while adding to close friends:', error);
            }
            break;
        }
    
        await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, batchDelay));
    }
    console.log('All followers have been added to the close friends list.');

Key Details

No issues occurred while adding followers up to 9,999.
The error consistently appears when attempting to exceed the 9,999 follower limit.

Oct 10 '24 03:10 hamza08003

any updates on this? im also limited

Oct 19 '24 12:10 keroo43o423

any updates on this? im also limited

Unfortunately, I haven't found a workaround yet, but I'm still looking into possible solutions. If you come across any idea or updates on this, the do share!

Oct 19 '24 12:10 hamza08003

i think we should sniff traffic on mobile app (when in close friends section) to learn the new endpoint and request.

Oct 19 '24 14:10 keroo43o423

i know there are people who can add more than 1m followers to close friends. you can't add more than 10k close friends when mimicking a desktop device using this endpoint: https://i.instagram.com/api/v1/friendships/set_besties/

Oct 19 '24 14:10 keroo43o423

you're getting this error: max besties exceeded , right

Oct 19 '24 14:10 keroo43o423

i think we should sniff traffic on mobile app (when in close friends section) to learn the new endpoint and request.

Yes I'm getting the problem Ater 9999 followers, I also know people who added around 50k+ followers to the close friends list.

And I saw on one forum, someone was saying that on desktop, the close friends list starts glitching after 9999 followers so you can't add more.

So Sniffing traffic on the mobile app sounds like a good idea to explore any different endpoints or requests.

Oct 19 '24 14:10 hamza08003

I am able to do without problems. You are using old API, that has limit.

Oct 20 '24 05:10 sunmasters

I am able to do without problems. You are using old API, that has limit.

Could you share how you managed to do it without any issues? Which API did you use ?

Oct 20 '24 05:10 hamza08003

It is hidden API. Can't share jumpshare. com/s/Ltn8lXtMoIX0daNrmVAC

Oct 20 '24 09:10 sunmasters

any updates here? Could someone share the API without this limit ?

Jan 07 '25 14:01 DoubleTroubleOf

any updates here? Could someone share the API without this limit ?

I managed to solve

Jan 22 '25 14:01 marcelocardozo

Como resolver @marcelocardozo ? Me ajude estou precisando implementar. Como vc implementou ?

Jan 22 '25 18:01 caioalmeidan

hello, btw any of you have heard about this?

https://i.instagram.com/api/v1/stories/private stories/bulk update members/.

I got this from a paid service that is succefully adding more than 9999.

It was not possible to add users to the Close Friends list at this time. We will try again. Instagram server response: Network: CURL error 28: Operation timed out after 60001 milliseconds with 0 bytes received (see https://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/c/libcurl-errors.html) for https://i.instagram.com/api/v1/stories/private stories/bulk update_members/.

It halted for while and restarted, I have 52k followers and it added 10k until now. Once is completed I will post here. Looks like he is using a different approach, like emulating via website, not api.

Jan 23 '25 20:01 lhermoso

I’m Brazilian, and I have to say I’m ashamed of how some Brazilian developers operate.

They join an open-source community only to try and sell an API endpoint they found.

For example, Waldir, one of the devs asking here (@lhermoso any news on that?), sent me a message on Instagram. Meanwhile, another, marcelocardozo, seemed desperate to push this by messaging me, saying, "please email me."

Shame on you, guys! I have no issue with people selling things, but if you want to do that, build a small website, promote it on Instagram, or whatever—I don’t care. But this is definitely not the place for it.

I found a way to bypass the "max besties exceeded" restriction!

The key is to add besties through an endpoint that appears when creating a story.

Right after creating a story, tap the right arrow, then select Best Friends. This opens a new screen where you can edit the besties list. The endpoint used here seems to have no restrictions.

I’ll dive deeper into this over the weekend.

Jan 28 '25 18:01 lhermoso

I’m Brazilian, and I have to say I’m ashamed of how some Brazilian developers operate.

They join an open-source community only to try and sell an API endpoint they found.

For example, Waldir, one of the devs asking here (@lhermoso any news on that?), sent me a message on Instagram. Meanwhile, another, marcelocardozo, seemed desperate to push this by messaging me, saying, "please email me."

Shame on you, guys! I have no issue with people selling things, but if you want to do that, build a small website, promote it on Instagram, or whatever—I don’t care. But this is definitely not the place for it.

I found a way to bypass the "max besties exceeded" restriction!

The key is to add besties through an endpoint that appears when creating a story.

Right after creating a story, tap the right arrow, then select Best Friends. This opens a new screen where you can edit the besties list. The endpoint used here seems to have no restrictions.

I’ll dive deeper into this over the weekend.

Be quiet. You sell courses promising wealth, and your opinion on the bypass is wrong; that’s not the right path.

Jan 28 '25 20:01 marcelocardozo

I’m Brazilian, and I have to say I’m ashamed of how some Brazilian developers operate.

They join an open-source community only to try and sell an API endpoint they found.

For example, Waldir, one of the devs asking here (@lhermoso any news on that?), sent me a message on Instagram. Meanwhile, another, marcelocardozo, seemed desperate to push this by messaging me, saying, "please email me."

Shame on you, guys! I have no issue with people selling things, but if you want to do that, build a small website, promote it on Instagram, or whatever—I don’t care. But this is definitely not the place for it.

I found a way to bypass the "max besties exceeded" restriction!

The key is to add besties through an endpoint that appears when creating a story.

Right after creating a story, tap the right arrow, then select Best Friends. This opens a new screen where you can edit the besties list. The endpoint used here seems to have no restrictions.

I’ll dive deeper into this over the weekend.

Absolutely agree with you on this. It's frustrating when people come into these open-source communities just to try and sell their stuff.

I've also seen guys in the discussins claiming they have API endpoints, but when you ask about them, they say they’re private and can’t be accessed unless you DM them. And when you do, they tell you to purchase them even though you dont know if they work or not —lol, it's so ridiculous!

There is this one guy everywhere in the comments doing such thing I don't wanna mention him 😬

Anyway, what you discovered seems really cool. I’m gonna also check it 🫠

Jan 29 '25 04:01 hamza08003

@lhermoso @hamza08003 @DoubleTroubleOf

I'm doing some research and found some endpoints from both the app and the web.

Web Endpoint

data = {
    'variables': f'{{"add":[],"remove":"[12345678, 987654321]","source":"profile"}}',
    'server_timestamps': 'true',
    'doc_id': '7489805084467496',
}

response = requests.post(
    'https://www.instagram.com/graphql/query', 
    cookies=cookies, 
    headers=headers, 
    data=data
)

App Endpoint

data = {
    'module': 'audience_selection',
    'source': 'story_share_shortcut',
    'user_id': user_id,
    '_uuid': '8c1bcc90-1663-436a-a4c4-5d8d39c6ce2c',
}

response = requests.post(
    'https://i.instagram.com/api/v1/stories/private_stories/add_member/', 
    headers=headers, 
    data=data
)

Feb 02 '25 17:02 guilhermecugler

I’m Brazilian, and I have to say I’m ashamed of how some Brazilian developers operate.

They join an open-source community only to try and sell an API endpoint they found.

For example, Waldir, one of the devs asking here (@lhermoso any news on that?), sent me a message on Instagram. Meanwhile, another, marcelocardozo, seemed desperate to push this by messaging me, saying, "please email me."

Shame on you, guys! I have no issue with people selling things, but if you want to do that, build a small website, promote it on Instagram, or whatever—I don’t care. But this is definitely not the place for it.

I found a way to bypass the "max besties exceeded" restriction!

The key is to add besties through an endpoint that appears when creating a story.

Right after creating a story, tap the right arrow, then select Best Friends. This opens a new screen where you can edit the besties list. The endpoint used here seems to have no restrictions.

I’ll dive deeper into this over the weekend.

I believe that these types of guys go hungry at home trying to sell something that is free

Feb 08 '25 19:02 cavepro98

Did you manage to find a solution? @hamza08003

Feb 08 '25 19:02 cavepro98

@guilhermecugler can you share the headers structure and how do you sniff the requests on mobile?

Feb 11 '25 22:02 pedro123456789-wq

@guilhermecugler can you share the headers structure and how do you sniff the requests on mobile?

You can use something like that:

     headers = {
                      'accept': '*/*',
                      'cookie': f'ds_user_id={self.loaded_session["user_id"]}; '
                       f'csrftoken={self.loaded_session["cookies"]["csrftoken"]}; '
                       f'sessionid={self.loaded_session["cookies"]["sessionid"]}',
                      'x-csrftoken': self.loaded_session["cookies"]["csrftoken"],
                      'x-ig-app-id': '936619743392459',
                }

The cookies can be from instagram web.

Feb 12 '25 11:02 guilhermecugler

@guilhermecugler Muito obrigado 🙏

Feb 12 '25 11:02 pedro123456789-wq

@guilhermecugler

To extract the follower ids, I am getting blocked after like 12,000

Here is the code:

import requests
import time
import random
import logging

# Configure logging
logging.basicConfig(
    level=logging.INFO,
    format='%(asctime)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s',
    handlers=[
        logging.FileHandler("instagram_followers.log"),
        logging.StreamHandler()
    ]
)

BASE_URL = "https://www.instagram.com/api/v1/friendships"
USERNAME = ""
COOKIES = ""

# Extract necessary values from cookies
try:
    MAIN_USER_ID = next((item.split('=')[1] for item in COOKIES.split('; ') if item.startswith('ds_user_id=')), None)
    X_CSRFTOKEN = next((item.split('=')[1] for item in COOKIES.split('; ') if item.startswith('csrftoken=')), None)
    SESSION_ID = next((item.split('=')[1] for item in COOKIES.split('; ') if item.startswith('sessionid=')), None)
except Exception as e:
    logging.error(f"Error extracting authentication details: {e}")
    exit(1)

if not MAIN_USER_ID or not X_CSRFTOKEN or not SESSION_ID:
    logging.error("Missing required authentication cookies. Check COOKIES value.")
    exit(1)

url = f"https://i.instagram.com/api/v1/friendships/{MAIN_USER_ID}/followers/"
headers = {
    "User-Agent": "Instagram 261.0.0.21.111 Android",
    "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
    "Cookie": f"sessionid={SESSION_ID}; csrftoken={X_CSRFTOKEN}",
}
params = {
    "search_surface": "follow_list_page",
    "_csrftoken": X_CSRFTOKEN,
    "count": "50",
}
max_id = None

total_followers_fetched = 0

logging.info("Starting follower retrieval...")
while True:
    if max_id:
        params["max_id"] = max_id
    
    try:
        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params, timeout=10)
        response.raise_for_status()
    except requests.RequestException as e:
        logging.error(f"Request failed: {e}")
        break
    
    json_data = response.json()
    followers = json_data.get("users", [])
    next_max_id = json_data.get("next_max_id")  # For pagination
    
    if not followers:
        logging.info("No more followers found.")
        break
    
    follower_ids = [f['id'] for f in followers]
    total_followers_fetched += len(follower_ids)
    
    logging.info(f"Retrieved {len(follower_ids)} new followers. Total so far: {total_followers_fetched}")
    logging.info(f"Next max_id: {next_max_id}")
    
    with open(f"followers_{USERNAME}.txt", "a") as f:
        for fid in follower_ids:
            f.write(fid + '\n')
    
    if next_max_id:
        max_id = next_max_id
        time.sleep(random.uniform(3, 4))
    else:
        logging.info("Finished retrieving all followers.")
        break

Do you have any ideas on how to avoid getting blocked?

Feb 12 '25 11:02 pedro123456789-wq

@guilhermecugler

To extract the follower ids, I am getting blocked after like 12,000

Here is the code:

import requests
import time
import random
import logging

# Configure logging
logging.basicConfig(
    level=logging.INFO,
    format='%(asctime)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s',
    handlers=[
        logging.FileHandler("instagram_followers.log"),
        logging.StreamHandler()
    ]
)

BASE_URL = "https://www.instagram.com/api/v1/friendships"
USERNAME = ""
COOKIES = ""

# Extract necessary values from cookies
try:
    MAIN_USER_ID = next((item.split('=')[1] for item in COOKIES.split('; ') if item.startswith('ds_user_id=')), None)
    X_CSRFTOKEN = next((item.split('=')[1] for item in COOKIES.split('; ') if item.startswith('csrftoken=')), None)
    SESSION_ID = next((item.split('=')[1] for item in COOKIES.split('; ') if item.startswith('sessionid=')), None)
except Exception as e:
    logging.error(f"Error extracting authentication details: {e}")
    exit(1)

if not MAIN_USER_ID or not X_CSRFTOKEN or not SESSION_ID:
    logging.error("Missing required authentication cookies. Check COOKIES value.")
    exit(1)

url = f"https://i.instagram.com/api/v1/friendships/{MAIN_USER_ID}/followers/"
headers = {
    "User-Agent": "Instagram 261.0.0.21.111 Android",
    "Content-Type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
    "Cookie": f"sessionid={SESSION_ID}; csrftoken={X_CSRFTOKEN}",
}
params = {
    "search_surface": "follow_list_page",
    "_csrftoken": X_CSRFTOKEN,
    "count": "50",
}
max_id = None

total_followers_fetched = 0

logging.info("Starting follower retrieval...")
while True:
    if max_id:
        params["max_id"] = max_id
    
    try:
        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params, timeout=10)
        response.raise_for_status()
    except requests.RequestException as e:
        logging.error(f"Request failed: {e}")
        break
    
    json_data = response.json()
    followers = json_data.get("users", [])
    next_max_id = json_data.get("next_max_id")  # For pagination
    
    if not followers:
        logging.info("No more followers found.")
        break
    
    follower_ids = [f['id'] for f in followers]
    total_followers_fetched += len(follower_ids)
    
    logging.info(f"Retrieved {len(follower_ids)} new followers. Total so far: {total_followers_fetched}")
    logging.info(f"Next max_id: {next_max_id}")
    
    with open(f"followers_{USERNAME}.txt", "a") as f:
        for fid in follower_ids:
            f.write(fid + '\n')
    
    if next_max_id:
        max_id = next_max_id
        time.sleep(random.uniform(3, 4))
    else:
        logging.info("Finished retrieving all followers.")
        break

Do you have any ideas on how to avoid getting blocked?

You can try using this api bellow, im still researching but have no time lately, so i didnt test the limits, but with only 1 request you can have 500+ ids:

    def get_id_list(self, sessionid, csrftoken, user_id):
        headers = {
            'cookie': f'ds_user_id={user_id}; csrftoken={csrftoken}; sessionid={sessionid}',
            'x-csrftoken': csrftoken,
            'x-ig-app-id': '936619743392459',
            'x-requested-with': 'XMLHttpRequest',
        }
        data = {
            'locale': 'pt_BR',
            'vc_policy': 'ADS',
            'signed_body': 'SIGNATURE.',
            'variables': '{"views":["BFF"]}',
            'strip_nulls': 'true',
            'client_doc_id': '385348296418235549120349460364',
            'strip_defaults': 'true',
        }
        response = requests.post('https://i.instagram.com/api/v1/wwwgraphql/ig/query/', headers=headers, data=data, verify=False)
        user_ids = response.json().get("data", {}).get("get_ig_banyan_ranking_query", {}).get("entities", {}).get("ig_users", [])
        user_ids = [user["instagram_user_id"] for user in user_ids]
        
        with open(self.id_list_file, "w") as file:
            json.dump(user_ids, file, indent=4)

        return user_ids

Feb 12 '25 11:02 guilhermecugler

@guilhermecugler WOW, thanks

What do you use for the research if you don't mind me asking

Feb 12 '25 11:02 pedro123456789-wq

@

Its kinda complex but basically, i use and android emulator + burp suite to intercept requests from an ssl bypassed instagram modified app with the proxy from burp, then I make actions on tha app and analyze the requests...

Feb 12 '25 12:02 guilhermecugler

@guilhermecugler How did you get the signature? Do you have instagram's private key?

Feb 12 '25 14:02 pedro123456789-wq

@guilhermecugler If it's not a problem, can you tell me how I can get the number of followers they are adding to close friends? I tried monitoring requests from the Instagram app but without success.

Feb 12 '25 14:02 cavepro98

@guilhermecugler How did you get the signature? Do you have instagram's private key?

No need, you leave just: 'signed_body': 'SIGNATURE.'

Feb 12 '25 18:02 guilhermecugler

@guilhermecugler Ok, but I'm getting this error: {"errors":[{"message":"Unauthorized logged out query.","severity":"CRITICAL","code":1675002}],"extensions":{"is_final":true}}

Feb 12 '25 20:02 pedro123456789-wq

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