When you download your data from Instagram, you get a zip file with dozens of folders and JSON files — and almost none of them explain themselves. Here's what's actually inside, and which parts matter if you just want to know who unfollowed you.
The folder that matters most: connections
Everything about your followers and following lives under connections/followers_and_following/. Instagram splits this into several files:
- followers_1.json — everyone who currently follows you, with the date they started following.
- following.json — everyone you currently follow.
- recently_unfollowed_profiles.json — accounts you unfollowed recently (Instagram only keeps a short window of this).
- close_friends.json, restricted_profiles.json, blocked_profiles.json — smaller lists for those specific relationships.
There's no file called "people who unfollowed me" — Instagram doesn't track that directly. That's exactly the gap a follower-tracking tool fills: by comparing today's followers_1.json against a previous export, it can work out exactly who left.
Everything else in the zip
The rest of the export covers ads, messages, media, security, and account preferences — useful for a full data audit, but unrelated to follower tracking:
ads_information/— ad interests and advertiser data Instagram holds on you.messages/— your direct message history, one folder per conversation.media/— copies of your own posts, stories, and reels.security_and_login_information/— login history and account changes.
Why the raw JSON is hard to read
Instagram's JSON isn't meant for humans — timestamps are Unix epoch seconds, usernames are nested a few levels deep, and there's no summary view anywhere in the export. Uploading the zip to a tool that parses followers_1.json and following.json for you turns those buried lists into a straight answer: who's not following you back, and who unfollowed you since your last check.