Can’t Send Posts to Instagram Group Chats (5 Quick Fixes)

Being a part of an Instagram group chat enables you to inform several people at once about your new post. Conversely, you can also see right away when another member posts an image, audio recording, video, or other content.

But what if you can’t send posts to Instagram group chats? Getting the error message “Failed to send to (group chat’s name)” can be disconcerting at times, especially if you are running a business or building a brand. Even if the chat is more personal in nature, you’ll still feel a bit frustrated about being unable to send your post. 

We will dissect this problem from its likely causes to ways for troubleshooting it with a few easy-to-follow steps. While we’re at it, we will also discuss how you can start a group chat, and how to leave one, too. So, stay with us, and let’s tackle this issue together.

Instagram Groups/Group Chat

Instagram has a group chat feature just like Facebook Messenger. The community refers to this feature by various names, such as Instagram Pods, Instagram Engagement Groups, Instagram DM, and Instagram Groups. 

Within an Instagram group chat, you can do everything you can in a normal DM, like share videos, photos, links, stickers, and files. You can also: 

• Make group video calls
• Add new group admins
• Change the group name

Instagram Groups can have up to 250 users at once, and it’s very easy to add more users after a group has been created (they don’t need to be added all at once when creating the initial group). 

How to Create an Instagram Group

If you want to create an Instagram group to share images, reels, or just direct message with multiple people at once, you can follow these steps:

1. Open the Instagram application on your Android or iOS device. 
2. From your homepage, tap on the Direct Message button in the top right-hand corner of the screen. The icon will either be the Facebook Messenger symbol or a folded paper airplane symbol. 
3. Now on the Messages page, tap the Create Message button located in the same location that the Direct Button Message was. This button may be a plus icon or a document and pencil icon. 
4. Tap the search bar to locate the users you want to add to your group message. Then tap the empty circle to the right of their names. The circle will turn into a blue checkmark when selected.
5. When you’ve selected all the users you want in your group, click the Create Chat button located at the bottom of the page (or the Chat button in the top right-hand corner). 
6. Be sure to send at least one message, or the group won’t actually be created. 

Why Can’t I Send Posts to an Instagram Group?

During the second quarter of 2022, some users started reporting issues when sending posts to a group chat. There seems to be no issue with sending messages or sharing to an individual account, but users can’t send messages to any Instagram group. 

Users also report that they can send images or reels but can’t share other links or Instagram posts. This Instagram issue affects both Apple iOS and Android devices, much in the same way as some errors such as the “cannot verify server identity” that you get from both smartphones’ mail apps.

The issue is a major hindrance to the usefulness and enjoyment of Instagram groups. You may be forced to screenshot a meme or Instagram post and send it as an image instead of using the far more convenient share feature. In addition to the failure of sending messages, users also report not being able to access group settings or create new admins. 

Since the initial reports, the problem has continued to crop up and trouble Instagram users intermittently. It appears that Instagram still needs to roll out an official and persistent fix for this bug.  

Troubleshooting Attempts

With no official words from Instagram, users desperate for a solution tried a variety of methods to fix this issue:

• Login on a different account
• Leave the group chat and rejoin/start a new chat
• Uninstalling and reinstalling Instagram 
• Closeout the app and restart
• Sign out and back in
• Clearing app cache

Most of the time, these attempts failed, and users still can’t send posts to Instagram group chats. Some users were able to solve the issue with these methods though. That’s why we covered each of these possible solutions in the next section. 

If the issue persists after trying all these methods, you can be sure that it is an Instagram bug or glitch, and you won’t be able to fix it on your own. 

Troubleshooting the Can’t Send Messages to Instagram Group Chats Issue

As mentioned, we will thresh out all the potential fixes that people have tried in resolving the issue at hand. But we would like to reiterate that these methods got mixed results. And since there are a lot of users who successfully got over this hurdle, we will discuss them one by one:

1. Relaunch Instagram

To eliminate the possibility that you are experiencing a one-time bug related to your Instagram application session, you can try fully closing and then reopening Instagram. Follow these steps to learn how to close an app on iOs and Android devices:

1. If you are on an iOS device, swipe up and hold until the App Viewer list comes up. Scroll through the list of apps that are open until you locate the Instagram app. It should be the first app in the list if it was the last app you used. Then swipe up to close Instagram.

2. If you are on an Android device, navigate to your Settings application. Then tap the Apps or Apps & Notifications option.

3. To view all opened apps, tap See all apps. Find Instagram and tap on Instagram. 
4. From the available options, choose Force Stop. Then click OK to confirm. 

2. Sign Out and Back In 

Next, you can try to sign out of your account and then sign back in, to check if the issue was caused by your login session. This is a very easy troubleshooting option as long as you know your accounts username and password:

1. Open the Instagram app on your iOS or Android device. 
2. Tap on the Profile icon (with your profile picture), in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. 

3. Now tap the three horizontal lines (or hamburger icon as it’s known) in the top right corner. This will bring up a menu, where you need to select Settings. 

4. From the Settings menu, scroll down to the bottom and tap Log out. You may be prompted to Save your login info. If you don’t know your login information with 100% certainty it’s best to click Save so you won’t have any trouble logging back in. 

5. Then you will be prompted again to Log out of your account. This will log you out of any accounts you have linked. Click Log out. 
6. You will be redirected to the Login screen. If you saved your login information, you’ll see your profile picture and account name, then all you have to do is click Log in. You will need to enter your username and password if you didn’t save your account information. 

7. Once you log back in you can check if you can now send messages or posts in your group chats. 

3. Try Another Account

You may also try logging out of your account and signing into an unaffiliated account. This only works if you have a secondary account that is not linked to your primary account. Or if you have a friend or family member whose account you can use to log in on your phone. 

If DMs work for another account, it’s possible the issue is somehow caused by your account. However, there is no information that any users have found to figure out what would be causing it:

1. Follow steps 1-6 from the previous solution to log out of your Instagram account. 
2. Click Log in to another account and then enter the username and password. Tap Login. 

3. Check if this account also has the DM issue for group chats. 

4. Clear Instagram Cache (Android only)

Unfortunately, iOs devices do not offer the same level of support for deleting your application caches, as Android. You can even wipe out the cache partition on your Android smartphone if it gets bogged down with corrupt files or system data, but that’s a different topic for discussion.

You may be able to clear your cache with a few iOs apps but Instagram is not one of them. This means you can skip this solution if you do not own an Android smartphone:

1. To clear the cache and app data for Instagram, navigate to the Settings app. Then tap on Apps or Apps & Notifications. 

2. Choose Installed Applications and search for Instagram. Then tap on Instagram to head to the App Info page. 

3. Select the Storage tab. Then tap Clear Storage, Clear App Data, and/or Clear Cache. 

4. When you open Instagram you may need to log back in before you can check that your group chats are working properly. 

5. Leave the Group Chat

To verify that the issue is not associated with a specific group chat, you can leave all your group chats and then try to rejoin or start a brand new chat with your friends. To leave a group chat follow these simple steps:

1. Open Instagram on your iOs or Android device.
2. Tap on the Direct Message button in the top right-hand corner of the screen, just like you did in the first solution.
3. Find your group chat among your list of DMs and tap to select. 
4. From the group chat page, tap the list of names/group names located at the top of the page to head to the group Details page.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the Details page and click Leave chat. Repeat this process on as many chats as you’d like. 

6. You can now create a new chat and invite your friends or have an admin invite you back to the existing group chat to see if the problem is resolved.

5. Fresh Instagram Install

If all else fails you can uninstall your Instagram app and start with a fresh install. This may resolve the Instagram group message issue if there are any glitches or bugs in your app. To uninstall your app follow these step-by-step instructions:

• iOs devices – press and hold Instagram’s icon. When the pop-out menu appears, you can let go and select Remove App. Now head back to the App Store to find and reinstall Instagram.

• Android devices – navigate to the app drawer or home screen. Tap and hold onto the Instagram icon and then drag the app to the Uninstall button located at the top of the screen. Then click OK to confirm you want to uninstall Instagram. Now head back to the Play Store to find and reinstall Instagram. 

What’s Next?

If none of the solutions outlined here helped you resolve the “can’t send posts to Instagram group chats” issue, there is not much else you can do to fix this problem yourself. 

Most users were unable to fix the problem on their own and found that the glitch randomly went away after a few days or weeks. You might just have to wait for the problem to be resolved on its own by the platform’s system and hope Instagram rolls out a turnkey fix for this issue.