There are a few common reasons why you may be unable to add or follow someone on Facebook:
Your account or the other user’s account is restricted
If your account or the other user’s account is restricted in some way, you may not be able to send friend requests or follow pages. Here are some examples of restrictions that could prevent adding friends or following:
- Your account is temporarily blocked from sending friend requests due to suspected unusual activity. Facebook has automated systems that monitor for suspicious behavior, and if your account seems to be sending a high volume of friend requests in a short period of time, it may trigger a temporary block.
- The other user has their account set to not accept friend requests. They can set their privacy settings to ignore all friend requests.
- The other user has blocked you specifically. If someone blocks you, you can no longer add them as a friend or interact with them on Facebook.
- Age restrictions prevent you from connecting. Minors under 18 cannot friend request adults who are not already friends with a mutual connection.
- Location restrictions prevent you from connecting. Users in some countries are prohibited from connecting with users in other countries due to international regulations.
If you think your account has been incorrectly flagged for unusual activity, you can appeal the block through Facebook’s Support options. If someone has blocked you or has their account set to ignore requests, there is unfortunately nothing you can do to add them as a friend on your end.
Connection limits
Facebook limits how many friends you can have and how many people you can follow to help reduce spammy behavior. If you have reached the maximum limit, you will not be able to send new friend requests or follow new pages or profiles. Here are the connection limits:
- Friends limit: 5,000 friends maximum
- Follow limit: 10,000 pages, groups, and profiles maximum
To add new friends or follow new profiles after hitting the limit, you would first need to unfriend or unfollow existing connections to make room.
Technical issues
Sometimes technical glitches can get in the way when you try to interact with other users. Here are some tech issues that could prevent adding friends or following:
- Temporary site outage – If Facebook is experiencing downtime or glitches, sending requests may fail.
- Mobile app issues – The mobile apps sometimes have bugs that affect friend requests.
- Browser problems – An outdated, glitchy, or improperly configured browser can interfere with adding connections.
- Spam filters – Sometimes the spam filters mistakenly block legitimate interaction attempts.
With technical issues, trying again a bit later often resolves the problem. If the problem persists for more than a day, you may need to report the bug to Facebook.
How to troubleshoot and fix connection issues
If you’re having trouble sending friend requests or following users on Facebook, here are some steps to troubleshoot and fix it:
- Check if you’ve reached your connection limit and remove existing friends or follows if needed.
- Temporarily disable your ad blocker and try again, as ad blockers can sometimes interfere with Facebook functions.
- Try adding the person or page from a desktop computer rather than mobile, or vice versa.
- Update your browser or delete and reinstall the Facebook app if on mobile.
- See if you can add or follow other users. If the issue seems specific to one individual, they may have you blocked.
- Check Facebook’s current status at https://www.facebook.com/platform/status/ to see if there are any known issues.
- Retry again later to see if it resolves on its own after some time.
- Use Facebook’s Help Center to submit a request for support if the issue persists.
Why Facebook limits friends and follows
Facebook limits the number of connections you can have for a few reasons:
- Reduce spam and bot accounts – Limiting friends and follows helps crack down on fake accounts used solely to spam others.
- Improve performance – Too many connections can slow down the site performance and newsfeed loading times.
- Encourage meaningful interactions – Facebook wants to promote substantive connections between real people who actually know each other.
While these limits can be frustrating, they are in place to try to maintain the social networking experience Facebook aims to provide.
Tips to avoid issues adding friends or following users
Here are some tips to avoid running into issues when trying to add friends or follow people on Facebook:
- Add people you actually know in real life, as strangers are less likely to accept your requests.
- Personalize your request with a quick message so they know who you are.
- Check your current friend and follow count so you know how close you are to the limit.
- Send fewer requests per day to avoid looking like a spam account.
- Don’t repeatedly send the same request to someone who hasn’t responded.
- Make sure your account and privacy settings are configured appropriately.
Being thoughtful about who you interact with and how should help avoid problems down the line. But if you do run into issues, use the troubleshooting tips outlined above to get yourself back on track.
Conclusion
Facebook limits on friends and follows, restrictions on your account or other users’ accounts, and technical issues can all prevent you from being able to add or follow someone. If you’ve run into problems, check for blocks, limits, or temporary restrictions first. Try troubleshooting steps like changing browsers, clearing cookies, or reinstalling the app. And be sure to send friend requests thoughtfully and intentionally to avoid problems in the future. Facebook’s limits are in place to create a better experience for all users.