Instagram for Business – “Object with ID does not exist” error when publishing photos
Hi everyone,
I’ve been running a Zap that publishes content from WordPress to LinkedIn, Instagram for Business, and Facebook Pages. This Zap has been working fine for months, but as of a few days ago, the Instagram for Business step started failing with the following error:
“Failed to create a media in Instagram for Business Unsupported post request. Object with ID '17841469354605361' does not exist, cannot be loaded due to missing permissions, or does not support this operation.”
What I’ve already tried:
Tested with different image URLs (direct PNG, JPG, Unsplash, WordPress media).
Removed captions and tags to see if that made a difference → still fails.
Re-ran Zaps that worked fine days ago → they now fail with the same error.
Created brand new Zaps from scratch → same issue.
Tested with different Instagram accounts under my Meta Business → error persists.
Reconnected (hard reset) Instagram for Business and Facebook Pages connections in Zapier and Meta (deleted and added again).
Checked Meta Business Suite: my Facebook Page and Instagram account are correctly linked, and I’m full Admin.
Tried with both the standard “Publish Photo(s)” action and a custom API Request (Beta) flow (/media + /media_publish) → both fail with the same object ID error.
Tried testing in different browsers/incognito to rule out cache/UI issues.
Verified that posts work if I publish directly through Meta Business Suite → so the problem is only happening through Zapier.
Observations:
After a test fails, sometimes the Instagram account disappears from the dropdown in Zapier, and I need to refresh to see it again.
It looks like Zapier is not passing (or not receiving) a valid access token / API call to Meta, or the Meta Graph API is rejecting the request.
Facebook/Instagram Graph API might be unstable or have changed something with instagram_content_publish permissions recently.
Question:
Is anyone else experiencing this same issue with Instagram for Business + Zapier right now? Could this be a temporary outage or API change on Meta’s side? Any workarounds besides the API Request (which also fails)?
Thanks a lot in advance!
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Hi @juanluisJLP
For us to have more info about what you are referring to post screenshots showing:
how your Zap steps are outlined
how your Zap steps are configured in EDIT mode with the field mappings visible in the CONFIGURE tab
the encountered error
Thank you Troy for the help. Here are the screenshots:
Issue is likely related to the Media field mapped variable value.
Things to check/try…
Here’s a clear explanation to help the Zap user understand the error and fix their step:
🧠 What the Error Means
Error shown:
Failed to create a media in Could not upload media file. Unsupported post request. Object with ID '17844168935460536' does not exist, cannot be loaded due to missing...
Cause: This error happens when the Media field in the “Publish Photo(s)” action is blank, broken, or not a valid direct image URL. requires:
A direct link to an image file (ending in .jpg / .png / .jpeg) that is publicly accessible,
Not a webpage URL, redirect, or HTML content.
Currently, the field is filled from your Code by (ultima imagen) step, but that output looks like a WordPress CDN URL (https://0.wp.com/...) which can sometimes be blocked or not return a real image if accessed without browser headers. This is why is rejecting it.
🛠 How to Fix the Zap Step Configuration
1. Confirm the Image URL is Direct
Go to the Code step’s output and copy the URL you are passing to “Media”.
Paste it into a private browser tab.
✅ If it downloads or displays just the image → it’s good.
❌ If it opens a webpage, redirects, or fails to load → it’s not valid.
2. Use a Valid Public Direct Image Link
If the current 0.wp.com URL fails:
Use the WordPress “Featured Image URL” field directly from the New Post trigger instead of scraping it in code.
Or update your Code step to output the guid.rendered or featured_media URL from the post object, making sure it is a real .jpg / .png.
⚡ Tip: Add ?raw=1 or remove &ssl=1 if the CDN URL has query strings that break it.
3. Clean Up Multiple URLs (if needed)
accepts one or multiple image URLs separated by commas.
If your Code step is returning an array, make sure you join them into one comma-separated string.
4. Retest the Step
After fixing the URL, go back to Step 6 → Media field, map the correct direct image URL.
Press “Retest step”. It should succeed and post the image with your caption.
✅ Summary
Problem: Media URL is invalid or inaccessible.
Fix: Provide a direct, public .jpg/.png link from WordPress (or Code step) in the Media field.
Then: Retest the action.
SOLVED! In my case it was a temporary outage on Meta’s side.
Just to clarify, it was not a media-related issue. I tested with multiple direct JPG/PNG URLs (Unsplash, WordPress uploads, etc.), removed captions/tags, even tried the API Request (Beta) flow and the error still persisted. So the cause wasn’t the Media field or URL formatting, as I mentioned in the list of things I tried in my first post.
Quick note for anyone landing here:
If you see the error “Object with ID does not exist” on Instagram for Business in Zapier, it may simply be a temporary Graph API outage on Meta’s side. Waiting it out can resolve it.
Update (with timeline):
Day 1: None of my Instagram Business accounts worked. The Zap failed with “Object with ID does not exist.” I tried everything (see first post). Decided to wait.
Day 3: One IG account suddenly worked while the other still failed.
Day 3: Both accounts failed again, same error.
Day 4 (today): Both accounts are now working again without me changing anything in Zapier or Meta Business.
This clearly points to a temporary outage/instability on Meta’s Graph API rather than a misconfiguration on my side.
If anyone else sees this error, it may just be a platform issue. Sometimes the only “fix” is to wait until Meta stabilizes things again.
Reflection: Could I have just waited from the beginning?
Yes, because the root cause was outside my control and eventually self-resolved.
No, because all the troubleshooting (re-authenticating connections, checking URLs, confirming IG-FB linkage, permissions, etc.) gave me confidence that my setup was correct. Next time I’ll recognize faster when the problem is Meta’s API, not my Zap.
Hope this helps anyone running into the same issue.
Thanks for letting us know @juanluisJLP! 🤗 Really appreciate you taking the time to share what the issue was as well as those helpful notes and timeline. I’ll get your latest reply marked as the best answer to help surface this info to others in the Community - great work! 🙌
Seems like you’re all set for now but please do reach back out if you need help with anything else. Until then, happy Zapping! ⚡
