With over 1 billion active users worldwide, Instagram is unarguably one of the most popular social media platforms out there. Many people love this platform because it focuses solely on video and image sharing. Instagram offers its users tons of amazing features; this is another reason the platform is so popular today. One highlight of Instagram is that it allows its users to use different kinds of filters when uploading their photos through the app. Unfortunately, this filter option is currently not working for some users. According to multiple reports, every time the affected Instagram users try using the filters, they encounter an error message, saying ‘This effect is not available in your location.’
What causes the new Instagram filter’s error message? Will there be a fix to address the issue? Read on to get every information about the burning questions above.
Instagram filters ‘This effect is not available in your location error’
The Instagram filter is one of the best features offered by the platform. This feature allows you to edit your images on the app with one click. All you need is to just apply the preset edits when uploading your pictures. Another highlight of the feature is that it also allows users to add their favorite filter for later use. Unfortunately, the Instagram filter feature is currently not working for some users again, according to multiple reports.
The affected Instagram users mentioned anytime they try re-adding a filter to their favorite list, they only get an error message, which says ‘This effect is not available in your location.’ You can check here (1,2,3) to read more about what the users are saying about the error message.
The exact cause of this issue is pretty straightforward. First, you need to understand that most users affected by this Instagram issue are from the US – Texas & Illinois, to be precise. These users get the error message (This effect is not available in your location) whenever they try using the Instagram Filters for a reason. Because of the facial recognition law in the two states, Meta was compelled to disable the Instagram filters.
There’s a particular technology that Instagram uses that makes the filter work to change a user’s appearance. Unfortunately, this technology is against the law in both Texas and Illinois. This explained why Meta had to disable the feature temporarily for users in the two areas.
There’s a workaround to address this issue
We don’t know when Meta will bring back the filter feature to its users in Texas and Illinois. If you use the option a lot and need it back on your Instagram app, there’s a workaround for you to try. As suggested by this user, all you need to do is:
- First, you need to enable and disable your phone location.
- After that, consider uninstalling the Instagram app and reinstalling it again.
