Why Your Instagram Explore Page is Filled With Random Nature Photos

If you‘ve opened your Instagram app recently only to find your explore feed suddenly flooded with random photos of landscapes and nature, you‘re far from alone. Countless users have taken to social media to complain about their explore page being "broken," "messed up," or "reset" without warning.

The glitch appears to replace people‘s normally curated explore feeds, which are personalized based on their interests and engagement history, with a generic stream of stock imagery focused on mountains, lakes, sunsets, and other natural scenes. The issue cuts across all types of accounts, from casual users to brands and influencers with millions of followers.

So what exactly is going on with Instagram‘s explore page, and why does this keep happening? Let‘s take a closer look.

How the Instagram Explore Page Works

To understand why a malfunctioning explore feed is so disruptive, we first need to examine what this feature is supposed to do. Instagram‘s explore page is essentially a discovery engine that serves up an endless stream of personalized content recommendations.

As Instagram explains, "posts are selected automatically based on things like the people you follow or the posts you like." The exact algorithm behind these selections is complex and opaque, but at a high level it relies on machine learning models to analyze vast amounts of user data and engagement signals.

By tracking which accounts you follow, what posts you like and comment on, how long you spend viewing different types of content, and myriad other data points, Instagram‘s AI systems build a detailed understanding of your interests. This powers a unique explore page for each user full of photos, videos, Reels, and Stories that align with their implied tastes.

Instagram‘s explore page algorithm is arguably one of the most advanced content recommendation systems in the world, seamlessly serving up a cascade of compelling visuals to more than 1.4 billion users every month. However, this complexity also makes the algorithm prone to occasional hiccups and unintended outcomes.

The Notorious Instagram Explore Page Glitch

Every so often, Instagram‘s mighty explore page recommendation engine appears to go haywire, flooding feeds across the platform with the same assortment of stock imagery, usually centered around landscapes and nature photography. When this glitch strikes, everyone‘s individual explore page is temporarily replaced by a one-size-fits-all feed of generic photos.

This bug has a long history, with reports of explore pages being "broken" in similar ways dating back to at least 2018. The issue seems to resurface in waves every few months, causing temporary chaos and confusion each time until Instagram manages to resolve it.

One of the most widespread outages occurred in May 2022, as seen in this flurry of tweets from frustrated users:

Is anyone else‘s Instagram explore page just… not working?? Why is mine showing me random pictures of lakes I did not ask for 😭 pic.twitter.com/z9e8UGnlet
— mia (@miasanmia) May 25, 2022

why is everyone‘s Instagram explore page glitched rn.. like it looks like tumblr circa 2014 what‘s going on pic.twitter.com/OuxuC5VkUp
— matt (@mattxiv) May 26, 2022

Did the Instagram explore page suggestions get reset for everyone or just me? I‘m seeing the most random posts that have absolutely nothing to do with what I like/follow 🙃
— Dina (@itsdineee) May 25, 2022

These complaints echo across social media every time the explore page glitch hits. Users who are accustomed to a steady stream of personalized content tailored to their interests are understandably confused when their feed is suddenly unrecognizable and full of seemingly random images.

Why the Glitch Happens and How to Fix It

So what actually causes Instagram‘s explore page to go haywire and how can you fix it? Unfortunately, since this appears to be a bug within Instagram‘s own systems, there‘s no surefire manual solution for end users.

Instagram has never publicly shared the root cause of the glitch, but it seems to stem from a failure in the app‘s backend recommendation algorithms. Instead of fetching personalized content based on each user‘s data profile, the system appears to fall back on serving up a default category of generic images, which tend to be focused on natural landscapes for unknown reasons.

The result is that every Instagram user, regardless of their individual interests or engagement history, sees virtually the same explore feed filled with stock photos of nature. Essentially, the elaborate AI that normally powers explore page recommendations stops working and the whole system reverts to a single generic backup feed.

Functionally, this means there‘s not much individual users can do to fix their explore page when this glitch occurs, aside from reporting the issue to Instagram and waiting for the developers to patch the underlying problem. Common troubleshooting techniques like restarting the app, reinstalling it, or logging out and back in rarely make a difference, since the root cause appears to be server-side.

The Impact of Broken Explore Pages

For individual users, a glitchy explore page is mostly an annoyance, but for the many creators, brands, and businesses that rely on Instagram, it can be a major disruption. The explore feed is a key source of organic discovery and engagement on the platform, putting relevant content in front of new potential fans and customers.

When everyone‘s explore page is filled with random nature images instead of personalized recommendations, it can dramatically reduce impressions and engagement for creators and brands that would normally be surfaced in those feeds. Even a temporary outage can have an outsized impact given the huge reach of Instagram‘s explore ecosystem.

Instagram knows how crucial the explore page is for its creator community. In a blog post titled "How Instagram Boosts Brands and Creators," the company emphasized that 50% of Instagram accounts use Explore every month and 83% of users discover new products and services there. By Instagram‘s own reporting, explore page traffic is a major driver of downstream engagement, conversions, and revenue for businesses on the platform.

While Instagram hasn‘t disclosed the specific cost of explore page glitches, even a modest decline in engagement can translate to significant losses given the platform‘s massive scale. With over 1.4 billion monthly active users and $24 billion in ad revenue last year, Instagram‘s bottom line is directly tied to keeping users scrolling and engaging with content.

The Future of Instagram‘s Explore Page

Despite the occasional glitches, Instagram‘s explore page remains one of the most impressive algorithmic content recommendation systems ever built. Few other platforms can rival its ability to instantly generate unique, dynamic feeds of engaging visual content for more than a billion users worldwide.

And while the exact ins and outs of the explore page algorithm are unknown, Instagram has emphasized that AI and machine learning are central to its functionality. In a blog post on how the explore feed works, Instagram engineers outlined a multistage neural network framework that ingests massive amounts of user data and engagement signals to predict what content each individual will find most relevant.

This deep learning approach enables the explore page to continuously adapt based on user behavior. Each tap, scroll, like, and comment helps refine your taste profile and sharpen future recommendations. In essence, the explore page is designed to become smarter and more addictive over time, serving up an endless supply of personalized content to keep you engaged on Instagram for longer.

Of course, this algorithmic approach to content curation is not without its concerns. Some argue that highly personalized recommendation systems like Instagram‘s explore page can reinforce filter bubbles and limit exposure to diverse perspectives. Others worry that this AI-driven quest for engagement inevitably favors controversial and emotionally charged content over nuance and accuracy.

Instagram will need to grapple with these issues as it continues to evolve and scale its explore page. We‘ll likely see more granular user controls, additional content guardrails, and further segmentation of the explore page into specific interest verticals. But the core premise of algorithmically surfacing relevant posts from across Instagram is here to stay.

In the meantime, the occasional explore page glitch, while frustrating, is a small price to pay for access to one of the most powerful content discovery engines on the planet. So the next time your explore feed is invaded by random nature photos, just sit tight and marvel at the complex algorithms that make it possible to instantly serve up billions of personalized content feeds to users across the globe. The explore page may not be perfect, but it‘s a remarkable testament to the scale and sophistication of modern machine learning.