If you have found this article, then you probably are in a state of panic because your Instagram account has been disabled, hacked, removed, or all of the above. I found myself in this situation a few months prior to writing this and it was extremely frustrating and disheartening. One day, I was loving my view from Corfu Island in Greece sharing a typical Instagram story when I was greeted with the window of death (from the picture below).
Don’t worry, all hope is not lost. I went through the same crazy experience after my Instagram account was hacked and disabled by Instagram. It took me months of appealing with Instagram/Facebook, sending in countless “selfies” of myself posing with a verification code, filling out endless forms, and just really giving up on everything.
After many months of trying every method known to man, I was finally able to recover my account. It took four months in the end and what brought it back was actually quite easy and straight forward (Hint: Sending a ridiculous picture of you holding up an embarrassing piece of paper does absolutely nothing). I thought I would never be able to post stories or share photos again. Thankfully, I got it back in time just before I had my multi-month trip through Thailand and my all time favorite, Bali.
I will go into detail on exactly what worked and what didn’t work for me step by step. Take a deep breath, and hopefully this will work for you too!
Update Q3/Q4 2022: This method still works and everyone has different success rates with getting through to the Facebook Chat function. Facebook has made it more difficult to access Facebook Chat Support.
Update Q1/Q2 2023: This Method is still working as referenced by the data points below. Please use the comments section and the various success stories from my other readers in addition to this article to guide your process. Good luck!
Update Q1 2024: This method is still working as evidenced by recent data points of people having success. The layouts and pictures might have changed slightly but the general process remains the same!
Please leave questions in the comments section of this post
After reading this post, you might still have questions or concerns because this is such a delicate process. Please leave all questions in the comments below and please DO NOT message me on Instagram or Facebook. I receive countless messages a day and I will not be answering them!
As well, please ignore any comments that promote contacting someone via telegram/whatsapp/emaI etc. These are 100% spam and there is no one that can bring your account back no matter how much money you throw away besides yourself. I want the comments to be open and useful but I can’t always catch these spammers right away.
Getting your Instagram account hacked or disabled
Personally, Instagram is not something I’m heavily invested in. I like the media and memory creation part of Instagram but I am nowhere near popular enough to monetize or make anything professional off of it. Instagram has always been a place for me to just store my memories and showcase nice photography.
Instead, I make money from blogging through other means which you can read about in my how much money I made blogging in 2021 post and how I achieved financial independence because of this.
However I do know that many people have way more followers than me and do make somewhat of a living off of Instagram. When it is all taken away in the snap of a finger, it feels like you’ve lost a part of yourself. It’s a feeling no one wants to be in!
Getting your Instagram account disabled or deactivated can feel like the end of the world. You’ve worked hard on your account, building your followers/brand, and in a few seconds, your account is no longer available.
You didn’t even have time to back up your photos! It might seem like all hope is lost but that is not the case. Do not panic just yet!
Did you violate the Instagram terms of service?
The first thing you need to ask yourself is if you really did violate the terms of services with Instagram? Are you posting things that are totally against the rules of Instagram and are you breaking the law with anything. If this is the case, you probably have more to worry about than just Instagram.
Things that violate their terms of services are the following:
- Using an automation tool to like/comment on content aggressively or to follow/unfollow users
- Buying likes and fake followers
- Selling or buying accounts
- Creating duplicate accounts
- Posting inappropriate content
- Infringing on someone’s creations
- Using Instagram if you are under 13 years old
- Selling or promoting illegal products or services
- Using broken or banned hashtags
- Writing more than 60 comments in an hour—or 30 if your account is new
- Sending the same messages or posting the same comments
- Using violent, aggressive, or offensive language
A lot of it I think has to do with purchasing likes, followers, etc. However, everyone and their mother who aspires to make Instagram fame has purchased likes at some point. This may be the reason you’re banned, but it is likely not a permanent thing.
How do you know you’re banned from Instagram?
Getting banned from Instagram can happen to anyone. Big account, small account, 100,000 followers or 100 followers. There is no rhyme or reason. Sometimes you just get banned and you didn’t even do anything.
Your account has been disabled message
If your account has been disabled, you will open your app, and you’ll automatically be redirected to a page like this.
This is the first sign that bad things are happening to you. You’ll then click the button to verify you’re not a robot, fill out a few questions and then you’ll get to the next step.
Thank you for providing your info
This is the next step after you’ve completed the form. You’ll get a message saying the following:
Once you get to this point, you are at the mercy of Instagram to actually review your account. They say it will take up to 24 hours.
They are lying!!!
It definitely will take much longer than 24 hours and it’s likely you’ll never hear from INstagram again. Think about it, they have millions and millions of accounts and they provide a free service. How many resources do you think they’ve allocated to help review every single case of something questionable happening?
Once you get to this step, I compare it to sending your CV for a job application during a bad jobs market. You send your resume into the job and you have no idea where it goes, who reads it, or if is even read at all. You’re stuck there for days and weeks wondering if anyone saw it. Eventually, you are resigned to the fact that no one read it and you’ll not be getting the job.
You can no longer login to your INstagram account
After the thank you for providing your info message, you’ll then just be taken back to the standard INstagram login screen. You can try logging back into your account and you’ll get something like this:
This is unfortunately the first step you’ll see after your Instagram account disabled. Once you click learn more, you’ll come to the next page.
What if your Instagram account is hacked?
WHen it comes to no longer accessing your Instagram account, disabled and hacked are kind of the same thing. If your Instagram account has been hacked, the hacker isn’t going to leave you a nice note saying, sorry I hacked your account and you can’t use it now.
No, what happens is they will hack your account, and probably do a bunch of questionable things that violate Instagram policy. Instagram’s automatic controls will then ban your account because you’re caught doing sketchy things. In the end, you get to the same result where you’re asked to verify your account and then never hear from Instagram again.
What does not work to get your Instagram account back after it’s been disabled?
Once you click learn more about why your account is disabled. You will eventually reach a page where you can fill out a form to “dispute” your banning from Instagram. The link to restore a deactivated Instagram account is here.
You can fill out your form and you can write an essay for why you’re appealing the ban but in the end, you’ll end up at the same step as everyone else.
Facebook Support Email asking for a photo of yourself
You’ll receive an email from Facebook like the below. It will ask you to take a picture of yourself holding up a piece of paper with handwritten text of the code they provide you, your Instagram handle, and your name.
This is their way of supposedly verifying that you are you. If your Instagram does not have photos of yourself, it’s fine, they just need to see someone holding the photos. I would not get too fancy with the photos and just do your best to look natural. This is what I did.
I sent this email out hoping they would come to their senses.
No response for months from INstagram
After waiting weeks upon weeks, I never heard anything from Instagram. I even emailed them back to follow up on my original email with my photo. I’ve read many blogs that say don’t do this as well as others that say do it. The blogs that don’t recommend it claim that every time you send an email to the support, it resets your place in line for someone to actually look at your request.
I’m not sure which is true or not but I can safely say that after 3 months of waiting, I heard not a single peep from Instagram.
I filled out other forms as well on Instagram like this one which actually asks for a photo of your Government ID. Here is the direct link. And here is a photo of what it looks like:
You might think that this form looks more legit but I can say that I filled out this form once (probably twice) and I still heard nothing.
Nothing worked for me.
This is not to say that it won’t work for you, but I’m saying from personal experience it was all hopeless. Not only did you feel like a total fool for sending ridiculous photos of yourself to a mailbox that I’m positive no one checks, but you got zero response.
Now that you’ve taken a ridiculous picture of yourself and realized it doesn’t work to get your INstagram account back, what does work? This is covered in the next section!
What works to restore your INstagram account: Facebook Support
After months of frustration, I was ready to call it quits. I figured, I had already created another account with just a fraction of my previous followers. However, I never intended to use Instagram for anything more than just a place to post my pictures and memories. However, that account also got hacked and disabled!! I knew I had to do something.
Facebook owns Instagram as you already know and you would think for such a massive company, they would have better customer service than just sending a selfie with you holding a piece of paper.
It turns out that Facebook does have support, quite good support at that. You just need to pay for it. Yes, you’ll need to pay some money to get your Instagram account back.
Why you ask?
Because the Facebook Support is meant specifically for those that advertise. Remember, Facebook’s a business, a huge one at that and they make their money from people paying to advertise. They are a publicly traded company and their first and most important goal is making oney. No one cares about your personal Instagram account, that is until you start paying something for it. The support team is meant to deal with issues pertaining to actual advertising and business, but they just also happen to deal with disabled Instagram account.
I will walk you through everything step by step for the next steps. Note that this could change at any point so hopefully by the time you read this, Facebook support still helps people with their Instagram account. As of now, this is the only method that works in how to reactivate your Instagram account
Step 1: Create a business account on Facebook or Instagram
The first step after getting your Instagram account disabled is to create a business account on Facebook or Instagram. Since your Instagram account has been disabled, it’s probably easier to just create an account on Facebook to get this done.
I already had a Facebook Page (Johnny Africa obviously) where I had previously boosted ads before. You can find the URL for your Facebook Profile here. The first step is to create a new Facebook Page:
You’ll be redirected to a page like this where you can add your Page name, category, description etc. Add a few photos and just make it into something simple.
Now you’re done, you’ve officially created a new page. Now I would just simply post a few photos here on this page or even a link to a reputable news source.
You don’t need to a blog like mine to create an Facebook page.
Step 2: Post an ad on Facebook or Instagram
The next step is to post an ad. You can simply use one of the pictures, links, or posts you created in the step above. Your next step is to boost this post which means you’re buying ads/promoting this post.
The process is quite easy and straight forward.
You’ll need to select a few things like the demographics you’re targeting. However, the purpose of this is not to actually buy ads. It’s simply to get the option to talk to Facebook Support. If you don’t buy this ad, there is no option to talk to them.
I spent $5.00 on my ad which will be enough to turn on the Facebook Support feature.
Wait until your credit card has been charged
Once you’ve completed the ad set up, the next step is to let the ad run its course. This will take a day or two before you actually have some ad statistics. You’ll want to wait until your credit card has been charged. This will turn on the Facebook Support feature.
Step 3: Talk to Facebook Support
Finally, you’ve created a business Facebook account, successfully posted an ad, and your credit card has been changed. Make sure to wait a few days until after your ad has been posted and for your credit card to be charged otherwise you will not be able to access the following page.
Step 3.1 – Start up Facebook Support
On the next page, scroll to the bottom and click the Get started button on support. Remember, this will only show up once you’ve paid for ads. If you just posted your ad, you will not see the below feature at all.
Then the next steps are to hit Contact Advertising Support.
The next part is tricky. I have a Facebook page as well as a personal account. I tried the support multiple times choosing different accounts, and the one that worked for me was the Facebook Page. I don’t think this actually matters however.
On the next page, you’ll select the reason you’re looking for support. I selected my Facebook page was hacked or taken over by someone else. It was not my Facebook page that was hacked, but my Instagram account. It doesn’t matter because Facebook support can troubleshoot and help you with both options.
Finally, you’re almost there. You just need to provide some contact information:
There you go, now you can finally talk to a live human being. Once you click start chat, you will be redirected to Facebook Messenger where you can talk to support.
Step 3.2 – Plead your case with Facebook Support
Facebook Support is the only method that worked for me to get my account back. Nothing else did at all. I sent in who knows how many selfies to no avail. This is the only method that worked for me. After having my Instagram account disabled, this is the most important step.
Once you start your conversation, be professional, courteous and state your problem clearly. Do not give them any reason to actually ban you. Just say that you think your account has been disabled incorrectly because of x,y,z.’ Once you start your conversation, be professional, courteous and state your problem clearly. Do not give them any reason to actually ban you. Just say that you think your account has been disabled incorrectly because of x,y,z.
Facebook Support is a bit of a crap shoot. You never know who you’re going to get as your support representative. It turns out that some people are much more helpful than others.
After reading other blogs and watching numerous YouTube videos, I learned that it might take you a few tries to get this to work.
For my first conversation, you can read it here.
As you can see, Andrea wasn’t so helpful. She told me that I had already done the required steps and that it was being reviewed. Simply, I had to wait for Instagram to get around to it.
Use a US VPN: Another trick that has helped many has been to talk to the US support reps at Facebook. People have had more success talking to US representatives. All you need to do is simply use a VPN and connect to a US IP.
Step 3.3 – Try, try again
I knew this was not the answer I was looking for because it had already been almost four months so nothing was going to change. I simply just ended the chat and started up another support request.
Beatriz was slightly more helpful but essentially just told me to go to links I had already visited countless times. These are the same links that tell you to submit some information that no one will look at. I tried to tell her I had done these same things but to no effect. She wasn’t buying any of it.
I ended the chat and tried one more time.
The third time I struck gold:
As you can see, Adam was the ultimate homie. He knew right away what the issue was and knew exactly who to escalate it to. I didn’t even explain my case and he already knew which department to bring it up to. He told me it would take 24-48 hours to complete and for me to wait until it was done.
I said thank you and around 50 hours later, my Instagram account was revived!!!!! Wow.
What a process but I’ve recovered my account successfully!!
Bonus Step: Instagram Support courtesy of Jess
From the numerous comments I’ve received on this post, here is the success story of one of my readers Jess who was able to access Facebook Support via the Instagram shopping page, a slightly different process than what I found. Pictures and screenshots below after the text.
In the process of looking to regain access to my IG account, came across this blog post, and it has been a truly helpful beacon of advice, kindness, support, and current up to the moment happenings! All things that have been greatly, greatly appreciated!
Through trying the contact method Johnny described, I have been able to contact and chat with members of Facebook/Meta team! It has been very exciting to have the option to chat! Just wanted to mention how the chat option appeared for me, in case it could help anyone else (as Facebook and Meta pages have moved around and changed formats sometimes).
I have a Page created on FB for my business, and have run an ad previously, a couple years ago. (I tried running one again when I was trying the above method, though I dont think my payment method ever got charged, so not sure if it went through. so a bit tough to say if that new ad helped the button to appear, or if it was from an earlier time).
I went to this page for Instagram Shopping help, scrolled down 3/4 of the page, and clicked on the button that said “Get Started in Commerce Manager“. https://business.instagram.com/shopping
This brought up my Facebook Commerce Manager hub, and “Commerce Accounts“. None were listed there, so I clicked on “Cant Find A Shop, Switch Accounts“. This brought up a drop down menu that let me click on my newly created “Business Account“ (appeared different than “Your Account“). Now I could view my shop account listed, with its ID number. I clicked that, and it led me to my Commerce Manager Overview. (There may be other pathways to arrive at this page, this is how I got there 🙂
On the right side, there was a link that said “Need help?
Learn more about setting up and managing your shop.“
This brought up a window of “5 Recommended Articles“, and under that, was..“Contact Facebook Support“ (!!) Yayy 🙂
From here, it asked me to select a topic, I went with “Technical Issue“, and then “Instagram“.
I was able to speak with a lovely representative who went above and beyond to help me with my question.
Its been so amazing to be able to speak with someone directly about my account, and I just wanted to share how the button appeared for me in case it could help one find it as well 🙂
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
So now that you know how I got my account back, now you probably have a million questions and are eager to get started on your own. I’ll summarize everything here and hopefully this will help you prepare for your own adventure (yes it really is an adventure)
Who gets their Instagram account disabled?
While Instagram says you will get your account disabled or deactivated because you violated the terms of use. However, this isn’t always the case. Instagram’s algorithm is still AI in the end and anything can trigger this without warning.
Anyone can have their account disabled, even if you did nothing wrong. It’s a very common problem that no one cares to think about until it actually happens to them! Don’t think that just because you’re well behaved and have always followed the rules that you’re exempt!
There’s a high chance that your account was disabled for no reason or the wrong reason. However, there is no quick support where you can just rectify the situation in a timely fashion. You can try the normal steps that Instagram gives you (like sending in the selfie image of yourself) but it’s more likely than not that it won’t fix the situation.
Does this work for personal and business Instagram accounts?
Yes. This method of Facebook Support works if your Instagram account is business or personal. My account (@johnny.africa) was a personal account. I’ve since changed it to a business account because I think ultimately, this has a higher chance of success by making it higher priority the next time something like this happens.
What if I did buy likes or buy followers on my Instagram?
This is against Instagram rules for sure and it’s grounds for banning. If you’ve been warned by Instagram before, and keep engaging in inflating your account, then they will for sure ban you. However, you can appeal using the same method as above and you’ll be at the mercy of Facebook support. If they bring this up, you can deny it all you want but they have the tools and wherewithal to know what you did.
Does Instagram actually completely delete your account?
I was worried about this at first. The message you receive once your account has been disabled is that Instagram has removed your account. I thought for sure that I lost everything and it was forever gone. Turns out, this is not the case. Instagram stores all your pictures and stories for a long time. It’s never completely gone which means you can still try all the methods above.
How much money should I spend on running Facebook or Instagram Ads?
There is no magic number to spend on ads to get this method to work. Simply, you just need to spend enough to enable the Facebook Support chat option so you can speak to a live representative. I spent $5 boosting one post on my Facebook page and that’s all it took. I’ve since not purchased ads.
Do I need to buy ads on Facebook or Instagram?
If you have multiple Instagram accounts, you can try boosting a post on an account that has not been disabled or banned. This will work because no matter what you use, Facebook or Instagram, everything is connected to your Facebook account as far as ads go. If you boost a post on Instagram instead of creating a new page on Facebook, it is still connected to your Facebook account, and thereby, it will enable the Facebook Support feature.
Is there a number you can call on Facebook Support?
No. There is no way to speak to someone on the phone at Facebook support. There is no number to call. If someone knows of a number, please leave it in the comments!
I have heard of stories of people that have gotten their accounts back with Facebook support and the rep has requested to call them. This didn’t happen with me but it’s fine because I got my account back either way.
How many times should I contact Facebook Support?
As per my experience, it took me three times messaging Facebook Support to get the answer I needed. The first two times, I was paired with Facebook support reps that were not able to help me out.
If you’re trying this method, you might get lucky the first go around, or it could take you 10 tries before getting the right answer! I would not abuse the chat feature because you just never know. I would use a golden rule of speaking to three people before waiting a day and resuming. There’s no truth in this but it’s just what I would do.
Sometimes your Instagram account was fully hacked
Sometimes your account was not just suspended by Instagram but completely hacked away by hackers. I’ve seen a few of these instances where hackers actually completely deleted the account. In this situation, it is very difficult to get your account back and Instagram is likely not going to be keen to help you out.
I got my Instagram account disabled, can you help me?
The answer is unfortunately not. I cannot help you besides writing this detailed article breaking down step by step what I did. My Facebook account is only for me so I can’t run ads for anyone else. Simply read through the post and give it a shot. In addition, read through the comments as many people have had success with slightly different methods.
Please leave questions in the comments below
I’ve received many messages on my Instagram account for help with getting your Instagram account back. I can’t promise I can respond to every question in a timely manner.
For the sake of the community, please post your questions on this post using the comments below. Also, if you have had success with your journey, please leave a comment to tell everyone about what your experience entailed. I think everyone will go through a slightly different process in getting their accounts back so it would be great to have data points for everyone!
As well, please ignore any comments that promote contacting someone. These are 100% spam and there is no one that can bring your account back besides yourself. I want the comments to be open and useful but I can’t always catch these spammers right away.
I can’t seem to get the chat feature and nothing I have tried is allowing me to contact anyone. Any advice?
After I bought an ad it took me like over a week before I was able to contact chat support! Hang in there you got this!
DId you follow steps to create the ad? Sometimes it takes a week or two for the chat feature to show up.
Go a reply from the chat support:
— If the account is Disabled for more than 6 months, it cannot be appealed.
I have talked to chat support and apparently the instagram team is working on my case. I know Johnny got his account back in 48 hours but I’m just playing the waiting game now and it’s definitely stressful. Here’s hoping I hear from them soon ????
Hello! The last time I got access to my fan account was on July 16, after which I was thrown out of my account and asked to go through a captcha, and then enter the code that came to my phone. I entered the code, after which my account was checked for 24 hours, and then it was blocked. I do not know why this happened. I have never used mechanisms to artificially get Likes, increase the number of subscribers and reposts, although this reason is indicated in the blocking of my fan account. On the contrary, I noticed that the number of my subscribers began to decline sharply, their number became the same as it was in October-November 2021 (I conduct statistics in a special journal), as well as the coverage of publications fell and I began to hide likes. In all the five years that my account has existed, I have never violated the rules of Instagram. I sent 5-6 photos with a code, I also filled out other forms, but there was silence in response. I can’t even pay for ads because Facebook has banned advertising in my country. I’m desperate and don’t know what to do… Please, someone help me…
Hello ????
Hi everybody!
So, unfortunately, I’ve been trying Johnny’s way for a few months now to absolutely no success, because customer support kept telling me that it is not in their jurisdiction to help with that sort of issue (which is absolutely ridiculous).
And now today, I tried to log into my disabled Instagram, and instead of the usual error message about my account being disabled, I received a new one:
The username you entered doesn’t belong to an account. Please check your username and try again.
Which has me so UPSET because I think they may have just deleted my account altogether, even after countless attempts to retrieve my account back. And what’s even more evil about it is that I was testing to see if they really did delete my account, so I tried to make a new account with that same username, and it says it’s not available/taken. So, if it’s deleted forever, I can’t even rebrand with my same name? It’s so upsetting because that was my biggest source of networking with other artists (I am an animator/illustrator) and I kept begging Facebook that it was one of the only ways that I could even contact my distant family. And because of my poor memory, I can’t even remember what their usernames are or anything. I had so many memories and so much unsaved art (and even a nice follower count, it was over 1k and I had JUST achieved that!). This is absolutely upsetting.
I really hope everybody else is able to restore their accounts. Facebook, Meta, Instagram all suck so freakin bad.
That’s awful so sad to hear this. Unfortunately, everyone has been going through this problem. can you create a new account using your original username? i guess if that works, then it’s confirmed the account is gone.
So, upon speaking to another Facebook agent, when I had told them that I had, out of curiosity, tried to create a new account with the same username to confirm if the account was gone forever, they had said that you cannot create a new account with the same username as a terminated/permanently disabled account. I want to be hopeful because of Ciri’s reply, but I’m just not sure what to believe anymore.
I guess I will try and bother them again just for the sake of trying, but I’m just kind of tired. I will try to comment again with a more detailed recollection to be more helpful to this reading this post because there are probably details I left out that may be important (maybe?). I just hope everybody else gets their account back.
Same thing brother ????????????
These people ARE EVIL
Imagine not being able to back up your photos since you were 13( in 30) now
All the friends and family that DIED, CANT GET THOSE PHOTOS
All for posting things that ended up being true later ? Covid and blah blah misinformation? NOT FAIR
THEY KEPT SSWITCHING AND CHANGING UP INFORMATION on US
Unbelievable, we spent DECADES uploading our memories to Facebook and Instagram, JUST SO THEY CAN DELETE US WITHOUT PROPER DATA SAVING AT THE VERY FUCKING LEEAST
Now I “user name no longer exists “”
FUCK MARK ZUCKERBERG.. can’t WAIT TILL HE DIES
I am experiencing the same problem..instagram disabled my account said that I violated the community guidelines. And yesterday I created my first ad on my Facebook business page, but still I couldn’t access to the live chat service.
I would like to know how long it takes for Facebook to charge your card? As I’m using the autopayment which charge automatically on every 20th of the month, is this the reason why I couldn’t access the live chat support?
Did you get it to work?
You don’t have to buy ads to get to the chat support anymore just need to have a business account.
How?
I made an ad page as well! Even after Facebook charged my card it took me a little bit of time before I was able to access the live chat feature. Probably about a week or so
Hi Johnny. Glad to see that you have your account back! Mine was also disabled for no reason, and I tried to create a Facebook Business Page and created an ad. Now the ad is running already, but I still can’t access to the live chat support.. It takes how long for Facebook to charge your ad? As I’m using Automatic payments which charge on every 21st.
This is like the most helpful thing ever, thank you for showing us this!
Thanks!
does anyone already have a business page on Facebook who can help me to recover my disabled acc ? dm me on IG @js7r_
I could recover my account after half a year. Got it disabled in November 17th. As I texted here a few times, there wasn’t any agent who was useful at all. I talked with more than 100 all these months. Some agents event told me that my account was permanently closed and that was the weirdest IG gave me. I never violated any rules and I still don’t know which “one” I violated, according to them, but after 6 months an agent called Jimmy escalated (FIANLLY!) my case and I got my account after 3 hours. It has been a tiring and intense fight, but finally I managed. Thank Jhonny for your help and I hope other people don’t lose the hope!
Wow Congratulations. 6 months has to be a record but kudos to you for sticking out for so long!
I was hacked on Saturday by someone who used my stories to put 5 sad bitcon stories but they have changed my username, password, mobile everything I could use to recover it and after that stories never did anything else on my account! Now I have tried everything and I can get it back….. I already did the video selfie with the code and I haven’t even got a response… but I keep forward the same email for the last few weeks (silly me) Out of desperation I even paid a hacker to recover it which turned out been a scam (idiot me). Still with no account recover and I don’t know what to do…. I will try your recommendation and see if there is luck
I know many many people that have fallen trap to those scams on Instagram guaranteeing your account back. Even I was considering it when I lost my account to give it a shot. Desperation causes people to make dumb decisions! Good luck with getting your account back however .
Hi Ciri!
My account was disabled at the end of December 2021, like literally right before the New Year. I was just told today that my Instagram account was permanently closed and I’m devastated.
About how many months in were you told your account was permanently disabled? And what did you say to finally get your case escalated?
I’ve had to talk on the phone with so many agents and today I finally got told that my account had been permanently disabled, even after I told them my account had been hacked. They told me there is nothing they can do after an account has been permanently deleted, because then it has been permanently erased from their database or whatever. So now I just feel hopeless lol.
Are there any keywords or advice you could give to give hope, I’ve done everything that Johnny has said (including phone calls and emailing many times). I’m literally at a loss but your comment feels hopeful because our situation is similar.
It’s been almost 7 months for me and I’m genuinely so pissed lol!
Is there hope after it says “no longer found “
My Instagram account was hacked 5/22/2022.
After sending in 200 video selfies and always getting “your identity could not be verified” because not human was actually even looking, I tried sending in reports of account impersonating me. A filed multiple reports with a photo of myself holding a driver’s license and they always sent a reply “we a short handed because of Covid and can’t review your case now.”
I was at a dead end until I found this blog.
I followed Johnny’s steps to the letter. On Friday 6/10/2022 I had a nice online chat with a service rep. But she wasn’t really that helpful. She told me to email Instagram replying to the original email on 5/22 that said my email was changed. Well I did that but really, how likely is it that anyone will look at that email? ZERO.
So I opened Facebook support again today and see that my inquiry was given a case number! But it was marked “closed.”
Oh hell no!
So there was an option to request an update. I did request a follow up and got this reply via email:
We have received your update to your Support Case #XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX with the message:
“Case ID XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX is marked “completed” when actually no action was taken.
A suggestion to email Instagram is not going to get my hacked account restored to me.
Gil was very polite but that still doesn’t solve the problem.
I need to access “my instagram user name inserted here.”
If 2 factor authentication is turned off I could regain control my account.”
We will respond within 1 business day. If you don’t hear from us within that time frame, please be sure to check your spam folder.
So we will see if they do anything or not. I’ll keep you posted
Thanks for the detailed recap. Don’t give up I think you’re close than most!
Hello, thank you for this article
I was able to contact business support.
But they give me same response, and each time new support member sees that I have already talked to their colleagues, so their response does not change.
Also, does anyone know how can I contact US support members?, because due to location (Kazakhstan), I am always contacted to local support members (although I send request in english)
Hello, thank you for this article
I was able to contact business support.
But they give me same response, and each time new support member sees that I have already talked to their colleagues, so their response does not change.
Also, does anyone know how can I contact US support members?, because due to location (Kazakhstan), I am always contacted to some russian speaking members (although I send request in english)
hello everyone, I just want someone to help me for recovering my disabled account.
I just cant do it well, I tried Johnny’s steps but it did not worked for me ‘Cus probably I did not done it well.
so if is there anyone could help me I will be thankful.
Im just 15 and cant pay for that but I really want my account there is a lot of memories that I want them.
please can anyone help me for that ? sorry for bothering you.
hello guys, I just want someone to help me for recovering my disabled account.
I just cant do it well, I tried Johnny’s steps but it did not worked for me ‘Cus probably I did not done it well.
so if is there anyone could help me I will be thankful.
Im just 15 and cant pay for that but I really want my account there is a lot of memories that I want them.
please can anyone help me for that ? sorry for bothering you.
Hey guys, has anyone had any luck with this method recently with a personal account? I’ve chatted to around 7/8 live chat reps now and still no luck the last rep said that they can only help with business accounts.. really starting to lose hope here :((
same :\
Hey guys, I got my account back today!! (After 2 months) the last person I talked to told me to fill out the forms again and be patient, I did not think this would help but today I tried to log into my account and it worked. I received no emails from Instagram or anything though which j thought was odd. Anyways thank you so much Johnny! Btw mine was a personal account.
could you please help me to recover my acc ? dm me in IG @js7r_ if you would
Ahhh lucky you! I’m still going on 3 months to no avail. 🙁
Hi everyone,
for the past 3 months, I have been using Johnny’s exact techniques to try and recover my instagram account. I created a facebook business account, paid for ads, and have spoken to over 15 FB/META representatives over the past few months (4 of which I spoke to on the phone) and I have some bad news:
Johnny was able to have his issue forwarded to the proper Instagram internal team only because he had a business/blog instagram account. If you’re like me, and had a PERSONAL instagram account, they simply aren’t going to be able to give you any help other suggesting you keep filling out the form (the form the prompts you to take a selfie with the 5 digit code)
I have exhausted ALL efforts. I’ve been frantically trying to recover my Instagram account for months now. I have my account for over 10 years and had photos on their that were extremely dear to my heart. I waited OVER a month in between each of my forms I submitted online. It appears that if you have a PERSONAL instagram account, and have filled out the form repeatedly to no avail, they have made their mind up that your account is gone.
I didn’t want to accept it, but I feel I have no choice now. And I wanted to spare everyone else the disappointment.
If, by chance, anyone has ANY suggestions, I can be reached at @djw2691@gmail.com
Johnny, can you please delete my comment above? I tried reaching out to you via email. I just don’t want my email address to populate on google searches. Thanks!!!
Did you get any help
My acct is personal as well.im going onn3 months now. I know someone who was in similar situation with personal account and kept appealing. She never tried to chat… but she waited it out and it just magically got reactivated 6 months later. 6 months!? Unreal. I’m not completely giving up hope yet. But ask me again in 3 more months.:-(
This just worked for me! (5.31.2022). It took me a week.
My IG account was hacked by bitcoin scammers. They changed password, email, phone number and turned on 2-step verification. I was completely locked out and my account was active with a scam post using a picture of me.
When I realized what was going on I quickly changed my Facebook password.
I tried the IG channels and the selfie verification about twenty times with no luck. Then I was shown this blog.
I already had a business account and had run a few ads last year when I was taking an online marketing class during shutdown. So, I was set up in Meta business.
I ran a picture of jewelry ( I’m a jeweler) and picked some random ad parameters. It ran for 24 hrs and cost me $3.50.
When the charge went through my bank, a chat feature opened up in Meta business. Knowing it was an uphill battle I was dragging out that chat. They kept sending me the link for deactivated accounts, but it wouldn’t work because mine was still active. I finally convinced the person that I needed more than a link. He gave me a claim number and said he would ‘bump it up to management’. Then he ended the chat. I’m pretty sure he was sick of me.
The next day, I get an email from FB marketing saying they have a team ready to help me with my advertising program. I click away and there is a ‘call me’ option! In five minutes a marketing sales rep calls me. I give my sob story that I really want to run an ad campaign, but can’t, because my IG has been hacked. I laid it on thick about wanting to run a/b ads and compare the results etc etc. He says he is not the right department, but will flag my account.
An hour later I get the magic email with a password rest link. I quickly went in with my new password. I turned off 2-step, eliminated the scammer fb accounts linked to my account and made sure all the contact information was mine. I then went back a turned on 2-step again. Done.
I know it was the advertisement because I gave the chat help and the sales rep a different email address than I had on previous recovery attempts.
Thanks!
Wow what a story. I never had to speak to anyone on the phone but have been hearing more and more people needing to do this. Thanks for the data point and glad you got your account back!
Do you think this will work for an account that is not disabled, but I can’t get into? I have two factor authentication enabled and the number they are sending codes to is gone. I tried the whole contacting through email thing and ofc that did not work. What should i say if i get a chance to speak to them?
Follow Facebook Business Support. Send them a message on Messenger. They will respond with a link to email.
Click the link and fill out the form, you can even upload screenshots. Once submitted I received an email right away with a reference number and they Facebook hoped to get back to me within 2 hours (may be longer).
Waiting on them to get back to me, but feeling like I’ve taken a massive step forward.
Hi Linh! Can you tell me how you got your Facebook Ad to be approved? I don’t have a business so I have to make one up but I have no idea what to do. I tried a traveling blog before but my ad was rejected.
Sorry I was trying to make a reply. I don’t know why this became a comment of it’s own too. But can anyone else tell me how they got their ad to be approved? I can’t even paid Meta because my ad is not approved.
Hi Lilly! I’m working on this and had the same thing happen to me. I’m not sure what term I violated but it totally barred me from making ads in the future. I’ll be honest, I was a little lazy the first go around in making it look legit. Second time, after making a different FB because ads were disabled on mine, I had success! This time I made a recipe blog type page and because I actually put some effort into the caption and used an original photo of mine, it worked. Here’s hoping that money goes to getting my instagram back!
Hey guys, so the live chat feature appeared for me last week and since then I have chatted to 4 different people at Facebook support. None have been overly helpful but one guy Alexx said he could check to see where my account was in the process of getting it back. He said it was in the middle of being reviewed and that after the review I would have my account back within the 27th and 30th of May… I then got onto another representative today but she did not give me a certain time frame so I don’t know how truthful Alexx was being. Has this happened to anyone else?
Hi there, i am currently dealing with all this right now as I just got hacked yesterday (just paid for an ad yesterday so waiting for it to show in my bank account before the next steps) and i wanted to ask, for you is the whole meta business/help platform and ways to access the live chat option different now from the photos johnny posted before, or pretty much still the same as his? Or did meta redesign it to make it more difficult? I’d really appreciate a response, C , thank you. And johnny, I would also appreciate any kind of response as well
And also, C, may i ask how long it took for the live chat button to appear for you, and exactly where? Thank you
I think mine looks similar but it did take around 3 weeks for the live chat option to appear..
Hi Johnny! I spoke with someone who said will get back to me in 48 hours. Can I keep trying to get support from other specialist over chat or should i just wait?
Hey mate, what did he say though in terms of what he is doing? If he said he’s escalated to the internal team and actually taken real steps, then let them do their thing
I am dealing with this same thing right now. Have you all ever paid a hacker to help with this issue? I found some at hacker.com, but I am a little afraid to use them. I did set up the business ad – but I have not gotten the chat feature.
Don’t do this. It is sure a scam and there’s nothing people can do to help you get this back.
I’ve spoken to about 4 people as well and haven’t received much results outside of the same run around that it’s in review and to be patient. None of them seem to have had the pull to expedite anything for me. One of them even recommended that I submit a new appeal even tho he said it would start the clock again. 🙁
I’ve been disabled since 3/25!
Oh my goodness! It look like month of waiting and submitting email support tickets regarding both my disabled account and the fact that chat capability was not showing up in my help center… but I FINALLY got access to live chat! My first chat didn’t really result in much outside of the typical waiting… and I literally just had my 2nd chat just now – he ended up asking if he could call over the phone instead, so I was sure – and he at least told me that he ‘escalated’ it to the team and that I should be getting access to my account soon. I don’t know how he knows I will, but at least I received a different response/message than what I had received in the past from other agents. Anyhow… I asked why I keep being told 24-48 hours, but its been nearly 9 weeks for me. He said that my case, along with a bunch of others have to be reviewed more specifically for some violation – he wasn’t clear what it was but made it sound like something unique that affected a bunch of accounts. Sigh… Let’s see what the next 24-48 hours brings… Otherwise I’ll attempt a chat #3 and see if 3’s a charm
I also got the chat function but no one has helped… can I ask why your account was deactivated?
If you want to email me at cmessenger101@icloud.com we could talk through this shitty process together because I’ve been told to wait 24-48 hours as well and still haven’t gotten the account back (not to be discouraging tho)
So someone at Support escalated your ticket? Could you help me, none of the Support workers seem to be able to escalate mine.
Would also be curious if someone could escalate on someone else behalf
Any luck?
No luck yet… 2 live chat agents in… I’m going to try again maybe today and tomorrow and hope that 3’s a charm 🙁
Hi there, i am currently dealing with all this right now and i wanted to asked, for you is the whole meta business/help platform and ways to get to the pages johnny was talking about different from the photos johnny posted before? Or did meta redesign it to make it more difficult?
I did it a fee weeks back and it was still mostly similar but these things change quick so I’ll take a look.
Hi Linh, any update or luck? I also had a chat person say they will escalate it to the investigation team and wait for an email, but was not given a time frame. Its been about 4 days so far for me.
No luck still.ive gone thru 4 live chat agents. Disabled since 3/25
Hi Linh! Can you tell me how you got your Facebook Ad to be approved? I don’t have a business so I have to make one up but I have no idea what to do. I tried a traveling blog before but my ad was rejected.
Hi Lily!
I actually had a page for an old photography business tied to my personal FB… so I ran an ad for my page. And then under the assets an “ad account” was listed.
After over a month I finally got the button that lets me chat to support. I have spoken with three workers now and they got gradually more helpful, sadly I have not gotten my account back. The last one said they cannot contact the Internal Team of Instagram, which I find very strange. The last one also warned me about not sending multiple support tickets about the same problem, or I might get flagged as spam. So I’ll wait a day or two to chat to three more people. As I am from the Netherlands I only get to chat with Dutch support, so that may have something to do with the fact that they can’t really help me. All three consistently said that Instagram is out of Facebook’s reach (once again, strange considering they’re literally the same company???). I had to spend over €90,- on ads (I do have an actual business and it got us alot of customers, so it’s not a huge loss), but for the people who may not have that much to spend should be wary to try this. Facebook has definitely made it harder for you to chat to actual support. Regardless, I shall keep trying and will keep you guys updated on my journey. Hopefully it’ll get resolved soon.
Lollll same thing happened to me. Their customer support team sucks ass
Hello everyone, I can help you recover your account. Write to me on telegram messenger:
or whatsapp messenger: imaspammer
No you can’t stop spamming this post you pos
Hello Johnny Chen
Yesterday I had chatted with a live agent, like your case he was so helpful, casual and laid back as he allowed me to cuss at my Instagram being gone for 4 weeks now almost, and he had told me that he has sent a review to the internal team and it is already escalated as they have different tools for it than most users, and told me I was allowed to follow up with the case ID specifically to get updates on the review he had filed, and told me to wait 48 hours and included the information that my account was active for 30 seconds and it got disabled too soon again, which he agreed is very suspicious, and 10 hours after that I chatted back with the case ID to make sure everything is good, however the next agent claimed he wanted me to file an appeal even though he told me not to because of rogue activity and wait 48 hours, and claimed I only came back 4 hours later when it was 10, and tried to direct the same forms even though the previous guy filed a report, which she also denied. Is there a chance the investigation is ruined or is there a chance the internal review is still being done and shes completely clueless other than acknowledging a case ID exists?
I think you should just wait out at least 48 hours if not more. If nothing comes of it then follow back and usually that’s a bad sign that it’s going nowhere. The support reps are all on different planets and pretty sure no one works with one another.
Hello Johnny Chen
I got my account back in 30 hours yesterday after I called the first agent in the morning who agreed to escalate this so it turns out that he did actually escalate this given also that the internal team also blocked any appeals as I tried just incase and never got the automated response for the selfie and code, possibly because the first rep whos named Matt told them to due to that suspicious enabling and disabling of my account in just 30 seconds. Props to Matt for helping me get my Instagram back in less than two days, we actually befriended each other during that call, and he again he stopped acting like a rep due to him being able to relate to me because he also had his Instagram gone for two months before he worked for FaceBook, and admitted there are always people like him who will gladly go the extra mile.
Congrats on getting it back! Great story and thank goodness for Matt
Hi Johnny! I saw in another comment that you still have access to the live chat. I’m approaching 8 weeks now to no avail. I keep getting the same response via email support that it’s currently being reviewed and they will let me know when they finish. This is unreal and so stressful. I’m about ready to pay someone who has access to live chat to go on theirs and seek reactivation of my account for me. 🙁
I’ve only received the selfie with code email once at the beginning of my appeals. What’s it mean that I don’t receive any of those IG responses since then?
Hi Linh, unfortunately the only method I know that works is the chat support. Not sure if someone else can do it on your behalf but I don’t have any data points on this anyhow. All i know is the chat sfeature still works as I tested it last week!
Hey Johnny, so I haven’t exactly done the process from this article you made. I was wondering where everyone in the comment section here is speaking to people from live chat? Also someone said something about reaching to Facebook Business Support and emailing them, but when I messaged them, it said “Hi! Chat is currently unavailable, please try again later. You can still get the support you need by visiting http://www.facebook.com/business/help/support and choosing email.” However, when I clicked the link, there wasn’t an email that I could send my ticket to?
My account was disabled in December 2021. Appealed with all possible forms. Sent thousand of selfies/mugshots Runned an ad and chatted with FB support agents… Nothing worked. These agents actually recommend to stop until an answer is received from IG same saying it will remeain banned or not, because “each time I appeal, my case is down on the list again and again. Okay, I’m waiting 2 months already…
I think you recovered your accoubt because actually hacked axcount was true? Accoubta are back when hacked but when terms were violated (fckng “follow for follow” shit), nothing. You may recover once but not the second time it was disabled.
Yes my account was actually hacked into through my email being hacked although that was recovered before my Instagram, and some days ago whilst I was on the call with Matt the FaceBook rep, we both saw that my account was active for 30 seconds and gone again and he agreed this is too suspicious plus from that you can say I was deactivated twice but now I do have my account back thanks to him because as I mentioned earlier, Matt felt genuinely apologetic instead of being robotic and told me the same had happened to his Instagram before he started to work as a rep, which was the reason he launched an internal investigation, the next rep I had talked for a simple follow up to confirm the Case ID tried to ruin the investigation by lying about Matt and even contradicting him as she wanted me to appeal which Matt told me not to, regardless she failed to, and my account is back up 30 hours later and still exists as I typed this.
I’ve been trying for 2 months now and no chat available. Just waiting and being told the same things. I’m ready to find someone who has chat access and pay them to ask for my account back.
Were you told that not getting those selfie request emails is a bad sign? Ugh. This is so stressful and sad.
Yuuppp I’ve had the exact same experience as you. I am actually appalled at their lack of customer support
Oh my gosh how are you getting help with a live agent ????????I’ve been emailing back and forth and no one has helped and I can’t get on live chat with messenger despite the fact that I’ve been paying for ads for days.
Hi ! good advice you ve got here ! I did a similar thing but my live support told me to send a notarised pdf to prove my identity,
I got my Instagram account hacked I can’t access to it anymore so I contacted the business Facebook support and I got in contact chat with Rogerio which was really helpful, he actually called me directly and spent time with me to verify I ve been hacked and then he explained the solution will be basically to prove that I m the right admin of the page, confirm my identity. He sent me a mail with everything resume so i have to send a pdf email to this same email address with all the information inside (my relationship with the account, why I use it for, a new email address different from the original one proof that it’s my own business etc) but this pdf has to be notarised.
I ve prepared the pdf ready to be notarised but I m just checking before contacting a notary because it’s not really cheap, if someone already had a similar case ? I can’t find anything related to this and even if Rogerio was really nice it’s still weird that someone from fb called me x)
Hi, I was wondering if you could contact FB representative I have no money and can’t buy an ad to speak to them. Can you please do it for me?
Same thing happened to me back in October! Mine was disabled due to a 3rd party app I accidentally logged into! Mine was already a business account and it took me several days of going back and forth within the chat to get someone who was helpful! They did ultimately call me although that person just said they would continue escalating it. Make sure you get a case number for the referral! I had also lost my Facebook about a year before that and had to get a notorised document to get that back. So I’m unsure if them having that in my records may have helped.
But as Johnny says above. Keep messaging them on the support until you get someone helpful. I messaged every day for an update until I got my account back. It took a month of nothing short of polite harassment but I did get it back. I got an email saying they had reactivated it and I just needed to log in!
“Meta” (facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) is a MESS! I came by this post because my personal IG account was disabled for no reason. It’s connected to my personal Facebook account which works totally fine but people who DM me on IG have their messages forwarded to my Facebook chat and I can’t respond to anything on it and their names are duplicated.
Can I get similar help with a live person if I run a Facebook Marketplace ad? I have a few on there and just put a $5 budget on it to see where it will go but who knows.
Hi Johnny – I came across your post as my account has been hacked for about 3 weeks now and I’ve tried everything you’ve tried. My last resort was to run an ad with the hopes that ad support would reach out to me but it’s been a week now and I don’t see the live chat option anywhere. I know you posted this article in December 2021 and things may have changed since but just curious how you landed on that chat because I’m on the Meta Business Suite Get Support page and don’t see an option to chat with support.
I ran my ad almost 2 weeks ago and still no chat option. There is a “connect with expert” on the top of the page but the description says it’s for talking with a marketing expert to get my ads to do better. Anyone used this feature and got help with the hacked account?
Hi there!
I have successfully created a business account and paid for an ad, and my card has been charged. I was just wondering – is the “Still need help? Find answers or contact support ‘Get Started’ button is still available on the page? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.
Any help would be immensely appreciated!
Yeah I don’t think it is available anymore, they keep on making it harder to chat with live support. I have rotated through 7 different agents now and they have been so unhelpful it is actually appalling. One guy told me that he, “admires my effort to get this issue fixed” and then he closed my case.
I literally don’t know what to do to get through to them. Like I doubt it is that hard to get my account back up given the fact that I have emailed in my ID, Insta handle and associated email.
Any advice for what I should do to get them to actually do something Johnny?
Sorry mate, I just checked my Facebook support and was able to connect ho a live agent right away. I even said my insta account was disabled as the subject of the message and they were ready to help. Obviously my account is no longer disabled so I just told them I made the chat request in error.
For anyone needing the link to FACEBOOK LIVE CHAT… here it is: i saw someone post it before and it actually worked! I used to chat with them until about 6 months ago the link stopped working
But here it is: https://business.facebook.com/commerce_manager/onboarding/support/?ref=cm_offsite_onboarding_confirm_onboarding
Good luck
Hi, I would like to know if your IG was ad account or business account? Because they keep saying they cannot help it since my IG is not a business account. J
Hi, I would like to know if your IG was ad account or business account? Because they keep saying they cannot help it since my IG is not a business account.
Mine was a personal account when the account was hacked so they definitely can help you. I’ve since changed it to business just in case
Hey Guys,
I was able to get my instagram account back. I thought I will share my experience which will help others. I know it is so frustrating and devastating to loose the account.
I got my account after 13 days since it was disabled.
I sent appeals where you need to hold a code with your picture- this method did not help me at all, as I was not receiving any emails from them.
I created a facebook business page, created and ran a ad. I was not seeing the contact support option.
I tried sending emails from the contact support envelope through the commerce manager, that was not helpful either. I sent around 7-8 emails and everyone would say just to wait and send links to help centre which is really waste.
After 1 week I could see the contact support CHAT option enabled in ad manager and even in commerce manager( I think what helped me was I sent email through the payment support saying I do not see the chat option. After a week I got reply that my account was not active though I ran ads and now my account is activated I could see the chat option).
Yesterday via commerce manager support spoke to 3 representatives, one of them was helpful and raised a manual review for me. I got my account back today morning.
So the only thing that will help is the facebook chat.
Do not give up try sending them emails until they get back.
Stay positive and you will get your account back.
I thought I will share this as it would be useful to anyone going through this.
Hi Poormina, thanks for the detailed write up! I also agre that the only way to get it done is to speak with someone in FB chat. Still haven’t heard of another method. Glad you got your card back
I also think they are making it harder and more loopholes to find the chat option but glad to see your trick worked by telling them your chat function didn’t show up
I have waited a week and a new button has appeared “find answers or contact support” but it doesn’t give a live chat option… just frequently asked questions and answers.. has anyone else had this problem?
Congratulations. I’m going on 5 weeks now to no avail. When you say you saw thr chat option in ad manager… are you referring to where you start support tickets in business center help? Or is this a different avenue in ad manager? My ad manager mostly just has billing and payment support. But no chat seen.
Hi Linh,
Yes I am referring to where you can get the support through Business centre help> Need advertising support.
Through ad payment support you can get the chat option, however you can say you do not see the chat option and raise a case. For me they came back after a week and my chat button was seen. You should raise like 3-4 cases(Not everyone would be ready to help)
Thx for this information. Can You share print-screen or step by step of how you got to contact support envelope through the commerce manager?
I got support chat, and they said “As for this issue I’ll have it escalate to our specialist team for further investigation. There is no specific timeframe. Rest assured, I will be continuously asking for updates and once we hear back from them, I will inform you immediately.
”
is this a good sign?
I got a similar reply today after a chat and email with the same rep. Did they ever reinstate your account?
Hii!!! Do you know if this works on accounts that are private as well? Today my account got hacked and the hacker had changed my email and phone number to their information. I’m really upset about it cause I’ve had my account for 3-4 years and it’s full of pictures and memories.
I am having this same issue. No contact support chat option. Where is the payment support email to say the chat isn’t available? My ad ended 3 days ago and still no live chat option so I wanted to see if I could send an email to the payment support as you did.
Hiii! What email was used to contact FB about payment issues? Might take the same approach as you as I don’t see the chat option. Not too sure if it is available in all countries or if it is just turned on and off throughout the day. Also have an ad account that I am paying for and commerce manager support has been the worst.
Hello Johnny,
Very useful blog.
My instagram is disabled and been like 13 days. I filled the appeal forms, no reply at all.
I created a facebook ad but I do not see the contact support option.
I however see contact facebook support email in commerce manager. I have sent them like 5-6 emails and they are not helpfull at all. They just reply asking to wait or fill the forms.
Can anyone share if they had success through this or best tips/tricks to contact them that would be really helpfull.
The situation makes me feel so stressed really
I haven’t been able to get/find the live chat option so I’ve just been doing a few back and forth with the support email and trying to followup on my tickets. How long have people been waiting in between trying to contact fb Meta support via email? Or even resubmitted yet another appeal? I am scared they are going to flag me for repeat appeals. But I keep getting told that the Internal Team is reviewing mine right now. But there’s no timeline for completion:-(
Going on 5 weeks soon.
Hi!
I am also having trouble finding live chat. When I get to “Find answers or contact support” I click “Get Started” and when I get there I get six choices to choose from. Policy & Account Security, Billing & Payments, Business Pages, Ad Management Tools, Ads, and Measure & Improve Results. What am I doing wrong? How can I fix it? This is stressing me out and causing me more of a migraine.
Thanks ahead!
Hi there, i also am having this appear on my screen as well with nothing else. It is so streasful
Hi!
So I am also having difficulties finding the option to talk to someone. When I click on “Find answers or contact support” the options I get are Policy & Account Security, Billing & payments, Business Pages, Ad Management Tools, Ads, and Measure & Improve Results. There is nothing to choose to talk with someone. What am I doing wrong? This whole situation is stressing me out.
Ok guys after 5 months I was able to recover my account! So I followed all the steps in the article but for me as I mentioned in my previous comment Get Support link wasn’t active, then I thought ok they must have a support for commerce and I setup Commerce Manager and I was right you can find contact support in the the right column bar under recommended articles (see screenshot), I contacted them, firs agent wasn’t helpful just sent me some regular links how to appeal, but 2nd agent escalated right away to the right person and in 3 maybe 4 hours my account was recovered! Hope this will help you guys.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c7r057d5bjbm8sb/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-19%20at%204.57.03%20PM.png?dl=0
Hi Ed, thanks so much for the update! Think Facbeook trying to be sneaky with hiding that button for certain people so workarounds must be had. Hopefully this helps others on this thread in getting back their accounts!
Aloha Ed
i have set up commerce manager and still am unable to find recommended articles. your screen shot is not available for me to see. Do you mind sharing again? mahalo!
Aloha Laura,
When you are in commerce manage press “?” and on the right side will open help section where you can find recommended articles and below them “contact support”
when you sent them the email via commerce, what did you tell them? that your instagram was deactivated? or that you don’t see the live chat button? my instagram’s been disabled for a week now and I/m desperate for help
Hi Ed, i hope you get this. How do I get to the Commerce Manager area? I cannot find one specific thing for it. I tried clicking on your dropbox,but it said disabled. Please help me with some tips how to set up Commerce Manager, i’d appreciate it greatly
Meta Business Help Center
Contact Support in Commerce Manager
212,538 views
If you have a shop or catalog you can contact support in Commerce Manager for help with several topics, including:
Account setup
Shop inventory
Payout status
Order status
Technical issues
Rejected items
Request a review
Other issues
How to contact support
You can get Commerce Manager support through email or live chat.
Go to Commerce Manager and select your shop.
In the Education tab, select Contact Support.
Choose the topics you need from the dropdown.
Write your message.
Select either Chat or Email as your Preferred Contact Method.
Select Send.
If you select Email, replies to your message may take up to 24 hours and are sent to your business email address. You can change this email address in your Commerce Manager Settings.
If you select Chat, this opens a conversation with a representative in Facebook Messenger.
Note: We’re gradually introducing the live chat option. This feature may not be available to you right now.
Hey Johnny, is this solution still working? We want to recover my gf’s account which got hacked, so I just need to create a FB business account and pay for ads, then contact FB through their support, right?
Hi there, the method has worked for some people and others have had troubles. It’s not a 100% guarantee but it is the only thing that works from my knowledge because sending selfies of yourself is complete garbage
Thanks for the answer! I’m gonna give it a try and see, if it works or not!
Hi Johnny,
First of all thanks for sharing this, I followed as you described after 2 days banner “get started” appeared but when I click I see “Need more help? Contact Support” and there is no active link which will connect with the agent :/
Same here.. “get started” button showed up few hours ago but i wasn’t able to talk to a representative. The page seemed like a Q&A page… 🙁
also happening to me right now, has a live chat button appeared for you since?
Yes Claire mine appeared 2days before my ad finished. But the problem is the commerce agents can’t solve my problem. all of them told me there is no way..:(
I checked ad fee was charged on my business account 2days ago but i still don’t see “get started” button to have live chat.. what should i do in this case? i’m dying…..
Give it a few more days to see if it shows up
Here is the link to the live chat for those who cant find it! I couldnt for 6 months
I have a buisness suite account but I think anyone can do it. I found where I could add attachments and just sent a message, I have not paid for any ads etc… I got an email within an hour or 2 stating my instagram was reactivated and they apologized for the inconvenience and I didn’t have to prove it was me or anything…maybe because my insta and facebook accts are linked? Anyways I was without instagram for 31 hours thanks to this insight about getting a hold of facebook!
Hi Michelle, this is very interesting. I also have the meta business suite (pretty sure everyone has it?). Did you just click the button on the bototm right “Need Help? Talk to us” and go from there?
did you say your account was deactivated? I’m reaching to facebook support team as you said but all of them said they can’t help me. i sent so many mails but they all said i have to go to instagram help center.. can i ask what subject did you choose when you emailed them??
like account setup or technical issue?
Omg howwwww. My account is going on 4 weeks. 🙁
I’m contacting to them since i can’t see “get started”button on my page even though i paid for ad. Can i ask which subject did you choose when you send them email? I chose “Account setup” and “technical issue”. I sent them thousandss of email and i even got a phone call but none of them were helpful… 🙁
Hi Michelle! I am facing a very serious issue about my instagram being hacked and I need it back ASAP. Your journey to reactivating seems pretty smooth sailing and I would like to ask you for more help would it be possible for you to contact me at kohsherlynn16@gmail.com
Hi Michelle,
This is really helpful. Do you recall what part of the suite interface you were able add attachments and send a message? I’m also curious what you said or what info you provided that worked to get your account restored. Thank you!
Hey guys, I am trying to find the comment button but I cant! So I just have to reply to this comment with the hope that you Johnny can see it! I just discovered your article and I sooooo hope it is true. I did the whole process last week. My account got hacked last Tuesday and since then I have tried everything possible… but like you said nothing works. I was earning money out of instagram, my account had 16K followers. And I lost everything in one sec!!!
Since I had a business account I also had a facebook page linked to my instagram. So last week I decided to start ad support (I had paid loooooots of money on ads in the past so I was hoping I get the support I wanted) I chatted with several people… one of them was really helpful and told me I would get an answer in 48 hours… its been 4 days since then and still NOTHING!Do you still think that I will get a reply from them? Should I be a little bit more patient? And another question… when your account was hacked were you able to still find it on instagram? Because mine is nowhere to be found!!! Like its been deleted or something.
Thanks in advance for your reply!
Anastasia
I followed up on that support ticket and this was the response I got:
“As much as I would like to extend much help, I do not have visibility on the timeline as to when the review will be finalized. I strongly suggest that we wait until the investigation is finished. Rest assured that our Internal Team is diligently working on it. You’ll get notified once the review is completed.”
Not the result I was looking for but it is at least nice to receive a response at all. Considering there is no replies from IG themselves. At least Meta Business provides support. I wish I was lucky enough to have reached a rep who would just escalate it and get it done already.
So sad.
hey were you able to get your account back?
No. I’m still waiting… approaching 5 weeks soon. 🙁
Hi Johnny, thanks for sharing all your helpful tips! I have gotten to the same “Get Started” support page as you but when I click there I end up on a different landing page and I am unable to contact any type of agent. I’m seeing the same “Still need help? Contact Support” with no link as others mentioned. Not sure what else I can do but I will keep trying! If anyone has any other insights to get straight to an agent, let me know!
Hi Johnny,
What if I can’t get anyone to help me at Facebook live chat at all? How can I discontinue paying for ads?
Thanks so much,
Christen
Hi Christen, I think you should be able ot just cancel the ads that you scheduled.
Hi Johnny! thanks for sharing your story and it’s good that we are all gathered here knowing that we are not alone lol. it’s devastating since i use my instagram for work (drawing account) and basically losing my past portfolios and clients.
ive been trying to use your fb support method for a month now and it’s still in ongoing process. I have been calling with the personnel 3x via phone but yea they say they’re lacking of people now due to covid so it may take looooooonger.
Hi Johnny,
My instagram was deactivated. I tried the steps you mentioned in this post. Posted ad and paid $5. The add ended just today, but my credit card isn’t charged yet. The chat option is still not showing up. Should I wait until the my credit card is charged ? Please help.
I’d had 20-30 conversations with different people and 2 months but I got my IG back. Thanks for your advice!
Amazing congrats!
Thank you very much for sharing your experience. We just managed to recover our hacked account by following your advice and contacting Meta Business Support. The chat option was not available, but we used a form to report problems with account configuration and they responded via email. We then sent another email with some basic info about the account (e-mail and phone number associated, and place we used to sign in from), and including another email address to secure the account. Today we recieved a recovery email and we got it back!
Hi mate this is very interesting. What form did you use to report this problem? Do you have a screenshot maybe??
My personal Instagram account was hacked on Wednesday, March 23, 2022 at 8:40 am when someone someone posing as my friend messaged for help logging into their Facebook. I was able to briefly access my account via video selfie, then got locked out by the hacker with a (+234) & the email, enomafavour014@gmail.com.
This person is was posing as me asking my friends & family for money, posting bitcoin stories. I tried messaging them on an alternate email account, expressing my anger and demanding they give it back. Their response, “you have to do what I say.” I searched for a way to recover the account and came across Cipherry2’s name & contacted them on IG. The charged me $50 for their service, then after claiming to be done with the job charged me another $50 for password activation. I couldn’t login and they said they “sent my details to dark hub.” I never gave the other half due to me being hesitant, and them being aggressive about paying.
March 27, 2022. I tried filling out an impersonation form, and sending a picture of me with my ID to prove my identity. No response yet.
March 28, 2022: Discovered that my account was deactivated, not sure by hacker or IG.
March 29, 2022. Received an email from Facebook support regarding my deactivated account, and asked me to reply with a photo of me holding a handwritten code, full name, username, clearly showing hands and face.
March 30, 2022. Replied with photo
..nothing… no response
April 3, 2022. Replied to them as if someone’s going to answer. Wishful thinking here.
“It’s been 4 days since I’ve sent a photo of myself for confirmation of my “_handle” Instagram account, and as far as I’m concerned it has everything required. Please clarify anything else I may need in order for me to recover my account, after it was hacked and deleted.
Here is a shot of my account before I lost access to it. ***Gives screenshot of account that CLEARLY shows my face.***
April 6, 2022. Sends in new photo, with bigger writing.
Comes across this article, creates page, boost page, has yet to see the contact support feature.
Also just learned that an acquaintance that had followed me on IG, after learning I had gotten hacked has also reported my page for violations that did not apply to me, as well as the ones that did. Such as someone pretending to be me, after hacking my account.
At this point, seems like a waiting game. I’m trying to be hopeful.
I would like to know this “form”as well, anything concrete would help in the recovery process.
So far I have screenshot as much of my ordeal as possible.
Wow that is quite the detailed report. Crazy to hear about all the shady things happening these days with hackers and Instagram. Hope these steps work for you !
Screenshots here: https://imgur.com/a/0AB7S2Q
In short, on Meta Business, go to Help, click on Contact the Facebook support team (envelope icon if chat not available), and on the next page there is a dropdown menu to select the kind of issue. We first used “Account configuration” and then also the “Report technical issue” options to report our hacked account. After selecting the topic, you can write a message and add attachements. As with the chat version, we also received both a useless and a useful answer by email. We sent the requested verification information and new email address to secure the account, and within 24 hours we received an email to reset the password and got the account back.
Hope that helps!
So I made a second facebook account to try your AD method. I paid $6 for it, but unfortunately when the ad ended I couldn’t search for the chat support nor login to my account bc my friends reported my 2nd facebook account for impersonation. Understandable, but annoying. Any other methods I can try?
That’s frustrating! I’m not sure you can still use that same accotun for the chat support. Unfortunately the only method i could get to work is the fb chat support because the other stuff is all nonsense. SOm epeople have had success with using the report technical issue on support tickets but nothing is guaranteed unfortunately!
What’s the link to the form you filled out? Would be nice if you could provide it.
Yes please share what form you used!
Hi! I am also having trouble finding the chat option even after posting an ad. Could you please send over the form you used to report your disabled account? Thanks so much I’m so stressed about my account!
I have also been hacked and now instagram won’t let me click on “need more help” to even get to the video verification page. I am also locked out of trying the security code to get back to this page as it will just say “you have tried the code too many times” or “please wait a moment” but even after waiting awhile it won’t let me in again.
Anyone else have this issue with the security code? I have entered it as is but seems like I have tried too ma y times and they probably think I’m a bot. So frustrating!
The security code and video verification is all useless and waste of time.
Hi! I am also having difficulty finding the live chat option even after posting an ad! Could you please share the form you used to get your disabled account back? Thanks so much, I am so stressed about my account!
same situation here… a already tried 3 times the messenger. If I get the account back the first thing I do is following you 😀
Hi again 🙂 I was in the same situation on January 3rd and since then I was appealing forms and contacting representatives in facebook . I was hopeless because for the last three months I am contacting live chat support and everyone is saying they can’t help me more than sending me appeal to fill in my end . Yesterday I decided to give them one last try and it worked out for me . Representative like Adam from his third conversation reached out and speed up my process and after about 12-14h my account was active again .. I didn’t received any emails it’s active but one of my friends send me a post on the same account that was disabled. Long story short – Don’t lose hope and contact them again and again .
In the mean time it’s better for you to create another account if you don’t want to lose track of time . I was waiting for about four months so it’s quite a lot 🙂
Ah that’s amazing! Thanks for the data point and congrats on getting the account back!
I recently found this blogpost and was SO hopeful. I did everything that you recommended but because my account was disabled due to “violating community terms”, it cannot be stored. I am so bummed! I hope others get to retrieve their account though. My business account had 10k followers and its gone forever 🙁
Thank you so much Johnny!!! This just worked for me. Emma was a real one. She was the second person I chatted with. Mike was the first, he set up a call but never called me. Anyways, I chatted with Emma for about 15min as she escalated my issue and a couple hours later she sent me an email to let me know my account was reactivated! I’m shocked. Everyone needs to know about this. It took 2 days after I set up my $5 ad for the support button to show. Thank you again!
Hi athina, very happy to hear! This was recently yes? Congrats again
Just yesterday! And I only had to wait 3h after it was escalated for my account to be reactivated. Thanks again! Sharing this
I don’t understand how anyone is finding the chat options! I can never get through to a chat and I’ve spent thousands on ads on my account and I tried a new account for $5 and still it just takes me to an automated screen with options, no chat
My business account just git disabled and I’m so confused right now…I need help with it
Hey! I am so grateful for this blog post, this was the only method that worked for me too! I tried 3 times and the third one was successful – it was the same as you described here. The Facebook Support girl called Justice (amazing coincidence!) worked her magic and it was restored sooner than in 24 hours! THANK YOU!
Hi Silvia, glad to hear it also worked for you! When did you do this? Just recently?
Yes! Was just about a week ago!
The process you went through is still the same as me or did you have to do something different?
hi ! having the same issue and I was wondering if you made a page on the facebook account or was able to contact them without having to make a business page ?
Hello!! Super helpful post. Here is my dilemma. My account was temporarily locked. I went to log in and as normal a code was sent to my cell phone. I entered the code which took me to the next page. It was a two way Authentication but here is the shitty part, the second step is a code that is sent to my old disconnected cell phone.
I have contacted Instagram support emailed Instagram security, opened tickets and filled out the forms. What do I do?
Hi Adam, other people have run into this too and there’s no solution unfortunately. Instagram support is useless and no tickets will help with anything. I’d recommend just trying to message fb support in the end.