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My Instagram Account was disabled: Here is how I got it back and how you can too!
Updated: 2 days ago
'Your account has been disabled for violating our terms'. No doubt that is the reason you are here and believe me, I can relate to how you are feeling right now. I have been there and I am writing this post to share my experience and hopefully help you to recover your Instagram account. I also share tips, tricks, do's and don'ts so you can avoid this happening again in the future.
I have been an avid user of Instagram for over 3 years and for those of you who know our journey here at Closer Lives you will know that it is on Instagram that Jenn and I met for the very first time. It has had a huge impact on our lives and indeed our entire story, alongside our travel adventures, has all been shared there.
Our Instagram accounts are months, years and even decades of copious amounts of time and energy put into content, follower growth, design and promotion. Not to mention the amazing people and friends that no doubt, like me, you have connected with. The moment I was 'disabled' was like a rug literally being pulled from under my feet and it was a hard moment to take. Just like that, everything I had built was under threat. I had no reason, no understanding and just a deep sense of fear that the journey may well be over.
I thought it simply must have been a mistake. Tap the appeal, fill out the very basic information request and wait 24 hours. It will be alright, I have not done anything wrong. I will get it back I told myself. I tried to stay positive and maintain as much patience as I could muster. In the early days of my block I managed it, but by day 3 my emotions were starting to get the better of me.
I realised that simply just waiting was not going to be enough. I started to research relentlessly to find out more information, reading countless articles and watching a plethora of videos about it on YouTube. After several hours of this I knew that I had no choice but to fight for my account or risk losing it for good. This is my story, and some of the things I discovered that may just help you to get your account back.
Read on to find out how to appeal, what NOT to do, how to contact Meta and ultimately how I recovered my account.
First things first...
While this may not be the easiest thing to read right now, expect to hear this from friends, family and even Meta themselves. Don't panic! It is indeed sound advice; even if you have violated the community guidelines, your chances of recovering your account are fairly good if this is the first time you have been blocked. You will have to wait; do not be surprised if it takes up to a month to get things sorted. However, you may just get it back a lot sooner. The truth is, it is highly unpredictable.
Table of Contents
● Why has my Instagram account been disabled?
● The first Instagram Account disabled message and what to do next
● You've sent your appeal to Instagram - the next steps
● What NOT to do while you wait
● You've waited 7 days and had no response from Instagram - here is what to do next
Why has my Instagram account been disabled?
There are many reasons why your account will have been disabled. Instagram's guidelines are very clear, but have you read them? Perhaps not, and honestly, neither had I. Most of my knowledge in terms of what and what not to do had come from word of mouth, and posts from other users who had fallen foul of the rules.
To be clear, this post will NOT help you if your account has been suspended (as in you can still log in but cannot like, comment, follow etc). It is only for no longer being able to access / log in to your account.
Here are a few common reasons why your account may have been disabled:
● Connecting an unauthorized application to your account such as insight apps, automated like apps, follow / unfollow apps etc) Tap here for more about this
● Buying followers (these are usually bots)
● Joining follow loops / follow trains
● Participating in engagement groups
● Sending spam messages to followers and non-followers
● Following & unfollowing in large numbers
● Using Instagram shopping in unlicensed countries
● Providing your login credentials to a 3rd party application or service that is automating actions or scraping information
● Using an app or service to interact with Facebook or Instagram in unauthorized ways
● Your account was shared or compromised / hacked and someone is taking actions on your behalf or without your knowledge
● Changing your location regularly
I would highly advise reading the Terms & Conditions of Use in Instagram's Help Centre to try and fully understand why the block has happened. Be honest with yourself and do not be afraid to admit any breach of the rules. As you progress with the appeal, and as you will see from my experience, honesty is absolutely the best policy here.
Hopefully by now you may have identified why your account has been disabled. If not, do not worry, from my experience you may never even know the actual reason. In any case something somewhere was triggered by the system and we are where we are.
Whatever your reasons for wanting your account back just know that there is a chance you will be able to do just that. I have seen stories of timelines ranging from 48 hours to 30 days. The key to it all is to be patient, but by all means persistent!
Have you seen the Shawshank Redemption? Well I highly recommend it if you haven't! Absolutely fantastic movie. Aside from that, and more to the point, prisoner Andy Dufresne writes a letter a week to the state requesting funding for the prison library. One a week, then eventually two, for six years. Yes SIX! There is so much more to the story that I shall not divulge in case you haven't seen it. But I mention it only through one lens: the power of consistency. The power of persistence. You need to go all out Shawshank on this!
This is where your fight begins; lets get to it.
The first Instagram account disabled message and what to do next
I must admit that in the past I have had a couple of suspensions for too much activity however I have always been able to log in, even if I could not perform any actions for a day or two. This was the first time my account had ever been disabled. My heart was in my mouth the moment I saw these screens. It was in that instance that I realised just how important this account is to me; in the same token the thought of losing it crept into my thought process for the first time ever and it was frightening.
Note that in most cases, any actions against your account are enacted by Instagram's system AI and algorithm's. It is highly unlikely that it has been done by an actual human! When the initial block happens, even your immediate appeal is not overseen by a human. 'We will review' most likely means 'our bots will review'
When asked to provide your information you will be asked for an email address. You may read or hear that it is important that you leave the email associated with your account, although I would say that it does not really matter. As long as you stick with the same email throughout the process. This is important to demonstrate you are not a bot and are a genuine human.
Over two billion people use Instagram once a month, making it the fourth most popular social app worldwide
Bots and fake accounts are a thorn in the side of Instagram and unfortunately no matter how big (or small) your account following may be, your appeal will be dropped in amongst hundreds of thousands, if not millions of others. It is hard to imagine just how they tackle this, although sadly the sheer lack of any type of customer support is equally hard to fathom.
Have you ever...
0%Had your Instagram Account suspended temporarily
0%Had your Instagram Account disabled
0%Had your Instagram Account hacked
You can vote for more than one answer.
Contacting Instagram
It is easy to understand why Instagram would be overwhelmed should they operate a helpline or email channel. Instagram has never announced any type of customer support since it first hit the app stores in 2010. Nevertheless, here are the details you might find online:
Instagram Headquarters: +1 650 543 4800 or +1 415 857 3369
Instagram for business: +1 660 745 3051
support@instagram.com
You are welcome to try these avenues but it is highly unlikely you will receive any kind of response. Ultimately the one and only place to look for any type of issue or guidance is Instagram's help centre. It is here that you will be able to complete various forms to begin your appeal process.
You will also find a link to one of the forms in the message informing you of your account block on the log in screen.
Instagram Appeal Forms
Here are the links to all of the Appeal forms I used, all within the first 7 days of my account being disabled / de-activated:
** June 2024 Update: It appears that Meta / Instagram has removed the functionality of these forms. This may be temporary, or could be a permanent change. Should the links not work, jump straight to Facebook Live Support or try instagram.com/hacked
My advice is to complete each of these forms ONCE ONLY and on SEPERATE DAYS. You will most likely read and see many people advising you to complete these multiple times a day until you get a response. I did this myself, in total I completed each one 3 times! However I eventually found out that this was to my detriment.
After speaking directly with Meta they clearly stated that with every submission, your case goes to the bottom of the pile! It seems strange but it kind of makes sense. Think about it, you and I will not be the only ones to assume that the more we fill out the forms the better chances we will have. Having received millions of contact forms over the years Instagram is basically saying 'we have your request, please be patient. It will be seen'.
The forms are pretty basic and easy to complete. If you have a business account you will be asked to provide some form of verification. The key is the 'please let us know why you're appealing the decision' section. This is your opportunity to plead your case and I highly advise that you place plenty of time and thought into it.
This is my advice for what you should include:
● Why you believe your account was de-activated (be honest, if you know the reason, state it. If you do not know however, that is okay)
● Acknowledge the community guidelines and your willingness to adhere to them
● Explain what you use the account for
● State any other people who may have access to the account
● Briefly detail how you will be using the account going forward should it be re-enabled
There is no real need to apologise, although if you know why your account was disabled then perhaps it is not a bad idea. Personally I feel it is best not to until you have more information.
You have sent your appeal to Instagram - the next steps
Now this is the interesting part. In most cases when contacting a multi-billion dollar mega company with an issue you would come to expect a response that makes you feel like you are being heard, that you are important, and that they will try to resolve your issue as soon as possible. From the 15 forms I submitted, I received an email response to just 3 of them. Yes, just three. It looked like this:
No logo and a pretty sketchy email address makes this almost look like a spam email. Indeed that is where I found it - in my spam folder. Needless to say I was checking that folder every few hours in my desperate hopes of a response.
So this is what you will receive and the instructions are pretty simple. Grab a pen and paper and do this -
I also added my reasons for appealing again, including our website and other information that could verify my identity. What happens after this is a complete mystery though. There was no acknowledgement or receipt of my reply and indeed to this day I have never received any further communication from Instagram itself with regards to this.
I persevered with this process for around 2 weeks, filling out forms and just waiting. Waiting, waiting and waiting. The silence was deafening and I knew there had to be something else I could do.
What NOT to do while you wait
Every day I found myself searching Google, Quora, Reddit, YouTube and even Facebook Groups. With my feeling of desperation ever increasing I found myself turning to the very murky and dark waters of the IG 'hackers' who are ultimately just scammers.
Sadly people will prey on your 'desperation' and as tempting and as 'genuine' as it may seem, it will NOT work. All of those apps, comment bots and even YouTubers that recommend taking these steps may have been lucky enough to find some form of success, but the chances are overwhelmingly unlikely and will only lead to more problems.
Whatever you do, do not engage in the following:
● Instagram Plus Plus (Instagram ++)
● Instagram Account Recovery Tool Websites
● IG Account Recovery Apps
● Anyone who posts in a group claiming to be a hacker
● Anyone who posts in a group claiming they have been scammed and are genuine
● Anyone who asks for money to recover your account
As mentioned earlier 'data scraping' is absolutely against Instagram's terms and all of the options above do just that. Even if they are able to recover your account, the footprint they leave will remain and eventually a bot will pick that up. Then back to square one you go.
NEVER give out your log in information, NEVER pay money and STICK with the Instagram / Meta process. It really is the ONLY WAY!
You have waited 7-10 business days and had no response from Instagram. Here is what to do next
When you request to delete content or your account, the deletion process will automatically begin no more than 30 days after your request. It may take up to 90 days to delete content after the deletion process begins. While the deletion process for such content is being undertaken, the content is no longer visible to other users, but remains subject to these Terms of Use and our Data Policy. After the content is deleted, it may take us up to another 90 days to remove it from backups and disaster recovery systems.
- Content Removal and Disabling or Terminating Your Account - Instagram Terms of Use
Naturally after reading this, I panicked. From what I could understand, I had 30 days in total to save my account from oblivion. It had already been 14 by this point so I knew that if I did not find another way soon it would be over. Once the deletion process is started there really is no way to restore or recover your data.
So after filtering through copious amounts of YouTube videos I kept hearing about Facebook Live Support. I knew if I had any chance of saving the day then talking to an actual human would be the best way to do it! It eventually did just that; here are the steps you can take to access this little known but very helpful feature.
Facebook Live Support
Most of my sources have suggested this feature is only accessible if you have a Facebook / Instagram Business Account. Fortunately for me, I already had one. If you do not, it is possible to create one on Facebook.
You will also need an Ad Account for reasons I shall explain shortly.
⪢ Option One - Contact via Email
The Meta Business Help Centre is very useful for all sorts of reasons and I would recommend checking out this article:
If you are unfortunate enough to be in a country where live chat is not supported, then you can follow these steps for email communication with Meta -
At the bottom of the aforementioned article, you will find a small question box asking you if the article was 'helpful'. Click 'no', then follow the steps to explain why. It will then take you to a form asking for your contact information. This report will go directly to the Facebook Marketplace / Pro Team who, unlike Instagram, will respond immediately with a professional and formal email that will look something like this -
This was a real 'blue sky' moment for me as it was the very first time throughout this whole process that I actually felt I was in with a chance of getting somewhere. I found that the Meta Pro Team were extremely helpful and on both occasions I dealt with them it felt like they genuinely wanted to help. Even just the basic use of a reference number is far more in keeping with expectations of a company of this size.
All email communications were prompt and informative and over the course of a couple of days I was able to obtain a resolution to one of my issues. My Ad account was also disabled and fortunately this was a quicker fix. I was impressed with the efficiency and genuine care they showed and I trust this will be the same for you too should you need it!
If this option still does not result in your account being re-enabled then read on for option two below.
⪢ Option Two - Contact via Live Messenger Support
Please note that this option will only be made available to you if you have an active Facebook Ad account AND you place an actual ad.
After resolving my ad account issue I successfully placed an ad for £5. After doing so I accessed this feature by requesting help in the Commerce Manager page by clicking the help button in the bottom left hand corner. As I understand it access is restricted to certain countries and the location of this 'chat' option varies from user to user. This is what worked for me and I am currently in the UK.
Once you click this look over to the right and this window will appear:
Click 'Contact Facebook Support' and from the following screen select 'reporting a technical issue' from the drop-down menu:
Then the holy grail! A few more sections to fill out and then the magical moment will arrive where you can talk directly to the Facebook Team.
An option will appear asking you how you would like to be contacted, via email or live chat. Tap live and it will automatically route you to Facebook Messenger where you will have the opportunity to speak to the Meta Pro Team.
It is important to take the opportunity to plead your case in the message section. Give as much information as you can but bear in mind you only have 1500 characters. Find out more about what Instagram wanted to know.
I have read various accounts of success through this chat option. Some people have had immediate success, some have waited a few hours, some a day. For me, I had to wait a couple of days for a decision, which initially came back with me being told to wait for the Instagram Appeal process.
I did just that, yet after a further 7 days of not hearing anything, I tried my hand again. another ad later and I was in touch with a very helpful operator, Ezequiel, through Facebook Messenger. He handed my case over to Ana and from there things developed very rapidly! She filed an 'internal ticket' with the Instagram Team and communicated with me via email every step of the way.
Two days had passed, within which we had exchanged several emails and I answered a very important questionnaire. Then the moment came; Ana even called me personally to inform me that my account had been re-activated!
I am not sure if I was just lucky but Ezequiel and Ana were absolutely brilliant. Why I was not able to get the same level of resolution the first time round I do not know, but as they always say it is the end result that counts the most, not necessarily how you get there!
My Ad Account issue
Before I was able to access live support I needed to run an ad as I have mentioned and most unfortunately there was a problem with this too!
Luckily for me this was a slightly easier fix, but this snag did further complicate things with regards to my Instagram account.
My ad account was suspended as I accessed Instagram Shopping while we were travelling in Albania. IG Shopping is not authorized there and it caused a system block. All I did was tweaked a few products and settings in my shop and it was game over. This coincided with my IG block so the two could well have been related. The block was classed as 'suspected fraud' which freaked me out at first, but after explaining that I am a full time traveller and move around often, it was lifted fairly easily after running its pre-programmed course of 2 weeks.
Tip: In Facebook Commerce Manager you will find a section on the left-hand side called 'Account Health'. I am not sure how often this is updated but it is a good indicator for any issues and I actually used this screenshot to further help my appeal.
Hindsight is 20:20 right? At least now I know what not to do. Here is a list of the countries that support Instagram shopping, with my advice NOT to tinker with it if you are anywhere that is not mentioned.
What Instagram wanted to know
After finally having my case be seen by an actual member of the Instagram Team I was asked the following questions of which I took plenty of time and great care in answering.
I had sent many lengthy statements about what I thought had happened and why I wanted my account back on all of the appeal forms. However I suspect that the information from these questions is the most important for IG; they may help you gain a quicker resolution should you still be formulating your message for the initial appeal process.
1. Which 3rd party apps, tools, or services have you connected with your IG account?
2. Has your account been compromised/hacked in the past few months?
3. What is the primary use of the account?
4. How many people have access to the account? How many actively use it day-to-day?
5. What are the most commonly used features of Instagram that you / your team uses on this account (search, messaging, commenting, etc.)?
I think this questionnaire was significant and I would not be surprised if the algorithms are searching for breaches of these types of elements. If you are reading this just for information then it is worth noting to avoid any infractions of your own.
Account Recovery Complete!
How many times do you check your email only to be rapidly tapping the delete button as most of it is junk? Well not for this one! Print it, frame it and don't make the same mistakes again! This really was one heck of a moment. Victory was assured and with it came a huge mix of relief and elation. Gratitude is most certainly the attitude and it was exuding out of me after this!
Protecting your Account
There are a couple of things you can do to help keep your account secure and in good order. All of these options can be found in the settings area of your Instagram account.
⪢ Connected Apps and Websites
It is recommended you check this to ensure there are no unauthorized connections to your account or connections you do not recognize.
⪢ Two-Factor Authentication & Data Download
I would certainly advise turning on Two-Factor Authentication on Instagram. Even if you do not 'log in' that often, adding this layer of security will make it harder for hackers to gain access to your account.
The Data Download feature on Instagram is not well known but is an excellent option for keeping your data secure. Once requested you will have 4 days to accept the download from your email. It comes as raw data, so do not expect it to look like your posts do on the app. All of your photos, videos, comments, likes etc will come to you in separate folders which is a bit tricky to navigate and piece together. However this is a fantastic option which helps you protect your content and potentially re-use it should you ever need or want to start a new account.
The final word
So how about this for some irony? 21 days after my account was restored by the excellent Meta team, I finally received an email from Instagram, the only one I had received throughout this ordeal (aside from the three identity ones I mentioned earlier). At least this one had a bit more of an official look about it with the Instagram logo...
Yes, thank you for that Instagram! I am fully aware that my engagement is a disaster given 25 days of August I did not even exist on your platform!
So there you have it, that was the tale of my Instagram oblivion and restoration. It was most certainly a lesson learned and if you want to keep your account in good order, respect the guidelines and ensure full and strict adherence to them on your account and across all of your associated accounts too.
This has been a humbling experience and one that has only strengthened the importance Instagram has to me. Instagram has been the only social platform I use actively to date and I am passionate about developing and sharing fantastic content. This is integral to me harnessing and growing my skills as a creator and blogger along with developing our website here at Closer Lives! I have the most sincere gratitude that I am able to share this post from the position of recovery.
I know many of you reading this may not yet be there, but keep believing and stay positive! Stay strong and manifest your desire but do not shy away from working for it. Your energy will be rewarded and if not, then no doubt the universe will have bigger and better plans for you.
Best of luck, and feel free to ask away in the comments if you have any questions!
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