Who doesn’t like Facebook? Facebook is far more than the social platform and also allows you to promote your business. But everything must be done based on rules and regulations as determined by Facebook. Over time, he has tightened his security measures so as to provide a full stop on increasing hacking incidents, spam activities, fake accounts, cyberstalking and other illegal deeds.
If your account has been locked, deferred, deactivated or blocked by Facebook, the reason can be anything from entering the wrong password to make too many posts. There will be no warnings and your account will be locked immediately for an unknown period if Facebook smells a suspicious aroma.
Because strict Facebook policy steps, many of the original users also face heat get their account locked or sometimes removed forever. So it’s better to know what the behavior is expected Facebook from its users and what can be done to avoid losses.
In this guide, you will get to know about the following topics:
Symptoms That You Have Been Locked out of Facebook
If you don’t know what it looks like when a Facebook account gets locked, here are the things you will notice:
- Unable to change the password.
- Inability to create Facebook pages.
- Not able to log in even after entering the correct credentials.
- Not allowed to send or receive friend requests.
- Issues while changing the FB settings.
- Facebook has become unresponsive to your requests.
- Inability to create posts on Facebook.
Reasons for Which Facebook Has Disabled Your Account
If you are keen to know about “How to unlock my Facebook account”, firstly, have a look at the causes that are responsible for putting you into trouble:
- Creating Fake Facebook Account
Facebook never allows anyone to create false accounts or use someone else’s name or face on your profile. You cannot deceit Facebook through a fake account and once it identifies that it is not you, your Facebook account will get temporarily locked.
- Friend-Requesting Too Many People at Once
Making friends is what Facebook has been created for. But sending or accepting friend requests in bulk can make Facebook think of you as a spammer. So, this can be one of the reasons for facing a locked account.
- Suspicious Account
If Facebook found you involved in some suspicious activity or if you post offensive content, your Facebook account will get temporarily locked for security reasons. This can also happen when you don’t adhere to Facebook policies.
- Illegal Access
Hacking incidents are really common and if Facebook is thinking someone else is illegally trying to access your account or you have entered the wrong password quite a number of times, your account will be disabled till you verify it is you.
- Misrepresentation
If you are using an account that represents another person or company without their knowledge, it will be locked or deleted by Facebook without any prior warning.
- Unknown Location
Facebook account can also get temporarily locked if someone tried to access it from an unknown device. Facebook keeps a check on the locations you log in to your account from, so if they notice an alien location, just to prevent hacking they lock it down for a while.
- Groups Joined
For any reason, you can never join a large number of groups on Facebook. If you do that, this may put a lock on your account.
- Account Reported
If your account has been reported as a fake account, Facebook will not lock it after a single complaint. But further requests to block your account can definitely lead to a locked FB account.
- Malware Concerns
Sometimes it can also happen that if you click on something on Facebook and it turns out to be a scam such as:
- If something is claiming that you can see who is viewing your Facebook profile, clicking on that can get you locked out of your account or it can be one of the tricks to hack your account.
- Similarly, a pop-up telling you to install something to fix a particular problem can be a scam too.
- Random videos asking you “Do you know whose picture is this” or similar questions.
Never click on such links as that put you in serious trouble and you may lose access to your account.
Facebook Account Recovery
Now, if you face a deferred Facebook account or your account has been disabled for certain reasons, the big question appears is “how to restore Facebook account”. There are various ways to use where you can unlock your FB account. You can try the underlying method to get back access to your Facebook account.
Send An Appeal
If you think your account was disabled by mistake, you can send an appeal by completing an online form. Submit all the details and after that Facebook will help you by looking into the matter.
- Go to the link- https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/260749603972907 where you will see ‘My Personal Account was Disabled’ page.
- Now, you have to enter your personal information such as login email address or phone number, your full name etc.
- Further, you will be required to upload any of your ID proof for verification of your account. As Id proof, you can use anything issued by the government of your country such as voter id, passport or driving license.
- Clicking on ‘Send’ will send your appeal to Facebook.
Keep in mind that you may have to wait for several weeks to receive a response from Facebook. But if you have not violated any of the Facebook policies, this method is one of the easiest to recover your account.
Get Help from Friends
If you think your account has been locked due to security reasons, you can follow the given steps:
- Open a browser and go to the official website of Facebook.
- Go the login page, type your credentials and log in to your account.
- On reaching the security page, select the option ‘Get help from friends’.
- On the next page when you see the list of your contacts, select the ones you trust.
- Once done, click on ‘Continue’.
- The friends you have selected will receive a code.
- Ask them to send you the code.
- Enter the code to unlock your Facebook account.
Identify the Friends in Tagged Photos
Another way provided by Facebook to unlock your disabled account is to identify the friends you have tagged in your photos. This way you can inform them that you are the real owner of your account and you have genuine friends in your account. You will be required to name 5 of your friends to get your account back.
Once your account gets verified, you can create a new password for your account or change the email address if required and press ‘Continue’.
Situations Where Facebook Account Restoration is Not Possible
- Facebook doesn’t restore accounts that were locked for severe violations of the Facebook Policies and Standards.
- If it is found out that you have created two accounts or a fake Facebook account, then you will not be able to get it back as only one account is allowed with the real name.
- If the name of your account doesn’t match exactly the name on your ID that you are providing to recover your account, you will probably lose access to your account.
Tips to Avoid Facebook Jail
Facebook Jail is another term that is used to demonstrate the accounts that have been disabled or locked by Facebook, putting a ban on your ability to post or like anything, send friend requests for some days. Sometimes Facebook only blocks you from using a particular feature if you have overused it. For example- if you are posting content continuously, you may get blocked from posting on Facebook for some time.
In most of the cases, you will observe two types of blocking-
- First one is temporary blocking where Facebook only blocks you for a particular period of time. After that period is over, you can re-access your account. Facebook Jail also lasts for a few hours or days and after that, you can start using it again.
- If there is a severe violation of the policy of Facebook, your account gets permanently deleted from the platform.
No one wants to face a situation like FB Jail, especially when you were genuine from your side. Here are some tips to avoid getting into such a sensitive situation:
- Avoid spamming by tagging people unnecessarily in your posts or images that they are not a part of.
- Make sure to take breaks while posting on Facebook to avoid being marked as a spammer.
- Another activity that is considered spam is posting images from Google, so make sure you get your images from a good source.
- It is not considered modest to add people to FB groups without their prior permission, so make sure you get the proper consent before adding someone to your group.
- You are not allowed to like and comment on Facebook’s post like a robot i.e. in a continuous manner. Like and comment genuinely and not just to create engagement.
- You are required to use your real name for your personal account and your business name for your business account. Using your personal account for business purposes can put you in FB jail.
- Another reason for which Facebook could flag your account is if you are sending so many friends requests that too to unknown people and are getting rejected or deleted in return.
If you will follow all the guidelines, there are very minimal chances of getting blocked, disabled, or locked by Facebook. The platform has been provided to improve connectivity and share memories. So it will be better to keep it clean off spam activities.
For How Long Does Fb Lock Your Account?
First of all, it depends on why it has been locked in the first place. It can take time anywhere from a few minutes, a day, 7 days, 14 days, 21 days to one month or more. Severe violations can even lock your account forever. In this case you must create a new FB account with a different email address.
Facebook Account under Review
Facebook always works to improve user security and to ensure the account is always safe, it has added security features.
If whenever Facebook feels that you use your account for illegal purposes or you don’t follow the policy, you might be asked to validate your authenticity. That is why the next time you will try to enter, you will be asked to send your photo to Facebook where your face must be clearly visible. After you send your photo, you will refrain from entering Facebook until your photo is successfully reviewed. You will see a message whenever you will try to get into your account “You can’t use Facebook now, we review the photos you sent to us”.
Every time you will try to enter, you will meet the same message until the Facebook time has reviewed the photo. Also, note that the account will only be restored if you have provided your real photo. Providing incorrect photos can put you in trouble making it impossible to recover the suspended account.
