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.
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. 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!
Getting your Instagram account hacked or disabled
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 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:
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.
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. 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.
Step 1: Create a business account on Facebook or Instagram
The first step 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. 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…
