PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Facebook guru needed. I'm locked out, and can't get back in. Stuck in a loop.

A little background. I got on Facebook (FB) because the person who is contracted to do the social media for a venue I often play at wants to link to me in promotions. She says she can't link to my website on FB. So I went on a couple of months ago.

Once a week or so, it tells me I'm locked out, and it does the dual-factor confirmation
A) click the link
B) type the CAPTCHA
C) get the code via e-mail
D) type in or paste the code and I'm in.

That worked fine until it didn't. After typing the code in, I got a “System error” message. The message in red type said "Error performing query, Clicked “Resend Code”

Tried again, same message.

Figuring they are having trouble, I tried again later. That's when the real trouble began.

1) After opening FB, entering my username and password I get this message:

2) "Bob, your account has been locked
We saw unusual activity on your account. This may mean that someone has used your account without your knowledge.
Account locked June 11, 2024
To protect you, your profile is not visible to people on Facebook and you can't use your account.
What can I do?
Try coming back on a phone or computer you’ve used to log into Facebook before."
(Note I'm using the only computer I've ever used).

3) Cleared my cache, rebooted my computer,

4) signed in to FB and get another message: "Your account has been locked, and to unlock, click the next link, and I click it"

5) So I click Next and followed all the instructions, satisfy the CAPTCHA -- get a code via e-mail and type it in -- next upload positive identification, and they say they will get back to me.

6) They get back to me with an e-mail subject "You can now get back into your account" so I follow the instructions to a "T" and when I log in I get the same message as in step 4

It's steps 4, 5, and 6 again and again (i quit after a dozen)

To add insult to injury, they keep sending me "Reminder To Unlock Your Facebook Account" and when I do, it's steps 4, 5, and 6 again.

Even worse, they tell me I have messages, I cllck the link and it's steps 4, 5, and 6, again.

Stuck in a loop.

I google and every suggestion to contact FB is a dead end. They don't answer the phone, they don't answer e-mails, and I'm still locked out.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

"next upload positive identification" ?
Sounds like some kind of hack ..

1 Scan
2 Don't FB
3 I haven't FB'd in years .. so I've not seen this particular issue, but I do recall FB being real slow to perform any manual actions, not sure if any of this helps

Does your net provider get your location correct? Kinetic will indicate that I'm in a different town about every time I log in to a site.
That can make providers think somebody else has tried to log into your account. But they typically send a text that you can use to confirm that it is you.
This is only peripherally related to your issue admittedly.

I've been a fb user for 12 years and have never heard of a situation like yours.
FWIW, my initial reaction is that it is not a hack but something re your account that has corrupted on fb's end.

Hopefully somebody will respond that has been through a similar situation.

Bud

Short answer: I don't know. I've never seen this.

It does sound like your Facebook account may have been hacked, and this could be a fishing expedition.
Following up on Bud's comment, and this is another guess, did you recently enable a VPN for your browsing?

Try a different browser (make sure that browser is at latest version).
Make sure your computer clock is synced.
+1 on VPN

Not FB related, but I had a couple of strange login issues in the past where items above played a role.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Different browser doesn't help. Disabling the VPN doesn't make a difference.

The complete lack of tech support on FB is inexcusable. I have no desire to be on this piece of trash, except a place I gig at wants to use our reputation to promote the nights we gig there. They hire an outside consultant for social media, and she won't link to my website, instead wants to link to my FB account.

I think the day there was an error in the two factor verification, might be the culprit, but I don't know how to let FB know, or if there is anybody in FB who really cares.

So far, life was better without it.

Notes ♫

Simple, use your wife's phone or different email to create a new Facebook page.
Shouldn't take long to upload a few pics of promotion stuff.

I've opened a new personal account, but not a band account. I'm not sure if this is even a good idea, but I thought I might be able to get some advice from other FB members or some kind of FB help chat. So far I haven't found any FB help chats.

Good luck with getting Facebook to help. My buddy Danny went through half a dozen ( that's 6 for the folks who don't know what a dozen is ) different accounts due to the same thing you're experiencing.

I have had Facebook remove one of my groups on the platform without any notice and absolutely no reply to my inquiry as to why they removed it. 3500 members and woke up one day and it was gone. Disappeared. Poof!

I'm beginning to think my days on FB are numbered.

Life has been fine the last few decades without it.

If this last try doesn't work, it's definitely not worth any more of my time.

My Facebook experience is if you wait a bit they will let you back in.

I was in Facebook Jail because a friend of mine has a Kung Fu business that I was sharing his posts to my friends. It must have been to much for Facebook because they gave me a 2 week hiatus.

...Deb

Follow the lead of the venue that created the issue you have. Hire an outside consultant for social media to build you a FB account and page in order to link it to that venue's page as well as market your group, music and BIAB business. It's an investment the same as introducing a new instrument into your band and playlist.

Our duo has gigged consistently since the 1980s, without Facebook. The only time we were out of work was during the COVID lockdown. In fact, we have to block out vacation time in advance or else we won't get one.

I don't see where hiring someone to manage Facebook for us will be a good exp endure of cash.

And I don't think this issue is going to resolve itself.

Since I got a “System error” — try again later — during a dual-factor test when trying to log in, and I've been stuck in an endless loop since, I suspect some data corruption. Since there is absolutely zero human help available at Farcebook, the account will probably stay in limbo forever.

The disappearance of actual humans working for a huge company is disheartening.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Notes, you are probably struggling with a robo-machine, not a real human. My feelings are that you can liaise with a robo-machine forever, and go nowhere, because robo-machines only give output, they never receive, understand, contemplate, interpret or have any comprehension of feedback.

Good luck, but remember, in all these commercial applications, if the product is free, then you are the product. 'Mark' my words.

And probably if you were to put up a few cover songs on Facebook they will come down on that too.

I had a few 10 and 30 day stints in the Facebook jail during the pandemic for saying things that were true, and have since been proven so, but at the time went against the narrative, so the ministry of truth deemed my comments to be too inappropriate for the delicate ears of the denizens of FB, and ended up putting me in "time-out".

They jailed you huh?
Hope you learned your lesson, which is don't facebook.

OP, have you tried this?
https://www.facebook.com/help/105487009541643

Under
Recover your Facebook account from a friend's or family member’s account

There are ways to do it, and there actually are people who talk on the phone there, but it's a lot of effort to get to to that point

Exactly the way I feel. Which is why I tried to find some actual human help. So far, I haven't found any.

I get at least a half dozen e-mails a day telling me I have until July 4 to reactivate my account. Seems like my troubles will be over then, as I won't have an account anymore.


And I know, I'm the product, which is why I don't join many of these sites. If the venue I often gig at didn't encourage me to join, I wouldn't have.

I've been gigging in this duo since the 1980s, and the only time we didn't have gigs is during the COVID lockdown.

I can't understand what that resort advertises only on Facebook. My webpage http://www.s-cats.com is visible to everyone on the Internet, his site is only visible to Facebook members. Doesn't make sense to me.

Notes ♫

They actually WERE true? Isn't that against the rules?

Thanks. I'll try that.

I've been to that page before, but I don't have any friends on yet, but I can create a new account and be my own friend.

Notes ♫

No I wouldn't try befriending yourself from another page created by you, I did it one time, facebook picked up on it, and wanted me to send off verification etc to get page unlocked, I didn't bother.

Maybe a friends page if that works.

Follow up.

Ok I've been working with this guy for 2 days now, who said he can help unlock my account. He says he is from Meta, but as usual, I have suspicions and am very careful about the information that I give.

I'm explaining the problem, and he tells me it seems I've broken some facebook rule. Well you all know me, I don't get political online and I try to always be kind, so I can't figure what kind of rule I broke.

Then comes the drop. It seems I'll have to purchase some debugging tools, which I'll be able to resell.

That's when I realize this isn't a Meta/FB help site, but a site where people are either trying to legitimately make money, or worse, scam people.

So it looks like the FB experiment is over.

Notes ♫

Just create another page with different email and phone no, forget about old page.

[quote=Notes Norton
That's when I realize this isn't a Meta/FB help site, but a site where people are either trying to legitimately make money, or worse, scam people.

So it looks like the FB experiment is over.[/quote]

I have never been on Farcebook and most likely never will. The idea that an algorithm written by some 20-something to decide what my "feed" should be is insulting at best, not to mention the hate and misinformation that is prevalent on such sites.

That said, the only thing worse than dealing with an unintelligent robo-machine/software bot that doesn't have an escape path in it's Do Loop to get you to a human, is a scammer that wants your money.

Walk away while you still have your cash and identity intact.

PS> I notice that the US Surgeon General is fighting to have mental health warnings stamped on unsocial media platforms like Farcebook and others . . . good for him.

FWIW, I've been on FB for several years, since I started using it to help rescue a historic sailing boat.

I only look at things that are of interest to me and any I don't want I'll click the "hide this ad" option and they generally do seem to go away OK. (e.g., I'm vegetarian, so I reject ads about meat).

What I do find annoying is that they tell me over and over about things in which I "might be interested" and posts that friends have made. Mostly I just ignore and clear them. I avoid most obvious 'click bait', I avoid giving personal details, I quite often look at stuff about things far from home, I rarely look at anything local to me.

Partly I'm still there because I still make progress posts about that boat project. I have actually made a few real friends and keep in touch with old friends, all of whom are far from home. I decline to have my face in photos near home.

Not sure you can just create a new account and 'friend' it.
You have to get into the problem account to accept it, so still an issue.
You don't have *any friends on FB and you had an active account?!?
That might be one of the saddest, yet funniest, things I've heard. <grin>

A bit off topic but taking the time to curate my fb feed has worked well. I only see prioritized friends in my feed, no inappropriate ads and the vast majority of my fb time is with private groups related to our love of historical architecture, hiking, biking and use of music production software. The groups are well moderated and members are informative and cordial. And from them I have made real friends and learned a lot. Without taking the time to do this fb is a wide open cacophonous mess. But to their credit they do provide means of tailoring it for the willing. And, hey, I’m likely the oldest active forum member. 😀

That's the solution I've come to myself.

Thanks to all who gave insights and suggestions.

Notes ♫

Not by much, Bud - I'm just a year younger!

I don't use FB at all. I canceled my account in September of 2014. I haven't missed it even once. My wife - that's a whole different story.

Good luck with your new account, Notes! I hope you can recreate everything that was important to you.

Alan

Wow, it looks to be a real nightmare with few guarantees if it ever happens to anyone.

I still get a few to several notices every day regarding the pages that have been locked. This person reacted to something, your site available (it's still locked), you have 15 notifications, and so on.

I've absolutely given up on those pages. There is zero human help at FB as far as I can tell, and if the robot can't help you, you are simply S.O.L.

So I simply dump the irritating reminders that FB has no customer support. But then, as we all know, the people who are members, are not the customers, they are the product.

Notes ♫

Exactly why I always use temporary numbers instead of real ones, just to avoid issues like this. If I get blocked or something like this happens, I can quickly create another account without any trouble.
I use https://anonymsms.com/ , which provides temporary numbers based on real SIMs, perfect for verifications while I keep my personal number safe.

I created another personal account, but I still get notifications on my old ones, the ones I can't log into. I wonder if they will ever stop?

A guy by the name of Mark Elliot Zuckerberg could help stop this, but I don't like your chances.

Still locked out since June, and I still get notifications from the sites I can't access.

A hacker offered to fix for $50, up front, but I declined the offer. Seemed too dangerous to me, figuring the least I could lose is $50, and possibly more than that.

And I'm not wealthy enough to have a conversation with Mark Z.

I'm hearing some good things about Bluesky .
I have a no-nonsense engineering professor friend who has an account and likes it so far.

As for me, I'll wait a few months/years to confirm it hasn't turned into another toxic waste dump.
The good news as I understand it is that you can choose the algorithm you want or even roll your own.

I haven't read all the posts but google your problem. That's what I do when I have problems on FB. Of course, you'll need to shorten your query. LOL!

Good advice. I tried that and went deep into the result pages. Most of the solutions were "give up, nobody is there to fix it."