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How to Recover a Disabled Instagram Account

Is your Instagram account disabled for no reason?

Or did you violate one or more of Instagram’s community guidelines?

Either way, you need to recover your disabled Instagram account.

Otherwise, you may lose access to it permanently.

Instagram is known to disable accounts by mistake.

Even so, you need to go through the same process to get your Instagram account back as those who violated Instagram’s guidelines.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to get back, restore, or recover a hacked/disabled Instagram account.

You’ll also learn how long it takes to get a disabled account back, and why is Instagram disabling accounts.

How to recover a disabled Instagram account

To recover a disabled Instagram account, you need to complete and submit the “My Instagram Account Was Deactivated” form.

After you’ve submitted it, you need to wait for Instagram’s response.

Instagram will ask you to send them a photo of yourself holding a handwritten code.

Hence, you need to check your email periodically for Instagram’s email.

The email will typically arrive in a few hours after you’ve submitted the “My Instagram Account Was Deactivated” form.

Reply to their email with a photo of yourself holding a handwritten code.

Make sure that your face and the code is visible.

Instagram will then take a few days to review your photo.

If successful, you’ll receive another email from Instagram saying that your account has been reactivated.

Here is how to recover a disabled Instagram account.

1. Go to the “My Instagram Account Was Deactivated” form

How to recover a disabled Instagram account

“My Instagram Account Was Deactivated” form links:

https://help.instagram.com/contact/437908793443074 (for disabled accounts due to repeat intellectual property violations or for sharing fraudulent/misleading content).

https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/606967319425038 (for disabled accounts that violated Instagram’s community guidelines).

The form is for Instagram users whose accounts have been disabled due to sharing fraudulent/misleading content or intellectual property violations.

If your account was disabled for other reasons, you may not receive a response.

You can find more information in the Help Center.

However, submitting the form is still worth a shot.

Firstly, go to Google, search for “My Instagram Account Was Deactivated”, and tap on it.

If you can’t find the form, you can use one of the links above.

2. Select “I understand and wish to continue”

Get back a disabled Instagram account

Once you’re on the form, you’ll see a checkbox.

The checkbox says “I understand and wish to continue”.

This form is meant for Instagram accounts that violated intellectual property or shared fraudulent/misleading content.

Otherwise, you need to use this form instead: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/606967319425038.

However, you still can submit the form if you think that your account was disabled by mistake or without any reason.

Unfortunately, if you violated one or more of Instagram’s community guidelines more than once, you may not be able to get your account back.

That said, select “I understand and wish to continue” and tap on “Send” to continue.

3. Provide your contact information and content at issue

Contact information and content at issue on Instagram

After you’ve tapped on “Send”, the form will expand.

There are a couple of sections that you have to complete.

This includes “Contact Information” and “Content At Issue”.

Firstly, enter your full name in the “Your name (name and surname)” field.

For example, if your full name is “John Doe”, enter “John Doe”.

Secondly, enter your email address in the “Email address” field.

Preferably, you should enter an email address that is linked to your Instagram account.

In the “Content At Issue” section, you need to explain the content at issue.

In the “Your Instagram username” field, enter your Instagram username.

For example, if your Instagram username is “followchainorg”, enter “followchainorg”.

Then you’ll need to explain the content at issue in the “Please explain why you believe that the content should not have been removed” field.

Here’s an example of an explanation (if you think that the content was removed by mistake): “Hi, my Instagram account has been disabled by mistake. I did not post any content that violates Instagram’s community guidelines”.

After you’ve provided an explanation of the content at issue, scroll down the form and proceed to the next step.

4. Complete the form and submit it

Restore Instagram account

After you’ve scrolled down the form, you’ll see an “Attachment” and a “Declaration” section.

In the “Attachment” section, you can upload the content that was taken down by mistake.

The accepted file formats are JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, and PDF.

Next, you need to confirm that you wish to submit the form.

To do so, select “My content was removed due to a violation of Instagram’s Terms of Use, and I believe the content should not have been removed”.

Then, enter your full name in the “Electronic signature” field.

Lastly, tap on “Send” to submit the form.

5. Wait for Instagram’s email and reply with a photo of yourself

Instagram photo with a code

After you’ve submitted the “My Instagram Account Was Deactivated” form, you need to wait for Instagram’s email.

Instagram will send you an email a few hours after you’ve submitted the form.

Hence, you need to check your email periodically.

If you didn’t receive an email from Instagram, make sure to check your junk/spam inbox.

The email states that you need to reply with a photo of yourself holding a handwritten code.

A code will be generated in the email.

Firstly, write down the code on a piece of paper.

Secondly, take a photo of yourself holding the handwritten code.

Lastly, reply to Instagram’s email by attaching the photo.

Make sure that the photo is clear and includes your entire face.

6. Wait for Instagram to reactivate your account

Reactivate your Instagram account

After you’ve sent a photo of yourself holding the handwritten code, you need to wait for Instagram to review it.

Instagram will typically take 3 to 5 days to review your photo.

However, it can take longer due to the lack of reviewers.

Hence, you need to check your email periodically for Instagram’s email.

If successful, you’ll receive an email from Instagram stating that your account has been reactivated!

Keep in mind that if you’ve violated one or more of Instagram’s community guidelines more than once, your account may be permanently disabled and you won’t be able to get it back.

If that’s the case, you need to create a new Instagram account and start anew.

How long does it take to get a disabled account back on Instagram?

If you’ve temporarily disabled your Instagram account, you can get it back by logging in to it.

On the other hand, if your Instagram account was disabled due to a violation, it can take 3 to 5 days to get it back after you’ve submitted the “My Instagram Account Was Deactivated” form.

However, it can take longer due to the lack of reviewers.

That said, if your account is deleted, you won’t be able to get it back.

Why is Instagram disabling accounts?

Instagram is disabling accounts due to repeated community guideline violations.

If you’ve violated one or more of Instagram’s community guidelines, your account may be disabled.

However, some users reported that their accounts were disabled by mistake.

In most cases, this is related to the usage of third-party apps or tools.

Can I get back a deleted Instagram account?

No, you cannot get back a deleted Instagram account.

Once your account is deleted, it is removed from Instagram’s database.

As a result, Instagram support won’t be able to retrieve it for you.

Hence, you have no choice but to create a new Instagram account.

Conclusion

If your Instagram account is hacked or disabled—you’re not alone.

A ton of users are experiencing the same issue as you.

In fact, a lot of Instagram accounts are wrongfully disabled.

If your Instagram account is wrongfully disabled—don’t worry, you can get it back.

However, it can take multiple days before you can recover your account.

After you’ve submitted a photo of yourself holding a verification code, the Instagram team needs to review it.

The review process can take anywhere from days to weeks.

That said, you might be able to recover your Instagram account without having to fill up the “My Instagram Account Was Deactivated” form.

Some users reported that they managed to get their disabled Instagram accounts back by getting a security code.

If you’re not prompted to send a security code to your phone number, you can try logging into your account on a browser (e.g. Safari, Chrome).

Further reading

How to Share YouTube Video on Instagram Story

How to Fix “Your Account Was Compromised” on Instagram

135+ Good Instagram Comments For Your Friends

About the author

Lim How Wei

Lim How Wei is the founder of followchain.org, with 8+ years of experience in Social Media Marketing and 4+ years of experience as an active investor in stocks and cryptocurrencies. He has researched, tested, and written thousands of articles ranging from social media platforms to messaging apps.

Lim has been quoted and referenced by major publications and media companies like WikiHow, Fast Company, HuffPost, Vice, New York Post, The Conversation, and many others. One of his articles about the gig economy was quoted by Joe Rogan who hosts The Joe Rogan Experience (arguably the most popular podcast in the world), in the This Past Weekend podcast by Theo Von.

In his free time, Lim plays multiple games like Genshin Impact, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Hearthstone, RuneScape, and many others. He creates guides, walkthroughs, solutions, and more on games that he plays to help other players with their progression.