Snapchat is a fun way to stay in contact with friends, family as well as potential love interests. It is used by millions across the globe. But what happens when you screw up and get your account locked? What does it mean, how long will it be locked for, and how do you recover a locked Snapchat account? This guide will answer all those questions.
Recover a Locked account: what does “Locked” actually mean for Snapchat?
First, you have to understand what exactly ‘locked’ means for Snapchat. It has two different meanings, both of which are quite serious. The first lock is the one that everyone thinks about when they hear “Snapchat locked” or “my account is locked”. This type of locking occurs in response to a few different reasons, but it is bad regardless of what you did.
The second lock occurs when the Snapchat team notifies you that your account will be locked for a certain number of hours or days and gives you an exact date and time that the lock will end. This one isn’t as serious as the first lock, but I wouldn’t recommend ignoring it either. It’s important to recover your account before the designated time, so you aren’t forced to wait any longer than necessary.
Why Snapchat locks your account?
Before we move on to how to recover your account, it’s important to know why sometimes Snapchat locks your account so that you can avoid making the same mistake again. Below are all the reasons:
#1. Snapchat thinks your account is being used for spamming
This one is pretty obvious. If you are sending out thousands of snaps or messages to people you don’t actually know, Snapchat might think you are being a bit too pushy with your friends and lock your account just to let you cool off.
#2. You have shared your login information with someone else
Now, there is nothing wrong with sharing your account information. After all, you got friends to help you outright? But what if it backfires on you? Someone may use your login details (or even security questions) and hack into your account. They might immediately lock the account before you can do anything about it because they know that Snapchat will come after them harder than they ever did for any one of their victims.
#3. You need to confirm your email address
This isn’t something that happens very often, but when it does happen, people get worried about how long the lock will be in place and if there’s a way around it. If this occurs, don’t be scared. You just need to confirm your email address by clicking the verification link sent to you, and it’s all good.
#4. There is a security concern with your account
I’m sure people have heard of celebrities getting their accounts hacked and having the hackers post everything from profanity-laced snaps that might insult others to sexually explicit images that would only be interesting or appropriate for consenting adults (or children in some cases). Snapchat may lock your account if they think there is a chance that their servers were compromised by someone trying to hack into your account and gain access to sensitive information such as phone numbers and addresses.
#5. You shared nudes or other explicit content or engaged in abusive language or bullying
This reason is pretty self-explanatory. Snapchat doesn’t like to let people get away with sending nudes and other lewd content, harassing others or engaging in abusive language. Sometimes they can be a bit lenient, even if you did all of the above, but it’s always better not to take any chances.
The best way to ensure you stay out of trouble is to not share lewd content or send harassing/abusive snaps. If you don’t do those things, then this reason shouldn’t apply to you.
#6. You are using third-party apps, tweaks, or plugins to cheat
This reason is also pretty obvious. Snapchat doesn’t like it when people cheat the system by using third-party apps, tweaks or plugins to get on their servers. If you are not allowed to use them on your iPhone, you definitely will not be allowed to use them with Snapchat, even though some of these apps work just fine on Android phones.
The best way to ensure you stay out of trouble is to not use third-party apps. If you don’t do those things, then this reason shouldn’t apply to you.
How long will Snapchat keep my account locked?
Ok, so now you understand why I might be locked out of my account and how to avoid this in the future. So, how long am I forced to wait? Unfortunately, we can’t know that for sure because it depends on many different factors.
If you did any of the things listed above (spamming, sharing your login details with others, not verifying your email address), then there is a chance that they might keep your account locked for good. However, if you didn’t do any of those things and it’s just random, then chances are that your account will be unlocked within the next few hours.
We can tell you with certainty that there is no way to speed up the time it takes for Snapchat to unlock your account. All you can do is just wait for it to be unlocked OR You can also try some of the following tricks to reactivate your account.
How to reactivate your Snapchat account
Method 1 – Use the Unlock page
Simply go to the following URL:
https://accounts.snapchat.com/accounts/unlock
If your account was locked temporarily, then it should be unlocked after 24 hours. Usually, if your crime isn’t that serious, Snapchat unlocks your account after a few hours. More serious offenses like using third-party tools to manipulate Snapchat’s algorithm etc can take up to 24 hours. If your account was permanently locked, then it might still be possible to unlock it. In that case, try the following methods.
Method 2 – Use an old phone number
If you’ve used an old mobile number for Snapchat before, then try logging in with it just in case. Snapchat’s algorithm is hard to guess. Sometimes, you can recover a locked Snapchat account when you log in with a phone number that you used previously. If it still remains, then use a different method from above to fix the problem.
Method 2 – Use a different device and log in
This one is a pretty easy solution. If you have any friends who use Snapchat, ask them to add you on their device or, if they don’t mind, on their main account for you to just log into your own account. Once that’s done, your account should be unlocked shortly after.
Method 3 – Use a Dual App
Some Android and iPhones let you create dual apps. A dual app is a clone of an original app that lets you use dual profiles on the same platform. As you can see in the image below, I created a dual app for Snapchat. Now I can use two different Snapchat accounts without Snachap ever finding out that I am using a dual app on the same mobile phone. Alternatively, you can try opening your locked account on the dual app if you don’t want to use a different device to log in.
Method 4 – Contact customer support directly to recover a locked Snapchat account
Open a web browser and follow this URL:
https://support.snapchat.com/en-US/i-need-help
Then sign in to your account and provide them with all the information they ask for. If you did not do anything wrong, they should unlock your account within a few hours.
Method 5 – Use a different email address and create a new profile
Alright, this is the last refuge of a hopeless romantic. If nothing works, but you cannot wait any longer for a reply from Snapchat, then simply create a new account with a new email address. However, before you do that, don’t forget to clear your app cache. As a precaution, uninstall your app and install it back again. This will clear up any information Snapchat may have stored on your profile. Now you can create a new Snapchat profile with a totally new email address.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are several ways to recover a locked Snapchat account. They mostly involve using a different device and email. If none of those work for you, then you will simply need to wait for them to unlock it. The time it takes for Snapchat to do this is completely random but usually falls somewhere between 24 hours and 7 days.
The bottom line here is that people just like you got locked out of their accounts too eventually by not following instructions or using a third-party app. I want to avoid that with you and hope you have learned how to use Snapchat the right way from now on.
In case you all have some other suggestions, or if one of these methods worked for you in the past, feel free to leave a comment below with your experience so others can benefit from it as well. Thank you for reading!
Snapchat is a powerful platform. If you are having problems making the most of it, check out likely reasons in our detailed article: why isn’t Snapchat working for your brand.
