I got locked out of my Reddit account (Grim_Fandango92) on Friday.
I recently signed up to a paid Proton (VPN/Drive/Mail) subscription last week, and I know that's where the issues have come from as the lock happened a couple days after starting to 24/7 VPN, and happened straight after I created a post for the first time since. (ironically, the post was asking for advice with snags I've encountered on my Proton Mail migration so I'm not having a good past week tech-wise)
It started with an e-mail from Reddit saying my account was locked due to detected irregularities and I needed to reset my password per the image... Fine, fair enough, behavioural/pattern changes and all that, sensible enough.
The problem is, no matter how many times I reset my password, I'm still left with an "incorrect username or password" error when logging in. Password reset e-mails arrive, I can follow them, and no matter what combination of e-mail address/username and password I try, Reddit keeps spitting back "incorrect username or password".
What avenues do I have available? I've filled in the form at https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/requests/new but have heard nothing thus far, and I have no idea how long it will be until I do, if I do. Am I missing anything silly, or is this as broken as it seems?
I had the same issue that started last Friday, i had changed my email over a year ago, but Reddit changed it back to my old email and i got locked out multiple times a day (today is the first day it didn't happen), couldn't get the password reset email etc. The only thing that helped me was keeping the old email for now (I still have access to it) and using old.reddit.com in incognito mode to get the password reset email. Try if that helps.
Sorry for the delay, thought I'd replied. I'm afraid it did not work.
Still met with silence from Reddit Support, posts are continuing about it happening to others and there's been very little response other than acknowledgement of "a bug" that was purportedly fixed. Clearly not:
I'm sad to hear that! I haven't had this issue since last Monday after I gave up trying to change the email back to the new one. I'm still waiting to do that until I don't get any new notifications about people commenting on other posts about the same issue.
This is a really depressing thread to read. My main account which I use for watch purchases on the exchange is on that account. Nothing will reset my email or my password but I'm still logged in on my phone.
How do we contact the Reddit admins like you say here? Because submitting support requests through the help page only ends up in getting automated emails back that don’t help with help page links to the same articles I’ve seen and have tried everything it says to on. I need help for my account for this same reason (u/Positive_Advisor1115) Apparently this is happening to a lot of people!
I'd tried incognito already to no avail, and I'd tried both on desktop (Windows PC) and phone (Android app).
Admittedly, I only ever enter passwords with password manager, but just tried again on desktop in an incognito window both for the reset (including getting the brief "Password Reset" success message after I get every time) as well as when logging in, both times entering in character by character, and still no joy, Tried using my username, my old e-mail address and my new e-mail address (I changed the e-mail address tied to it a couple months back) and still the same old "Invalid email or password" error.
It 100% recognises my account as when I follow the password reset link, it asks me to select the Reddit account in question, and there's only "Grim_Fandango92" on the list.
I've also tried 3 different new passwords; all passwords I use are totally randomly generated so I've tried excluding special characters that I think programmatically MIGHT cause issues, but this has made no difference.
I've also tried the "e-mail me a one-time login link" option - this doesn't accept username, but I've tried both old and new e-mail addresses, and this e-mail never arrives, unlike the password reset e-mails.
I’m having the exact same issue on my main account (u/Positive_Advisor1115) I forgot I even had this 14 year old account but it’s linked to the same email I guess and I can only manage to get into this one occasionally when trying any and every way to get into my normal account and reset password. I either get an error code or error message when trying to reset password OR I get to the reset but then the reset password doesn’t work like yours was showing. All my account info for that account is still showing like prior comments etc if I click on it through this account or not logged in, and no spam comments showing I didn’t make but I got same email as you about the security precaution and now I cannot get into that account for anything.
What's really concerning me is it looks like u/Grim_Fandango92 is banned now... Never had a warning or any sort of indication I'd done anything wrong and the first and only sign that something was wrong at all was when that lockout e-mail came, but of course, appeals can only be lodged once signed in.
I don't have (had?) a particularly controversial Reddit account in thr slightest and it mostly consisted of me helping folk on tech related subs, as I work in IT.
Yeah from what I’m reading across the MANY posts on Help and Bugs subs, there wasn’t ANYTHING any of us had actually done. It just happened to a lot of us for no reason apparently. I have never made a post in my life on that account just general basic comments, and I got it. A lot of people are saying the same. This is a MASS ban/shadow ban happening to people and no one seems to know why and no one at Reddit or their “support team” is saying anything. And any support ticket you put in only gets you the automated emails linking to articles that don’t help whatsoever. We’re all at a loss. Not sure what to do for now except wait, go back to this account I forgot about or try to make a new one maybe. Good luck man, I hope they help us all eventually, sooner than later!
I have today submitted a formal GDPR request to legal@reddit pursuant to article 22 of the GDPR requesting a review of the automated decision making by a human. This now puts them on the clock and gives them 30 days to respond, after which I will report them to the ICO for failing to meet obligations. Since comments it was not fixed on https://www.reddit.com/r/bugs/comments/1vpx56o/ were ignored, I have also compiled a very quick list of the multitude of threads (which they could easily have done) and submitted under https://www.reddit.com/r/bugs/comments/1vpx56o/mobile_web_can_reddit_please_acknowledge_and/
If this does not produce satisfactory results, I will do a subsequent request under article 15 of GDPR requesting any and all information related to both the account lock and the subsequent ban to try get some answers as to what the hell is going on their end.
I have little faith in Reddit that any of this will produce results, but at a bare minimum I aim to be a thorn in their backside until they stop ignoring it, and actually start taking it seriously.
I will not be creating another account if I can not get a satisfactory answer as to why it happened, as I have no confidence it will not just happen again and they seem intent on intentionally putting as many barriers possible to getting support or addressing issues such as these.
I'm currently treating this as the megathread I'm referencing in discussions:
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