How to unlock Twitter account – age restriction: account restoration tool not showing up
You just changed your date of birth on Twitter and now your account is locked? In addition, you are afraid that your Twitter account will be deleted after 30 days?
Exactly the same happened to me! We’re in the same boat! Since I also want to have my account unlocked again, I can give you some good tips here.
WHY is my account locked?
Twitter has strict policies in place to protect minors, including requiring users to be at least 13 years old when they create an account.
If you change your date of birth on your profile and it indicates that you were under 13 years old when you created the account, Twitter will lock your account. Why does twitter punish active users for something they did many years ago though? #Bulllshit
How to unlock the account (theoretically)
1.Your Account is locked - form
If you try to log in to twitter, you’ll probably get the “Your account is locked” page. In the last sentence on this page is a link that goes to a form. There you have to provide an ID and the email address of a parent or guardian. (The own one works too, I heard öhhh).
2.Parental consent - form
As soon as you have filled out the “Your Account is locked”-form, a mail goes to the e-mail address of the legal guardian. In this E-mail the parental consent form is pointed out and linked. In this form the legal guardian must upload his ID and a proof of custody.
3.Wait for the "You're almost done E-Mail"
If you have successfully filled out all these forms, you will receive the “You’re almost done” email after a few days. This says that after 24 hours at the latest the “account restoration” can begin. However, this tool is only available for a maximum of 30 days, after which the Twitter account will be deleted. As everything that is related to Twitter support, it can take some time until the mail arrives, for me it took about 5 days.
So if the mail is not there after some days waiting, wait, wait some more, wait a little more, and then screw twitter support with everything you have either via support@twitter.com or via Twitter’s official ticket system.
4. Start with the account restoration
Theoretically, once the “You’re almost done” email arrives, you can start the account restoration process right away. However, it can take up to 24 hours until the tool is ready for the users. But since Twitter support sucks, this last mail in the verification process often doesn’t arrive at all or only after many weeks. I’ve been waiting for over 3 weeks and the mail still hasn’t arrived. If you got this far, it means your account has been verified, you just can’t use it.
Some more useful information
Since my Twitter account is very important to me, I’ve spent days scouring the internet for solutions. Many other users have the same problem, they get stuck at account restoration and can’t use their Twitter account. Fortunately, many users have reported that their Twitter accounts were not deleted after the advertised 30 days. So there is still hope! However, since the problem has been going on for several years and Twitter is not taking care of it, I wonder if Twitter is still the right network for me.
Cant access the parental consent form?
You are probably logged into help.twitter.com with your blocked Twitter account and can’t verify your account yourself. So use an incognito window and there you go!
Twitter does not respond to any of my mails/support requests
Not just since Elon-Musk laid off numerous employees, Twitter support sucks. This situation just makes it even more worse! I also have a situation in which Twitter Support is almost never responding. Unfortunately, I can’t give you a better tip than to keep trying.
What happens after the 30 days?
When you get the “You’re almost done” email, it tells you that the account will be deleted if the restoration tool is not used within 30 days. However, many reddit users have reported that even after the 30 days, the account is not deleted. Additionally, some reddit users comment that the 30-day timer gets reseted every time you submit a new support request via help.twitter.com.
In which category should I post my support request?
I myself was able to communicate with Twitter support by submitting a support request. Usually their support does not respond. In my case, they responded to just one of 30 support requests. The correct category to post a support request is “I’m having problems with account access”. Click here.
Twitter support has the audacity to even accuse me of choosing the wrong category for my ticket, when it was obviously the right category. BULLSHIT!
Useful Links
If you have any tips for me on how to start the account restoration process, please post a comment here under this blogpost. I’m also happy to help other users who have the same problem. Otherwise, the megathreads on r/Twitter are always a good place to start as well.
UPDATE AFTER 2 MONTHS OF WAITING
Twitter silently enabled the account restoration tool for me. I did not receive any E-Mails, but when trying to log in, the restoration tool finally showed up. I guess it just takes time 🙂
