How to Retrieve Your Lost Instagram Account – You Can’t

Well, in my case, at least.

I am the type of person who always has two-verification on when signing up – in ALL accounts. I’m not sure why, I think it goes back to those days when I still handled 5 Seconds of Summer Philippine Team before. We got hacked. I cried thinking I wouldn’t get the account back. It was the team’s hardwork since 2013. Good thing, we got it back. You see, when you are in stan twt (the side of Twitter where fans create accounts solely for the bands/artists they support), you will learn these things.

Now, I’ve been going on and off from my personal account since late 2016 – personal reasons. Starting 2017, work started to go downhill and finally last year, I just had to take a break from everything. I already mentioned here that I lost my phone in the first half of 2018. So yes, all my accounts are linked to that number. I don’t have back up codes except for my emails. I have about 4 (edit: as of April 2019, it’s 5 now) emails, can you believe? Work purposes. Twitter accounts. Personal accounts. It be like that sometimes 😆

I really didn’t care not being able to log in on my personal account on Instagram. I though it’s fine, I’d just use a blog account. I don’t know what’s gotten into me that I contacted support lots of times. So, here comes the full story:

I thought, “Wow, that’s pretty easy,” so I went on and got a marker and a paper. I took a picture and SENT.

I was then asked about the issue I was having, and the email I used when I registered with the account. At the time, I was confident and sure I had the right email in mind.

I was shocked when they asked me to use an email that I don’t have access anymore.

It is one of the emails we have over 5SOSPHTeam. I thought, “Oh, did I use that to register my Instagram?” I was so lost. I started questioning my memory.

I messaged the team. Good thing we’re still friends, so I got the email and send a message to the Instagram support team using it.

After all those things I already did to prove it’s my account, they would still not help me. Can I blame them? Not really, it’s my fault that I can’t remember. Still, it’s annoying on my part. I am annoyed at myself ’cause I can’t remember. I am annoyed at them for not believing me.

I even told them I had to deactivate my Facebook for personal reasons. But, I guess, a rule is a rule – no exception.

Of course, I couldn’t give up after all the things I already provided. I couldn’t give up and let them just go away with it after giving me an anxiety attack. LOL I started questioning my mental state. Why can’t I remember? I have a pretty good memory, it helped me survive school with decent grades. Though, I know my memory sucks now and there are certain things that I am really bad at remembering – it doesn’t matter if that just happened yesterday.

In the end, I still wasn’t able to get my account back. It’s been 5 years (?) I had 3 different phones since. I think the lesson here is do not always change your number, or always write down your log-ins or whatever.