Getting a Facebook Ads account disabled is a real bummer. But most of the time, people get their account disabled for no reason.
The story doesn’t end there. Facebook and Instagram are sister companies. Even their professional tools, like advertising and branding, are all linked.
So, getting banned from one service on any of the social networks results in a ban on both.
I had this issue recently. Facebook disabled my ads account for no apparent reason.
I tried multiple times to get my account reinstated by explaining everything to them, but they just won’t listen. I made my peace and moved on.
Then, I recently thought of turning one of my Instagram pages that has more than 40K followers to a professional Creator account.
The idea was simple. I wanted to keep track of my audience and all the related insights.
So, I opened my Instagram account and went to Settings » Account and clicked on Switch to Professional account.
Then Instagram asked me if I want the Creator account or the Business account. I chose Creator since it was a fan page.
Then it asked me the category. I selected Fan Page and clicked Done.
Out of the blue, it gave this error:
“You’re no longer allowed to use Facebook Products to advertise. You can’t run ads, manage advertising assets or create new ad or business accounts. Learn more”
I was so shocked. Facebook links all of its services to Instagram.
That means getting Facebook ads account was not sufficient. Now I’ve to deal with all the missing tools related to it on both Facebook and Instagram.
I couldn’t give up on my growing Instagram page like this. So, I started trying different things to bypass this error.
Guess what? I fixed it!
Fix Instagram Not Letting You Switch To Professional Account After Facebook Ads Account Is Disabled
The method I’ve shared below worked for me. I am not giving you any assurances that it will work for you too because Facebook changes its system all the time.
But there is no harm in giving it a try. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Step #1. Unlink your Facebook account from Instagram
The reason why Instagram knows your Facebook ads account is disabled is that your Facebook account is linked to Instagram.
So, you need to unlink your Facebook account from Instagram and Instagram account from Facebook.
In this step, we will unlink Facebook from Instagram. To do so, follow the steps:
- Open Instagram and go to your profile
- There on the top right corner, you’ll see three horizontal lines. Tap it
- Then a menu will pop up. Tap Settings
- Now tap Account
- There you’ll see a Linked accounts option. Tap that
- On the top, tap Facebook
- Now at the bottom of this page, tap Unlink account
Below is a gallery of all the steps involved:
Doing this will unlink your Facebook account from Instagram. But the job is not done yet, so move on to the next step.
Step #2. Unlink your Instagram account from Facebook
Your Instagram account links to your Facebook account in two ways. Either through a Facebook Page or your Facebook Profile.
If your Instagram account is linked only to your Facebook profile, then step #1 was sufficient. You can move on to step #3.
But, if your Instagram account is linked to a Facebook Page, then follow the steps below.
- Open your Facebook app and tap the three horizontal lines on the bottom right of the screen
- Then tap Your Pages
- It will show the list of all of your pages. Tap the one that is linked to your Instagram page
- On the top right of the screen, there should be a settings cog. Tap it
- Tap Instagram from the list of options
- Now you’ll see your connected Instagram page. If that is the right one, tap Disconnect at the bottom of the page
Below is a gallery of all the steps involved:
This will end the association between your Instagram page and your Facebook page. Now go to the next step.
Step #3. Delete all the Facebook & Instagram apps
In this step, delete all the Facebook and Instagram apps like:
- Facebook app
- Instagram app
- Facebook Pages Manager
- Facebook Ads
- Messenger
- IGTV
- or any other apps that are a part of Facebook and Instagram ecosystem
After steps 1, 3, and 3, we have removed all the associations between your Facebook account and your Instagram account.
In the further steps, we’ll utilize this clean slate condition to upgrade our Instagram page.
So, go to the next step.
Step #4. Reinstall only Instagram and then log in
Yes, you read the right. Reinstall only Instagram for now, no Facebook or any other related apps that we uninstalled in the previous step.
Then log in to your Instagram page.
NOTE: If you have multiple Instagram pages, then login to only the one that you want to convert to the professional page for now. Login to the rest later.
Step #5. Switch to Professional account
- Now, go to your Instagram profile and tap the three horizontal lines on the top right corner
- Then a menu will pop up. Tap Settings and then Account
- On the bottom of the page, tap Switch to Professional account and follow all the steps
This time, it should successfully switch!
After the switching is complete, you can reinstall all the uninstalled apps and even log in to your other Instagram accounts.
NOTE: If you ever set your Instagram account to Private or switch it to the Personal account, then you’ll have to follow all the steps again to switch it back to the Professional account as long as your Facebook account is disabled.
Final Words
I’m sure it is a moderately lengthy process, but did it help you? I would love to see your feedback.
If you have any other tricks for the same goal, then kindly share them in the comments section below.
Make sure you share this post with all the people in need. Also, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated!
you’re the best!!!!! it worked omggggggg
I am glad it helped you. Cheers 🙂
My ad account was hacked into and FB unfairly banned me from advertising. I tried your method last night and it totally worked! You are a legend!!! Thank you so much for giving such a detailed blog article!
I am glad it helped you 🙂
It is amazing and wonderful to visit your site. Thanks for sharing this information, this is useful to me…
Happy to see that it worked for you. Cheers 🙂
Yes!!!!! thank you!!!!!!!!!
You’re welcome 🙂
Thank you so much Ritesh!!
You’re most welcome 🙂
Hi Ritesh! It worked for me! Thank you so much for this blog and for your detailed instructions. I was getting so frustrated and annoyed with losing access to my business account and you solved it!
I’m glad it helped you. Cheers 🙂
Hey! Mine is a business account and it says you have too many business accounts.
I have tried these steps, but they are not working for me. Any guidance?
Same experience this is also what happened to me too, i wish there is a solution, im frustrated.
Hi ritesh, can you help me with this? uhm my account says ive reach the account of businesses ive made even tho i tried your guide. Thank you so so much if you reply, im crying right now.
Hello Seth. I just found out a way to fix this! All you have to do is create a page on Facebook, which can be private or public, doesn’t really matter. Then on the page’s settings, go to Instagram and link your Instagram account, and it will automatically convert your Instagram account to business. Then you just leave the page there and don’t touch anything else cause if you go back to personal, you would have to repeat the steps again.
Thank you!! That worked!
Hi, if i can no longer link my instagram account to facebook, does it mean i can no longer place instagram ads thru facebook?
If your Facebook ads account is banned, then you can’t run ads on any platform that Facebook owns, including Facebook itself and Instagram.
THANKS A LOT BRO, IT WORKS!! YOUR BLOG IS TOTALLY AWESOME!
It worked!!! Thank you so much!
That worked! THANK YOU!
Hi, i have followed your steps and it says “we limit how often you can post, comment or do other things in a given amount of time in order to help protect the community from spam. you can try again later. Learn More”
Thank you so much for these steps. I finally was able to update to a business account after a few hours of trying to figure it out myself. I greatly appreciate it.
Worked perfectly thanks!
Hi,
Can I actually advertise on Facebook after doing these steps?
Or is just for Instagram.
Also you said that I need to uninstal fb app, but how? It is part of my android, it can’t be deleted.
Thank you for your help!
Hello,
This trick will only help you to convert your personal Instagram account to professional.
You can’t run ads on a Facebook account even if you try this trick if its ad posting rights are restricted.
While, if you link the same Instagram account to a Facebook account where the ads account is in normal standing, then you can run ads on that Instagram account.
About Android, go to your phone’s Settings >> Apps and then select Facebook. Then tap Clear Cache, Clear Data, and Uninstall Updates. Finally tap Force Stop.
Then update the app from the PlayStore and start using it for the trick.
If you have doubts then feel free to ask.
And in apple phone? I removed all the apps and then went to Appstore redownload from icloud and nothing happened, I still got a message where I could not switch to professional. Want to clarify, my business account is permanently restricted. My instagram was already a business account, I switched it purposely to personal, because I wanted to try to unlink the instagram from the business account so I could place it under another business account. Now the instagram shows an error trying to switch it back to professional. Any help?
I had two ads running on Instagram when Facebook permanently disabled my FB account.
My IG was a professional account but I couldn’t switch it to personal as it was stuck.
Your solution DID work which I am so appreciate it. I was absolutely disappointed .
Thank you very much indeed.
Now my problem is how to connect my Instagram to the new Facebook account! They have all of my personal information and ID’s..
and apparently blocked me from linking them again.
I’m glad it worked. I am assuming you have a Facebook page for your Instagram account.
Now what you can do is create a new Facebook account (if you haven’t already) and warm it up with some posts, adding friends, exchanging likes and comments, etc. Keep it natural. Warm it up for at least a week.
Make sure you keep the account information a little different. The easiest way is to make the address look different. Add the street name or landmark, or change the order of the address. Don’t use the same address as you used in your old Facebook account.
Keep the name and date of the birth original because in case your account ever gets flagged, you’ll need to prove your identity, and a fake name and age will make it really hard for you to prove you’re real.
Then, add your new Facebook account as the admin on the Facebook page associated with your Instagram account.
After a week, remove your old account from your Facebook page. That will basically transfer the ownership of your Facebook page to the new account.
I would wait for another week and keep updating the Facebook page to warm it up. Then connect the Instagram account to your Facebook page that is now owned by your new account.
It should work. You’ll have to experiment. I wrote this post after experimenting for a couple of months, and then I finally got a solution 🙂
PS: use a VPN for your new FB account. You don’t want Facebook to trace your new account using the IP address associated with your old account.
Mate you are an absolute legend, I didn’t know about step 4 and you just saved me so much pain and struggle. Keep being awesome and thank you bro!
Facebook disabled my ads account that never linked to Instagram. Can I run instagram ads now only on Instagram
I’m not sure if that’s possible
Facebook restricted me from running ads and obviously it’s effected mg Instagram as well. If I unlink the two will I at least be able to run ads on Instagram?
If you follow the process to unlink the two accounts and then connect the Instagram account to another Facebook account then sure you can run ads.