How to recover a hacked or lost Facebook account

Losing access to your Facebook account is a distressing experience. To help you regain control, we at Hacked.com have compiled a comprehensive guide following our best practices on how to recover a hacked Facebook account.

While we can’t cover every possible scenario in this article, we aim to provide the best guidance possible.

If you have a lost Facebook Business Page, click here.

Click here if you’re unsure whether your Facebook account has been hacked.

Hacked Facebook? Take Immediate Action!

If you receive an email from Facebook about suspicious behavior, take action immediately. The longer someone has access to your account, the more likely they’ll be able to change essential information, making it harder for you to regain control.

Go through all of your Facebook security emails and follow the instructions immediately. Click “Change Password,” “Secure your account,” and any other links that might help you regain access to your hacked Facebook account.

Do not create a duplicate Facebook account. This will make it much harder, and sometimes impossible, to recover your original Facebook account.

Change Your Facebook Password

If you can still access your account, change your password immediately. Follow our video tutorial or written instructions below:

Log into your Facebook account, click the dropdown arrow at the top right of the screen, then select ‘Settings.’

Now click ‘Settings & Privacy.’

Then click ‘Settings.’

In your account settings, click ‘See more in Accounts Center’ on the left side of the screen.

Then click ‘Password & Security’ on the left side of the screen.

Enter your current password and your new password twice to confirm it. We recommend using a password generator and password manager for security.

We also advise enabling Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to enhance your account security by adding a two-step verification system. This makes your account almost unhackable. We recommend using an authentication app such as Google Authenticator over SMS codes.

Can’t Log In to Your Facebook Account?

If a hacker has changed your Facebook account password and the associated email, you might think all hope is lost. However, there are still ways to retrieve your Facebook account. Even if the hacker has added a Two-Factor Authenticator or your account has been disabled, you can still recover your Facebook profile.

The most reliable way to recover your Facebook account is to carefully read all the security email notifications sent by Facebook and follow their instructions. Ensure to click on email links only from the sender “Facebook” or “facebookmail.com.” If the links in the emails, such as “Secure your account” or “Change your password,” don’t help, you can follow the rest of our Facebook recovery tutorial below.

Facebook Password Recovery

If your password is no longer working and you suspect someone has changed it, use Facebook’s account recovery options. Watch our video instructions below:

Go to the Facebook login page and click ‘Forgotten password?’

Enter your account’s email address or phone number and click ‘Search.’

Log in via your email, Google account, or telephone number, then click ‘Continue.’

Enter the code you received via text or email and click ‘Continue.’

Enter your new password and click ‘Continue’ to confirm.

Report Your Facebook Account as Hacked

If none of the other methods work, report the hacked account directly to Facebook.

Go to the hacked account report page, and click ‘My Account Is Compromised.’

Enter your email address or phone number, then click ‘Search.’

Enter your most recent password and click ‘Continue’ to report your account. Facebook may provide you with further instructions to aid in account recovery.

Facebook may request that you upload a photograph of your ID to prove your identity.

How to Bypass Facebook’s Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

If the hacker has added Two-Factor Authentication, it is still possible to bypass it. When you try logging in and are prompted with the screen below, click “Need another way to authenticate.” Then the following pop-up should appear:

Click on either “Submit a request to Facebook,” “Try another way,” or “Other Options” and “Get More Help.” It will then ask you to add a new email, which you may have to confirm, and then you must upload a government-approved ID. Once you have submitted this form, you should receive a response within 48 hours to one week.

Facebook Two-Factor Authentication Glitch

We at Hacked.com discovered in July 2024 what might be a new Facebook error when trying to bypass the hacker’s two-factor authentication.

After submitting your ID to get by the hacker’s two-factor authentication, Facebook sends you an email with an option to ‘get back into your account.’

Usually, this is the final hurdle to recovering your hacked Facebook account. You click ‘get back into your account’ then select a few important options and you’re back in.

Lately, however, there’s been some sort of Facebook glitch where they send people in a loop that goes right back to the hacker’s two-factor authentication. It is not supposed to do this, but it’s been happening to many of our clients the past month.

We are currently monitoring this situation and testing ways to get past this. We have found that the people who have eventually gotten past this step clicked the button ‘Get back into your account’ from the phone they used Facebook with.

There also appears to be a strong correlation between accounts with this glitch and accounts that are no longer visible on Facebook. This suggests that these accounts may be having these troubles because they are actually disabled. If that is the case, your best bet would to set up a call with us to try to recover the disabled account.

Common Facebook Recovery Links

Here are the best Facebook recovery links to try to gain access to your hacked Facebook account:

• https://www.facebook.com/recover/initiate
• https://www.facebook.com/login/identify
• https://www.facebook.com/hacked

If you’ve recovered your Facebook account, you should follow our account security guide to keep it safe.

Has Your Facebook Profile Disappeared?

If you cannot locate your Facebook account since the hacker has changed your email and phone number, try these instructions:

Go to https://www.facebook.com/login/identify or https://www.facebook.com/hacked, where you’ll see the following prompt:

Try to find your hacked Facebook account by searching for the following:

1. Your email that was connected to your Facebook account
2. Your phone number that was connected to your Facebook account

If neither of these options works, then do the following:

Ask a friend to go to your profile and click on the “About me” section and “Contact information.” Tell your friend to check if they can see any email or phone number under this section. If so, use this new email or phone number to search for your account.

If no email or phone number is listed under your hacked Facebook account’s About Me section, ask your friend to go to your profile again on a computer and copy your URL. Here is an example of what a Facebook profile URL looks like:

Add this full URL to the search bar to find your account. If that doesn’t work, try to copy the last section of your profile URL, like “jonasborchgrevink,” as seen in the image above, and search for that.

Still Unable to Recover Your Facebook Account?

If you cannot recover your Facebook account by following the instructions in this article, you may want to consider getting professional guidance. You might be experiencing Facebook’s cycle of death as described below:

Get Expert Help from Hacked.com

If you have tried everything above and feel you are getting nowhere, we recommend scheduling a remote video session with one of our security experts here.

Why do people hire Hacked.com?

1. They want to save time
2. They are stuck in the recovery process
3. They want a confirmation of what’s possible to do
4. They want a second opinion
5. They want to exhaust all possibilites

Related Facebook Articles

• If you have been able to recover your hacked Facebook and want to delete it, please follow the instructions in this article
• How to remove fake profiles, images, and videos from Facebook
• What To Do if Your Facebook Account Is Compromised
• Received a Facebook Password Change?
• Someone May Have Accessed Your Account

Featured image by Midjourney and Jonas borchgrevink.