Why Is Reddit Showing 'Your Account Has Been Locked For Security Reasons'?

Question

2

Reddit automatically locks accounts when system detection flags suspicious activity, such as logging in from a high-risk VPN, multiple failed password attempts, or credential stuffing attacks.

How to Unlock Your Reddit Account

To restore normal functionality to your account, follow these steps:

Trigger a Password Reset: Go to the Reddit password reset page and enter your registered username and email.
Clear Browser Cache and Cookies: Browser session corruption can cause a password reset loop. Clear cache before clicking the recovery link.
Disable VPNs or Proxies: Resetting your password while connected to an aggressive VPN IP can re-trigger security flags.
Check Spam/Junk Folders: Ensure the reset email is delivered directly from noreply@reddit.com.

1 Answer

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Answer 1

If Reddit shows “Your account has been locked for security reasons,” it usually means Reddit detected a technical irregularity or potentially suspicious activity and temporarily locked the account as a security precaution. It does not necessarily mean your account was hacked.

How to unlock it

Check the email currently connected to your Reddit account.
Use Reddit's password-reset link to create a new password.
After successfully resetting the password, Reddit says the account should be unlocked.
Check your Reddit inbox too—the security lock may have generated a notification explaining the situation.

If your email was changed by a hacker

This is especially important given your previous question.

If the hacker changed your Reddit email address, Reddit says you should have received an email explaining how to change it back. You'll need to enter the original email address that was attached to the account before the hack, then reset the password.

If that doesn't work, submit a Reddit support request and choose:

Security problems → I think my account has been hacked

Include your Reddit username and explain that the email/password were changed without your permission.

Official Reddit help: Reddit — Account locked as a security precaution

One important limitation: Reddit says it generally cannot restore access if you no longer have access to the email associated with the account and they cannot otherwise verify ownership.

If you still have access to the original email, tell me that, and I can give you the exact recovery steps for your situation.