GoKawiilAamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
TL;DR Multiple users are reporting that their Samsung accounts are being randomly deactivated, supposedly for security reasons.
Some have been able to recover their accounts by speaking to the company’s support team.
The issue could stem from the use of aliases in email addresses, though the company hasn’t confirmed this.
While not mandatory, a Samsung account on your Galaxy smartphone or tablet helps synchronize your data across multiple apps and devices and enables additional cross-device experiences. It’s one of those aspects that you won’t truly miss until it’s gone. Some users are now finding this out the hard way.
User reports on Reddit and Samsung’s community forum over the past couple of days highlight an issue in which Samsung accounts are being randomly deactivated, reportedly for security reasons, although no specifics are provided (spotted via 9to5Google).
One person speculates that using ‘+’ or ‘.’ aliases in email addresses could be the reason behind the account suspensions. However, the company hasn’t officially acknowledged this yet.
In an update to their original post, the user adds that one of their accounts was restored after contacting Samsung support, though other accounts weren’t. Another person says they got their account back after reaching out to the company via chat support.
While Samsung hasn’t published an official statement, a company representative has responded to one complaint by offering a US phone support number, 855-795-0509. Unfortunately, getting through to Samsung support doesn’t appear to be easy, with some facing an automated line when calling the provided phone support number, while others haven’t had success with chat support either.
Although some suggest that Samsung may be deliberately deactivating users’ alias accounts and restoring them only when contacted, we don’t yet have evidence of this.
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