Why does Facebook Graph API say my account is non-active?

Question

We have some code that uses Facebook Open Graph API to display some posts on our home page. It was originally developed by a previous developer and I rewrote it in ASP.NET MVC for our home page (where before it was PHP which I believe was loaded in an iframe). At that time, I used the app ID and secret that were left to me. This has functioned fine for a couple of years. This afternoon, we started getting an error back on our site: "Access to this data is temporarily disabled for non-active accounts due to changes we are making to the Facebook Platform".

No sweat. I figured I just needed to update our ID and secret. Unfortunately, no one seems to remember the user ID that was in control of that app ID. No sweat. I'll make my own. Unfortunately, any ID and secret I use to access posts -- even my own posts on a page totally not related to work -- returns the same access error. I can get name or cover or some other fields, but as soon as I request any posts, I get the error.

Here's an example of what I'm trying:

https://graph.facebook.com/MyCompanyName?fields=cover,name,likes,link,posts.limit(5){created_time,message,link,type,full_picture,picture,source,icon}&access_token=bunchofnumbers|bunchofnumbersandletters

I am aware of the status post at https://developers.facebook.com/status/issues/205942813488872/, but I think I must be doing something wrong since I can't even create new appIDs to get posts with.

Why does Facebook Graph API say my account is non-active?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Please read this article:

Mark Zuckerberg apologises for Facebook's 'mistakes' over Cambridge Analytica

Cambridge University researcher named Aleksandr Kogan had used an app to extract the information of more than 50 million people, and then transferred it to Cambridge Analytica for commercial and political use.

So facebook is changing its policies so that the personal data could be made more secure.

Until then you cant do anything about it.

Answer 2

I solved the problem on my website by removing the events from the fetched fields list

Answer 3

We started seeing this same error message on our platform today. I think there are a few things going on that all tie together:

1. As others have mentioned, there have been rapid and major responses by Facebook to increase data protection and privacy in light of the Cambridge Analytica incident. From what I understand, the bad actors exploited the ability access the data of Users (via the graph) that the app did not have an active, first-party relationship with. So, sort of like how "6 degrees of separation" would get you the whole planet, the 1 degree of separation on the few-hundred-thousand Users that connected with the app directly gave the app access to roughly 50 Million users...or something like that. FB is doing what they can to lock that stuff down now, big time.
2. The specific cause of your error is that something you're asking for in the fields parameter makes a leap (from the either the myCompany or the OAuth'd User/App whose access_token you are using) to a related item/items that FB now deems must have an "active" first-party/direct relationship with your Company/App/User in order to access. This is why you see the somewhat cryptic "non-active accounts" mentioning. I think they really mean that it's not "active with you or your app".

I'm not sure which one of the fields you request is at fault, but some trial-and-error will lead you to it. For us, it was clear: we were asking for the Members of all the Groups that User had access to. We didn't need that, so we cut it out and the error went away.

Answer 4

Facebook today updated the term and conditions https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/changelog/breaking-changes/?translation&hc_location=ufi#groups-4-4

Answer 5

My understanding is that if your not a production app, they are limiting your for specific reasons. Unclear if thats because of Cambridge Leak, or upgrading the instagram api.

I also received the same error, however, if you are testing, you can hard code the graph api explorer token into your app to continue testing...

var data {
    'accessToken': 'EEAC...',
}

FB.api('/' + id, getData, data, (_response) => {
    console.log(_response);
});

Answer 6

Right now I am working with Facebook Open Graph API. And I was having this error every time I wanted to access/get the member (and their basic info) of the groups I am Admin.

{
  "error": {
 "message": "(#200) Access to this data is temporarily disabled for non-active accounts due to changes we are making to the Facebook Platform",
"type": "OAuthException",
"code": 200,
"fbtrace_id": "Byueyj6MtkoIx"
 }
}

In between trial and error @JoshChristy was getting all the desired results! And after couple hours of research we discovered that facebook recognize some account as "non-active" and some "active" (I don't know based on what!) because I am pretty much active in facebook. So, if you are getting this error that means you are not active enough for facebook ;)

Answer 7

I had this problem. It's solved automatically. I think it's a Facebook issue.

Answer 8

For me it work if I leave just one field - "name". If I add "link" and/or "events" fields it returns error

Answer 9

I was able to get Facebook Page Access token using the method below.

For anyone who may already have an app which has been reviewed can use that app's details as a temporary fix until Facebook is done with their API enhancements. Meaning you'll have to add the relevant redirect uris to the reviewed app as well as use that app's App Id and App Secret.

This works for retrieving page feeds and leads, I wasn't able to retrieve conversations. Also the permissions I requested were { scope: 'ads_management,ads_read,manage_pages' }

Answer 10

In our case, we retrieved, for example, a page access_token with a page ID using like this:

this.call('v2.12/'+pageid, 'GET', {fields: "access_token"}, token)

ended up with the error you mentioned.

However, we took a normal approach and all looks good now. https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/access-tokens#pagetokens

Answer 11

Same thing I just noticed too, and they kept my lead gen ads running and charging me eventhough they blocked the data.

Luckily going into ad manager directly you can still download the CSV/XLS files.

Answer 12

What is issue? This error is due to recent action taken by Facebook. They said ” Access to certain types of API data is paused for non-active accounts due to changes we are making to the Facebook Platform” So if your account is non-active and you have created App using it then it might possible you get this error in your Plugin. Facebook Issue link is

When it will resolved? Facebook has temporarily disabled some non-active accounts as they mentioned they haven’t given any estimated time to fix issue but it should get activated soon.

You can find more update on facebook Event API here