How to Fix Your Grey Facebook Account Posted on 8 May 06:00 , 1 comment

How do you fix a 'Grey' Facebook account? That's the question that I was trying to solve for several days after discovering I was unable to share my Instagram Insights with a company I wanted to work with. I had no clue what a grey account was before I embarked on the rather painstaking journey of figuring out what was wrong. After spending days combing through my Facebook settings, I finally found out that once you have a grey account, you are totally doomed and need to start your facebook page over from scratch. Just kidding- there's a way to fix it. Here is what worked for me:
First step: Make sure your Instagram is a Business Page. Switch your account to a Personal Account, then back to a Business Account. If you get a red popup when changing back that says it looks like you have a Grey account, continue reading for how to get out of the grey Facebook account zone.
Important: It's not an Instagram issue or the company you are trying to work with. If you have a grey account, it's 100% your Facebook Page. A 'Grey Account' occurred if you turned a private page into a public page or merged duplicate pages anytime since opening the account (this apparently looks shady to Facebook).
Try this if you still have the login to the main account (not the Facebook Page, the regular account where you can add friends) . If you don't have access to the main private account, scroll to the second instruction list. This is a helpful excerpt by 'Timmy' in the Facebook Community Center, but didn't work for me.
"1. Log into your main (regular account)... and if you don't have one, create one.
2. In the core Facebook menu, choose "Manage Business" (at the time of this writing, it's found on the top Right of the page with a little down arrow icon... next to the also super small lock icon for security. The arrow icon is the farthest icon to the top right for easy reference.
3. On the menu, choose "Settings." The menu at the time of this writing is two tab style links: Home, Settings... and that's it. It's located at the top left below the login name.
4. On the menu on the left hand side, choose "Shared Logins."
5. The text that I saw when I clicked on shared logins is this: "If you use shared logins (also called gray accounts) to manage your Facebook Pages and ad accounts, add them to Business Manager. When you do this, you'll have permission to work on any of the assets with the same roles that the shared login has. If the shared login owns ad accounts and Pages, you can also transfer that ownership to your Business Manager. Business Manager is a more secure way to manage your Facebook Pages and ad accounts."

6. AND... we're done: simply click on "Add Shared Login" " (end of excerpt)
If you no longer have access to the main account, here's what you need to do. 
 
1. Create new private Facebook account (account #2)
2. Add account #2 as an administrator for the grey Facebook page.
3. Delete account (#1) from administrator list, leaving only the new Account #2 as Administrator. (If you're concerned about losing access, keep Account #1 as an editor, but I don't know if that will still work)
4. Create Business Page for Account #2 (The account setup for a Business Page for Facebk was as annoying as the grey facebook page and didn't want to register a new account at first. It finally registered after I completely logged out of Facebook and reset my browser).
 
Once you have done the 4 steps, check to see if you can connect your insights. If not, make sure your Instagram is still connected.
Good luck turning your grey facebook page into a cheerful functioning one!
XOXO
Kate Stoltz
Note: This post is not affiliated with Facebook or Instragram. This post was simply created to help people that are struggling with trying to fix a grey facebook page.