Facebook account issues are rendering some Oculus Quest 2 headsets unusable

(Image credit: Facebook)

Imagine being banned from an online service (through no fault of your own) that is required to use a new $300+ piece of hardware you just bought. Unfortunately, some early adopters of the Oculus Quest 2 don't need to have a vivid imagination, because they're living through the frustrating experience right at this very moment.

In order to use the Oculus Quest 2, users are required to have a Facebook account, as Oculus outlines in an FAQ. Users who have an Oculus account also have the option of merging it with their Facebook account, but either way, Facebook is a requisite for using the second generation Quest headset.

The arbitrary requirement has already been a cause of consternation for some people, which is now made worse by some early hiccups in the setup process.

"Got my Quest 2 today and created a new Facebook account with my real name (never had one previously) and merged my 4 year old Oculus account with it. Promptly got banned 10 minutes later and now cannot access my account or use my device," a user on Reddit complained.

The user goes on to state that they were asked to provide a photo of their driver's license to verify their identity, which they did, to no avail. Check out this troubling error message they received:

(Image credit: Reddit (weavster))

The user's Facebook account was disabled, with a message saying the decision "can't be reversed." In emails to UploadVR, others claim to have run into the same or similar issues, with multiple Quest 2 owners referring to their headsets as basically paperweights at this point.

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Facebook provided a statement to the site, saying only a "very small number" of Oculus users are having issues logging in.

"People who are having trouble logging in to their device aren’t losing access to their purchased content, based on what we’re seeing in customer service reports. Someone may temporarily experience an issue accessing content if they have trouble logging in to Quest 2 with their Facebook account, but they will be able to access their content once those login issues are resolved," Facebook said.

The problem, however, is actually resolving the issue. Facebook says anyone running problems setting up their Quest 2 headset and/or merging accounts should submit a troubleshooting ticket to Oculus support.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).