Unable to Submit Suspension Appeal – HTTP 401 and SMS Rate Limit

[Max-jmon]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Body

Hello GitHub Community,

I'm posting on behalf of a friend whose GitHub account, yuxuanfuture, has been suspended.

They have not received any suspension notification email or explanation.

They attempted to submit an appeal through the official GitHub Support Portal. Email and SMS verification were initially successful, but the final submission failed with an HTTP 401 Unauthorized error.

When they tried again, SMS verification displayed:

"You've reached your request limit, please try again later."

They also attempted to contact GitHub Support via email, but received an automated response stating that new support requests must be submitted through the Support website.

They are now unable to access their account, complete the appeal form, or create a support ticket.

Could a GitHub staff member advise how someone in this situation can submit an official appeal when the Support Portal itself is failing?

We are not asking for the suspension to be overturned through this public discussion. We are requesting a working official support channel.

Thank you.

[kumar246subham-afk]

Hi @Max-jmon,

The HTTP 401 error occurs because the support form is trying to authenticate your currently suspended session. The SMS rate limit is an automated security cooldown from repeated attempts.

Here is the exact fix to get your appeal submitted right now:

1. Use an Incognito / Private Window (Most Important):
   Open a private browser window without logging in to GitHub, then open:
   👉 https://support.github.com/contact/reinstatement

2. Submit as a Logged-Out Guest:
   Fill in the form by typing your suspended username and the primary registered email linked to it. Submitting as a guest bypasses the 401 authorization block completely.

3. Bypass the SMS Cooldown:
   Leave the verification alone for 2 to 3 hours so the telecom rate-limit resets. Do not keep clicking "resend code".

4. Direct Email Backup:
   If the web portal still throws a 401, send a direct email from your registered address to support@github.com with your username and appeal summary.

Hope this gets your appeal submitted quickly! If this worked for you, please click "Mark as answer" below so others with this 401 bug can find it. 👍