High Level 'Pokemon Go' Accounts are Disappearing

A new Pokemon Go bug is causing players' accounts to disappear and there's no update as to when they'll return.

For months, a few Pokemon Go players have claimed that their high level accounts have disappeared without warning with little explanation or assurances that their account will be recovered.We've seen a few reports of this occurring on Reddit or Twitter, all with similar stories. Players will get a "Failed to game data from the server" error and will be locked out of the game entirely. When they contact Niantic Support, Niantic will either respond that the account doesn't exist, or that they're aware of the issue and are trying to resolve it.

Although it seemed like a handful of isolated incidents at first, the problem has grown large enough to attract the attention of /r/TheSilphRoad, one of the largest Pokemon Go communities on the Internet. Today, players started sharing information about the bug and discovered that, in addition to locking players out of their accounts, this bug also affects any gym that has a Pokemon from an account that disappeared. Attempting to interact any gym that has a Pokemon connected to one of these bugged accounts will cause the game to crash, effectively blocking the gym out of the game.

Niantic hasn't explained how or why the bug happens, and players haven't been able to find a link between the players who are affected. Various support responses claim that the bug affects only "a small subset" of players, but there's no word on when the bug will be fixed or if more players are at risk.

Overall, there's a feeling of frustration among Pokemon Go players, especially as its affecting both active players and with other players' abilities to interact with gyms. Hopefully, Niantic provides an update about this situation soon.