Remove account from rotation on status_code 3 (ban)

[Mickey32111]

Checklist

• [x] I have read the FAQ
• [x] I have checked if this issue already exists (both open and closed issues)
• [x] I am using the most recent version of pogom from the master branch
• [x] I'm posting the complete log
• [x] I'm using a descriptive title for this issue

  My Issue

I literally only started getting these randomly, I made no changes, and it was working fine earlier. This is the first time I've seen an error about the map failing to download and the Status Code 3 error.

2016-08-13 21:13:42,329 [       scan] [   INFO] Completed 54.95% of scan.
2016-08-13 21:13:42,338 [     pgoapi] [   INFO] Unexpected error during request: Request throttled by server... slow down man
2016-08-13 21:13:42,339 [       scan] [   INFO] Map Download failed. Trying again.
2016-08-13 21:13:42,389 [     pgoapi] [   INFO] Unexpected error during request: Request throttled by server... slow down man
2016-08-13 21:13:42,504 [     models] [WARNING] Received valid response but without any data. Possibly rate-limited?
2016-08-13 21:13:42,504 [       scan] [   INFO] Completed 55.04% of scan.
2016-08-13 21:13:42,529 [       scan] [   INFO] Completed 55.13% of scan.
2016-08-13 21:13:42,547 [     pgoapi] [   INFO] Unexpected error during request: Request throttled by server... slow down man
2016-08-13 21:13:42,670 [       scan] [   INFO] Completed 55.23% of scan.
2016-08-13 21:13:42,708 [     pgoapi] [   INFO] Status code 3 returned. Performing get_player request.
2016-08-13 21:13:42,865 [     pgoapi] [   INFO] Unexpected error during request: Request throttled by server... slow down man
2016-08-13 21:13:43,004 [       scan] [   INFO] Completed 55.32% of scan.
2016-08-13 21:13:43,008 [       scan] [   INFO] Completed 55.41% of scan.
2016-08-13 21:13:43,032 [     pgoapi] [   INFO] Unexpected error during request: Request throttled by server... slow down man
2016-08-13 21:13:43,179 [       scan] [   INFO] Completed 55.50% of scan.
2016-08-13 21:13:43,192 [     pgoapi] [   INFO] Status code 3 returned. Performing get_player request.
2016-08-13 21:13:43,353 [       scan] [   INFO] Completed 55.60% of scan.
2016-08-13 21:13:43,361 [     pgoapi] [   INFO] Unexpected error during request: Request throttled by server... slow down man
2016-08-13 21:13:43,522 [     pgoapi] [   INFO] Unexpected error during request: Request throttled by server... slow down man
2016-08-13 21:13:43,522 [       scan] [   INFO] Map Download failed. Trying again.

[hoeguard]

I would recommend stopping the service, and rebooting it in an hour. If the problem persists, post back. This is most likely a connection error related to the number of accounts you are currently using, but I'd be interested to see whether the problem still exists after a pause.

[Mickey32111]

Even though it's throwing up these Status code 3 errors, Pokémon appearing on my map just fine. As far as I can tell its just spamming my console.

[nborrmann]

status code 3 means you have to accept the ToS, which the program then automatically does. Should usually happen only on new accounts, maybe they are introducing updated ToS.

[Mickey32111]

Haven't used any new accounts in around 3 days.

[nborrmann]

Does it show the error only once per account or does this persist over a longer timeframe?

[Mickey32111]

Persists. Scanning slows down to snail pace too. @nborrmann

[diputz42]

Same has been happening to me. Everything was working fine until this began today. All my accounts accepted ToS weeks ago.

[Mickey32111]

@hoeguard my box has been offline for 3 hours prior to restarting, still getting the same errors

[qwerty0123]

same thing here, but my scanning hasn't slowed at all

[hoeguard]

You might take a look at this resource: https://github.com/MRokas/PogoPlayer However, without being able to reproduce the error, I'm not sure why it is occurring.

[qwerty0123]

I actually already ran that with all my accounts, still getting Status code 3 returned. Performing get_player request.

[Mickey32111]

Stolen from reddit:

according to /u/Tr4sHCr4fT the API is returning "Status=3" to all requests after the player data is returned from the get_player() function. Hence the data error as it isn't receiving what it needs to be returned to function properly and doesn't know how to handle it so errors out. Interestingly the only other instance of a status 3 being returned is when the ToS message is displayed for new accounts, which would suggest it is trying to return data related to the ToS (possibly ToS violation message). This is increasingly looking like a ban, with some PTC accounts being able to even re-create their accounts with the same username. Anyone who was able to do this will have probably had the second error I messaged referencing "Player information". I think they have added this and the next actual app update will have handling for it to show an account termination error window.

Looks like account bans which isn't surprising considering there's a ban wave going on 😞

[qwerty0123]

but if it is an account ban, why haven't my scans slowed down

[Mickey32111]

How many accounts you running? It may be just only a couple are banned, so the effect is almost insignificant. It started this way for me, only occasionally getting the error and my scan unaffected by it, now my scan barely progresses and I get a Status Code 3 every second or so.

On 14 Aug 2016, at 03:14, Ian notifications@github.com wrote:

but if it is an account ban, why haven't my scans slowed down

— You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[qwerty0123]

Only using 10 right now, and I get Status Code 3 every 1-3 seconds

[dennislwy]

Same issue facing at my side, I already stop for 5hours and still getting this. Niantic start hard banning the PTC accounts? i have around 200 of them running in this batch, not sure which account affected, maps still showing up pokemons for the first 10-15mins, then all gone.

Is it scanning toofast? How to set a delay?

[joeubi]

Is there any way to isolate which specific accounts are causing the error to more closely examine them? I have several accounts giving me the error. Not sure which ones though.

[Mickey32111]

@joeubi Experiencing the same, the longer I leave it running the more and more frequent the error gets, and the slower the scan gets.

Seen a lot of posts of Reddit and that about other people running mappers getting bombarded with Status 3 too, so it's not just isolated to pogom.

Its seeming more and more likely that these error is thrown when an account gets banned.

[geekabit]

im getting same errors with most recet pogom version. when im running previous (~10days old) im getting all successful logins logs - so it doenst seem to be a ban thing. but with same older version i keep getting "map dowload failed" errors.

[nborrmann]

I just pushed a hotfix that will print the account name and a warning. In the future this should also remove the account from the rotation.

[Mickey32111]

Lost a total of exactly 10 accounts of my 60. What changes can be made to make it harder for Niantic to detect our accounts and ban them?

[dikkedeur]

i updated the source, did a test and saw the accounts are propably banned. logged in on a ipad with it..

failed to get game data from the server.

so indeed they are banned

[Mickey32111]

Just lost another 4 accounts 😢 How can we hide from the ban hammer?

[Mickey32111]

https://github.com/Kitryn/PTCAccount2 This is the best replacement I find for Pikapy. Works really well! Just set each account up with throw away email.

[nborrmann]

60 accounts not having them stockpiled because this would inevitably happen

[Mickey32111]

@nborrmann I didn't really think about that... You're a smart man.

[Vigokeb]

Im having a similar problem, no pokemons on my scanner (5 workers) since yesterday, only "Received valid response but with out any data. Possibly rate-limited?" error on console

But, the accounts are not banned, using the android app Pokealert with the same 5 accounts work just fine. Also I can log on them and see/capture pokemons

[Vigokeb]

ok i know what was MY problem, yesterday in "chile" we have the daylight saving time clock change, somehow that fucked up the map. i rolled back the time change and everything is working fine.

PD: Moving the time foward again, make pokemons stop appearing on the map

PD2: the error "Received valid response but with out any data. Possibly rate-limited?" was long gone before the time change fix, the scanner was working normally (on console) but pokemons didnt appear

[4mp3d]

Not sure if this helps. I was having the exact same issue. I logged into both the accounts I was using for Pogom on my app and ran through the tutorial. Once done I relaunched the script and so far now issues.

[Mickey32111]

This is getting worse and worse, started at getting a couple account bans each day. Now I'm getting an IP softban and mass amounts of account bans every couple of hours.

[dawie180]

oh dear, same here.

[Vigokeb]

update from me, 2/5 accounts banned so far, small area, no jumps =(

[sansig]

I tried logging in on the accounts being used, and on two of them it took me to the "We are humbled by..." server overload page. Closed and reopened, and this time it gets to the loading screen and says "Failed to retreive data from server" with a "Retry" button. Took those two accounts out of the loop and everything is fine again. I'll keep an eye on it to try and pick up exactly when the errors come back.

[Mickey32111]

the two accounts you logged in with are banned @zambartas

[eugenio412]

The ban are becoming aggressive guys, we need something new

[EternisRequiem]

So, I loaded up from my phone the app on the wifi that my computer was using to scan (with different accounts). No pokemon would show up if I was connected to Wifi, but the moment I disconnected to wifi, everything would show up again.

I'm assuming that means they have banned IP addresses then? Is there an easy way to set things up through a VPN or something to reset this?

[Mickey32111]

@EternisRequiem Refrain from making any connection to the pogo servers with your IP for one hour. You'll be back online after than

[johnnylawrwb]

Probably a dumb question, but is there any way to remove the accounts without launching the server? I had my map running at home, closed it due to these errors, found the banned accounts at work and want to get rid of them before re-launching as to not raise any flags.

[sansig]

Look in the config.json file, you'll see your accounts listed there.

On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 1:23 PM, johnnylawrwb notifications@github.com wrote:

Probably a dumb question, but is there any way to remove the accounts without launching the server? I had my map running at home, closed it due to these errors, found the banned accounts at work and want to get rid of them before re-launching as to not raise any flags.

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/favll/pogom/issues/283#issuecomment-240174217, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AOdTbPmFqTkxqyfjKnnmTrGQHmtv7jTTks5qgfIsgaJpZM4JjwHW .

-Michael Sansig

[iMagooo]

@nborrmann I think this should be upgraded to a bug. I get an infinite loop if the number of accounts banned >= number of threads, similar to the previous infinite loop involving the access token.

[dawie180]

It def seems like IP throttling aswel. What is working for me so far is switching accounts (not using same accounts for longer than 5 hours) and rebooting my router before switching accounts to change my public IP. With 6 accounts it was taking 1hr to do a scan, rebooted router and it went down to 10 mins.

[nborrmann]

@iMagooo Oh, I hadn't thought of that

[Dab-Nation]

I tried rotating the account, didnt work. I tried to log in to one account to make sure it was working but it said i had to activate my ptc account via the email i gave.

Now, i dont want to create a load of emails to sign in and out just to activate my accounts as i have forgot majoirty of the email addresses. Is there a way around this?? If so, could you point me to the link, or issue thread if there already is one to help explain it better. Thanks.

[dawie180]

You can use a disposable email service to create andd activate accounts... i cant remember the one im using at home, which works, but yopmail does not. If an account is banned, its banned, create new accounts and rotate. Iv created new accounts and no bams so far.

[djv2]

i am getting this error now - Status code 3 returned. Performing get_player request.

just to confirm, this means ban? anything else?

[antjpcdrogas]

Getting the same error here, but still scanning... 1 account only.

[Krooked733]

Scanning with 70 Accounts and IP Change every 3 hours : 3-10 accounts banned each day. The banned accounts still try to connect -this causes an ip ban after a few hours and a low scan-rate to the others

[dawie180]

@Krooked733 did u do any location change in that time? What iv noticed is that a drastic location change without a break seems to flag bans... i by accident forgot to disable the schedule task i created for the server to start at every boot so my server was running for hours without any bans (entire 8am-5pm). I do a IP reset once or twice a day. Yesterday i changed location without a break and immediately got a ban on one of my accounts.

[SM411]

I started getting bans today. Have been running 25 accounts for 12-16 hours a day. A feature which removed and added these accounts to a banned list would have been nice.

[PhDeez]

Hey guys, I was concerned with this so I made a little script to kill pogom and email me when it happens.

I start the server like this:

nohup python runserver.py -H 0.0.0.0 -P 6000 >> ./log.txt &

and the script (which I've called monitor.sh) looks like this: (obviously replace email address with your own)

#!/bin/bash
tail -fn0 log.txt | \
while read line ; do
        echo "$line" | grep "banned"
        if [ $? = 0 ]
        then
                echo "Killed Pogom and monitor.sh since I found the following line in the pogom log: $line" | mail -s "Server Notice: Pogom Account Suspended" <email address>
                sleep 10
                kill -TERM -$(pgrep -o monitor.sh)
                kill -TERM -$(pgrep -o python)
        fi
done

I start the above script (called monitor.sh) like this:

nohup monitor.sh &

Finally, I installed mailutils and then ssmtp and set it up to send via gmail, which is working fine after I set gmail to accept login via "less secure apps". I am using a secondary account for this action.