Facebook is locking some Oculus Quest 2 owners out of their headsets

By all accounts, the Oculus Quest 2 is a lovely bit of kit. Resident hardware buff Katharine reckons it's the best low-budget VR headset you can get your hands on in her Oculus Quest 2 review, with the caveat that you don't mind creating a Facebook account for it. Turns out, that last part may be more of a dealbreaker than first thought, with some new owners reporting that the social media monolith's overzealous account moderation is barring them entry to their shiny new headsets.

As reported by UploadVR, Quest owners who are signing up to Facebook for the very first time are finding issues with the site's account verification system. That system may ask for proof of photographic ID, requiring folks to send off documents and wait a couple of weeks for a Facebook employee to manually verify their identity.

That's no guarantee Facebook wont just suspend your account outright, mind. One Redditor explained that they were banned "within 10 minutes" of creating a new Facebook account and merging it with their 4-year-old Oculus account. Even after reportedly sending off their Driver's License, Facebook explained that they had already reviewed the decision and would not be reversing it, leaving the hopeful buyer with a "new white paperweight".

Buyers who are digging out their old, de-activated accounts to sign into Oculus have been reporting similar issues. It doesn't sound like there's much of an appeals process, either - once a review fails or an account is suspended, you're locked out of your shiny new headset for good. In an email statement to UploadVR, however, Facebook stress that this issue is only affecting "a very small number" of Oculus accounts.

"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."

Even so, it doesn't seem the decision to tie Oculus headsets to Facebook accounts is winning many people over. Even Kat noted that, while she did get the device working, the process involved a headache of merging Facebook and Oculus accounts, uninstalling and reinstalling the required Oculus phone app before it would detect the headset itself.

There are countless reasons why you might want to avoid signing up for Facebook. It's a real shame that not having one risks turning an extremely good entry-level headset into a £300 desk ornament.