The problem
Out of nowhere, my Prolific account stopped receiving messages. A ban banner showed up on my profile, and study invitations dried up completely — no explanation, no clear trigger I could point to. Nothing about my account activity had changed.
What I tried
I came across a thread in r/ProlificAc where another user (credit to u/Sayzahr) mentioned that re-linking PayPal — through Prolific's own payment settings, not PayPal itself — had cleared up a similar issue for them. Worth a shot, since it cost nothing to try.
So I went into my Prolific account settings and re-linked my PayPal. I didn't change anything on the PayPal side that I could see — same account, same details, just re-connected through Prolific.
The result
The ban banner disappeared from my profile shortly after. Messages started coming through again. Not long after that, my first new study invitation since the account had gone quiet landed in my inbox.
I posted the fix to r/ProlificAc so other people running into the same wall wouldn't have to dig for it. It ended up as the #6 post on the subreddit that day, with 6.9K views and 42 upvotes — clearly a lot of other people were hitting the same issue.
Takeaway
If your Prolific account goes quiet with a ban banner and no clear cause, a PayPal re-link is a low-risk thing to try before assuming the worst. Platform account health can hinge on small connection issues that have nothing to do with your actual work quality — it's worth ruling those out first.