Repair Kik login problems with BlueStacks

Kik Messenger is undoubtedly a useful way to keep in touch with people, but Kik login problems can leave you feeling stranded, with no clear instructions on how to repair your installation or your account access.

The instructions from Kik themselves simply say to uninstall and reinstall the app, and if that doesn't work they blame your internet connection for being too slow, even if everything else is working fine.

My own experience of Kik login problems began last week when I received a 'hello' message from an unfamiliar account.

I don't know if that's directly to blame, or if it was just a coincidence, but I immediately stopped being able to receive messages, and in particular:

• I could send messages, but Kik Messenger didn't tell me they had been received.
• I could receive push notifications on my lock screen, but the message didn't show in the app itself.

The first thing I tried was to log out and back in - which, on Kik, is basically the same as resetting your account.

And that's where it all went spectacularly wrong; I couldn't log back in, because Kik said it was 'taking too long to download my contacts list' and I couldn't register a new account because, again, 'Oops. This is taking longer than usual.'

Finding a way to fix Kik Messenger took me about four days of fairly continual effort, but I managed to recover my Kik account in the end - it's not an entirely easy process, but if all else fails it might be worth a try.

BlueStacks App Player

My theory was that if I could just log into my account on a different device, I could tweak the settings, change my password and find a way back in on my phone too.

With no desktop version of Kik Messenger though (and I'm not one of those people who has three different smartphones lying around), I needed an alternative way to log in.

BlueStacks App Player is an Android emulator that effectively gives you a virtual Android tablet, which runs in a window on your PC or laptop.

Best of all, you can get Kik Messenger running in this window, allowing you to troubleshoot your account properly.

Installation

Download the BlueStacks App Player installation program, run it and follow the instructions.

You will be offered tick boxes to allow the program to connect to the App Store and so on - I'd suggest leaving these ticked, as you're going to need to install the Kik Messenger app once BlueStacks is up and running.

I found the installer to be a little buggy, so if it hangs at any point just close it and restart it - if you've tried everything else to fix Kik already, it's probably worth sticking with this method in spite of the potential hiccups.

Installing Kik

Once BlueStacks is running, it should be very easy to add Kik Messenger to your list of apps - just click on the Search button and search for Kik as you would on a smartphone or tablet.

Run the app and log in using your normal username or email address and your Kik password - hopefully it will work.

When you're into your account (assuming it works) check for any suspicious-looking recent messages. I deleted the conversation from the unfamiliar contact, and it fixed my entire account.

I don't know if it was a virus or anything like that, but it snarled up my account good and proper, and simply deleting it on the BlueStacks emulated version of Kik Messenger instantly fixed everything.

As soon as you have your account working on BlueStacks, and have deleted the most recent messages you received just before your account froze, go back to your smartphone and try logging in again - hopefully everything will be fixed.

Still Having Problems?

If you can't log in to your Kik account even on BlueStacks, consider resetting your password, in case your account has been hacked.

Visit the Kik reset password page (make sure you are on Kik.com and haven't been redirected to a spoof or hacker page before typing in your password).

If your account has been hacked and your email address changed, you may not be able to reset your password, but you should be able to register a new account and re-add all of your old contacts.

Once you manage to log in, Kik Messenger should restore all of your contacts, so it should be easy to start messaging people once again.

Just be aware, at present when you log into your Kik account on a different device, you lose your conversation history - but that's got to be better than being locked out of your account entirely.

'Job for copywriter'

This morning I received an offer of work, which came in an email with the subject line 'Job for copywriter' and in the To field, 'undisclosed recipients', which probably means it was sent out en masse.

Here's the email in full:

Hello,

I found the post you placed in Internet that said you were looking for a writing job. As it just so happens, we’re badly in need of people with writing skills at the moment.

We’ve got a lot of projects at the moment and are planning more for the future. The main ones are in the areas of gambling, web hosting, Forex, and women’s issues (from pregnancy and birth to fashion and interior design).

The maximum rates are slightly different for each topic, and whether or not we offer them depends on the quality of the work that's submitted. Once you write a couple of test articles (which you will get money for, of course) we can agree on exactly what the price will be. The rates based on the slightly unusual system of pricing per 1000 characters, but each word is approximately 5 characters, so it's pretty easy to do the math, it just takes some getting used to. The prices are:

Gambling - $2.50/1000 characters (approximately $1/100 words)
Hosting - $4/1000 characters (approximately $1.60/100 words)
Forex - $5/1000 characters (approximately $2/100 words)
Women's issues - $3/1000 characters (approximately $1.20/100 words)

We pay out twice a month for all work that passes our system of screening. We have a team of in-house editors who know quite a bit about each of these topics, so we don’t pass articles that are obviously the product of half-reading a single Wikipedia page.

You can earn as much or as little as you want, since our projected volume is pretty high (about 400 articles a week). Additionally, you can build yourself a really solid portfolio in any of these topics, since our standards are quite high. However, if you need any help we’re always ready to give it to you. A lot of our previous writers have gone on to land much higher-paying gigs on the strength of what they wrote for us.

So, if you’re interested in the offer, please e-mail me back. I’m sure we can have a mutually productive and beneficial working arrangement.

Thanks for your time,
<Name Redacted>
Senior Editor, <Company Name Redacted>

I'm not really sure what I make of it. My first instinct was that the rates are an insult - from $10 to $20 per 1,000 words - but actually they're not so far from what I worked for when I first started freelancing.

I guess the alarm bells ring because of the need for proper research - I'm not averse to 'spinning' a Wikipedia page if the budget is tight and there's a decent page about the relevant topic, but I'm less willing to haggle when in-depth research is needed and the copy has to pass quality control before payment is approved.

That's not to say that I don't aim for good-quality copy, just that I tend not to agree to terms that give the client carte blanche to refuse to pay on any perceived problems with what I produce, whether I agree with them or not.

Anyway, if you happen to find this post and you are interested in writing for these people, let me know, and I'm sure I can put you in touch with them.