I'm not sure that anyone else here has had this problem, but I've decided to share just in case there are other members here who have been locked out of their Habitariums.
The following information that I will be posting is from http://www.neopets.com/~Nimmo. None of this is my own work, but I will post some highlights for those who don't want to read the entire page.
For those who don't know, there are three different types of lockouts.
Bag-Lockout - No longer common, with most lock-outs fixed. Caused by too many items in your bag (usually eggs),which froze your game.
Gem-Lockout - Caused by unknowingly refreshing, or a browser crash, with a board full of purple gems. You will only see a blank board and background with the little 'loading' circle continuously spinning. The workaround, which was offered to a few people, no longer works as TNT stopped supporting it. A few people had the gem-lockout at level 25 as well, but were let back in when the new levels were released. It seems this is the one that is currently being worked on the most in hopes that it's solution will be useful to help fix version 3.
Watch-it-die Lockout - The cause is not clear, but it seems that NC may be contributing to it. Your Habitarium will load, but without P3's or menus. You can still see XP being earned for as long as your P3's are alive, after which you can only watch the buildings fall apart.
The second solution is really only recommended for the third type of lockout, so if you have a Gem lockout try solutions one and three first.
The Merge Method Try this one first, if it does not work the other solutions can be attempted. You may be required to delete many and/or all of your items in your inventory bag.
Spoiler
Step 1 - First you need to open 2 tabs in one browser. (You can use any browser that allows tabs such as Firefox or Chrome.) Step 2 - Go to neopets.com on each tab, you should navigate to the login page on each tab by clicking on "Login to Neopets" at the top right of the page. Step 3 - In one tab, login to an alternate account and start up the Habitarium game. If the alternate account does not already have a Habitarium you must first go through the tutorial before touching the other tab.
IMPORTANT: If you are attempting this using a side once you have finished the tutorial do not continue to try level the side account's Habitarium up as that is against the rules! If a friend/family is helping then of course it is allowed to level it although not required in this guide. Step 4 - In the other tab, login to your Main and try to load Habitarium (it will not load yet - this is normal). Keep BOTH tab's open at all times. Step 5 - Now switch to the tab with the alternate Habitarium and open the inventory bag. If you have been successful with this method so far then you should see items from your main accounts bag. Now it's beginning to merge! Step 6 - Go through the bag and begin to delete items. Whilst doing this you can occassionally refresh the tab with your main account's Habitarium but do NOT refresh the tab with the alternate accounts Habitarium as this will mess the process up. Some people have only needed to delete a few items whereas others have had to delete everything. It's up to you how far you are willing to go!
Eventually the two games will merge, you will know this is happening as odd behavior can be observed. For example if you are a victim of the gem-lockout you might see gem's appear to pop up even though that account is not level 50, or you might see notices in the top left appear stating that your neofriends have repaired things for you. Another sign of merging is your main account's neofriend list appearing at the bottom of your alternate account's Habitarium.
Another option you can attempt which can boost the merge is to purchase an item from the shop on the alternate Habitarium, it is best to choose a cheap option such as a Cornmeal. Once you purchase this you may see the level of the alternate Habitarium change to level if it hasn't already and when checking your resource count they should be your main Habitarium's resources now rather than the alternates. REMEMBER to delete the item you buy after! As you are going through this, you can try to refresh the Main tab again to see if it loads. You should make a habit of refreshing the main tab's Habitarium on occassion.
Step 7 - Some people may find their Habitarium has unlocked already but this step is still provided as an extra action to take which could unlock your Habitarium if you have been unsuccessful up until now. So, once ALL items have been deleted: On the alternate Habitarium you should have a storage/building which was built during the tutorial (or if you are using a friends account for the alternate Habitarium then use one of their buildings!) Move the building around the alternate gameboard and continue to refresh your main Habitarium tab whilst doing this. Please bare in mind that this might not work the first time around, you may completely empty your bag and no signs of merging has occurred. In this case you should log out both tabs and try the process again, by doing this you might then notice that items appeared in your bag that were not there before so you should try to delete these and repeat the process a few times if necessary.
IMPORTANT NOTE : Do not attempt to delete any items including eggs by dragging them onto the board and clearing them (in attempts to gain XP). Not only will this NOT work, but it WILL mess up the process. You should only delete items by clicking on the little X that appears in the top right of each item when selecting it within the bag. It is entirely up to you to stop when you feel uncomfortable deleting any more items, in which case you'll have to wait for the general fix. So far Gem-Lockouts and Watch-it-die Lockouts have been corrected by this method, but it does not work for all cases.
The Patch for "Watch it Die" Lockouts
Spoiler
So far it seems this method only works with type 3 (the Watch-it-die Lockout) so I would not advise it for Gem Lockouts although if you can't get the merge method to work you might want to have a read through of this guide and experiment with trying various bits of it. There is a lot more involved with this method so I'd advise grabbing a cup of coffee and setting some time aside if you wish to attempt this.
You will need: An alternate Habitarium of a somewhat decent level (level 18 or higher) but please remember it is not allowed to have 2 active Habitarium's so this will only be possible if you have the assistance of a real life friend or family member that can be there to help you do this.You will also need to know what type of layout your Habitarium is as the alternate Habitarium must have the same layout! The alternate Habitarium should have some buildings already on the board before you begin but you should only need a few.
WARNING: The alternate account will not suffer any consequences however this method is NOT guaranteed to work and if it does work it is likely you will lose most of your buildings from the main Habitarium. This method was designed to deal with Watch-it-die lockouts which contained NC items so please be aware you are likely to lose some of them. Again, this method might not work as it does not work for everybody!
To give a general idea of Patricia's Patch method I will briefly explain. The Merge Method as seen above lets you access your main items bag through an alternate Habitarium by merging both of the Habitarium's together. As well as this other things begin to merge, including the board. In some cases this can cause all the buildings to be removed from their main however some people have reported that they have gotten to keep their buildings. By using Patricia's patch method you are taking advantage of the board merging. If you were able to find a suitable alternate (friend/family whom has a decent level Habitarium of the same layout as yours) then you can begin following the steps below:
Step 1 - First of all, go through the merge-method as seen above. Make sure on the alternate Habitarium's board that there are already buildings on the board before loading the main's Habitarium. Step 2 - Once you have loaded the main's Habitarium switch over to the alternate Habitarium tab and go to the shop and purchase a house. (This should technically end up being bought with the main Habitarium's resources as the alternate and main should be merged by now.) By purchasing a house it seems to cause the Habitariums to connect together/merge more. Step 3 - Open your bag on the alternate Habitarium which we know now is actually the main Habitarium's bag. Whilst in this view you can now move the buildings around which are already on the Habitarium board. First take the house which you had just bought from the bag and place it on top of a tile (on the alternate board) where a house from your main is/would be. If you check the main Habitarium (you may need to refresh the main) you might notice 2 houses are now on that tile. Initially the building will appear on both the main and the alternate's Habitarium however it will not show up on the alternate's board when logging out and back in as it was the main Habitarium which paid for it. Step 4 - Log out of both tabs and then log back in to both tabs to merge both Habitariums together again. The house which you had purchased should have disappeared from the alternate's board but should still remain on the main habitarium. Step 5 - We now want to try to make the alternate's building positions mirror the positions of the buildings on the main Habitarium (as close as you can - you do not have to match them all, and should only do a couple at a time.) So for example place 2 of the storages from the alternate Habitarium onto the same tile as 2 of the storages from the main Habitarium. Now drag both storages from the alternate board into the bag and wait a short while to see if they show up in the bag. If you notice the building show up refresh the main Habitarium and you should notice the building has disappeared from the main's board. You can then open the bag in the alternate's Habitarium and delete the building which appeared. Step 6 - Log out of both of the tabs and then log back in to both of the tabs to again merge them. There should be nothing missing from the alternate's Habitarium but the building which had disappeared on the main's board should still be missing. Step 7 - Repeat this process (doing around 2 buildings per attempt) and eventually your main Habitarium should load properly. Doing this might take some persistence as the mirroring technique for deleting a building might not always work. You should be able to check if it is working as with the Watch-it-die Lockout you can see the buildings and watch when they go into the bag (and off the board).When you finally load your main Habitarium everything you have taken off the board will be safe and sound in your inventory bag, however when your main does load it can sometimes discard the other buildings which are already on the main Habitarium's board (not the alternate's board) which means you might lose some of them although the ones in your bag should be okay. Also the owner of the alternate Habitarium does not need to worry about the condition of their Habitarium whilst attempting this fix. If you load the alternate Habitarium on its own it will appear as normal and only contain items that the alternate Habitarium originally had.
The "Miracle" Reset Fix WARNING: You WILL be reset to level 1. Do not attempt if you do not want to be reset.
Spoiler
IMPORTANT: Since everything from your board moves into your bag when you are successful with this fix, you MUST use the Merge-Method to clear some space for it first! Otherwise you risk getting yourself a Type #1 Overloaded Bag-Lockout, which we currently do not have a solution for. Attempting this fix will require either making a new side account or using an existing account and creating another Habitarium - Do not go through the Habitarium tutorial yet!
Step 1 - To begin we open two tabs on our web browser and go to neopets.com in each tab and then navigate to the login page on each tab by clicking on "Login to Neopets" at the top right of the page. Login to the side account on one tab and click to load the Habitarium (but do not start the tutorial!). Then log in to your main account on the other tab and load your locked out Habitarium. DO NOT refresh the side account tab at any point during attempting this fix! Step 2 - Go back to the side account tab and choose the Habitarium layout which matches your main accounts layout. Step 3 - Now follow the tutorial on the side accounts Habitarium up until the Professor asks you to move a P3. Step 4 - You might then notice on the side accounts Habitarium that it has loaded your Main Habitarium's board minus the buildings. So you may see either P3s, Gems or Decorations, however the buildings will be invisible. If this hasn't yet occurred it may happen during Step 5. Step 5 - Now that you have been instructed by the Professor to move a P3 around the board, attempt this by moving the P3 around and try to place the P3 into an invisible house and then remove it again. Step 6 - Refresh your MAIN's Habitarium now! If this method has worked for you it should load! You should then see the tutorial popping up on your Main Habitarium and your Level reset to 1.
I hope that by posting these solutions those of you who are locked out may have a chance at regaining access to your Habitarium.
I've been locked out for a while.. I've followed and tried the first two methods since I was on the boards when the Patricia patch was discovered, and I've tried the merge.. I'll try the last one now and see if it works
Update: I used the miracle reset!!! It worked like a DREAM!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS!!! I've been locked out for MONTHS, and now it'll only take me 10 days to get back to level 50. I'm so grateful to you!!!
This is a great guide which should be pinned in the guide section Im not locked out of Hab but this is definitely very informative to those who are. +rep for you (even if you didnt make the guide)
Damn, thanks for that. I was going around searching for solutions to unlocking my Habitarium. The merge method worked for me. Respect man, your info is spot on and awesome.
Damn, thanks for that. I was going around searching for solutions to unlocking my Habitarium. The merge method worked for me. Respect man, your info is spot on and awesome.
Like I said, the information wasn't all mine. I'm planning on going back through and clarifying it a little bit in a few parts though.
The bulk of the information came from a group working with many locked out players on the Habitarium boards. The fact that they were able to find these work-a-rounds is amazing, and I give them full credit for all their hard work. If only TNT could be as successful.
Well, you managed to collaborate the information and you posted it up here where i could see, so my thanks goes out to you primarily and to them if you could tell them that somewhere, someone managed to get his P3s back. Hahaha
I got gem locked out. I tried the merge method but gem didn't spawn so my main can't get out of locked out loop. However, miracle reset works.
Thank you for sharing.
