My Substack account is broken.

I discovered the 5,000 subscription limit in December after inadvertently hitting it. I immediately unsubscribed from thousands of publications and am now at roughly 2,475. But I’m still blocked from subscribing to anyone.

I’ve tested this across multiple browsers, incognito mode, and while fully signed out entering my email manually. Every attempt returns: “Cannot subscribe to more than 5000 publications.”

Occasionally, a subscription will go through, but this is rare and inconsistent. The system still blocks nearly all attempts, so something is clearly not updating correctly on the back end.

I rely on Substack to build connections for my work, and I can’t reliably reciprocate subscriptions right now. This affects my ability to engage with and establish trust with other writers with whom I feel a kinship.

I’ve contacted support more than a dozen times over the past 3 months (including the chatbot and all listed support emails), and I haven’t received any response or resolution. I’m extremely frustrated that this is still unresolved despite my repeated attempts to contact support.

Substack , Substack Team , Hamish McKenzie - Who can fix this?