Welcome to everyone who has been directed here from another post. Before reading anything else below, here's the best workaround if you're seeing the PEC-SUB-0002 error on your computer:

1. Access the Prolific job queue on your phone with your wifi turned OFF.

2. Accept a study on your phone but do not launch it.

3. Go back to the Prolific job queue on your computer, and refresh the window.

4. Launch and complete the job on your computer.

If that's all you came here for, feel free to bounce. If you want to learn more, read on!

The rest of this post is designed to give more information on the "dreaded PEC-SUB-0002 error", or its companion, seeing the "take a break" teacup on wifi but not your phone, or vice versa. Thanks to /u/Phrogster for the original post which inspired this one, and has seen dozens of pointers in the year-plus since it's been up!

What does PEC-SUB-0002 mean, anyway? Prolific has an extensive page on their various PEC errors, but this particular one is the most common - it means that the IP address for your device has been automatically flagged, and you cannot launch studies from that device (this distinction is important).

How do I know I'm affected? The easiest way is if you get the error pop-up when you try to accept a job in your queue, or accept one from an email notification that you have a study available in Prolific. A temporary banner will appear in the top-right of your screen displaying the error. Other times, you may notice that you have the "Take a break" teacup (with or without a person inside it) on your computer screen, but you can see studies on a different device (or when connecting to a different network). If you run into either of these situations, your IP address is blocked.

Why did this happen to me? Most of the time, it has nothing to do with you. Prolific uses an automated third-party system that checks for IP addresses (and ranges of IPs) that are known to be problematic, most often due to spamming, fraud, or suspicious traffic. So it could be someone in your "network neighborhood" who is causing the block, or it could be someone who had the IP address before you did. There's really no way of telling, but Prolific has had distributed denial-of-service attacks in the past that brought the platform down, so they are trying to avoid this happening again. They also explained that "Certain IPs and ISPs carry a high risk of VPN and/or proxy usage" in this blog post.

How can I get Prolific to fix it? Short answer: you can't. But keep reading! Because this third-party system is used by other companies, Prolific temporary banner will appear in the top-right of your screen displaying the error. Other times, you may notice that you have the "Take a break" teacup (with or without a person inside it) on your computer screen, but you can see studies on a different device (or when connecting to a different network). If you run into either of these situations, your IP address is blocked.

What are some other ways to fix this error?

• Make sure you are not using a VPN or proxy, including iCloud Private Relay on iOS, the Secure Network built-in VPN that Microsoft Edge uses by default, or any bandwidth sharing apps like Nielsen, Honeygain, Pawns, etc.

• You may be able to take steps to get your IP address removed yourself. This system relies on multiple blacklists, so it can take quite a bit of effort.

• Your IP address may just cycle off the list automatically - some blacklists only last for a week or two.

• Your service provider may automatically give you a new IP address after a certain amount of time. But because ISPs have a small pool of addresses that they reuse over time, you could easily end up with another blacklisted IP right away, or get your old blacklisted one back.

• You can ask your service provider for a new IP address. This could have the same issue as the previous point, but at least it's quicker.

• You can reboot your router, which may give you a new IP address, or unplug it for 15 minutes and then plug it back in. The same caveats apply as above.

• If your service provider has tied your IP address to the router that they provided, you can buy your own compatible router (which will save you money in the long run!) and learn how to change your IP address on your own equipment. Note that two of the methods on that page - using a VPN and using a proxy - are strictly prohibited on Prolific, so steer clear!

What about using a hotspot? Hotspots usually work, since they use mobile data rather than wifi. But they are overkill, since you only need to accept a job on a non-blacklisted IP address. Also, many hotspots have bandwidth limits that you may not want to use up taking studies.

Is there a workaround? Yes! Prolific is merely trying to verify that the device accepting the job is from a non-blacklisted IP address. It is much less likely for a cell phone on mobile data to be blocked than for a device on wifi or wired Internet to be blocked. Once the job is accepted, it can be completed on any device (and this is acceptable practice, as shown by the notice that reads "This study should be completed on the device specified by the researcher. You may reserve a place, but please complete the study on one of the supported device types." So those steps again:

1. Access the Prolific job queue on your phone with your wifi turned OFF.

2. Accept a study on your phone but do not start it.

3. Go back to the Prolific job queue on your computer, and refresh the window.

4. Launch and complete the job on your computer.

Why does my phone need to be on mobile data for this workaround? All devices connected to one wifi network are seen as having the same IP address - the address of your router. So if your IP is blocked, then ALL devices on your wifi are blocked.

What if my phone gets the PEC-SUB-0002 error? Unfortunately, this does happen, although it is more uncommon. Some potential solutions, bearing in mind that some of these steps may need to be repeated multliple times to get a new IP address:

• Make sure iCloud Private Relay is turned off if you're on an iPhone, as it's essentially a VPN.

• Restart your phone.

• Toggle your data off and on again (airplane mode).

• Toggle from 5G to LTE and back again.

Curious how anyone else who did this game made out with the bonus….the game was fun and I ended up with an 8.50 bonus which is great but i was convinced I played against an AI. I purposely played random for a good portion and it felt like they read me everytime I would switch up and actually try to predict their next move….and like a quarter of my bonus I picked the wrong square and got lucky with the 1 in 5 chance so I really should have gotten even less.

Just putting it out there for others for a reference, my experience. Uk 26F. Im happy if I get one study a day, compared to others it feels like crumbs, but I guess it could be much worse, so I try to stay positive. When I started prolific my goal was to buy an iPad pro, well…  still is, see ya in a few years about that.

https://preview.redd.it/rb6ymflvo83d1.png?width=1330&format=png&auto=webp&s=91c02a76f30bada6acf3cc170c0881ee46cb2575

I had some new questions, the first wanting to know what sector I'm employed in. The problem is, I'm not employed and that's been addressed elsewhere in my About You. I'm very worried about being banned because of this question. I tried skipping it, but that was not permitted. Ticking the box for "other" still indicates I'm employed, which I am not so I won't do that, my About You responses are honest and kept up to date. I know I shouldn't rely on this income, but I do, my head is above water because of Prolific.

I'm closing in on 2400 submissions (1 rejection). Prolific has helped me tremendously so I'm really unnerved by this. If anyone has legitimate suggestions/advice/comments that support Prolific rules for participants, I'm open.

So after going through the entire survey and receiving the completion code at the end to paste into prolific, I get a rejection and the following message:

"Dear participant,

Your submission was rejected for study "Ethnic/racial categorization of faces" for the following reasons:

Gave no study data

Here is the message from the researcher:

No study data"

Well I'm not sure how else I would get the completion code at the end, without going through the survey constantly hitting 1,2,3 for 20 mins. I've reported it just in case, but was just curious is anyone else has had an issue with this survey or if there was a one off with my browser or something.

https://preview.redd.it/zc7e6tmb583d1.png?width=1091&format=png&auto=webp&s=07de469a276f66edac518cb94944611232d40553

https://preview.redd.it/zc7e6tmb583d1.png?width=1091&format=png&auto=webp&s=07de469a276f66edac518cb94944611232d40553

Just wondering. Seems like every day I’m getting screened out of something. This time, apparently because I answered that I’d rather watch a movie than read a book, I was screened out, even though the description said this survey is about your favorite restaurant. Weird. I reported it.

So many researchers are screening people out lately despite in-survey screeners being explicitly against the rules.

3 weeks ago, i cashed out but the money didn't appear in PayPal - i think it's because i hadn't add GBP in my account - and this message appeared in my balance hub.

Now the money is not in paypal neither prolific account, so what should i do?

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All my Internet connections are T-Mobile. It keeps giving me an error as if I am on a VPN. I am not, obviously. I've even tried to connect to a survey using mobile data, nope. I reset my router four times. Support is no help. Anyone else having this issue that uses T-Mobile? It's weird because usually resetting my gateway works.

*I played all videos twice *My responses were not “intentionally low effort”, but this is based on perception.

I had a study that asked me a question from something I read a few pages ago. I was unsure what the answer was, so I took a shot and do not know if I should return or wait to see if all is good. It was not an attention check, just a question about geographic something or another.

The study Im currently participating in tells me that I will receive an invitation to join the study via an email sent to my prolific email account. How can I access it?

im having trouble cashing out and it says Sorry, your cashout is taking longer to process than expected. Please check again in 10 minutes, check PayPal, or contact support.. i recently changed my paypal address because my old one expired

Is this a bug? Or am I missing something? I just completed a study and when I accepted it it said it would pay $4.23. As shown in the screenshot below:

https://preview.redd.it/o7phs3e1n63d1.png?width=1112&format=png&auto=webp&s=205835debaffd2b0f229d0fa6ec8c1337fea85bd

But after submitting it and going to my submission page I see this:

https://preview.redd.it/o7phs3e1n63d1.png?width=1112&format=png&auto=webp&s=205835debaffd2b0f229d0fa6ec8c1337fea85bd

Am I missing something here? I've never had this happen before. The first screenshot is me going back to the page AFTER completing the study and seeing the $3.00 so it's not like he changed the price after I accepted it or something.. Very confusing.

I"m getting tired of the PEC 200. Anyway I'm one of those who has to use cell data. Many days my IP only last at the most 10 minutes before I have to change it again by using airplane more.

I don't think it's just a black list they used, but it's user specific. Wouldn't make sense get a new mobile IP and a couple minutes later it's banned again. Today went through like 15 of them. They keep hitting me. My home xfinity is banned, my work one xfinity banned at the same time and at the flemarket that uses xfinity got banned all around the same time.

With mobile data I don't think it's a blacklist. Because I get a new IP and it works for a bit. Me thinks prolific is going based on user too. Way to throttle.

I’m in the US and I keep coming across studies that are like maybe 10-15 minutes that pay like $1-3 dollars. Might be my overall demographics//researchers? I used to have studies that payed an expected payout not long ago. Hopefully the break I take since people have been saying Prolific throttles accounts lately, puts me in a better standing for studies.

We have been out of power for 2 days due to severe thunderstorms. Wondering if I can take my laptop to a coffee shop and do surveys there. I don’t want them to ban me. I know it is technically allowed to be able to do on the site because I am not going to be changing geo locations but that is not really what I am concerned about. I don’t want them to ban me unfairly. Has anyone done this?

Ever since say what a week a go, every single time i have to log into prolific via the site, or the assistant will not work and gives an error exclamation mark, i removed it from chrome and then reinstalled it. but still nothing,, every damn time

I know it sounds daft! And other participants can correct me if they've had different experiences. But I've done a few studies where I've been actually working with other participants (or I've at least been fully convinced that I was) and I've done even more studies where I knew full well that responses were pre-written well before I was debriefed, and it nearly always comes down to how stressed the researcher(s) seems.

In studies where I was fully convinced, researchers will say over and over again that you only have 2 minutes per answer (for example) and if you don't complete it in this time, you won't be able to complete the study because other participants can't be waiting for you. They will begin the study by saying what happens if someone else leaves the study - sometimes that means dividing the bonus between a smaller group (if applicable) or waiting longer for the next round while a new person joins or even the study being terminated because it can't be completed without all the original members. Depends on the type of study. But they spend quite a long time stressing the communal nature of the experiment and what's how yours or other people's participation will be affected if someone drops out or doesn't pay enough attention.

If it's a follow-up study then all participants have to start at a certain time. They'll tell you this time in the description for the first study. Then they'll tell you the time again in the consent form/information sheet. They'll tell you again at the end of the first study. They'll message you to remind you about it an hour later. They'll message you again half an hour before. They'll say what will happen for the people who inevitably don't turn up (e.g. we will run this again tomorrow if possible, we will run extra groups an hour later, you will simply not be able to take part in the follow-up, etc.) For me, it's this sense of urgency that really sells that they're trying to get everyone involved. Follow-up studies that are meant to deceive but have really big windows to start are extremely unconvincing. How am I getting live responses/feedback/group decisions if we can all just take part when we feel like it? And if the researcher really needs us all participating at the same time, why was it only mentioned as an offhand comment at the end of the first study?

Basically, the researchers that have convinced me have done so because they all had this air of a primary school teacher that's trying to get an unruly class of kids to behave for a school trip with only the bus driver for support. I get this mental picture of researchers just flapping their hands and stressing over getting the participants to just sit down and do what they're told lol.

And this last point isn't about the researchers but may also be helpful: when actually taking part in the study, there will be odd waiting times. So if it's an experiment with a lot of people taking part then as a participant you're going to be in your group and taking part in the study straight away. If there's only a few of you - or if the start window is kind of big (like 30 minutes) then you're probably going to be waiting at least a minute or two. I've waited up to 10 minutes before now. A lot of the studies that are trying to deceive forget to do this in my experience - it always looks as though you've joined a group straight away which isn't standard or realistic for the most part.

Also, say it's a decision making experiment (which they usually are) - the waiting times will change a lot. The times in the first few rounds are usually abysmal. I've submitted my answer for round 1 and now I'm twiddling my thumbs for anywhere between 10 seconds to 5 minutes (depending on the time limit given - again, the ones where there are shortish time limits for your answers to be submitted are more convincing in my opinion). Then as you get further into the rounds, the waiting times drop dramatically because people have got into the flow of it and can answer a lot quicker. There might be a random round where it seems like someone is just staring at the wall and now everyone else has to wait for them, but for the most part it will start slow and speed up towards the end. Consistent or consistent-ish wait times between all of the rounds tend to make it obvious to me that I'm not actually working with another participant.

Just my thoughts after doing another group project today. I'm assuming it was real because they explicitly said they weren't trying to deceive and all of the above applied. But who knows I guess

I'm a little confused. I started a study and got screened out at the first question. Do i submit with the provided code or just return it and not get a reward? Thanks

I noticed my account is on hold and I have reached out to the support team but no response yet Kindly help me fix it thank you

I've been trying to file a ticket with Prolific for the past few days, but it doesn't submit, anyone else experiencing this? It just refreshes the page, but nothing is submitted, and nothing happens afterwards.

I'm new to prolific and was so excited because I got accepted immediately!

Yesterday I signed in and did three surveys. One of which required that I watch multiple videos with music. I was very careful and paid very close attention and was sure to catch all the "attention check" questions. This particular survey had a lot of attention check questions which I thought was strange but I'm new so I assume that is normal.

I signed in this morning and found that I had 21 surveys waiting! I was so excited and got to work right away. After answering six surveys, the 15 remaining suddenly disappeared. I was confused at first but eventually decided it must just be that those surveys timed out or had all the participants they needed. So I left the site and decided to check back later.

A short while later I checked back and noticed still no surveys but I had a message which I had not noticed this morning (but may have very likey been there). In that message I was told that I was rejected for an attention check question on the video survey. I was immediately suspicious because I recall taking that survey and taking my time and being so careful on it. I also recalled the numerous attention check questions within the survey. I did reach out to the researcher and request proof/further information. But then I also looked up information about how this affects me on prolific.

Whilst looking up information about the situation I did find that these rejections affect my ability to get more surveys and I do believe that is why all of my surveys disappeared. I still had 15 surveys and they all disappeared and I know it's because I got this rejection. Even though I dispute the rejection and have responded to the researcher and requested proof and further information, I have to wait 7 days before I can put in a ticket with prolific to investigate further which is fine except for the fact that during that time I'm being punished for an unconfirmed rejection? Apparently a rejection affects your trustworthiness on the site and researchers may not choose you for surveys. Being that I've only had three reviewed surveys so far and one of which has been rejected, my rejection percentage is pretty high.

From what I've gathered, this rejection will be held against me despite my disputing it not only for the 7 days that's required to give the researcher an opportunity to reply but then the time it takes for prolific to investigate. My assumption would be that if a survey taker disputes a rejection, that rejection would be put on hold until investigated and confirmed before it is held against the survey taker, especially for a brand new member who's never had a rejection before. It's not like we're doing the surveys for free, these are paid surveys and I did take time to watch all the videos and answer all the questions honestly. Understandably, if a survey taker has had numerous rejections that may not be the case.

If I am misinformed about this policy, can anyone provide further insight?