If some of you have been following the threads for this error on Nexon forums, someone posted a temporary fix for the character lockdown. It may sound dubious, but it actually worked for me. It could be worth it giving this a try. Quoting Asylum from Nexon forums (sorry, I'm still new here so I don't know how to quote properly from other sources):
"Guys I think I found a temp fix for the character lockout. Switch your window mode and change resolution to anything other than 800x600. After typing your pic, immediately click and hold the maple window, this will freeze maplestory until you release it. Then let go of it until the screen turns black and hold on to maple again for a few seconds (10 or more to be sure), but be quick or else maple will close and leave you with an error. After holding for a few seconds, the window will switch resolution, if it doesn't try releasing the window until the resolution changes. Then wait until you can access your character. If this doesn't work, I suppose maplestory randomly decided to let me on my character, but don't dismiss this after one try. Try to add variations and don't give up until after your umpteenth failed attempt. I think rapidly spamming alt+enter may also work as a last resort.
Other than this, you can try unlinking your farm, link skills, and character cards if you haven't tried already."
I'm just going to copy and paste here what I posted on Nexon forums.
"I had my doubts about this at first, but surprisingly this method actually worked for me today. It did take me several tries to get it to work, but eventually I was able to log in. Sometimes I would crash with an error when holding on to the maple window to freeze it and there were times when I got the message "Cannot connect to server." I don't know how or why this works, but like Asylum said, don't give up after one try. Keep trying until you just can't take it anymore. After logging in, I immediately threw out my expired ice cubes/santa boxes and thoroughly cleaned out my inventories. Now, I am able to log in normally without any problems. I can even enter cash shop without crashing. It's amazing how you were able to find a way around this so kudos to you. I hope this fix helps others, as it did for me. Good luck to all of you. I guess we all have to keep an eye on our inventories from now on until Nexon permanently finds a fix for this error."
Please let me know whether you are able to successfully log in using this method. I took an item count of my inventories just now (equip, use, etc, setup, cash) and it came out to a total of 229 "slots" occupied.
*Looks like I still can't enter monster life.
"Guys I think I found a temp fix for the character lockout. Switch your window mode and change resolution to anything other than 800x600. After typing your pic, immediately click and hold the maple window, this will freeze maplestory until you release it. Then let go of it until the screen turns black and hold on to maple again for a few seconds (10 or more to be sure), but be quick or else maple will close and leave you with an error. After holding for a few seconds, the window will switch resolution, if it doesn't try releasing the window until the resolution changes. Then wait until you can access your character. If this doesn't work, I suppose maplestory randomly decided to let me on my character, but don't dismiss this after one try. Try to add variations and don't give up until after your umpteenth failed attempt. I think rapidly spamming alt+enter may also work as a last resort.
Other than this, you can try unlinking your farm, link skills, and character cards if you haven't tried already."
I'm just going to copy and paste here what I posted on Nexon forums.
"I had my doubts about this at first, but surprisingly this method actually worked for me today. It did take me several tries to get it to work, but eventually I was able to log in. Sometimes I would crash with an error when holding on to the maple window to freeze it and there were times when I got the message "Cannot connect to server." I don't know how or why this works, but like Asylum said, don't give up after one try. Keep trying until you just can't take it anymore. After logging in, I immediately threw out my expired ice cubes/santa boxes and thoroughly cleaned out my inventories. Now, I am able to log in normally without any problems. I can even enter cash shop without crashing. It's amazing how you were able to find a way around this so kudos to you. I hope this fix helps others, as it did for me. Good luck to all of you. I guess we all have to keep an eye on our inventories from now on until Nexon permanently finds a fix for this error."
Please let me know whether you are able to successfully log in using this method. I took an item count of my inventories just now (equip, use, etc, setup, cash) and it came out to a total of 229 "slots" occupied.
*Looks like I still can't enter monster life.