Tinder Shadowban: The Ultimate Guide to Knowing If You’re Affected and How to Fix It
A shadowban is exactly what it sounds like: you’re banned from their app, and you’re left in the dark because you don’t know you’re banned and don’t know why you’re banned.
Apps and sites, including Tinder, will not notify you if you’re shadowbanned.
Being shadowbanned on Tinder doesn’t mean that you won’t ever be able to use Tinder anymore. You will most likely be able to continue using Tinder as you have been.
The issue is that it only appears normal to you. Your Tinder profile may not be visible to others, and you won’t be able to utilize the features on Tinder. That means no matches, no likes, no messages – nothing.
Apps and sites do Shadowbanning as a penalty to a user profile.
Your profile or action may have conflicted with Tinder’s terms of service and guidelines.
They shadowban people to protect the community.
But why won’t they notify the user that they’re banned?
This is so that actually bad users (trolls, scammers, etc.) can’t do anything about it and won’t think of creating a new account.
Difference Between The Ban And The Shadowban On Tinder?
The main difference is that if you’re banned, you can’t access your account at all, while if you’re shadowbanned, you can still access your account. The shadowban is similar to the ban, except that instead of being permanently removed, you’re just limited (without your knowledge).
Banned users are notified of their banishment. Shadowbanned users receive no information about their shadowban.
How To Tell If You’re Shadowbanned?
Tinder doesn’t have an official checklist on how we can tell if a user is shadowbanned because the main purpose of shadowbanning instead of banning is so that the user is unaware of the ban.
But here are some of the obvious signs that you’re shadowbanned.
Fewer Matches
If your account used to have tons of matches per day, and now you get close to none – that’s a major warning symptom of a shadowban.
If you can’t get a match no matter how you update your profile and no matter how active you are, that’s an obvious sign that you’ve been shadowbanned.
Shadowbanned users are hidden from other users, so it’s natural that you won’t get matches.
Limited Responses
If you’re not getting any or getting limited responses to your messages, there’s also a possibility that you’re shadowbanned. They may not be seeing your messages because of the shadowban.
It’s not just messages. If you feel or know for a fact that the number of likes on your profiles is stagnating, that also may be because no one is seeing them, meaning you’re shadowbanned.
Received Several Warnings
If your account has received several warnings, recent or not, then that’s your explanation and reason for your shadowban. If you feel like you’re shadowbanned and you have received several warnings already, just assume that you are indeed shadowbanned.
Possible Reasons For Shadowbanning
Basically, aside from violating the Tinder community guidelines, spamming other users or doing anything that can trigger spam alerts, as well as getting multiple reports from other users, can get you banned or shadowbanned.
Here are the no-nos according to Tinder Community Guidelines:
- Nudity/Sexual Content
- Harassment
- Violence and Physical Harm
- Hate Speech
- Private Information
- Spam
- Promotion or Solicitation
- Prostitution and Trafficking
- Scamming
- Impersonation
- Minors
Actions that include any of these will lead to warnings to users and ultimately banning and shadowbanning.
To be more specific, actions such as those below are possible reasons to get your account banned or shadowbanned:
- Getting reported repeatedly by other users
- Using Tinder to do illegal activities
- Sending the same message or copy-pasted message to various users
- Using inappropriate language in chats
- Having a fake profile
- Impersonating anyone
- Creating multiple accounts or sharing accounts
- Sharing or promoting racist content
- Sharing inappropriate photos
- Sharing sexually explicit content
- Sharing content that encourages self-harm
- Sharing sensitive information about yourself or another user
- Engaging in hate speech
- Encouraging commercial sexual services
- Violating other people’s copyrights
- Using your account to promote brands or other services
- Participating in and promoting the harassment of another user
How Long Does A Tinder Shadowban Last?
Again, there is no official guide regarding this, but a shadowban on your account will probably last forever.
There is no official statement about it, so you won’t be able to appeal to lift the shadowban. You’re not even sure you’re shadowbanned in the first place.
But if it lasts forever on your account, how do you get out of a shadowban? Is it impossible?
Short answer, no. You can get out of a shadowban if you reset your account.
How To Reset Your Tinder Account
Delete your account
Go to the Tinder app. Go to the Tinder Account Settings, then App Settings, and click Delete Account.
Uninstall Tinder
Uninstall Tinder from your device. Tinder bans your device, too, so this is important.
Disconnect Tinder from Facebook
To disconnect your Tinder from your Facebook, log in to your Facebook account, go to Settings, and find Apps and Websites. From there, click on Tinder and choose Remove.
Get new everything
By everything, that means getting a fresh email address, sim number, Facebook account, Apple ID, IP address, and even bank information and device.
You must not use anything you used on your previous account because Tinder already knows those, and your new account will just get shadowbanned again because they’ll know it’s you.
Tips!
For your device, you can factory reset your phone on your phone settings if you don’t have access to another one.
For the sim to make new accounts, you can utilize virtual phone numbers, so you don’t have to buy a new sim.
For the IP address, reset your internet router to default or unplug it for at least a minute before turning it on again to get a new IP address.
New bank information is a bit extreme, but you only need it if you plan to get premium subscriptions with your new account.
Download Tinder with new credentials
Make sure the device, Apple ID/Google Play account, IP address, and everything you use can’t be traced back to your old Tinder account.
Open your new Tinder account.
Open Tinder as normal with your new credentials.
Make sure that you don’t use any previous emails, photos, social media, or info that you used on your shadowbanned account or else all your efforts to make another account will be wasted.
Done!
If you insist on using an old photo for your new profile because you believe it’s the perfect tinder photo, you can.
You just have to take a few more steps.
How To Use Old Photos For New Tinder Account
- Rename the picture file.
- Clean the EXIF data. You find tools online for cleaning EXIF data.
- Resize the picture.
Doing this should prevent Tinder from detecting your old photo and retracing it back to your old account.
Final Words
After following the resetting steps above, you should have a fresh Tinder account and this time, take good care of it.
Make sure to read the Tinder Community Guidelines and avoid doing anything, including spamming, to avoid getting banned or shadowbanned again.
Use Tinder responsibly!
