Tinder Shadowban: What Is It and How Can You Fix It

You swipe through pretty women's profiles like a madman but just don't get new likes and matches anymore. The ladies don't even reply to your messages anymore. It's like suddenly you're an invisible ghost on the dating app.

So you got a bad suspicion:

"Have I been shadowbanned on Tinder? If yes why? And how can I solve the problem so that my profile can be displayed to other users again?"

In this article, I will clarify all questions on the subject with you so that you can return from virtual exile as soon as possible.

So you will soon get matches with hot girls again - and you can make a romantic date clear while writing.

What is a Tinder shadowban?

A "shadow ban" on Tinder means that you will be banned from the dating app, making your profile (almost) no longer visible to other users.

The treacherous thing, however, is that this is a kind of "secret punishment" in the background that you as a user don't even notice at first.

Because with a shadow ban your Tinder account is NOT blocked. You still have access to all app functions and everything else looks normal. You can swipe, distribute likes and write your matches as usual.

The only change:

Your visibility is severely limited or even zero. This means that other members see little or no more of your profile when they swipe. So you are a "ghost" in the flirt app.

However, you will not be notified of this measure by Tinder. The banning of your profile runs quietly in the background.

That’s why you need to recognize a ban on Tinder yourself – based on certain suspicious signs, which I will now explain to you.

How can I tell if I'm shadowbanned on Tinder?

Is there a test for this? Actually, it is not that difficult to recognize that you have been banned on Tinder or that it is hardly displayed to other users.

The most important sign of a ban:

You haven't received any likes or matches for at least two weeks, although you've swiped profiles to the right for what felt like an eternity in swipe mode.

It's even more suspicious if you suddenly stop receiving likes, even though you haven't changed anything in your previously successful profile (i.e. your photos and description texts have remained the same).

According to some online dating experts, a shadowban on Tinder should also be recognized by the fact that all women suddenly no longer reply to messages because they are no longer delivered to them.

The fact that Tinder secretly bans not only your profile but also your messages is only an unconfirmed rumor.

How long does a Tinder shadow ban last?

The duration of the shadowban depends entirely on the reason why you were banned (see below!). I distinguish between three levels of “escalation”:

• You can fix minor problems within a few seconds or minutes to immediately return from virtual banishment. This is the case, for example, if you only need to refresh your profile or make corrections in the app settings.
• In other cases, it is more difficult to gain more visibility for your profile, for example, if the Tinder algorithm has downgraded you in the ranking. The gradual "comeback" can then take days or even several weeks.
• And if severely punished for gross misconduct, the Tinder shadowban may be permanent and irreparable, making a full account reset the last resort.

What should you do now to solve the problem?

Find out below the most common reasons for a ban - and take the best measures to remove the shadowban as quickly as possible. Then your banishment will not last long, at least in most cases.

Tinder Shadowban: 8 Common Causes and Solutions

As already mentioned, there are various reasons and risk factors for a Tinder ban.

The Tinder shadow ban is not always based on a serious punishment for misconduct, which is the precursor to a complete account ban. Sometimes it just has to do with the wrong app settings or an unattractive profile, which is why you are hardly or not at all displayed to other users.

1. You broke the Tinder Rules

By this, I mean gross violations of the Terms of Service or Community Guidelines. For example, have you used unauthorized images, distributed pornographic content or racially / sexistically insulted other users in the chat?

Or did you use an illegal third-party hacking tool to swindle you into certain paid extra features of the paid subscriptions?

In such cases, there is a chance that Tinder will punish you with a shadowban. Especially when other users report your profile to support.

You are then not blocked, but you will no longer be displayed to other users when swiping. Your messages in the chat may also no longer be delivered. In principle, the ban is equivalent to a blocking.

Why Tinder isn't blocking you properly? There are various theories about this:

• You're only guilty of a minor rule violation. Therefore, Tinder resorted to a milder punishment to lift the shadow ban again after some time.
• You have been reported for violating the rules and Tinder is still checking whether you will be permanently banned, i.e. with a proper blocking of your account.
• Tinder wants you to believe that everything is normal so that you don't even notice that you have been blocked. This is to prevent you from trying to create a new account through a reset.
• Since you are a "difficult user" from Tinder's point of view, your reach should be limited so that you come into less conflict with women.

It's best to review Tinder's Terms of Service and Community Guidelines and see if you may have violated any of these points. These can also be little things that you are not even aware of and were just stupid mistakes.

For minor offenses, you can try to let the grass grow over it and wait a few weeks for Tinder to automatically unshadow the ban.

Did you allow yourself a too-big blunder? Or the shadowban doesn't go away by itself? Then the last resort is to completely delete your Tinder account and do a reset.

2. You have unattractive images and text

Do you perhaps have a Tinder profile that is as unsexy as a toilet brush? Any quick selfies or photos with sunglasses? Unimaginative profile texts with boring descriptions of your hobbies and characteristics?

Immediately after registration, something like this might still work well because Tinder gives you “puppy protection” and initially pushes your profile as a newcomer.

But after some time, Tinder realizes that you distribute a lot of likes to women, but are hardly liked back by them because of your unattractive profile.

These negative user signals ensure that the Tinder algorithm continues to punish you and gradually restricts the visibility of your profile. This is a toxic downward spiral that will eventually amount to a shadowban in Tinder.

To counteract this, it is extremely important to improve your profile!

I've written many articles about what to do if you're not getting matches on Tinder. This includes first uploading highly attractive photos and writing a creative profile text that is attractive to women.

Tip: As soon as there is an upward trend, you can also use Tinder's paid "Boost" feature to get even more matches.

3. You have liked too many profiles and are considered a "bot"

Some men start a veritable swipe orgy and randomly swipe everything they see to the right. However, it is totally harmful to distribute masses of likes. There are two reasons for this:

First: The Tinder algorithm notices that you have a bad "mathematical" ratio between given and received likes. You give way more likes than you get. From this, Tinder concludes that you are "unpopular" with other users and penalizes you in the ranking. This then leads to reduced visibility.

Second: With mass liking, you run the risk of your profile being classified as spam or bot by the algorithm. For security reasons, you will then be given a Tinder shadow ban, because the members of the app are to be protected from potential scammers.

To rule out such problems, you will have to be more selective when swiping in the future and should only like 30% of the partner suggestions. Pick the prettiest raisins out of the cake!

4. You've done an account reset too many times

Some men go overboard with the reboot and create a new account on the dating app every few weeks. Tinder notices this, especially if you keep using the same hardware (mobile phone / W-LAN) and the same personal data (e-mail address, cell phone number, photos, etc.).

Since this constant re-registration is not desired, you may be punished as a "repeat offender" with a shadow ban on Tinder.

It's even more risky if you use two accounts at the same time because that's not allowed.

What is the solution? The best thing to do is to register completely from scratch - but please with different data or devices so that Tinder does not recognize you but thinks you are a new user.

You can find out exactly how this works below.

Otherwise, you shouldn't register constantly, but keep your feet still and solve problems like missing likes and matches with the other methods that I describe here in this article.

A real Tinder reset with deleting the account and registering again should only ever be the ultima ratio - the very last resort if you have ridden your Tinder account into the porridge.

5. You've been inactive on the dating app for too long

Of course, Tinder wants as few “dead files” as possible in its community so that the dating app doesn’t degenerate into a virtual “zombie graveyard”. Tinder's goal is always a maximum number of active users so that many matches and dates come about.

However, inactive members are not deleted but sorted out elegantly by restricting their visibility or even imposing a complete Tinder shadow ban on them.

• Were you hardly or not at all active on Tinder for weeks or even months?
• Did you (almost) not swipe at all, wrote almost no messages, or were you even logged out of the app?
• Your profile has already started cobwebs because you haven't posted any new photos and descriptive texts for months?

Then this lack of activity can be a cause for your shadowban.

The solution is obvious: you have to be online on Tinder every day, swipe to the like limit and chat with all your matches until your fingers hurt.

If Tinder registers your increased activity, this can be rewarded with your ban being lifted and you coming back into the "game". In any case, the chances are good!

6. You have the wrong search settings

Perhaps you have set a few inappropriate search criteria in the settings, which is shooting yourself in the foot.

By that, I mean mainly two errors:

• You are looking for women who are a few years too old or too young for you. So mature ladies or young chicks who, conversely, are hardly looking for a partner your age.
• You have set the search radius far too small so that you can already go through all the profiles in your immediate vicinity when you swipe. There is simply no more "replenishment" for you.

With incorrect search settings, you have effectively shadowed yourself in Tinder, because potential matches who are interested in you will not see your profile at all.

The solution is simple:

Define the search criteria in such a way that you get women of about the same age as partner suggestions (and they also see you and vice versa). In my experience, a maximum of plus / minus 5 years is ideal, based on your age.

Extend the search radius by a few kilometers. Especially in the sparsely populated country or in small towns, you have to expand the radius so much that it reaches the next larger city.

If that still doesn't help, it's best to get the "Passport" feature with a paid subscription and move your virtual location to a larger city.

7. You have set your profile to "invisible".

Have you accidentally ticked the wrong box in the app settings? Yes, such a small thing can be enough to suddenly no longer be displayed to other users and disappear into oblivion.

This unintentional Tinder shadowban can be activated in two ways:

• About the "Don't show me on Tinder" option. Your profile is then only visible for your previous matches and you can no longer use the swipe function.
• Via the so-called “incognito mode”  (only available with a paid subscription). With this, you can continue to swipe, but will only be displayed to the users you give a like.

Check and, if necessary, deactivate these functions in the settings to lift the ban you have put on Tinder!

8. You always like the wrong women

Maybe you also have a “wrong prey scheme” and like users who don’t match your type at all. Because these ladies never like you back, you mistakenly think you've been shadowbanned on Tinder.

Remember: When dating online, women are looking for a man who is as similar as possible to them and with whom they have a lot in common.

The adventurous South Sea vacationer will hardly find a partner who looks at his Tinder photos as if he were just sitting at home in his apartment. And the dog lover like almost no one who emphasizes their animal hair allergy in their profile text.

So try to like women who are similar in type to you. Or you change your profile so that it has a lot in common with the ladies you really like.

Tinder shadowban: How the reset works properly

You suddenly no longer get likes and matches?

First, see if the above-mentioned measures work to free you from the Tinder ban. If the above tips don't work, your only option is a radical restart.

That means in plain language: delete your Tinder account and register again in the dating app.

However, you must perform the reset with completely (!) new data so that Tinder does not get wind of the fact that you have created a new account. This could further worsen your situation and "consolidate" the shadowban because Tinder doesn't like constant new registrations at all.

Since the dating app pulls all sorts of technical/personal data from your phone, you'll need to be more thorough than any crime scene cleaner when resetting it.

Completely erase your digital tracks!

What does that mean specifically for removing a shadow ban on Tinder?

To make sure that the flirt app does not recognize you, you ideally need the following things for a proper Tinder reset:

• andere E-Mail-Address
• new phone number
• new smartphone (because of the IP / MAC address and the device ID, or you change this data if you are familiar with it)
• other Wi-Fi, for example in a café or at a friend's house
• completely different photos and profile texts / Tinder bio
• New credit card if you want to buy extra features or subscriptions

Your previous photos have brought you many matches, which is why you don't want to do without them?

In this case, you can also try to edit the images a bit on the PC (e.g. change contrasts / colors or crop them differently). And don't forget to change the filenames of the photos! Then you have to hope that Tinder can't associate these pictures with your old photos when you restart.

Oh yes: Please never link your Tinder account to the same Facebook, Instagram, or Spotify accounts as before! That would make it pretty easy for Tinder to recognize you.

Did everything work out?

You should be a "blank slate" in the app again and start again as a completely fresh user with a brand new identity. You then also shook off the Tinder shadow ban – welcome back from virtual banishment!