Normally, Tinder has a search bar that allows you to type in the name of a match, find them easily, and resume conversations with them. This feature saves you the hassle of having to scroll and scroll until you find the person.
But you may experience times when the Search bar is no longer available on the Tinder app, forcing you to scroll through your list of matches to find the user that you want to chat with.
You need to know that this issue is not peculiar to you; many users have reported the same problem. So, we are going to look at all the possible reasons why the Search bar is temporarily gone on Tinder, and what you can do in such situations.
How to Find Someone on Tinder Now the Search Bar Has Gone
The search bar allowed you to see how many matches you had, which is why people are angry that it’s gone. But luckily, there are other ways to see how many matches you have on Tinder.
Normally, to find someone, you would use the Search bar thus:
1. Tap the message bubble icon on the main screen
2. Press and pull down on the screen until a search bar appears
3. Type that person’s name in the search bar.
Now, here are a few things to try in the meantime when the Tinder search bar is temporarily gone on the Tinder mobile app.
1. Use the Find Feature on PC at Tinder.com
One quick workaround for when the Search bar is gone on the Tinder app is to get on your PC and go to Tinder.com, and then log into your account. When you log in, you could then use the browser’s Find feature to type in the names of the persons you want to find and start talking to them.
Even though this requires that you know the person’s name, you do not need to know all of it. If you remember 3 letters of the name, you can easily find the person using the Find results. Here’s how to do this:
1. Open a browser on your computer and go to tinder.com
2. Choose Log In at top right of the screen and log in with the same details that you use on your mobile app
3. On your Tinder home, click on the Messages tab if you want to find someone that you have already started a conversation with.
4. If you are yet to start a conversation with the person and they are still just a match, then click on the Match tab
5. If, after logging in, you are taken to your profile page instead of your Matches and Messages page, just click on the Tinder icon at the top left of the screen to go to your Matches and Messages page
6. Once you select the tab you want to find the person on (matches or messages), press Ctrl + F on your keyboard. That is, hold down the Ctrl key and then press F
7. This will open a search bar at the top of your browser
8. Enter the name of the person you want to find. If there is more than one person with the name, or if you do not remember all of the person’s name, use the arrow up and down buttons on the search bar to go through the results until you find the user you are looking for.
9. Then click on the username to start texting them
2. Scroll Through Your Matches Until You Find Their Name
The second, but rather inconvenient workaround is to scroll through your list of messages or matches until you find the user that you are looking for. This can be annoying if you have a long list to scroll through.
But the good thing is that the issue of the Search bar being unavailable on the Tinder app is always very temporary and will either get restored on its own or require you to perform a few fixes, which are detailed below.
Why Has Tinder Search Bar Gone?
1. Tinder Has Removed It For Whatever Reason
App owners are constantly making changes to their apps to improve app capabilities, introduce new features, and remove old features.
Sometimes, these changes are a result of tests during the development stages. Other times, they are trying to see what works best. Other times still, they are trying to make changes to the app which requires the temporary removal of some related features.
Whatever the case, one of the reasons why the Search bar on Tinder may be gone is that Tinder deliberately removed it for some technical reason. And unless they intend the change to be permanent, it is always certain to be restored after a very short time.
Fix – Wait For Them to Add the Feature Back
There is actually no immediate way to know if the Search bar being gone is an intentional change from Tinder. That’s why the best thing to do when you experience this is to wait for a while and see if the issue resolves on its own.
You could give it a few hours and then relaunch the app to see if the Search bar gets restored.
2. Is it Possible You’ve Got a Bug?
The search bar is an integral part of the Tinder app. This feature is not available on the PC or mobile browser, so it is an exclusive feature on the app that makes it unique. So, if the Search bar is gone on the app, it is quite likely that there has been a bug on your Tinder app.
To resolve this, you would need to try a series of fixes until you find the solution that works for you. We recommend that you try the fixes listed below in the order that they have been listed in order to fix the Search bar issue on your Tinder app.
Fix – Restart the App
The first thing to do when you use Tinder and the Search bar is gone is to restart the app. This is the simplest and trusty way of fixing minor bugs and glitches on an application.
To restart the app:
1. Exit Tinder
2. Swipe it away from recent or background items
3. Wait 30 seconds, then open the app again to see if the Search button is restored.
Fix 2 – Use Tinder on Your PC
This is not necessarily a fix but a temporary workaround which we already described earlier.
Not only does using Tinder on PC allow you to use the Ctrl + F function to find users quicker, the PC screen also displays more names per frame than the app, thereby reducing how much you need to scroll before you find the user you are looking for. This is probably why the Search bar is not available on the PC browser version.
Fix 3 – Log Out and Log In and Check
When you log into your Tinder account on the app, your login details are stored on Tinder servers so that you don’t have to enter the log in details every time you launch the app.
On that first login, your account is assigned a token. This token carries information about your account such as your subscription details (Tinder Standard, Tinder Gold, Tinder Platinum, etc.), your preferences and settings, and other information about your account.
Essentially, the token determines what features you have access to on Tinder. Now, there may be times when this token gets corrupt (from Tinder servers) and you lose access to even basic features like the Search bar.
In that case, all you need to do is to log out of your Tinder account and then log back in.
To do this:
1. Tap on the profile icon at the top right of the screen
2. Tap on Settings on the left
3. Scroll down toward the very end of the screen and select Logout
4. Then confirm to log out of Tinder
Fix 4 – Clear the Cache Apps Cache
In the fix above, we mentioned that your login details are saved so you don’t have to log in every time you launch the Tinder app.
These details are stored in a memory called Cache. Cache stores lots of data about you and the way you use apps so that you’re able to open and navigate the app faster every time you use it.
When you open Tinder, it must load data from this cache memory. If the cache memory gets corrupted, it may cause errors like the Search bar not being available when you launch Tinder or while you are already using Tinder.
To resolve this, you need to clear the Tinder app cache using the steps below:
For Android:
1. Long-press the Tinder app
2. Select App Info
3. Select Clear Data
4. Select Clear Cache
5. Confirm to clear the cache when prompted
On iOS
1. Navigate to Settings on your device
2. Select General
3. Select iPhone Storage
4. Select Tinder
5. Select Offload app
6. Confirm the action
7. Select Reinstall app
Fix 5 – Update the App
Earlier in the article, we mentioned that Tinder may make changes to the application interface for some reason.
There is another scenario where the search bar being unavailable is as a result of a coding error or bug that Tinder needs to fix using an update release called Patch.
If your Tinder app does not have the latest updates installed, it will not have the patch required to fix the error that’s causing the Search bar to be unavailable. To fix this, you simply need to update the Tinder app using the steps below:
1. Exit the Tinder app and swipe it away from your recent apps
2. Go to the App Store or Play Store
3. Search for Tinder and select it from the results
4. Tap update to the right of the screen to update the app
5. Then, relaunch the app to see if the issue is cleared
Fix 6 – Reinstall Tinder
If the fixes provided so far do not fix the Search bar issue for you on the Tinder app, it could be that the Tinder app version on your device has developed a serious bug for which there is no current fix. In that case, you would need to uninstall the app and reinstall it.
You need not worry about losing your matches, conversations, preferences, and settings because all of those data are stored on Tinder servers for your account and will be restored when you redownload the app and log back in.
Just be sure that you remember your login details or at least have access to your recovery email or phone number.
To reinstall Tinder:
1. Press and hold the Tinder app on your phone
2. Select Uninstall or Remove, depending on your device’s OS
3. Confirm to uninstall Tinder from your device
4. Then, go back to your device app store, search for Tinder and reinstall it.
5. Launch Tinder, log into your account, and check to see if the Search bar is restored on the app
Fix 7 – Contact Tinder
The issue of the Search bar disappearing on Tinder does not happen often and is usually temporary. It either resolves on its own or gets restored using any one of the fixes provided in this article.
If the issue persists for a while, then it could be an unusual problem that only Tinder can assist you with. In that case, you would need to contact Tinder for support on the issue. You can reach Tinder on Twitter or the help page here.
3. The Bummer Of Them All…Tinder Is Down
The last possible reason why the Search bar is gone on your Tinder app is that Tinder servers may be down or experiencing some technical difficulty. Tinder hosts its services on servers and rely on the availability of those servers to provide services to you.
There are times when those servers may be down due to a software coding error, misconfiguration, unplanned shutdown, service outage, or any other reason.
Depending on the nature of the problem, the entire Tinder service or some parts of it like the Search feature may be affected, making you unable to search for matches and messages on your app.
Whatever the case, if you have tried all the fixes provided so far and the Search bar still isn’t restored, it is likely that Tinder is having issues with their services and has nothing to do with the Tinder app on your phone.
Fix – Wait For Tinder Servers to Correct Itself
Even though there is no immediate way to know whether the Search bar issue is caused by issues at Tinder (it’s not like they send you notifications of technical issues), you can always check on websites and social media to know if the issue is actually from Tinder.
The best indicator of this is if other users are also experiencing similar issues on their Tinder app. In fact, if there are reports of any issues on Tinder at all, even though they are different to yours, it is possible that a Tinder service downtime is affecting users in different locations in different ways.
You can check the service monitoring below for Tinder status:
Down Inspector – also provides feeds from Tinder’s Twitter account
Down Detector – also provides feeds of user reports and Tinder’s Twitter account
Services Down
You can also check Tinder Twitter feeds for any reports on issues on the app or service. If there are reports of issues, you would simply need to wait until Tinder resolves the issues and gets the Search bar restored on the app.