So about 2.5 months ago I deleted my Tinder account and uninstalled the app (I hadn't even been using it for over half a year at that point). Yesterday I set up a new account (not because I was previously banned or anything, my ELO just sucked and I had new pictures so I wanted a fresh start)

I followed the PWF guide https://www.playingfire.com/how-to-get-unbanned-from-tinder-guide/ except for the step about Factory Resetting my phone, which it said was Optional. So I had a new phone number, new email, different credit card, new pictures, used a VPN

However, it's been almost 24 hours and I have 0 likes and 0 matches. Sure my pics could suck, but the pics I had on my old account were even worse and I had over 20 likes the first day. You'd think I'd at least have a Bot or Scammer liking my profile. I bought Tinder Plus too and set it to Eastern Europe and it still had 0 Likes.

Furthermore, everytime I close and re-open the app I see the exact same profiles I already swiped on so clearly it's broken and/or I'm shadowbanned. I wasn't banned on my old account, and given I followed all the reset steps (except factory reset of the phone), I wasn't expecting this. The only explanation I can think of is that Tinder is now detecting and shadowbanning accounts that use a VPN.

Has anyone else had this experience and know what to do about it? I submitted a request to Tinder customer support (probably useless). Is my only option to get yet another new SIM card (and pay for yet another phone plan...), new email, scrub the metadata on my pics, etc and probably factory reset my phone too?

I'm headed to Eastern Europe in a few days and I was hoping to get started on the swiping before then, but now it looks like I won't even be able to use online dating at all there which sucks ass