Can You Download Your Tinder Data After Deleting Your Account?

Not through the self-service tool. Tinder says that once your account is deleted, you lose access to downloading your data that way. If you can no longer get into your account, Tinder says you can contact it through its privacy request form and ask for the personal data it has available.

The self-service download is attached to your account. You sign in, ask for your data, and Tinder prepares it for the account you are signed in to. Delete the account and there is nothing left to sign in to, so the tool goes with it.

That makes the order matter. If a copy might ever be useful, download it first and delete second. Doing it the other way round turns a few taps into a formal request.

If you have already deleted, or you are locked out for another reason, the privacy request form is the route Tinder gives. You use it to ask for the personal data it has available.

A few habits make a request like this go more smoothly:

• Say exactly what you want. A copy of your personal data from a deleted account is a clear request. A vague complaint is not.
• Identify the account. Give the email address or phone number you used to sign in, so Tinder can match the request to the right person.
• Keep a record. Note the day you sent it and save any reply.

Note the word "available". Tinder says it delays deleting your profile data for 90 days after you close an account, then purges it under its Privacy Policy. If you want your data after deleting, ask soon rather than months later.

Do not open a new account hoping the old data shows up in it. A new sign-up with a different login is a new account, with none of your history in it.

Some men want a copy for privacy reasons, to see what the app held on them before they leave. That is reason enough.

The more useful reason is to look at your own numbers. Men who have pulled their dating app data often use it to see their record plainly: how much time went in and how little came out at each stage. The dates themselves you have to count from memory, but the earlier stages tell you a lot.

Most men guess wrong about where they lose women. They blame the app, or luck, when the real drop is at one specific step they could fix. Seeing the record in front of you takes the mood out of it. It is much harder to blame the app when you can see for yourself which step keeps failing.

Think of it as three stages, and find the one where most of your effort dies.

Few matches. Women are passing before they learn anything about you, and the lead photo is usually why. A dim, distant or group shot first costs you before she reads a word.

Matches, but the chats die early. The problem is your openers. "Hey" or a compliment on her looks gives her nothing to answer. A line reacting to a detail she picked for her page, her dog or the beach behind her, is easy to reply to.

Good chats that rarely turn into dates. The problem is timing. Men wait too long, and a conversation that was warm on day two goes flat by day eight. After a few friendly exchanges, name a night and a place.

Work on one stage at a time. Change the photos, the openers and the timing all at once, and there is no way to tell which one helped.

If you still have your account, this is a good reason to download before deciding whether to leave at all. The fix might be one stage, not the whole app.

1. Download your data with the self-service tool while you still can.
2. Save anything you need from your chats, such as a number a woman gave you or a plan you made.
3. Cancel your subscription. Tinder says deleting your account does not cancel an active subscription, so cancel it with whoever bills you: Apple, Google Play or Tinder.com.
4. Delete the account from Settings, or through Tinder's Manage My Account tool.

If you only want a break, skip the whole list. Switch Enable Discovery off in Settings instead. You vanish from new people's recommendations, and your account, data and existing matches all stay.