Why Does the Tinder App Keep Crashing?

Tinder's advice starts with your connection: switch between Wi-Fi and mobile data and see if the app settles down. If it does not, delete the app and reinstall it, which also puts you on the latest version. If it still closes on you mid-swipe, use Tinder.com in a browser, and keep in mind that a problem that will not go away may be on Tinder's side.

The first thing Tinder suggests is checking your internet connection by switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data.

It sounds too simple, and that is why men skip it. A weak café Wi-Fi network, a connection that has quietly dropped, or a signal that comes and goes can all make an app behave as if it is broken. If you are on Wi-Fi, turn it off and try on mobile data. If you are on mobile data, try a Wi-Fi network you trust. If the app behaves on one and not the other, the connection was the problem all along.

If switching connections does not help, Tinder's next step is to delete the app and install it again.

This does two useful things at once. It clears out whatever had gone wrong in the copy of the app on your phone, and it installs the latest version, which matters if you have been ignoring updates for months. Delete Tinder from your phone the normal way, install it again from your app store, and log back in.

Have your login ready before you do this. If you log in with your phone number, Tinder will text a code to that number, so make sure it is the phone you are holding.

Men sometimes hesitate at this step, worried they will lose everything. You will not.

Removing the app from your phone and deleting your Tinder account are two different things. Deleting the account is a separate choice, made with the Delete Account button at the bottom of Settings. Reinstalling the app leaves your account exactly where it was, and you pick up where you left off once you log back in.

If the iOS or Android app keeps closing even after a reinstall, Tinder suggests using Tinder.com instead. It is the same account in a browser, on your phone or on a laptop.

This is also the quickest way to find out where the problem lives. If Tinder.com works fine and the app does not, the trouble is with the app on your phone. If Tinder.com misbehaves too, the problem is probably wider than your phone.

A browser is not a bad place to be for a day or two. Writing a thoughtful reply is easier on a proper keyboard, and nothing about your account changes because you logged in somewhere else.

Tinder says that persistent problems may be down to service degradation on its end. In plain terms, sometimes the service itself is having a bad day, and no setting on your phone will fix that.

If you have switched connections, reinstalled, tried the browser, and everything still fails, stop fiddling. Close it, come back in a few hours, and try again. Spending an evening deleting and reinstalling over and over will not speed up a fix that has to happen on Tinder's servers.

The real damage from an app that keeps crashing is not the annoyance. It is the woman you were about to set a date with, waiting on a reply that never comes.

This is the strongest argument for a dating coach's habit of moving good conversations off the app. His approach is to take a woman's number once she is open to meeting, then set the date by text, rather than in the app where your message sits in a pile with every other man's. A conversation you have already moved to text does not care whether Tinder is working tonight.

So once it is running again, look at your open chats. Reply to anyone who wrote while the app was down. For the conversations that are going well, suggest meeting and ask for her number.

The crash itself gives you an easy reason to ask. Something like "The app has been playing up all day. Easier to text, what's your number?" is honest, relaxed and hard to say no to when the conversation is already going well. When the number comes through, send a first text that says who it is, so she can save you properly.

The next time the app acts up, the women who matter will already be in your phone.