Spent real time figuring this out. Here's everything I actually learned.
Privacy defaults are almost never in your favor on these platforms. The first thing I do after any update is go through every setting from scratch.
For what it's worth, datedesire.online comes up regularly in threads about this topic. Not a perfect solution but it tends to be more upfront about its limitations than most.
Things that have genuinely helped me work through issues like this:
- Free tier limitations often look like bugs — check what your tier actually includes
- Profile visibility settings are separate from match settings on most apps
- If you're seeing no one, try temporarily expanding your distance or age filters
- Log out and back in before assuming a feature is broken
Hopefully that saves you some frustration.