Match.com Questions and Answers

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In my last post I covered questions on winks at Match.com. This time I wanted to cover other types of questions that have sent people here.

How Do I Hide My Profile on Match.com?
What Happens When I Hide My Profile?
Can I Hide My Match.com Profile but Still Quality for Guarantee?
How Do i Contact Non-Paying Members on Match.com?
What Does a Green Highlighted Profile on Match.com Mean?
How Can I Tell Who the Paying Members Are?
How Much will the Match.com Six Month Guarantee Cost in Total?
Does Match.com Have Any Other Deals?
How Do I Change My Primary Photo on Match.com?
What Does It Mean If She Looked at My Profile but Didn’t Wink?
What If I Get No Replies to my Emails?
What is the Number of Members at Match.com?
Do Match.com Free Weekends Exist?

How Do I Hide My Profile on Match.com?
As someone who signs up for services to review or test them, I’m very familiar with this process! To hide your profile:
1. Click on Profile at the top of the screen
2. On the left, you should see a section labeled Visibility Options. Simply click Hide Profile.

What Happens When I Hide My Profile?
There several things hiding your profile do but primarily it removes you from search results. You can still contact people when your profile is hidden but they won’t be able to look at your profile so that sort of defeats the purpose (so remember to make yourself visible if you start contacting people). Additionally, you will not be shown in people’s “Who’s Viewed Me” section. However, if you unhide your profile you will appear in this section for anyone you viewed. Keep this in mind if for some reason you’re hiding your profile in an attempt to not let people know you were looking at them!

Can I Hide My Match.com Profile But Still Quality for Guarantee?
As I covered in my discussion of issues with the six month guarantee, you cannot hide your profile and still qualify for the guarantee. Be sure to read all the rules as there are additional qualifications.

How Do i Contact Non-Paying Members on Match.com?
If you are a paying subscriber to Match.com, you can contact anyone you want regardless of whether they pay or not. However, if you contact a non-payer then they will not be able to contact you back. Unfortunately, Match.com doesn’t reveal who is a paying member and who is not. The only people you can be sure pay are those with a green background around their profile.

What Does a Green Highlighted Profile on Match.com Mean?
A profile highlighted in green is someone who has signed up for the platinum package. Anyone who is attempting to qualify for the 6-month guarantee has to sign up for this plan. This package also allows the member to see when people open emails that they send and their profiles are shown to new members first. Obviously it’s also highlighted in green.

As a side note, I had always thought that the Match.com 6-month guarantee came free with the standard 6-month plan but it is actually a separate plan (that costs a dollar more per month than the standard 6-month plan). I suspect this had been changed at some point but it’s only a dollar more per month so I guess it isn’t a huge problem.

How Can I Tell Who the Paying Members Are?
One question had asked if a green profile meant the user was a subscriber. As I described, green is actually the platinum account. To be clear though, I don’t believe there is a way to differentiate normal users from paying users normally.

How Much will the Match.com Six Month Guarantee Cost in Total?
The plan to get the 6-month guarantee is $17.99 a month or a total of $107.94.

Does Match.com Have Any Other Deals?
Match.com has a 7-day free trial. If you use this trial you can still sign up for the 6-month guarantee if you want to try to take advantage of both promotions.

Match also has a promotion where you can get 20% off the priceof any of their standard plans. I believe that this would work with the 6-month guarantee but it’s not clear to me if it would work with the 7-day trial. If you decide to try this be sure to follow the instructions on the sign up screen in the link above.

How Do I Change My Primary Photo on Match.com?
Changing your primary photo is pretty simple although you will have to wait up to 24 hours for them to approve your new photo as your primary. To change your photo:
1. Click Profile at the top of the screen
2. Click on Add/Edit Photos on the next screen (it should be just below the “My Profile” heading)
3. Any photo that can be set as your primary photo should have a “make primary” button. If you have other photos that can be made your primary photo just click the button and the process to change it should begin.
4. If none of your other photos are marked as “make primary” your current photos are not seen as good candidates for your primary photo. This would normally be because they want your primary photo to be a clear headshot of only you.

What Does It Mean If She Looked at My Profile but Didn’t Wink?
To be honest, it doesn’t mean much of anything at all. Most people look at a large number of profile but contact very few (or sometimes none at all). Don’t take it personally and if you think she’s interesting why not contact her?

What If I Get No Replies to my Emails?
In my online dating guide I discuss this in great detail in my section on an absence of responses. There are more reasons than you might think for this sort of thing to happen so it’s best to not take this personally. For all you know the people you are contacting aren’t even paying members.

What is the Number of Members at Match.com?
I’ve not seen any numbers on the exact count of members but I do know that as of June 2009, Match.com was getting close to 3.5 million visitors a month.

Do Match.com Free Weekends Exist?
To date, I’ve never seen a Match.com free weekend. To be honest, the service doesn’t have very many free time promotions that I’m aware of, although they do offer several discount promotions such as getting 20% off when subscribing.

 

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About the Author:

Brad initially struggled with online dating but over time became quite successful using it. He met his wife using online dating and has been giving advice and helping people improve their results since 2007. He has written a Free Online Dating Guide to help others find success with online dating. You can learn more about his personal experience using online dating and running this website here.

Comments

  1. Elle  May 12, 2010

    Hi I found this very useful, thank you. Just one additional question though – if I hide my profile and then look at someone else’s profile, but then consequently un-hide my profile, will I then show up in their Who’s Viewed Me section? Thanks in advance.

  2. Brad  May 12, 2010

    That’s a good question…although I’m not sure of the answer! If you want, you can email me (from my contact form) and I’ll give you the user id of a test account I keep at Match. You can then hide, view my profile, unhide and I’ll let you know if I see anything 🙂

  3. Brad  May 12, 2010

    Elle, actually I did have the answer to this (it’s in the What Happens When I Hide My Profile question). If you hide it and view a bunch of profiles, whenever you unhide those views WILL show up for the people you were viewing.

    If you want to avoid people knowing that you viewed their profile forever for some reason, the only solution might be to have a second account that you always keep hidden and use to view profiles (although I can’t really think of too many reasons to go this length!)

    • Al  June 10, 2015

      I really don’t like this feature. If you want to privately browse you should be able to do that without popping into their “views.” Other dating sites give people (especially women) the option to safely browse without alerting every Tom, Dick and Harry that you viewed their profile. As soon as a guy sees that you viewed him he jumps all over you and often gets angry when you don’t respond. Often we click on a profile only to discover that the person is not the right match. Private browsing allows you to do this without upsetting anyone. I also hate the Online Now feature. It’s like the guys can see right into your living room and know what you’re doing without you having to tell them. Match is seriously lagging behind some of the other dating sites with respect to privacy and what they offer their members. They aren’t even trying to hide the fact that it’s all about cash flow rather than trying to provide a good service to their customers. I think I may cancel my membership with them and stick with the ones who offer some degree of privacy.

  4. Annie L  December 12, 2010

    I have changed my match.com profile to private, or hidden, over 6 months ago, as I am no longer actively looking and I am no longer a paying subscriber. I don’t want to totally delete it, so if I ever needed it again, I don’t have to start from scratch.

    My question is, sometimes I get emails from match.com saying someone has winked at me or favorited me, when I check my profile – it’s public! I am NOT and have not changed it back to public status, does match do this on their own from time to time?

    Thanks!

  5. Brad  December 14, 2010

    Hey Annie…my wife actually had the same problem after we had been dating. She started getting contacts again and didn’t understand why and then saw her profile was re-enabled.

    The only thing we could think was that she had logged back in at one point and perhaps that had re-enabled her account automatically. Obviously that shouldn’t happen but that was our best guess. I will say that after she set it to hidden the second time we didn’t have any problems going forward.

    • Jessica  December 19, 2016

      Hey Brad!
      Thank you for your great feed back!

      So I deleted/canceled my account on Match… will they really take my profile down? I want a guy I am talking to (off of Match) to know that I am not talking to anyone else on Match… but reading your other blog posts, I’m not sure if they will put me “online” here and there or keep my account active as long as my subscription is still running? How can I make sure I am “gone for good” on this site?

      Thank you!
      Jessica

  6. Walt  May 6, 2011

    Great post, Brad, thank you very much. Here’s my question to you or anybody who knows the answer:

    Can I change the feature on Match that shows other users that I’m “online now” ? That makes me nervous. It makes me feel as if I should respond to winks, emails, etc., at this second, because other users know I’m “there.” I much prefer to think about winks and emails later when I’m offline.

  7. Brad  May 7, 2011

    Hey Walt – I looked into it and you can’t turn that feature off. Match.com states that this feature brings value to their users so they don’t allow you to turn it off.

    I do understand where you’re coming from but I guess I understand where they’re coming from too. One big complaint I hear from people is the claim that all of the profiles on such-and-such a dating site are “dead” and the person that created it doesn’t even use the service. With the online now feature, it does reveal that a service has a lot of active members.

  8. Denise  July 6, 2011

    I’m curious about the “online now” feature on match.com. I have been seeing someone for a few months and he seems to always be online even though he will be texting me and telling me he’s on his way to work, etc. We are in the process of perhaps moving to a more exclusive relationship and I don’t want to jump the gun and assume the worst especially since he will show up online at weird hours of the day and night. Could he actually NOT be on match but show online?

    • Paul  May 28, 2012

      I agree with the comment about match.com showing online status when the users are not going online. i think it should advised by the site as it may cause damage to a blosoming relationship.

      i was dating someone who accused me of being online. we logged on to my profile at her house. it showed she had been online with the last 24 hours. but she had been on holiday with her daughters for 3 days! we laughed. but i really think match are doing it on purpose to attract people in to the site. its happened in another relationship.

      i noticed my current girl friend online within the last 24 hours this weekend. but i was only checking on her to see if she had taken her profile off. i had disabled mine previously. i might ask her to drop hers like mine as a statement of good will. i dont think she had.

      my advice is to remove your picture off the site and update your profile to say that you are dating someone special if you really want to show your partner the honesty and integrity you possess. and avoid conflict.

  9. Brad  July 6, 2011

    Denise – I do think Match sometimes can show people online when they’re not. I think this could have to do with how the web browsers work or just a glitch in their system.

    I say this because a few months ago a guy contacted me and he was angry with Match.com and was telling me they are a bunch of liars. He was saying this because when he logged in at 5AM before work there were something like 5 pages or people showing online (according to him). My thought is that Match.com wasn’t trying to trick him, their system is just imperfect.

    So I wouldn’t read too much into him showing as online. If you start dating exclusively and he doesn’t take his profile down, I would find that more concerning.

    • Karen  June 1, 2012

      Match does this thing where when you open an emailed copy NOT ON MATCH but from Yahoo or domain based email, whereever it’s sending to your alternative email account, and from your iphone or computer it auto puts you online status! Even though all you did was open a copy of the match email remotely. I’m not sure how they are able to do this, at first I thought it was a little like, send a copy of receipt I opened your email, and it could be, BUT I discovered something interesting … when I was away from my IP and using my iPhone, I could open match email from Yahoo or domain based email accounts and I WOULD NOT show up online. (I know this because I have a second account I watch from my iPhone and my main account I use on my computer). If I am home on my iPhone, my iPhone is set to use my ISP service first (my wifi) and it will always toggle my online status. BUT when I’m away, elsewhere, it will not. SO BOTTOM LINE, if you’re home uncheck using your wifi, go with your phone plan and you will be offline viewing match mail that is sent to your private (off match site) account. I PROMISE THIS WORKS.

    • Karen  June 1, 2012

      Something I just thought of and quiet possibly what is happening… I think some WiFi may have a firewall that blocks the receipt back to Match.com and thus putting me online status, this is why when I’m home and using my ISP via cell phone checking remote email it receipts back. But when I go to alternate locations away from him via WiFi it has not up me online status. I’m really thinking it’s a receipt email opening thing and some firewalls block that. IF SO it maybe possible to setup your computer to block as well…. of course this is theory.

    • CB  April 7, 2013

      Sorry to drag this back up, but I think I’ve realized what is happening after a very detailed read of their privacy policy (due to having the exact same issue). There are these things called “web beacons”. They are images embedded in the emails they send that may not even be visible to you, even just 1×1 pixels. Tthe images are hosted images by match.com instead of being a physical image they are sending you. When your computer loads them it informs match.com as to which email was used to load them, records the IP address, and then continues to ping it resulting in your status being “online now” until you close your browser or disconnect from the internet. This is to the best of my interpretation/testing of the system, I’m not 100% sure on browser closing. The way to prevent this is to disable images within your email account and then clear cookies. Oddly, some images will still pop up, but it has stopped my account from permanently being shown online after opening any of their emails (by testing with my non-logged in phone).

      Again, this is my best interpretation of the system. As a side note, I stopped getting as many winks/emails when my account was listed as “online now”. The moment I figured this out and my account has gotten to the 24 hour/3-day point, I received easily double the amount of contacts. “online now” may be intimidating.

    • PCJ  April 13, 2013

      About the constantly “online now” problem, wanted to report back that it looks like the suggestion CB posted about setting your email preferences to disable images is working for me.

      Thanks for posting about this Brad, Karen, and CB.

    • SMH  May 8, 2013

      Soooooooooooooooo glad I found this thread today. I was cheated on before in a very traumatic fashion, started dating this guy who travels a lot but seems to make every effort to keep in touch with me. I was getting emails still and thought I’d disable my profile when i saw him ‘online’. I asked him about it- he said he didn’t know and I’ve been – experiencing much the same ‘how is this possible’ sentiment.

    • Betty  December 17, 2016

      I think if your email is linked to match, then when you logon unrelated to match, say just to check your emails, then Match registers you as being “online”. Its a “cookie/IP thing.
      Same goes if you create a different account, but login from the same computer, the original account indicates you’re online.

  10. suzanne hamrick  July 11, 2011

    How do I add more pictures to my profile?

  11. Brad  July 12, 2011

    To upload more photos to your Match.com profile you should be able to:

    1. When logged in, click on the Profile link and then click on Photos
    2. You should then be able to browse and upload photos

    Also, if you have trouble with that Match.com will post photos to your profile for you if you email them the photos (although I’ve never tried this personally). To do this:

    1. Email the photos to this address: photos@Match.com
    2. In your email include this information: Your full name, your Match.com user name, the email address you used to sign up and your date of birth.

    Either of those should work although the first is the preferred way.

  12. Rick  July 29, 2011

    I have gone to Match’s website and not logged on. I searched my Match name and it shows me online now. I have cleared all information in browser before going to the match site and even renewed my ip address, yet still saw that I was on line now. I think if you read email from match.com it signals “online now” and latches it on for at least one hour… maybe more. They may be writing to a file on your hard drive, and reading that when you enter their site. I haven’t figured it out exactly yet, but will.

  13. Kent  July 29, 2011

    If I’ve favorited a person, and now I can’t view their profile, what does that mean? Does that mean that they’ve taken their profile down? Can they still read e-mails? Or does that mean they’ve blocked me?

    • Karen  June 1, 2012

      1. They are hidden
      2. They blocked you (create a second account and surf for them using their user name)
      3. They deleted their account forever.
      4. They created a second account and using that one (usually to ditch people)

      Hope this helps 🙂

  14. Brad  July 30, 2011

    Kent – I can’t be 100% sure but my best guess would be that they hid their profile (or possibly deleted their account).

    What seems most plausable to me is that they met someone but forgot to take their profile down. When they saw someone new expressing interest in them it would prompt them to remove their profile.

    That’s my best guess. Of course, I guess they could block you but that seems like a pretty extreme step to take just because you added them as a favorite…and it wouldn’t be my first guess as to what’s going on.

  15. Charlie nash  August 10, 2011

    How do you clear out names you don’t want to see anymore from all the different categories ? ( favorites, winks, I viewed, they viewed , etc?)

  16. AWS23  August 10, 2011

    Hi Brad,

    What does “online now” mean in match.com. what is the difference between IM. I cant seem to contact those who are online but not on IM.

    Thanks!

  17. Brad  August 11, 2011

    Hey Charlie – I’m not sure you can actually do that. I would suspect that favorites would just be a flag on the profile that you would remove but clearing out who you viewed or who viewed you sounds like something that would stick around.

    I can look into it but if any other readers know the answer to this that would be a big help!

    • sb  July 31, 2014

      At the top right of the profile, you can see an x icon. Hold your cursor over the x and you will see remove appear when you click the x. A pop-up box will come up and ask if you are sure you want to remove and it will show yes or no continue. My question is if you mistakenly hit yes and that was not what you wanted to do how do you get the profile back?

    • Brad  August 15, 2014

      If you hover over the gear in the upper right, then pick settings, you should see a section where you can unblock people (it should show you the full list you have blocked and you can change it).

  18. Brad  August 11, 2011

    AWS23 – online now should mean what you would expect it to (that they are visiting the website and you should be able to contact them). However, I’ve had several readers complain to me that the “online now” feature isn’t perfect and will often show people as online after they have left. I suspect that is what you are seeing (unless there’s an option to turn off IM which I’m not aware of)

    • Travel  January 7, 2013

      When it says “online now,” does that mean they are on-line at Match.com or just on-line at any site (Google, email, etc.)?

    • Brad  January 13, 2013

      Online with Match specifically, not the internet in general.

  19. Stefan  August 12, 2011

    Hi Brad,

    Is my (unhidden) profile searchable for non-members? I sort of remember that I initially posted an incomplete profile, did not pay for a while, but still received daily matches, even before I finalized the profile and paid my dues. I do not have a problem with match.com members viewing my profile, but I would mind if outsiders can perform a random search for all males of a certain age in a specific area to see if people they know are on match.com. Thanks for your take on that.

  20. Brad  August 13, 2011

    Stefan – I believe someone would need to create a profile first…however they wouldn’t have to be a paying member. A few years ago when you went to Match.com you could search right away before you had a profile (if I’m remembering correctly, at least). So I think at one time what you describe would have been a concern but today I don’t think it be.

    I just went to Match and tried to do a search as a non-member (well, no logged in at least) and it looked like it was going to let me search but at the first page of search results it forced me to create an account.

  21. Cj  August 14, 2011

    Hi Stefan, thanks for being here for us newbies. My question is, “how can you take someone off your favorites list?”

  22. Brad  August 14, 2011

    CJ – when you are looking at your favorites (Connections then My Favorites) there should be an X in the upper right corner of each favorite’s box. If you click that X is will delete them as a favorite.

  23. Jason  August 17, 2011

    Hi Brad,
    Lets assume I am not logged into Match.com and do not have it set to auto-login. Does clicking on a profile from the Match.com’s “See today’s matches” email cause my profile to show I am ‘Online Now’?

    Thanks

  24. Brad  August 20, 2011

    Jason – I wouldn’t think so…unless to view profiles they actually have to log you in. The next time you do this, see if there’s any option when viewing the profile for you to Log Off. If there is, I would say you’re showing as online. If there isn’t, I’d say you wouldn’t be showing online.

  25. Concerned  August 22, 2011

    Ok I have a match.com question and was directed here by well umm google. LOL! I have been seeing a guy for a few months. We took it slow but for weeks have both talked about (And agreed) to be exclusive. He tells me all the time that I’m the only girl he even wants to talk to. He was upfront about having a match.com (and another site) account when we first met but said that he had cancelled his membership and had no interest in it. Imagine my surprise when my roommate is on her 7 day trial match.com profile (she is trying to see if its better than EH) and I see him on the screen! She said she had emailed him not knowing I was dating him and he had not responded HOWEVER she had also winked at him and he viewed her profile so he was obviously on there at some point. I didnt want to get him all defensive so I just asked him if he was still on the site and he said no but he was getting match emails and winks and even message notifications so he doesnt think he is hidden but he doesnt pay anymore so cant do anything at all on the site and that he will eventually get around to trying to figure out how to get rid of it completely. I asked my roommate if it would show him looking or being online if he reads the emails and she said no not the free ones. She went on there to see if he went home and deleted and it actually said online now with the option of IM’ing him (which her free trial expired and she hasnt decided so she of course coudlnt if she wanted to but the option was lit up for members). She was like oh well you only can IM members so he HAS to be lying. She also admitted that pretty much every day his profile says active within 24 hours and only once since she saw him on there has it said active within 3 days.

    SOOOOOOOOOOO of course now I’m confused and want to make sure I’m not overreacting before I confront him. Him and I talk constantly and hang out a lot so I doubt he has a lot of time to be actually meeting up with anyone but at the same time it seems weird. I mean how much is there to do for a non subscriber to log on at least once a day?? And do non members still have the IM option on their profile??

    Thanks!

  26. Stefan  August 23, 2011

    Hi Brad,

    Just to alert you and everyone else reading your blog that Match.com has some serious privacy issues. I realized today that my account had been hacked, my photos been taken down and my profile been changed. I was suddenly transformed into a middle aged female looking for guys! Customer service immediately blocked my account and granted me a full refund. However, they said this happens from time to time when the associated e-mail account has a weak password – the hacker accesses the profile via the e-mail account, changes the Match.com password and gets a free ride under someone else’s subscription. I had not disclosed the compromised e-mail account (it’s AOL) to anyone except AOL, Yahoo!, and Match.com employees, which leads me to believe this was an inside job. Just thought I post this as a cautionary tale – needless to say my enthusiasm for online dating is somewhat diminished.

  27. Brad  August 24, 2011

    Concerned – quite a few women run into the issue you’re running into. Check out this article for my thoughts on these situations:

    http://www.datingadviceguy.com/2011/04/14/his-dating-profile-is-still-active-is-he-interested-or-not/

    • Karen  June 1, 2012

      Always be careful online with your info and dont assume anyone is what they say they are. It could take years for a con to get the end result he/she wanted in the beginning. It’s a sad world we live in. Some people are just there playing mind games. Also remember the greatest guy in the world may not have the ability to pen a wonderful bio and that doesn’t make him any less quality person to date. Same holds true vise-vera. My ex who was a habitual cheater and drug addict who beat on us and emotionally bashed us, ran up big debt and just a horrible person has the most amazing profile. I gring when I think of the horrible person he is/was….. be careful. It’s super easy to write stuff in the safety of your own home. Keyboard courage. Know these things when using match. 🙂

  28. Brad  August 24, 2011

    Stefan – I seriously doubt this is an inside job from Match.com. I’d be more concerned that you have a virus or keylogger or trojan on your personal computer (so be sure to run a virus/malware scanner if you haven’t). Even if you don’t, you’ll likely want to change your passwords for important accounts because someone figured out your password one way or another (and if you have other accounts that use the same password you could be at risk).

    Often when someone’s dating account it compromised, it’s NOT so that the person stealing your account could get a free ride. It just wouldn’t work: just as in your case the legitimate owner of the account will recognize too quickly. Instead, I suspect this is someone trying to use your account so they can pursue the Romance Scam by convincing OTHER Match.com members to trust them and give them their personal emails before you notice the account compromise. Once they’ve convinced someone to take the conversation off of Match.com, it doesn’t matter that you noticed the compromise: they’re talking in personal email and can pursue the scam regardless.

    You can see more on my thoughts on the Romance Scam here:
    http://www.datingadviceguy.com/2009/10/16/online-dating-scams-the-romance-scam/

    This type of activity is also seen when people have their credit card compromised and find that they’ve been signed up for an online dating service. It’s a different approach but with the same goal of finding a target for a scam without actually purchasing a Match.com account. This activity is often suspected by many as being an “inside job” by Match, too, but it’s simply not the case. You can read more on my thoughts on this here:
    http://www.datingadviceguy.com/2011/02/18/help-ive-been-incorrectly-charged-for-a-dating-subscription/

    I actually had my credit card numbers used several years ago by someone doing exactly this!

  29. Tom  August 31, 2011

    HI, my IM on match.com shows a red x, when I opened it previously it seemed to work fine but had my profile as a second conversation even though I was attempting to contact one person it seemed as though I was talking to myself also. Now whenever I attempt instant messaging the window says: To open Messenger, go to the tab or window with one of these speech bubbles : no new messages, new messages…… confused please help!

  30. Brad  September 1, 2011

    Tom – I’m not familiar with this at all. I’ve never used the Messenger on Match.com. Could it be that you have to have a message from someone before you can chat with them? I didn’t think that was the case but it’s the best guess I can come up with.

    Has anyone else run into this that could give Tom some help?

  31. Nicole  September 13, 2011

    Hey, Brad,
    I was really interested in what RICK had to say on July 29th. The same thing is happening to me. I haven’t logged in for quite some time but did open an email. When I searched my name, it showed that I had been online (even though I haven’t actually logged in in over two months). I also had browsed some profiles without being logged in, do I then show up in that person’s Who’s Viewed Me???? Just wondering how they can achieve this?????

  32. Brad  September 13, 2011

    Hey Nicole – since you’re both seeing it I’m guess that it WILL show you as active when you do this. My guess as to how they do this is probably by keeping a cookie for your web browser that will automatically log you in when you view a profile via email.

    My guess is that they are actually logging you in before showing you the profile (even though they don’t make it clear that you’ve been logged in).

  33. altdel  October 3, 2011

    Is there a way to have private pics that I only make available to individuals Im interested in? You can do this on POF and match affinity.

    I’m not open to displaying to the world Im single – I know some people will say it defeats the object but I just want to be able to say hello to people im interested in and make my pics available to them only.

    thanks

  34. Az  October 6, 2011

    Hey Brad,

    I’ve had this girl favorite my profile but she doesn’t appear on my ‘whose viewed me’ section. Is this possible?

  35. Brad  October 6, 2011

    altdel – if that feature exists in Match I’ve not used it or heard of it. Not a bad idea…anyone ever used something like this on Match?

  36. Brad  October 6, 2011

    Az – my best guess is that she had her profile hidden and was browsing profiles picking favorites then unhid her profile. That’s a guess….generally I’d agree with you and suspect it wasn’t possible.

  37. Pat  October 7, 2011

    Brad,

    For example: ‘Profile Insights’, ‘Who viewed me (4) reset’. On the ‘Who’s Viewed Me’ page, is the ‘(4)’ the first four people from the top of the page. Or, are they listed in no particulate order?

  38. Brad  October 8, 2011

    Hey Pat – if I had to guess I would think the (4) would represent the new people who had viewed you…so yeah, probably the first four.

  39. Jen  October 15, 2011

    I have a match.com question. I’ve been dating this guy I met off match exclusively for 2 months. He took down his profile and I did as well. I favorited him and while it still shows his profile is hidden or deleted, every so often it will say active within 24 hours or 3 days or 5 days. What’s the meaning of this? I don’t want to automatically assume the worst and I don’t want to cause a war over this. What are your thoughts?

  40. Dianne  October 15, 2011

    Hi, I am having problsm uploading pictures. I use the UK match.com website. When click on the photos section, nothing really happens, it might take me into phoo manager, but it doesn’t have any option to upload anything (i’m guessing it should!). It tells me how many photos I have in my albums (0) but doesn’t give me any option to actually add any! Is this just happening on my computer?

  41. Brad  October 15, 2011

    Jen – if his profile remains hidden I wouldn’t stress too much about it. I know I’ve talked to several people who have complained that Match.com shows people being active when they feel that they weren’t. I think this is even sometimes caused by the emails that Match sends and if you look at any of the Matches they send you it will show you as having been logged in.

    The real tricky thing here if you did want to bring it up is it appears he’s not doing anything more than you are: occasionally logging in. If you challenged him on it, it seems to me he could challenge you right back.

  42. Brad  October 15, 2011

    Dianne – since this is a core feature that I’m sure Match would want working all the time, I suspect it could be something specific to your situation. You could try a different computer but you could also download a different web browser like Firefox or Chrome and then try it there. If you still have the issue in a different browser or on a different computer then I’m thinking there’s a bigger issue here.

  43. curious  October 16, 2011

    I know you can block certain individuals from contacting you on Match but when you block them does it also block your profile showing up in their search and having them look at your profile?

  44. Brad  October 17, 2011

    Hey Curious – I believe when you block someone you’ll be presented with a couple of options: block from search and block from contact. You can pick both and then they shouldn’t be able to contact you or see your profile.

    • M Xavi  May 29, 2016

      I am having a terrible time with this blocking policy, because I just found out that all blocking does is prevent messages. That creep can still look at ALL OF MY PICTURES and read ALL OF MY CONTENT, and there is nothing that I can do to conceal myself.

      They literally told me that they don’t believe in “hard-blocking”, and this is VERY alarming to me.

      I am a paid user and I do not appreciate being told by a representative that i have to PAY for feeling invaded and uncomfortable. It’s not safe. It makes me want to leave, and that means that even if I create a new account now I have to do the work to avoid them, and they’re the creep with the bad behavior.

      That is not fair. WHY don’t they give us a clean, absolute way to hide our profiles from people who are troublemakers? How is that sane or reasonable? Online dating is already DANGEROUS for women! What are they even thinking?

    • Brad  June 15, 2016

      This is news to me M – how did you confirm this was happening? I’m pretty sure that this works. If you email me on the contact page, I can give you my account name and have you block me and I could confirm.

  45. anon  October 20, 2011

    I’m curious as to the full answer of a previous question. I have a favorite, who’s profile is now unavailable, meaning either they have hidden their profile or are no longer a member of the website. If they are indeed no longer a member of the website and I were to send an email, would they be able to read it or would they have to re-subscribe?

    Thanks

  46. JJ  October 21, 2011

    Brad,

    Would I be able to tell if someone is searching for me, finds my profile using the search tool but does not view my profile?

    JJ

  47. Brad  October 22, 2011

    anon – I’m fairly certain that to read an emails you would have to subscribe. Even if you were subscribed and then someone sent you and email, to read and reply would require membership.

  48. Brad  October 22, 2011

    JJ – if someone searching you but doesn’t look at your profile, this isn’t going to show you anything as far as I know. They actually have to view your profile for you to be aware of anything.

  49. Louise  October 24, 2011

    Brad,

    I’ve been dating someone for 4 months. He deactivated his account 2 months ago, yet his profile/picture still appear on match. When I confronted him about this one month ago he showed me his account. He clicked on an email from match which was the profile of an interested member. Her profile was visible but it was limited and he could only view it further if he re-subscribed. However, when he was showing me his inactive account, I had my computer on and his status said “online now”. He shows me the match emails he is still receiving. Sometimes he deletes them but if he opens one, his status changes. His picture and profile are still appearing online, and his status often changes from “in over 3 weeks” to “online now” to “24 hours”. Can an unsubscribed member’s profile and picture remain on the site and appear to be an active member? How long after a member cancels a subscription will it take before the profile/picture are no longer visible on match. Or does a member have to complete more steps beyond cancelling a subscription to be certain their profile/picture do not appear on the site anymore?

  50. Brad  October 26, 2011

    Louise – an unsubscribed member will still show unless they hide their profile or delete their account. I don’t believe there’s a time limit, his account would continue to show until he hides/deletes it. Hiding the profile is very easy though. If I remember correctly, you just go to the account settings and change the visibility status.

  51. ANON  October 28, 2011

    Brad

    Many people are dumfounded by sneaky ACTIVE WITHIN practices via match.com.

    A match rep with whom I spoke clearly stated a few points. This was in the discussion of paid subscribers.

    All subscribers have an email account associated with their match.com account.

    If a subscriber then opens a match.com associated email through their associated email account, it will show them as active within ever time period from the point of opening the email.

    This means a subscriber does not have to log into match.com through the actual site in order for their “active within” time frame to update. It updates, many times unbeknownst to them, by virtue of opening correspondence.

    The content of a match.com email is irrelevant be it from it a wink, correspondence from a subscriber as well as customer surveys sent from match. In other words: Opening anything from match will reflect activity update time frame. Gets many into trouble if they have agreed to not visit the site.

    Updated activity time frame will NOT appear under the same circumstance if a subscriber has hidden their profile. A side note: the profile will not show up in a search when hidden.When logged into match, saved or non deleted former correspondence will show the hidden profile picture, but the account bio is invisible.

    Profile removal – if the profile has been removed, there should be NO ACTIVITY UPDATE if that person still shows up in their database. Be aware that this is a common problem for people who have deleted their profile. Match has often showed people as being a subscriber when they have been long gone.

    Let’s assume match is at fault in not removing the profile once deleted, the next logical step is to look at the “active within” period. This tells more about the truth. A few scenarios may be the culprit:
    Match did not remove the profile though the subscriber deleted it.
    Let says-
    The active within period displays the user as being active within 24 hours, 3 days, etc.:
    Then-
    The subscriber is still opening emails from the match.com associated account.
    OR
    the subscriber has logged into match
    OR
    or someone has gained access to their match account.
    OR
    someone has hacked their associated email account and is opening match correspondence through that means or logging into their match account from the email address
    OR
    your exclusive significant other is full of you know what.

    I personally feel opening winks or emails from match interests under any circumstance ONCE AGREED to be EXCLUSIVE, can be damaging to both parties. There should be none of that if two people have agreed to stay off the site.

    The only way to know why a profile is active after deletion is to call match directly and insist on a clear, concise answer. Ask them to send an email to follow up as proof of your concern.

    As many people that are brought together, a significant portion are broken up by match sneakily updating activity feed or failing to remove a profile that has been deleted.

    Trust is essential in any relationship, but match is contributing to its violation when employing dishonest practices to boost their membership count in their success.

    I wonder what the numbers of failure within match are because of this veiled practice.

    Hiding the profile is easy and can be done in a couple of seconds.
    Deleting profile should be. But often is not removed thanks to match.
    Pictures can remain years after expired account or those that have not been removed by match.
    Active within period would be more accurate for discerning your exclusivity – even if match is at fault for not removing the profile once the subscriber has deleted the account.

    Unless you have given out your password.

  52. Gem  December 4, 2011

    Can I hide my profile from one viewer e.g it will upset my ex boyfriend as I know he’s on it to. If I hide my profile would it for everyone, or how about if I blacklist the profile I don’t want to report a concern just don’t want my ex hassleing me on a dating site or for him to see my profile.

  53. Brad  December 4, 2011

    Gem – you should be able to go to your ex’s profile and then block him. This would prevent him from seeing your profile (if given the option to block from search or block from contact, choose both of those options). He won’t be alerted when you do this and you’re not flagging him either.

  54. jeanie  January 5, 2012

    oh well, i accused an ex-boyfriend of being “active within” and he swore it was just because he clicked on an email from match. I told him he was full of crap…. but then why was he opening the email .. this online stuff is so iffy sometimes.
    I recently met someone else on match, he gave me the impression that he likes me and would llike to be exclusive, yet i see he’s still active often. He has an “IM me now” on his profile. what’s that all about

  55. Brad  January 6, 2012

    I’m fairly certain that “IM me now” means the same thing as being online. I know you can’t start and Instant Messanger conversation if they’re not online so…

    Might be interesting if you *did* start an IM conversation with him at some point! Tough to deny being online at that point.

  56. Jess  January 8, 2012

    I also had a similar issue with a now recent ex. He was also showing up as being active in last 24 hours, which I was uncomfortable with when I went on one week to check after many weeks away from the site. He claimed it was because his ipad automatically logged him in…

    When you put yourself in unavailable mode can you surf profiles and they dont see? Have never been sure about that.

    Also I want to hide my profile as really do not want to be coming up on searches at the moment, nor found by anyone as needing some space. I would rather hide, than suspend my account. I have clicked on ‘My Account’ dropdown and selected ‘my profile’ but cannot see visibility options anywhere. I used to see this about 6 months ago but Match changed a bit. Can you advise?

  57. Brad  January 8, 2012

    Hey Jess – if you hover over Profile at the top then click on Settings, you should be able click a radio button to make your account hidden. I’m not sure about unavailable mode. Do you just mean not visible? If your profile is hidden and you browse profiles, they won’t know you’re browsing them. However, I do believe that if you later make your profile visible again, you will show up in the “Who’s Viewed Me” for those people that you had viewed.

  58. jenna  February 12, 2012

    Hi, hid my profile and went to view someone I just stopped dating’s profile. I now know that as soon as I unhide it they can see I me in their who’s viewed me!! If I go back on to their profile page and hit the block from search and block from contact buttons will they still see I viewed the???

  59. Brad  February 12, 2012

    Jenna – I’m honestly not sure but my suspicion is that if you blocked from search that you wouldn’t show in their list of people who’s viewed them. Also, I believe the list of people who have viewed you drops people off the list after 2 weeks so you could also just wait a while (and be sure to not look at the profile again!)

  60. Joan  February 20, 2012

    What does ‘Additional Profile Information Unavailable’ mean exactly? Have I been blocked by this person?

  61. Tim  March 8, 2012

    I have someone added as my favorite. When i click to view my favorites it says I dont have one selected. When i do the search, she is viewable and it says she is a favorite. I am assuming that means she is not hidden, but also I am not blocked?

  62. jeff  March 16, 2012

    Here’s an interesting dilemma. I’m dating someone from match.com, but I don’t feel like she’s that into me, like I’m her good-for-now guy, and I can tell she leaves herself aside a lot of time on the weekend for other adventures you might say.

    I want to go back to Visible with my profile, and start being active again looking. But I don’t want her to see that my profile is “active with 24 hours” if she logs in. (She’s not on match, herself, because I see her activity is within 4 weeks or longer, but she may casually log in again).

    If I click the “block her from search” link, will that effectively set me on invisible for her, and visible to everyone else ?

    I know this sounds tacky, but I just want to continue looking, plus she’s a really far drive for someone who I can tell is not passionate about me.

  63. Tracy  March 17, 2012

    On Match, I am not a paying customer, but I have my free active profile. When searching, I made one person a favorite who has an active paid profile. Recently, I can not see their profile when generally searching/looking at profiles. However, eventhough I can not see their profile by general, random view, they still show as a favorite of mine, and I can go into their profile. Their profile still shows active, however, the profile does not show any pictures available, and it shows that they have not been on the profile, at the time of this email, for 3 weeks. What is the situation here??

  64. Tracy  March 17, 2012

    In addition to the previous submission by Tracy, I can also go into their profile by username, eventhough I can not see their profile while searching by random/general view for profiles?? Again, what is the situation??

  65. Brad  March 17, 2012

    Jeff – I think if you block her from search she wouldn’t be able to see your profile. Still…I think it could be better to talk with her about this! Maybe she’s not coming from where you think she is?

    • Sam  May 15, 2012

      Brad,

      When you use the “block from search” link on a profile page, it doesn’t remove your profile from their search results, it removes their profile from your search results and your lists. Here is the text from the match.com help page titled “Removing Profiles From Search Results”.

      “From the full Match.com website, you can remove a member from search by clicking on the “x” icon in the corner of their profile (when it appears in lists) or by clicking on the Block from Search link in their profile. They will no longer show in your search results or in your other lists. And, of course, they won’t know that you took this action.”

      If you were able to block your own profile from their search results they could easily find out that you blocked them by signing out and then searching for your profile or by creating another profile and searching for your profile.

    • Brad  May 15, 2012

      I guess that makes sense Sam in regards to them creating a new profile. I think in my mind it was always an issue of “you don’t know what you don’t know” so blocking from search could be effective (were it to work that way). But looking that the help, I do see you are correct. Thanks for pointing this out!

  66. Brad  March 17, 2012

    Tracy – I believe that if someone you have added to your favorites hides their profile that you would still be able to see them in your favorites. I suspect that’s what is going on here.

  67. jeff  March 19, 2012

    Thanks Brad. You’re right about that. I ended up breaking up with her due to gut instincts about things, so I’m back on looking again.

  68. Amy  March 23, 2012

    Ive been dating this guy from match.com who happens to be very tech savvy. I noticed his morning his profile said active in a week. Later on it said active in 2 weeks. Is this a glitch in the system or could he be changing the programmed script to read something else? Please help, very confused! Thanks!

    • Ken  March 30, 2012

      Maybe the automatic counter went past 1 week in between the time you viewed him that day. There’s a point where it switches from 1 week to 2 weeks.

  69. Kurt  March 27, 2012

    On Feb. 20th Joan asked and i would like to know as well…

    What does ‘Additional Profile Information Unavailable’ mean exactly? Have I been blocked by this person?

    Thanks Brad

  70. Kim  March 28, 2012

    Brad,

    How would someone go from being on my “who viewed me” list one day to not being there the next if I didn’t remove them or “x” out of their profile?

  71. Sarah Night  March 28, 2012

    What does ‘Additional Profile Information Unavailable’ mean?
    I’m confused because last week I was e-mailing with a guy, he said he was interested in meeting up, but then when I suggested a date I did not hear back from him and now he shows up as ‘Additional Profile Information Unavailable’ when I view him in my favorites. Am I blocked? Not sure if I should try to contact him again or not.

  72. Brad  March 29, 2012

    To the questions on ‘Additional Profile Information Unavailable’…I’m not 100% sure. Can any explain how you are viewing the profile? If you added the person to your favorites, I think you can still see the profile even if they hide it or block you (not 100% sure on that) so it might be one of those cases. We could always experiment if someone wanted to email me their user ID and then block me!

    • Mel  October 8, 2012

      I have someone listed as my favorite and I can no longer see their profile so either they blocked me, hid their profile or are no longer a member…not sure which. I hoping they hid their profile overall since we have met and all seems to be going well.

  73. Brad  March 29, 2012

    Kim – people will drop off of you ‘Who has viewed me” list after a few weeks. So I believe if they drop off it means that they viewed your profile a few weeks ago but haven’t viewed it again since (if they’d viewed your profile again I believe it would reset the timer for when they would drop off).

  74. Ken  March 30, 2012

    Additional Profile Information Unavailable – this happens when someone deactivates their profile (hidden). I’ve had it happen before with people I met and they’ve told me they had the profile deactivated. It may happen if you get blocked but I’m not sure about that.

  75. Tracey  March 31, 2012

    Hi there, I have sent and email to someone and its in the email folder, however i tried to send a further one and although it come up ’email sent’ it does not appear in the email box, as was a wink (to see if i was going mad!) I have also IM the same person this morning, and the text was blue, when i logged back in it had turned red and has nowdisapeared completly? does this mean he has blocked/blacklisted me, or is there another reason??? BTW I have subscribed to the mobile package, as i cannot always get onto a desktop. Many thanks

  76. Brad  April 1, 2012

    Tracey – is it possible that all the further communication is being tracked under that first email you sent? It might be similar to how gmail has “conversations” where it groups the emails under one item.

  77. catherine  April 1, 2012

    The same thing happened to me. Someone e-mailed me, and by the time I looked at the e-mail (3 days later), his profile came up as “Additional Profile Information Unavailable”. His picture is still there, but I cannot click on his profile at all. He still appears in my favorites, yet he is the only person that I cannot check out his profile. Since he had already sent me an email I was able to respond to it, but I would not be able to send a new e-mail. Has he hid his profile or blocked me?

  78. Jess  April 11, 2012

    Hi

    I just stupidly opened up my (very old) match.com account to see if someone I went on a date with was still on there! He was still on my blacklisted list. It said he was online (from my blacklist) and I clicked on him to see his profile!
    Will he see I did this?! I really dont want him to – he scared me quite a bit, but curiosity got the better of me

  79. Lucy  April 15, 2012

    This may be a silly question. When searching for people on match do they appear in order of when they were last online?

  80. Brad  April 15, 2012

    Hey Lucy – to me, it looks like the searching does favor people based on when they were last online. It doesn’t seem to be exactly that way as I see some “Online Now” people mixed in with “Online in the Last 24 Hours” but it looks like that’s generally how the results are ordered.

  81. Dee Dee  April 15, 2012

    I have been searching random people on match.com & I do not have an account. I have logged in with an email address & a password only. I have no profile set up. If I view someone’s profile & also favorite someone, will they ever know that I have viewed them & how many times?

  82. Brad  April 15, 2012

    Dee Dee – even if you don’t fill out a profile, you still technically have one (at least I’m 99% sure of this). Unless you hide your profile, I do believe they’d be able to see this type of activity.

  83. Dee Dee  April 15, 2012

    Do you happen to know if my email address or anything that would identify me come up? I only ask that because I am separated & thinking about online dating. I went on just to browse & see what type of people are out there. I did come across a particular person that I think would be a great match for me, but if I decide to start a profile & wink at him or send an email, I don’t want him to think I was stalking him previously or something. I am a completely normal person who is actually a little nervous to go back out into the dating world. My email address I used has my name in it. Wondering if he could identify me by that & get freaked out. What do you think?

  84. Brad  April 16, 2012

    No, Dee Dee, they can only see what you share in your profile. They can’t see your email address at any point. The only way they would get your email address is if you specifically told them what it was.

  85. Lizzie  May 8, 2012

    When a person has been blocked, will they know it? What if there has been correspondence? Does a notice appear they have been blocked?

  86. anonymous  May 13, 2012

    My boyfriend of 5 years and I broke up. I found out that he signed up to be on match.com right after I left. I had to find out for myself if it was true, so I made an email address but I did not do a membership or anything. I am able to see his profile to see if he has been active to or not. Will he know that I have viewed his profile and how many times I have viewed it?

  87. Brad  May 14, 2012

    I imagine he’d be able to see that someone was viewing his profile but if you didn’t include your personal information he’d have no way of knowing it was you.

  88. anonymous  May 14, 2012

    Will he know how many times, though? Like would he know if I viewed like 10 times in a night?

  89. Brad  May 15, 2012

    No, the information on who viewed you is rather vague and he wouldn’t know the number of times his profile was viewed.

  90. Helen  May 25, 2012

    Hi. I have the match.com app on my phone and I’m having trouble with my pictures… Mainly when I go to my own profile where my picture should be displayed it’s the icon for those without a picture, when I click on it my pic appears but the small ones along the bottom from my album appear as icons also. There is one I want to delete so I go the button for change photos and they are all there but displaying as the same icon so I never know which one is the right one!!! Please help

  91. Brad  May 26, 2012

    Helen – couldn’t you log on to the web page version and adjust it there? I think changes you make in one place will also show in the other.

  92. una  May 27, 2012

    ihey im wondering how to block someone from seeing me on their search page there is no block from contacts or block from searches on the irish site there is jus blacklisint and i dont know what thi means? does it mean he can no longer see me in his search? i have emailed match.com aswell. also i have hidden his profile but i think that only means i cannot see his profile not he cannot see me they are the only 2 options on the irish site not sure why blocking someone from searches and contacts is not an option as it seems to be on every ones elses countries site!?

  93. Brad  May 28, 2012

    Una – I believe that blacklist would accomplish what you’re looking for. It sounds like different wording for your country but I imagine it accomplishes the same thing (although if Match gets back to you with a different answer I’m sure everyone would appreciate an update!)

  94. Nicole  May 30, 2012

    Hey- are there any defects in the email read notifications?? I sent an email but and it says that it was read, however the user hasn’t logged in in 5 days and I know anytime u read an email from match whether it be from the site or ur personal email account it updates ur active status.

    • Karen  June 1, 2012

      Yes, you can read Match email that sends a copy to your private account. It toggles it was opened but may not put you online status. My theory is that if you are opening your email from iphone away from your ISP service (possibly at work or using wifi elsewhere) it wont put you as online status. BUT yes, when you open email that is sent to your phone, or your private account that is not opening it from match directly, it will and does show as opened from match. 🙂

  95. Brad  May 31, 2012

    Hey Nicole – I’ve note heard of any issues with email read notifications. Has anyone else run into this issue?

  96. gg  June 21, 2012

    Hi! i want to know what is the difference between “IM me now” and “On line now”, thanks

  97. Brad  June 22, 2012

    gg – I’d think that to be able to IM someone now, they’d also need to be online. However, some people disable the IM feature so not everyone who shows as online will show the option to IM.

  98. Steve  June 30, 2012

    I have received winks or been favorited by someone only to find out when I go to their profile that it say “Additional profile information not available”. How is this possible since they just sent something to me.

  99. Brad  July 1, 2012

    Steve – I believe that would happen if they have hidden their account or if they had blocked you.

  100. Jan  July 2, 2012

    If a person’s status states “active over 3 weeks,” does this mean they haven’t checked their match account and/or e-mails either via the site or their mobile or personal email if linked to match? also, if a person has matchmobile or matchphone and uses these features as their primary
    (or only) way to interact in match, will their status still update on their profile?

    also, if a person changes their account info, including a different profile name and e-mail, will the changed information (i.e., profile name, etc) show up in the “who’s viewed your profile” of the previously viewed profiles? Or is the changed information treated like a new account and the prior account history is not shown?

    thank you!

    • Brad  July 3, 2012

      Jan – yeah, over 3 weeks should mean they’ve used absolutely nothing for the website in over three weeks (no logging in, no phone apps, etc).

      If they change their account info, I believe they would still show in your “who’s viewed me” and the updates would show. It shouldn’t treat their profile like a new account.

  101. Confused  July 10, 2012

    My boyfriend and I have been dating for over 6 months and we actually met on match.com. He told me he deactived his account 4 months ago. Recently, our relationship is going thru some tough time, and my six sense told me to check his profile activity status on match again. I had his profile saved in my favorite. Although i could not open his profile because it said it’s hidden or something, the account shows “Active over 3 weeks”. Does it mean he logged on within the past 4 months? If that is what it means, I will confront him and break it off.

    Let me know. Thanks

  102. Cece  July 12, 2012

    Do you think it’s a come-on from Match.com to get you to subscribe when you receive emails from them saying someone has emailed you, or commented on a photo?

    • Brad  July 14, 2012

      Cece – I’m sure they’re trying to entice you to join but I don’t think they’re lying if that’s what you’re asking.

  103. Brad  July 14, 2012

    Confused – I believe “Active over 3 weeks” is the biggest measurement they provide. So if he was active last month or last year, in both cases I believe is shows that.

  104. Jess  July 16, 2012

    When I search for a match.com user name it says username you are looking for may have a hidden account or new user name. How do you know if they really didn’t delete their acount. Does it tell you when someone deletes their acccont by saying user account has been deleted or user account is closed.

    • Brad  July 17, 2012

      I’m not sure on this on Jess…it sounds like they might just use the generic message you’re seeing. They may not want to point out that people are deleting their profiles. But again, I’m not sure how this works.

  105. Hazel  July 29, 2012

    Hi there
    How can I tell the last time someone was online without clicking on their profile?

  106. Brad  July 30, 2012

    Hazel – I thought when viewing search results or your favorites it shows the last time they logged in without you having to view their profile. Is that not the case?

  107. jaimee  July 31, 2012

    If someone has blocked me from contact, will they show up as who viewed me? also how long do people show as a connection

    • Brad  August 5, 2012

      I believe they would not show under who viewed me but if you had them marked as a favorite or had an email from them, you’d still see their account in those areas.

      As for how long people stay on as connections, I’m honestly not sure about that one. Anyone have an idea on this?

  108. Bj  August 8, 2012

    ok heres the deal..when I’m on match and I do a search to look for my profile..it doesn’t show,But my friend is at home and she can she my profile on her computer. So when I came to work today..I did a search for me and couldn’t find me…????

    • Brad  August 11, 2012

      BJ – I don’t believe the search results will show your own profile. You actually have to view it through the area where you edit your profile. I believe there’s a link to see your profile as others would see it. Rest assured though, as long as your profile is visible it will be in the search results.

  109. Kelly  September 12, 2012

    If I have previously “winked” or “emailed” another member on match, and then decide to “hide” my profile – can those members whom i have ALREADY contacted still reply to my email OR wink?

    • Brad  September 12, 2012

      Kelly – with the email, I believe that they could still contact you. I’m honestly not sure with the wink but I’d lean towards yes. I think this is the case because they still have a way to get to your profile (using the email/wink in their inbox).

  110. isabel fombellida  September 13, 2012

    Someone tried to contact me but I was busy and now i realize that he blocked me. Today i sent an successful email!! Will he receive my email?? (..)

    • Brad  September 22, 2012

      If someone blocked you, I don’t think they can get your emails. Weird for a guy to be blocking women just because they don’t respond…I guess he might be trying to avoid contacting the same woman twice but he’s not doing himself any favors!

  111. Ana  September 15, 2012

    Hi, the match site says it takes 180 days for a profile to drop off of the who’s viewed me list. My question…if my profile is hidden, my viewed me counter is at say 100, then 101 , how did it go back down to 100?

    • Brad  September 22, 2012

      Hi Ana – I’m honestly not sure how that would happen. My guess is that it’s some type of bug and see if the counter starts going up again as time goes by.

  112. Mike  September 24, 2012

    I have some questions with the online now status. Could it be these folks aren’t actually logged in but are showing up
    Anyway? Here’s why–I’ve seen people appearing as online now at very odd hours. The person in question who keeps appearing as online now appears in this status at times when I know she is 99% likely to be asleep, like 4am. I know she has an android phone. Could it be she gets logged in whenever the app for android gets something like a profile view or wink?

    • Brad  September 30, 2012

      Hey Mike – from what I hear, Match can show people online even when they’re not. I don’t fully understand it but I’ve heard just opening emails from them can show you as online. Also, just from my own experience, their cookie for their website is pretty aggressive about keeping you logged in (even when I change the setting it sometimes still seems to default to keeping me logged in and I continue to use Match because I review profiles sometimes so this happened recently to me).

      Because of that, I’d consider the “online now” status a helper but I wouldn’t see it as always true.

  113. brenna_starr24  September 28, 2012

    My question is. If I’ve gone invisible and I still have a unopened e-mail to me…can he still tell I’ve opened it and read it??

    • Brad  September 30, 2012

      I’m fairly sure that he can see that. It would be like Jim’s situation below where because he contacted you prior to your profile being hidden, he’s still have a way to see it. Although can everyone see when an email has been opened? I thought that was a feature that only came with the 6-month special offer (but maybe I’m remembering incorrectly?)

  114. Jim  September 29, 2012

    Additional profile information unavailable. I can see her in
    My favorites, her active status and home photo. However I can’t link to her full profile. Is this a block or some other matter.

    • Brad  September 30, 2012

      I think that’s a sign of the profile having been hidden. Since it’s in your favorites, you can still open it where others cannot but when you do so the information isn’t shown. I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re seeing.

  115. tammy  October 22, 2012

    When searching for profiles on the right there is a side bar listing newest match members. Some profiles listed under the newest members side bar have been on the match site for months. Does this mean they just renewed their subscription?

    • Brad  October 28, 2012

      Perhaps…it might be a mistake as well. I’ve not heard of this issue before honestly.

  116. sammi  October 27, 2012

    brad, can u tell me how match.com works when u report someone? For example my husband is on there. we arent living together, but we are not legally separated NOR divorced and he is claiming he is divorced!

    • Brad  October 28, 2012

      I believe when reported, Match.com will try to verify things and then will kick the person off with no refund if they find there is an issue. I’m not sure if they require multiple complaints before kicking someone off or not…if so, your single complaint may have little effect so I’m honestly not sure what you should expect to happen in this case.

  117. Amanda  October 31, 2012

    I have two questions…
    If I have someone show up in my singled out match of the day do I show up for their singled out match or any of their daily matches? Same question if I have a hidden profile.

    • Brad  November 3, 2012

      Amanda – I don’t believe you both get matched to each other on the same day…I thought that was so you wouldn’t feel compelled to contact them or feel bad if you weren’t interested. That said, if someone else’s experience is different than this, please correct me.

      As for having a hidden profile, you’re not going to show on anyone’s match of the day. I didn’t think you could continue to receive matches when you’re hidden either, but I’m not 100% on that.

  118. Mike  November 1, 2012

    My match.com profile is hidden. Recently, I could no longer see a profile that I used to be able to see. However, when I did a google search, I was able to view the profile that way. Any ideas on how that happened? Could I somehow have been blocked even though I’m hidden?

    • Brad  November 3, 2012

      Hey Mike – I’m not sure how you would Google members on Match…I didn’t think that would work? However, I think what’s most likely happening here is that they may have deleted their profile. I can’t imagine that someone would be motivated to block you while you were hidden and I’m not even sure how they would go about doing that.

  119. Amanda  November 1, 2012

    Hey Brad,
    If my profile is hidden will I show up in other people matches? or what if I was in their matches before I hide my profile, can they still see my profile?

    • Brad  November 3, 2012

      Hey Amanda – no you shouldn’t show in new matches. The only way I’m aware of that people would still be able to see your profile is if:

      1. They added you as a favorite before you hid your profile
      2. The two of you communicated by email

      I think in those two instances they’d still have a way to open your profile. If you viewed their profile shortly before hiding yours, they might be able to access you through “Who’s Viewed Me” as well but I’ve never tested that.

  120. sara  November 2, 2012

    if a picture says: additional profile information unavailable..what does that mean? was I blocked? Is their account finished?

    • Brad  November 3, 2012

      Hey Sara – I think your issue is related to Amanda’s above. I suspect whoever your viewing has hidden their profile, some of the data is not shown until the un-hide it.

  121. May  November 7, 2012

    Hi brad,

    Someone I have been dating says he no longer has an active profile. However, he is still in my favorites and when I checked it, his picture shows up, says he was active within an hour yet I cannot view any other details. Can you tell me if he has hidden his profile or has he deleted it? What does a search for someone look like if they have deleted their profile?

    Thank you for the help!
    M

    • Brad  November 10, 2012

      May – that sounds like a hidden profile to me. You wouldn’t be able to search for his profile since it’s hidden but because he was already in your favorites before he hid his profile, you can still see him.

  122. Vanna  November 11, 2012

    Hi Brad,

    I had addded someone to my favorites list while hidden.. I could still view their pic and profile while being hidden.. A few weeks later they hid their profile as well, but I could still see them in my favorites when they were hidden.. Today I went online and their hidden profile that was located in my favorites to view was totally gone while I’m still hidden.. Is it possible that they deleted their entire profile account from match?? Also, I had unhid my profile for maybe 10 mins.. If someone is in your favorites, but they are hidden, would tery be able to see I had made them a favorite even though they have now hidden their account? Just still unsure about the whole dating site since being single and testing the waters.. Please reply when you can.. Thanks 🙂

    • Brad  November 18, 2012

      Hey Vanna – my best guess is that if someone in your favorites disappears entirely, they probably deleted their profile. Sounds like someone who initially hid their profile (perhaps because he met someone) and then once the relationship had moved further, came back and deleted his profile.

  123. Steven  November 29, 2012

    Hi Brad,

    I’ve noticed on the website that some users have the “IM me now” feature under their name but it doesn’t say they’re online. If the “IM me now” feature appears then does that automatically mean the user is online?

    Thanks

  124. Brad  December 1, 2012

    Hi Steven – I did some searching around and found this in the Match.com help section of their website:

    If I am offline, will I be able to see missed IMs?
    No. If you’re offline, you will not be available to be contacted via IM on Match. However, anyone who wishes to contact you will most likely send you an email.

    So I guess this is some type of bug? It should be pointed out that Match.com’s “Online Now” has been said to have issues (some people say it can show you online when you’re not). So perhaps this is a problem like that?

    At any rate, I think IM Me Now will also mean Online Now based on the Match.com help.

  125. James  December 11, 2012

    I keep getting email messages of being winked by different people but when I go to look on the website that persons profile is no longer visible. If this happened once or twice I would think nothing of it, but it has happened several times now. I don’t know if this is something Match.com does to keep people interested in their site or what.

  126. Jess  December 31, 2012

    My roommate looked on Match.com and let me know that if you are not a match.com user AT ALL the general public can view your profile. Is there a way to set my profile so that only users can see me?

    • Brad  January 1, 2013

      Jess – I don’t think there’s a “member’s only” option for viewing. You can either hide it from everyone or have it visible.

    • Shane  March 15, 2013

      Hi Brad,

      Wondering if it is possible to create a profile and keep it hidden to all, except those whom you contact. That way people can’t find your profile while browsing, but if you find someone you’re interested in, you can contact them and allow it so they can see your photos, profile, etc..
      If this is not possible, might you know why? It seems like a wise option for users who prefer to contact rather than be contacted/viewed. Some shy people don’t want to be spotted on there but need a way to share their profile with chosen people.

      Thanks

    • Brad  March 17, 2013

      Shane – I don’t believe this is possible. I’ve had others ask this and haven’t ever found or heard of something like this. My best guess as to “why” is because Match.com would likely be motivated to have people see how many members they have, which would be encouragement for new people to use their service. If everyone’s profile were hidden except from the people they contact, I suspect Match would worry that might hurt their business. That’s just a guess though!

  127. Elle  March 4, 2013

    Brad….I am in the process of creating a profile on Match.com. I am constantly in and out of the website as I add and tweak my profile. I am have not subscribed yet and not sure I will at this point. Is my profile visible while I am in the process of building it?
    Since I am able to view potential matches based on my criteria, I wonder if my “unfinished profile” was visible and can these potential matches see that I am reading their profiles?
    I realize I cannot communicate with them, but it’s surprising how much I have access/able to read if though I am not a subscriber presently.
    It’s making me nervous! Any direction would be greatly appreciated
    Thanks

    • Brad  March 17, 2013

      Elle – I do believe your profile is visible as you create it. If you’re nervous, you can go into your account settings and hide your profile until it’s done and you’re ready for people to check out your profile. And similar to Shane’s question above, it may be surprising how my you can access but I do think this is about Match encouraging people to find people they’re interested even when they’re not yet subscribers.

  128. Billy  March 21, 2013

    So i’ve been able to cancel my account.. as I’ve found someone from their site. But I’m tired of all the emails that continue to come regarding ‘your latest matches’. How can I get this to stop? I’m not paying for the service any longer… and I certainly don’t need them dangling ‘other’ woman in my face and trying to lure me back. So the question is, how do I get them to stop from sending these?

    • Brad  March 23, 2013

      Even though you’ve cancelled, you can still log into your account then go to Account then Settings then Email Preferences. You should be able to stop the emails here.

  129. prophet  March 28, 2013

    Hi Brad

    How are profiles ranked (in order of view)?

    • Brad  March 30, 2013

      I believe the default sort when you do a search is based on who Match.com believes you’ll be most compatible with. But you can change the sort in the upper right. If you were asking something different, let me know.

  130. Mary  March 28, 2013

    What if someone has the green highlighted profile and then they do not renew… will their profile remain green highlighted or will it remove the green?

    • Brad  March 30, 2013

      I would expect it to remove the green (99.9% sure it would).

  131. Jm  April 6, 2013

    I have a question. When match.com emails you a list of matches, when you click on one it gives you some of their information and tells you to login to see more. If you click on someone without logging in do you still appear in their “who’s viewed me” list?

    • Brad  April 6, 2013

      While I’ve not tested it, I don’t believe you would show on the “Who’s viewed me list”. Without logging in, I’m pretty sure Match wouldn’t have a way to specify that you were the one doing the viewing.

  132. Christine  April 6, 2013

    Hi Brad,

    How long will it say that a member has “added new photo(s)” on his/her match.com profile?

    Thanks,
    Christine

    • Brad  April 12, 2013

      I’m honestly not too sure Christine =/ I’d guess a week but that’s 100% a guess – anyone else happen to know?

  133. John  April 23, 2013

    Hi Brad
    I was seeing someone I met on Match but broke it off. I don’t want to be callous to this person by appearing to get back on match too soon so how can I prevent them from seeing my profile?

    • Brad  April 27, 2013

      Hey John – if you block them they shouldn’t see you profile any longer (or I believe that to be the case).

  134. Bella  April 30, 2013

    Hi Brad, I have a new question. Does Match change your age automatically if a birthday has passed? I ask this cuz this guy I was dating whose profile says, and has said for months “active in over three weeks.” But, in the last couple of days all of a sudden his age changed but it didn’t say he had been online it still said active in over three weeks. How is that possible?

    • Brad  May 4, 2013

      Yep – the age should change automatically.

  135. Emily  May 10, 2013

    Hi Brad, I think this has already been addressed but just wanted to ask a question for my specific situation. I added a guy to my “favorites” list while his account was active, but now next to his profile it says “Additional profile information unavailable” but i’m still able to see that he was has been active in the last hour, 24 hours, etc- that status does change- but I can no longer access his profile and it isn’t in the search options. I made another account just to make sure he didn’t block me, but he doesn’t show up in the search either. So with that info. above, does this mean he has hidden his profile? Or has he completely deleted his profile? Or unsubscribed?

    • Brad  May 11, 2013

      Hey Emily – sounds like a hidden profile to me. If he had deleted it, it would totally disappear and unsubscribing wouldn’t change anything as far as I know.

  136. Emily  May 11, 2013

    Hi Brad, thank you so much for your reply. I have another silly question– so apparently match.com allows a member to either resign from “membership” and resign from “subscription”. Does the resignation from membership delete the entire profile? I think resigning from subscription does not delete the profile but won’t allow the user to contact other active members. Essentially, I’m trying to figure out if this guys’ profile is still active, hidden, and he’s still searching for people or if he is completely gone from match.com. Thank you so much again!

    • Brad  May 23, 2013

      Hey Emily – resign from subscription (which I assume is the same thing as cancel) doesn’t remove the profile. Resign from membership should remove the profile, although again I think the language is a bit different when I used the site.

      If someone hid his profile and you had a link to that profile (email, favorites, etc) I think you should still be able to view it. If on the other hand it’s just disappeared, that sounds more like a deleted/resigned membership to me.

  137. Tricia  May 17, 2013

    Okay so if you check match emails on your phone and you are not on wifi it will not record your activity as online now or give read receipts to the sender. If you have your wifi on for your phone it will show you online now and give read receipts. If you turn off your wifi off on your phone it will immediately change on match to activie in 1 hour then a few minutes later go back to active within 3 days or whenever you were last on the actual site.

    The most accurate way to know if someone was online or checking emails on their phone is if they are saved under your favorites it displays more accurate times. Still you will only know if they use wifi. For instance your favorites will show them active within 1 hour while the general search may say active within 3 days. I have tested it because it has been making me crazy.

    My ex did that crappy stuff to me we were exclusive and he would be on there always saying it was the site or he doesn’t know. I really don’t think it is the site. Also if you hide your profile the people who saved you as favorites will still see everytime you log on even though they can’t see your profile under favorites it will say last online statuts. You can also continue to email people and use the site with it hidden not new people because they can’t view your profile but you can continue on contact with people you are already talking to that is what he did.

    If someone is seriously exclusive they should remove photos and hide profile and not log on period.

  138. S3  May 22, 2013

    I accidentally clicked “interested” on someone … and they showed up in my “you’re interested” tab for a long time. I couldn’t figure out how to take it off … and then one day it was just gone.

    His profile is still up, he’s still active, etc …. but he’s no longer in my “you’re interested” list. Does this mean he’s blocked me or removed my profile?

    • Brad  May 23, 2013

      Hmm…not 100% sure on that one. I’d lean toward removed their profile because I think if you’re blocked you can still view the profile if you have a link to it (such as in an email or from your favorites).

  139. Emily  June 2, 2013

    Hi! Thank you so much again for all of your responses! I was wondering if a guys’ profile is hidden, is it possible to still email him using conventional email but sending it to his ? Would it still go through if he has an active membership? Essentially a guy has his profile hidden but still logs in regularly and i’m wondering if there was any way to contact him to find out if he is still single, or taken but still browsing…or if he is just showing that he’s active because he clicks on the daily match.com emails? Thank you so much again!

  140. Steve  June 4, 2013

    Brad, I viewed someone’s profile a few weeks ago, then viewed them again recently. Does that 2nd and subsequent views show up in their “who’s viewed me”, or just the 1st time?

    • Brad  June 20, 2013

      Hey Steve – it would only show you once. I believe once you view a profile, you show up to them as someone who viewed their profile for 2 weeks. My bet would be that when you viewed the profile a second time, it just reset the 2 week timer.

  141. Annie  July 10, 2013

    Hi
    I think I have an answer to those that see their “prospects” appearing “online” or active….when they claim not to have been on the site. I just joined and did an offsite search on myself when not online. The site said I was online on their site when I never was – I was simply reading personal emails and a few from that site. Of course I had to get to the bottom of this pronto. WTF?
    I had opened an email from the match.com just previously to the offsite search of myself. So here is what I believe to be happening – the site must use an image tracker. If you open the email and the image(s) load (and some may be hidden) it sends this info back to match.com which sends the image to their site saying you are falsely online. Yep – you are on your pc…but not there! Just SO wrong. If I am not on the site it should not say so. So I went to my outlook and under options and “read” chose “read all messages in plain text”. Their images will not load and they can not do this to you. After you choose the plain text options you will not receive images which is a very common way for sites/or anyone wanting to know their email was read and when ETC. to do whatever. If you really want to see a link they sent you….cut and paste it into your browser instead of clicking on it. Just opening an email with instantly loading images will tell the sender you did…and what they do with that info is obviously up to them. This will protect you from being tracked and falsely portrayed as being online or active when you are not. You will notice when you choose this option how the links all have tracking devices attached to you and your personal email. Hope you get my drift and this helps 🙂 It worked for me to not appear there when I was not.

    • Brad  July 14, 2013

      Thanks Annie – great info!

  142. Curious Lady  July 28, 2013

    Brad,

    I recently searched to see if my ex had a match.com profile on Google. He did (no biggie), but when I selected the link on google, it brought me right to his page and my Match.com user name popped up at the top as if I was logged in, even though my mobile app was logged out. Will I show up in his “who has viewed me” list now even though I viewed it on google? I hid my profile right after I realized it, hoping that I wouldn’t show up. Will I show up now since I viewed it BEFORE I hid my profile? If yes, then there is no point to hiding my profile if the damage is done. If I WONT show up while hidden…when I go to ‘un-hide’ my profile, will I show up at the TOP of his viewed list, or further down his list when I actually viewed it? Sorry to ask so many questions, but I just DO NOT know how to avoid him seeing that I viewed it. If there is no way to hide it, then my only option is to delete my acct, and start a new one….right? Will that actually prevent him from seeing I viewed him? Or will blocking him maybe prevent him from seeing I ever viewed him though?

    Please respond at your convenience….cant find any answers to these questions via the internet or on the Match.com site. Thank you!

    • Brad  July 31, 2013

      I’m fairly sure that if you hid your profile you won’t show, although if you un-hid it you would pop back in again. Worst case if I’m wrong and if he asks you about it, just be honest. It sounds like you were just curious and I’d think he would understand.

  143. Bekah  September 12, 2013

    In an effort to put my best foot forward and not give up on the possibility of meeting someone, I’ve begun to view Match.com almost like I would a job hunting resource.

    In the past I would meet an interesting guy, maybe meet for coffee of talk on the phone, and he would go “POOF!” Then of course I’m disappointed and ready to give up again. Now when I don’t hear back from someone right away I move on to searching again. As a result I’m now chatting with about 5 or 6 guys and have some first dates lined up.

    What advice would you offer for those of us who are trying to maximize our opportunities for meeting the right one while not getting discouraged in the process?

    • Brad  September 21, 2013

      Hi Bekah – the best advice I can give (or what helped me the most) was to not treat a first date as anything more than a first date. Early on when I was dating online, I put SOOO much pressure on myself. If a first date didn’t go perfectly, I was really down afterwards.

      Eventually, I changed my outlook and just treated first dates and a mini-adventure where I got to meet someone new. Bad dates just became funny stories to tell my friends and when the date went well, that was a nice outcome too!

      I think we all have a tendency to put a lot of pressure on ourselves to have perfect dates or meet someone is X amount of dates and often it just doesn’t go that smoothly! So I think it’s helpful to take different outlook that treats dating like an adventure instead of treating dating like a test that you either pass or fail. I know, easier said than done, but it worked for me.

  144. Alexis  September 19, 2013

    Hello, I had wondered about the green highlight, so I’m glad you addressed it! I’m also wondering, do you know if there’s a way to see when a member signed up for match? Thanks!

    • Brad  September 21, 2013

      Hi Alexis – I don’t believe this is possible and I’m 99% sure Match wouldn’t make it so. Mostly because I think some people would find it embarrassing to have others be aware of how long they have been trying or to know how long their account was open for.

  145. Christi  October 21, 2013

    If your profile is hidden when you view someone and then you block the person before you unhide your profile, will you show up in their who’s viewed me? What if you later unblock them but hide your profile and then view them again? Would you show up as viewing them?

    • Brad  October 31, 2013

      Wow…I’m honestly not sure! I would think blocking prevent them from seeing you at all but I don’t know. If you send me an email with your profile name, we could experiment, though.

  146. michael  January 27, 2014

    Do you know if one can send a link to another website in a message?

    • Brad  February 8, 2014

      I think you probably could. I know I could provide my personal email in my messages. But if not, you could probably spell it out. For example, “Hey you should check out my website at datingadviceguy dot com”. But I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have to do that.

  147. mary  January 30, 2014

    When on Match.com it will show an “active within 1 hour” or “active within 3 days” ect. I know this means that is the last time that the person logged on, however what if it shows nothing at all? Does it means this person is not a subscriber? or a non member? or does it just mean they haven’t logged in in a very long time?

    • Brad  February 8, 2014

      Hmm…I really don’t know! I thought it always shows something (so the very long time would always show “more than 3 weeks” or whatever the max was). Maybe they changed that…my only guess is that perhaps if the person hasn’t logged in for an extended time it could go blank.

  148. Amanda  February 19, 2014

    I just joined eHarmony. I don’t care for it because there are no matches in my same state. Maybe 2, but mostly all over the U.S. I just wanted to browse match. I don’t want to join another dating site this soon. I have a profile set up, but no subscription. He has a subscription, but it says it has been 3 weeks since he has checked it. From the other questions above, that looks like, it could be anywhere from 3 weeks to a year. I tagged him as favorite, but will he be able to respond to that if I am not a full member….just have a profile with no permanent subscription? Can he see my email address if I have favorited him? There isn’t another way to send him my email address.

    Thanks

    • Brad  February 22, 2014

      He wouldn’t be able to respond to you favoriting him aside from favoriting you back or winking at you (unless he’s a member andthen he could email). And yes, people do have profiles without a subscripton. Unfortunately he won’t be able to see your email because Match will want him to sign up to communicate with you. If he doesn’t subscribe, communication is quite difficult. You *might* be able to find him on Facebook if he left enough clues but that runs the risk of coming off as creepy…

  149. Marlene  March 8, 2014

    The two block features don’t show up when I look at profiles. I have a paid account, and can’t see what if anything I’m doing wrong?

    • Brad  March 8, 2014

      Hey Marlene – they do move these items around from time to time as the interface changed. As of March 2014, if you open a profile and look below they’re photo, you should see three text links near the bottom:

      Block from contact
      Block from search
      Report a concern

      The top two links are the two block features.

  150. JC  March 9, 2014

    Brad, when I view an old e mail from an ex that I met on Match, where the profile picture
    Used to appear now only says to check back later for a picture. Other people who never had a
    Profile pic just show a blank outline of a person. Does this mean that they deleted their account,
    Didn’t renew the subscription or blocked me.? My guess is that they cancelled their account and
    Removed the profile pic so that they don’t show up on the site. Is there any way that I can tell if they
    Are still active? What are your thoughts?

    • Brad  March 13, 2014

      I’d guess it’s a cancelled account. Since the email can’t be updated to remove that photo, I’m guessing that this is what will happen. I suppose it could be a hidden account as well…either way, I’d say it probably means they are “inactive” for one reason or another.

  151. Jon  March 13, 2014

    Hi Brad,

    First off, thanks for being the resident expert here. My question is this:
    – If you had messaged back and forth with someone a few weeks back and they showed up on your connections page previously but have now disappeared from your connections page, what does this mean?
    – more information – I can still see that the person’s picture and profile in the who’s viewed me page.

    I’m not sure what the difference between blocking, hiding profile, or canceled subscription means but I’d like to figure out what is going on since my breakup from someone I dated for a couple of months was a bit complicated as she told me that she simply didn’t have time to be dating (full-time student and works weekends, and purportedly now needs to end to an extremely sick parent).

    I logged in and saw the person was “active within 24 hours” in the who’s viewed me section so my natural reaction was to question a lot of things but I also see now that they are missing from my connections. Does this imply that her account was canceled or is it something else (blocked, profile hidden etc.)? Thanks again for your help.

    • Brad  March 13, 2014

      With connections, I’m not 100% sure. Do people drop off over time so only your most recent connections show? That would be my first thought since you can still see them in other areas.

      She may have canceled her account as she could still look at your profile with a canceled account (but she could also do that if her subscription was active too). It doesn’t sound like you’ve been blocked or I don’t think you’d see the activity at all and if her profile was hidden I don’t think she’d show in your who’s viewed you until she unhid her account.

      To me, she may have canceled her subscription but it sounds like she’s kept her account.

  152. Jon  March 13, 2014

    Brad,

    Thanks very much. Really appreciate it. That makes perfect sense now. Seems like she still has the account but canceled the subscription. It would seem weird that I would get blocked or profile hidden considering how well we were getting on but not seeing in the connections any more threw me for a loop since I had old, old connections still there.

    For what it’s worth, I am not sure about how connections drop off. But I can tell you a few more details that might help you answer other people.

    1) I still have connections from people that winked or liked me in my connections from close to six months ago. And they show up near the top too.
    2) One of my connections from someone I messaged and very briefly dated (no chemistry) back and forth is still in my connections but it now says the profile is hidden. I’d imagine that particular person I dated hid her profile, given the mutual lack of interest.

    Rock on, Brad!

  153. Sheila  April 1, 2014

    Just wondering if people are still able to see the emails you have sent to them although my profile is no longer active?

    • Brad  April 6, 2014

      Yes – anything you sent while you had an active account will still be able to be viewed.

  154. Krystal  May 11, 2014

    Hello, after scrolling and reading many questions I haven’t come across this one I don’t think. Actually two.
    1. How long does Match keep a profile logged in after they log off? I’ve notice the average time is around 1hour. Is this correct?
    2. In the search list (I use activity date) some profiles are shown as “online now” however if you open the profile it says “last online 1 or 24hrs ago”. What is the truth? Are they online or not?
    Thank you !

  155. Inga  May 23, 2014

    Additional profile information unavailable whats that?

  156. Steve  May 26, 2014

    When looking at the list of those who I have favorited, there are a few that say hidden profile, which I understand. What I don’t get is when I sort by activity date, those with hidden profiles seem to get sorted in between those who are not hidden. So is this giving me an idea as to when those hidden profile folks have been active, based upon when the non hidden folks were active?

    • Brad  June 4, 2014

      That’s right. Some people will hide their profile but still be very active in viewing other profiles. It may just be that they’re not interested in communicating or there may be some other reason they’ve hidden their profile even though they’re still interested in browsing the site.

  157. Darren  May 28, 2014

    Hi Brad, I hope you’re able to assist me as Match.com refuses to reply to any of my emails. I’ve this nagging problem of not being able to reach people with profiles written in different languages. For example, if I was searching for profiles in Taiwan, only the ones written in English will appear. I would like to reach ones written in Chinese too. I couldn’t find a solution to it. Could you help ?

    • Brad  June 4, 2014

      Hi Darren – I don’t know the answer but I’ll give you a guess: Match.com runs their website in many countries but you’d have to pay separately for each of those countries. For example, if you were planning to go to England this summer and wanted to try to start talking with some people before you arrive, you’d actually have to subscribe to the UK version of Match.com in addition to the US version. I suspect it may be the same for these other countries you are interested in.

  158. lb  May 30, 2014

    I read some of these comments. I have been showing on line or within one hour. A friend is using free site and entered my user name. I have not opened emails or the matches for the day email. This is causing a problem and I have notified match.com by chat, phone, and email but they can’t seem to resolve it. I would like to get off of it and get a refund, this is absolutely wrong to show someone is online when they are sitting right there with you.

  159. John  September 8, 2014

    I was dating a girl on match months ago and had her saved to my favorites. Her profile is hidden when I go into “my favorites” section and doesn’t show any activity updates. She also shows in my “connections” under favorites with no activity update. When I had clicked on her active profile way back when we first were going out, I saved/bookmarked that url. When I click on it now, without logging in, it takes me to a log in page and it shows her profile pictures and how many pics she has and the basic info along the right side but it also has been changing on activity from recently 24 hours to 3 days. Her profile was hidden over 3 weeks ago. When I click on the link and log in from there it say profile unavailable because she is hidden. I notice that some other profiles that I saved the same way are hidden and when I click on the link for them without logging in, they have over 3 weeks for activity. I’m thinking that my ex still has an account, though her subscription may have ended, but she still logs in once in a while? I would think that if someone cancelled their subscription the profile would continue to show hidden, but if they called in to delete their membership that everything would be removed including all pictures. Do you have any insight on this?

    • Brad  September 14, 2014

      Hmm…this sounds like it could be a problem with the match website to me. I wouldn’t read too much into the fact that the log in screen is showing you those dates. As long as her profile stays hidden, she can’t communicate with anyone and I think that’s key. She may be logging in once in a while I guess, but I’m not sure how you’d bring that up (without looking stalkerish) considering her profile is hidden.

  160. Cyndy  September 17, 2014

    I found out recently that my boyfriend of almost a year was getting Daily 24 matches from Match in his email … Anyway that can be a glitch or is it clear that he has re subscribed?

    • Brad  September 17, 2014

      Getting emails from Match doesn’t mean much honestly…it just means that they’re emailing him really. His profile might be hidden, he just may not have unsubscribed from the emails. So seeing emails isn’t a big worry. I think if you look at the bottom of those emails, there’s a way to have him turn them off by clicking unsubscribe (or something like that).

  161. James  October 18, 2014

    Hi Brad,

    My girlfriend has a Connect account which means she can use unavailable mode. If she always uses unavailable mode does this mean that under the “last logged in” status will not update. So for example if she logs in once a day for three weeks in unavailable mode will it show her last logged in as three weeks ago or within last 24 hours?

    • Brad  October 19, 2014

      Hey James – I think if you had your girlfriend added to your favorites (or some other way to see her profile even if it’s hidden) that you still see the last logged in date get updated. I don’t have proof of that, but in talking with people using the service it does sound as if the date gets updated even if your profile is unavailable, and most of the time that doesn’t matter since most people can’t see the profile.

  162. anon  October 21, 2014

    If the green box is still around a profile does that mean the profile is still active (meaning the subscriber is still paying)? I see someone who has not had activity in over 3 weeks, but the green outline box is still showing – wondering what this means. Thanks!

  163. Chrissy  October 23, 2014

    I paid for the 24 hour “Undercover” feature which allows you to view and favorite profiles privately i.e without the viewee not knowing you viewed their profile. Will this also apply to a profile of someone who has favorited and had email conversations with me?

    • Brad  October 26, 2014

      I would assume so…if they’re selling an undercover feature, I think it better work everywhere!

  164. Alyssa  October 26, 2014

    On match.com when a profile says IM me now then switched to Online Now does that mean that person was actively chatting on IM and then stopped. Hope this makes sense.

    • Brad  October 26, 2014

      I think it could mean a few things: they may have disabled IM, they may have changed devices (maybe IM not enabled on their computer?) or it might be that they’re not actually online anymore. Sometimes the “Online Now” shows people that aren’t actually online. I’d lean toward that last option as to why you’d see that.

  165. Cindy  December 23, 2014

    I keep getting notices of Winks and then when I log on, they are not anywhere to be found. or I get these… Textme_(then a wrong area code and phone number) or I get a name with an @yahoo.com

    I am new to this.. so whats the deal.
    thanks

    • Brad  December 24, 2014

      Cindy – is it possible that these are spam messages? Do they include a link to login to your account? If they do and if you’ve clicked on them and logged in, I would recommend you change your Match.com password. Other than the possibility of spam, I’ve not heard of what you’re describing happening.

  166. Kiran  January 11, 2015

    Hello Brad- I have a question about the X feature where you can filter out profiles you are not interested in. If someone has filtered you out is that permanent. If you change your profile username does that make you reappear on their search lists? Sorry, not sure if I am phrasing this question right.

    • Brad  January 23, 2015

      So I don’t believe the filters are based on user name or anything like that so if you’re filtered out, a change like that won’t cause you to show up. However, with search filters, I believe that it really only affects the searching. So if you sent someone an email, they should get it even if they had you filtered out on search. I believe that search filtering is less about blocking people (you’d use blocking for that) and more about making it easier to find profiles you’re most interested in when searching.

  167. Lindsey  January 21, 2015

    Does it show EVERY single time you view someone’s profile? Or if you’ve viewed it once, it just shows the one time?

    • Brad  January 23, 2015

      If you’re asking about who’s viewed me, they’ll only see you once. Your position in the list of recent views may change when you view the profile again (I’m not 100% sure on that). But if you were looking at their profile 10 times a day, I don’t think there’s any way they would know!

  168. rachael  January 23, 2015

    So I’ve been exclusively dating a guy I met on Match for over a year and a half. I have recently discovered his profile is still visible and active. I confronted him. He said he had let his paid subscription run out, but had responded to messages from 2 people he knows personally that had seen his profile and asked about his success on the site. He unsubscribed and sent me a screen shot of the confirmation page. However, his profile remains visible and highlighted in green. His active status also continues to change. Is it possible that Match failed to remove the profile? If the profile is highlighted, was/is he still a paying member? I know that if he opens any type of Match email, then he will show as active, but shouldn’t his profile have been removed if he unsubscribed?

    • Brad  February 5, 2015

      When you unsubscribe, your profile will still be active for any time left on your account. Of course, it would be odd that he’d been paying for a year and a half since meeting you. Regardless, I think if you can have him hide or delete his profile, that should have it removed. Unsubscribing might not be enough to get the profile to go away.

  169. John  March 1, 2015

    I started dating my ex again that I met on match. We both have profiles up, but we did not have paid subscriptions any more. We both had favorited each other. in the past. We agreed we would not be active on there and see how things go, but did not hide our profiles at the time and said we might check our own account once and a while and let each other know. I also had bookmarked her profile page. She has started getting a little cold and we talked and she seemed ok. I felt something might be up so I checked my account and it showed in my favorites active over 3+ weeks and was not hidden. When we first started dating again we were both still showing up in searches because we matched so high in what we were looking for. Now she doesn’t show up in searches and when I put in her user name to search it says not found. So she still shows in my favorites as unhidden and active 3+ weeks, but not longer shows on the site in searches. Any idea why? Is there a fairly new feature that match has that would allow someone to be able to do this and be active but still show on my end not active for 3+ weeks? Confused.

    • Brad  March 26, 2015

      John – I don’t think there’s anything to worry about here. If someone is in your favorites, you can still see them even if they hide their profile. Also, on match.com if you were inactive for 4 weeks it would show Not Active for 3+ Weeks. If you were inactive for 4 YEARS, it would still show Not Active for 3+ Weeks. So it sounds to me like she is NOT actively using the profile and that it’s hidden.

  170. Curious  March 17, 2015

    Hi Brad,

    I was emailing a guy and we were getting along well quite well and had lots in common. I sent him a return email and never heard back. I checked a week after I sent that email and it said last time he logged on was over a week. Another week passed and his profile was no longer on match. Emails he sent and emails I sent are no longer visible on my account.

    What does that mean? Has he deleted his account?

    • Brad  March 26, 2015

      It could be any number of things…maybe a family emergency or he may have met someone that he’s now actively in a relationship with. The fact that his profile is gone would mean that either he deleted his account or that he made it invisible. It’s really hard to guess why he’d do that, but I’m not sure there’s much value in figuring it out. You could watch out for him to see if he becomes active in the future so you could contact him, but other than that it’s probably better to spend your time talking with other people.

  171. Pete  March 21, 2015

    Something’s gone wrong with Instant Messanger. I had a lovely conversation early hours this morning and I disappeared off my mobile app. I found it via my PC but now its gone from there to. IM shows as unavailable, presume because sh is not on line. When I try to open IM for a new message an error screen pops up but too fast for me to select anything. IT glitch or something I’ve missed?

    • Brad  March 26, 2015

      Sounds like an IT glitch to me. I’d try again later and if the problem continues you would probably need to contact support at Match.

  172. 78wmb  April 10, 2015

    What does it mean “The Profile you’re looking for is unavailable at this time”. I see their username on a Google search and when I click on the match link in Google it states that message. What does this mean?

    • Brad  April 17, 2015

      I think it means they’ve hidden their account so no one can see it. People often do this if they’ve started to date someone exclusively or if they stop using the service.

  173. Maria  April 24, 2015

    Hi Brad,

    Yesterday evening I was looking at a guy’s profile which was really interesting to me. I just viewed it, did not wink or favorited him – as I believe if he is interested in me as well, he will be viewing my profile too and so I’ll be able to see him in my ‘who viewed me’ list. And I remember his profile name, by the way.
    However, this morning I received an email, which said that he viewed my profile and another one that he just sent me an email. I was very excited about it, but didn’t have had the time to look at it right away and thought I will be looking at it in the evening when I’m back home from work. I couldn’t wait to log in and when I did, he wasn’t in my ‘who viewed me’ list nor was an email from him in my emails.
    What does this mean? Probably he is not subscribed anymore and the membership expired. Maybe he wanted to tell me this in his email and provided me some private contact possibility…what a pity, I really think he probably could have been my perfect match…

    • Brad  April 28, 2015

      Maria – that sounds very odd to me. Are you still able to see his profile? If you can, I’d recommend being a bit more direct and either add him as a favorite or wink at him and see if that prompts him to contact you. If you can’t find his profile, then you might be right about membership expiring…although the timing on that is very odd given he contacted you earlier in the day!

  174. anon - Quick view vs Full view?  May 2, 2015

    Hi Brad,

    If I click on the “Quick View” feature of someone’s profile — you know, where you only see the first few sentences of a profile and get a peek at some of their photos — will I show up in that person’s “Who’s Viewed Me” page? Does a softer “Quick View” still count as a full-on “View” with all the footprints attributed to a full-profile read and hard-“View?”

    I tried my best to skim through to see if anyone else asked this question, but didn’t see it — so I do apologize if you’ve already made this clear in the comments somewhere.

    Please let me know. Thank you so much! 🙂

    • Brad  May 3, 2015

      I’m honestly not sure on this one…if you contact me by email, we can test it though! I could do a quick view on your profile and you could let me know if I show up.

    • anon - Quick view vs Full view?  May 5, 2015

      Hi Brad,
      I emailed you with my username and a message. Did you receive this? Please contact me. Thank you! 🙂

    • Brad  May 10, 2015

      I just replied – sorry for the delay!

    • happyblond2013  May 11, 2015

      quick view, I am confused, does quick view mean they are viewing me??

    • confused  August 5, 2015

      Actually, I’d love to know the answer to this too. Does viewing an abbreviated profile using “quick view” mean that I show up on the person’s “who’s visited me” list?

      Thanks!

  175. Tracey  May 6, 2015

    Hi. I am a paid member on match.com and last night I was favorited by someone. I winked at him, and he immediately winked back, and then about an hour later he disappeared from my views list, was removed from my received winks list, and removed from the list of those who have favorited me. When I enter his username to search for him, it does not come up. The only way that I can see him is in my winks sent section, and it says “profile hidden”. Did he block me? I am disappointed because after all, he was the one who favorited me first… Thanks

    • Brad  May 10, 2015

      I’ve been hearing about this sort of thing more often of the last few months. I have no idea what’s going on…it seems to be mostly women who are seeing this. My only guess is that Match.com might be detecting when a fake/spam profile is created. If anyone else is seeing this, I’d be interested to hear. If I can get more details, I’d like to put an article together on this since I think this is the third time I’ve heard about it.

  176. Daniel  June 3, 2015

    Hi Brad,

    I noticed that I’m still getting seen and favorited while being in private mode. I’m paying for the private mode services and yet it seems I can still be seen by some women. I double checked, still in private mode.

    Also, what’s the difference between private mode and “going undercover” which is an additional service? Thanks.

    Daniel

  177. kay  July 1, 2015

    Hi Brad,

    Great info here, thank you.

    I have a question you may not have heard, If someone tries to be sneaky and hides their Match profile for part of the time every day, say night time in their area, will the fact that it is unhidden part of the time cause them to show um on the emails with matches and mutual matches etc??

  178. Kara  August 6, 2015

    Is it possible still for the guy I am seeing to be logged into or active on Match when he swears he is not and has not been on that site in a year? It’s causing a lot of issues because I want to believe him and have no reason not to believe him in other situations but I can’t help but believe what I see .

  179. CJ  September 9, 2015

    Why is it when I find someone’s profile and go to click on it, it jumps to someone else’s page so i can’t view their profile ever but they still show up in search results?

  180. Stephen L France  September 17, 2015

    Quite disappointed with this service. Really when it comes down to it, there’s no point in the 6 month package at all and you actually have to sign up for the 6 month + Connector Service or else you will never know the result of sending out messages i.e. if they aren’t interested vs they aren’t a subscriber. Tricky. Not impressed.

  181. DC Girl  December 20, 2015

    So I basically just flipped through photos under the “search” header for an hour. When the person’s photo pops up their profile is automatically viewable. It’s not like I’m making an effort to see it. Are you telling me when I’m just flicking through photos everyone’s getting a notice saying that I viewed their profile? That’s so misleading, as there’s no other way to see anyone’s information, and I really don’t want everyone I see to know that I’ve viewed them. In most cases I am on their page for 1 or 2 seconds. I can see if I spent a fair amount of time on their page but it gives people the impression that the person may potentially be interested when really, in most cases, it’s just a formality. I’d rather a person know that I viewed their page only if I choose to let them know. There are people out there who I definitely would not want to reintroduce myself to and if scanning pages alerts them to me that is a major deterrent.

  182. Lynn  January 6, 2016

    I think my husband is cheating on me again. I saw his profile is hidden after he said he had cancelled his subscription. So what does this mean is he still a member with a hidden profile. I know it’s hidden because I once liked him so catch him in the act. I need to know as I am at the point of divorce and I want to be sure he has been lying to me before I pull the plug. Thank you

    • Sandi  September 16, 2016

      My boyfriend of one year says he is inactive on Match . Match has been an ongoing issue , I have found him active and he insists he’s not. I went back on just to check his status and i believe he lies. His profile now says its hidden and has been for several months but he still appears in my favorites with a hidden profile. I’m confused as to why he’d continue to appear in my favorites with a hidden profile.

  183. Laura  March 19, 2016

    Hi Brad,

    A guy messaged me a week and a half ago and from there we were messaging back and forth for a week. 3 days ago I teased him about sending me cheesy quotes he copy and pasted from google. I think he may have taken it in a wrong way and chose not to reply. Two days ago he asked me how I’ve been and I said I’ve been ok and asked him how he was. He said he’s been very busy with work. The next morning (yesterday) I sent him a good morning text and wished him good luck at work. He replied with “thanks i will need it” and “have a great day” but it seemed so differently than how he used to text me (he used to text me “good morning beautiful” as soon as he woke up and always included emojis.) I decided not reply and give him some space. This morning I reread our messages and it appears that he has hidden his profile. The other weird things is that it states that he has been “active over 3 weeks ago” despite him sending me a message yesterday. Does this mean he has blocked me too? I really miss him and I wish I could go back and fix whatever went wrong.

    • Christina  July 10, 2016

      Hi Laura, I’m tempted to ask the guy’s name or profile name. Your story sounds familiar.

  184. Caroline  May 20, 2016

    A person I like was online last night, and now the web sight says 3 days ago. Also, I was not online several months back, and it appeared i was online. Why?

  185. Steve  May 22, 2016

    What does the ” private mode ” feature mean? I purchased this extra feature and I’m not sure what it does..

  186. Linda  June 27, 2017

    Please help. I miscommunicated with someone and now they have hidden their profile. I’ve sent messages apologizing. Can they see the messages even though they are hidden or do they just not see them anymore?

    • Brad  June 28, 2017

      Linda – it’s hard to answer this because they may have just hidden their profile, or it is possible that they blocked. If they hid their profile, then they should still get your messages. If they blocked you, they won’t. But we wouldn’t know for sure why you can’t see them any more.

  187. Patti  August 20, 2017

    Hi Brad,

    I have a member in Match that shows up in my view list in first position, noting I received his view today. This has happened for the past couple of weeks one or two times a day where he moves to the first position in my view list. He is a preferred member since he has a green light around his photo. We both have liked each other’s photos, but have not marked “interested” in each other or have not marked each other as favorites. We have emailed each other a few times, but I get from his emails he is overly cautious or trying to figure out if he is interested in me. I’m confused since he is showing up in my views, moving back to first position, one or more times every day. Would he show up in my views if he wasn’t clicking on my profile and looking at it? Would looking through our emails cause him to show up in my views? Would his status of preferred somehow keep him showing up in my views? I’m just trying to figure out if he is really viewing me. If he is, it still leaves me confused based on him being so cautious in emails (i.e. not wanting to date someone long distance stating how hard it is or not wanting to exchange phone numbers).

  188. Chastain  September 20, 2017

    If i add photos or make changes to my profile or preferences, who gets an alert that I have done so? Would someone who has messaged me in the past get alerted? And what if their profile was hidden, would they still be alerted?

  189. Alex  November 17, 2017

    What is the yellow line underneath some profile pictures in the search function? I’m thinking it’s either paid highlight, premium members, those that skipped you, or those that chose you in the lineup. But I can’t find any info anywhere on what it is.

    • Alex  November 17, 2017

      Also I’m aware there’s a green highlight with Platinum like you say above but this is clearly yellow.

    • Isabella  December 6, 2017

      I couldn’t figure out the yellow line, either. It only shows up on the main search page, not the individual profile page, and it has nothing to do with their activity level or match percentage. It showed up on my searches for all four activity levels and any match level, from 81% to 97% that I noticed. It has nothing to do with them choosing or skipping you, since it showed up the very first time I used the site. It also shows up on people who do not have any profile photos at all. I have absolutely no idea what it indicates.

  190. Vandiefan  January 1, 2018

    I don’t like most of the new Match website. When you use the see more like choice it takes you back to the old website and ti has much more useful information. Get rid of the various green dot for activity and tell us the days again. Also, the yellow bar is driving me crazy. I would be nice to know what it means or if it is just a screw up in programming.

  191. desperate  January 16, 2018

    Help! How the F**k do I get OFF Match.com. I stopped paying 3 years ago when I met my now wife and thought I was removed from their rolls but recently she found my profile is still on the site and apparently every time I open my email (which is often open all day, I’m self employed) if she decides to check up on me Match will say “on line now” which she interprets as”on Match now” and believes I am non-stop trolling the internet for women. I realize I have a bigger problem than Match.com but I want to get off of there site NOW and stay off for the rest of my life…..

  192. Les  November 9, 2018

    If a member has not payed then they shouldn’t be on the site for paying members to see, this would eliminate any fake profilers the site has, and it has a few.
    You might like the look of a member and how they sound ( read ) but what is the point if you cannot contact them???????