If you are unable to see the Facebook Dating shortcut in your iPhone’s Facebook app, there are a few things you can try to resolve the issue.
Check Your Facebook Dating Eligibility and Availability
Facebook Dating is not yet available in all regions and for all users. To use Facebook Dating, you need to meet the following eligibility requirements:
- You must be at least 18 years old
- Your Facebook account must be over 30 days old
- Your account must have enough friends, followers, interests, pages liked, groups joined, events attended, etc. for Facebook’s algorithms to create a robust dating profile for you.
Even if you meet the eligibility criteria, Facebook Dating may not yet be available in your country or region. Currently it is available in many countries across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Go to the Facebook Dating section in your Facebook app settings to check if the feature is available for you. If not, you will need to wait until Facebook launches dating in your locale.
Update Your Facebook App
Ensure that your Facebook app is updated to the latest version from the App Store. Facebook frequently rolls out updates to enable new features, fix bugs, and improve performance. Updating to the newest Facebook app version may resolve the missing Dating shortcut issue.
To update the Facebook app:
- Open the App Store on your iPhone
- Tap your profile icon in the top right corner
- Scroll down to see pending app updates and release notes
- If Facebook is in the updates list, tap ‘Update’ to install the latest version
Check Your Facebook App Settings
It’s possible you may have accidentally toggled off the setting to show the Facebook Dating shortcut in your app. Here’s how to check and re-enable it:
- Open the Facebook app and tap the hamburger menu icon in the top right
- Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings
- Tap on ‘Dating’ in the menu
- Make sure ‘Show Facebook Dating in shortcuts bar’ is enabled
If this setting was disabled, turning it on should make the Facebook Dating shortcut reappear in your shortcuts bar.
Log Out and Log Back Into Facebook
Sometimes simply logging out of the Facebook app and logging back in can resolve odd issues like missing shortcuts. Give it a try:
- In the Facebook app, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings
- Scroll down and tap ‘Log Out’
- Close the Facebook app from your multitasking view
- Reopen the Facebook app and log back into your account
Now check if the Facebook Dating shortcut is visible. Logging out resets your local Facebook data cache and logs you into a fresh instance, which can fix glitches.
Restart Your iPhone
An even more thorough option is to restart your iPhone. This clears out any corrupted cached data and memory issues that could be interfering with Facebook’s shortcuts:
- On an iPhone 8 or earlier, hold down the Power button until the “Slide to power off” prompt appears. Drag the slider to turn off your phone.
- For iPhone X or later, hold down the side button and either Volume button until the slider appears. Drag the slider to turn off your phone.
- Wait 30 seconds, then press and hold the Power or Side button again until you see the Apple logo to reboot your iPhone.
Once your phone has restarted, open Facebook and check for the shortcut again.
Reinstall the Facebook App
If none of the above steps restore the Facebook Dating shortcut, your last resort is to uninstall and reinstall the Facebook app:
- Hold down the Facebook app icon until the context menu appears
- Tap ‘Remove App’ to uninstall Facebook
- Open the App Store on your iPhone
- Search for ‘Facebook’ and tap ‘Get’ to reinstall it
- Log into Facebook again and check for the shortcut
This forces all Facebook data on your device to be erased and starts you with a clean slate. Hopefully the Dating shortcut will now be present after reinstalling the app.
Contact Facebook Support
If reinstalling Facebook does not bring back the missing Dating shortcut, then something may be wrong with your account settings stored on Facebook’s servers. In this case, reach out to Facebook’s Help Center and report the problem.
Explain the situation to the Facebook support team and they can investigate and resolve any issues on the back end. Having them reset your account or make corrections can often fix missing shortcuts that you cannot resolve yourself.
Just be patient as it may take some time to get a response. But Facebook support can directly access your account details to troubleshoot and restore any missing settings.
With some patience and working through these options, you should be able to get Facebook Dating to show up properly in your shortcuts bar again.