Archiving my Grindr Data

August 30, 2023

Last Updated

September 7, 2023

After archiving my OKCupid data I figured I should try to archive my Grindr data. I met one long term friend through Grindr as well as had my first hookup through it (somewhat traumatic for me). There would be formative events there I would like to get the data for.

TL;DR

I didn't get much!
No chats ;w;, but I also did not keep good care of this data. It is tied to the device and removed on uninstall (according to Grindr)
Grindr DOES store some stuff on their server. Some events, a profile creation date, and a lot of ads related stuff. Not much more in my export (but it looked like there could be more).

Accessing the local device data (or trying to...)

Grindr exports have 2 parts. One part is the data that is stored locally to your device, like chats. The app is responsible for exporting that data. The second part is data stored on their server, which I'll get to later.

So I had to reinstall the app (ugh) and begin the export. After reinstalling the app there was no chats. This didn't set my expectations too high, especially because I had never done a Grindr Chat Backup. To start the export, I went to Profile Icon > Settings > Download My Data and clicked the Download My Data button. I retyped in my password, typed in the email verification code, and saved the first part. It downloads to your device as MyGrindrData.zip unless you change the name. There was nothing of interest in there, it was all empty except for my profile info.

With little hope, I also tried my previous phone. Reinstalling Grindr on there turned up no more information.

Accessing my remote data

So I waited for the second part to arrive in my email. I requested on August 31st at 00:00 and received it on September 1st at 15:00. About a 2 days wait.

I was surprised there was some data in there. A profile creation date, many events for viewing specific campaigns. This gives me sort of a rough history for when I logged into the app.

It is curious there is an empty chat property, as well as some other stuff. It looks like they MIGHT store chat data, perhaps if it was fresher, but the last time I used Grindr was probably >1 year ago (I get horny, but I prefer to be alone or with people I already know).

There data ended up looking like

Sample output of export

{
  "userInfoReport": {
    "id": "5555555555555555555",
    "reportType": "DSAR",
    "voteCounts": {
      "votesCast": 500,
      "likesCast": 500,
      "votesReceived": 500,
      "likesReceived": 500,
      "matches": 500
    },
    "email": "xxx@gmail.com",
    "username": "xxx",
    "phoneNumber": "xxx",
    "loginCount": 500,
    "joinDate": 1693299565000,
    "lastLogin": 1693299565000,
    "ipAddress": "xxx",
    "birthdate": 1693299565000,
    "gender": "",
    "orientation": "Other",
    "age": 28,
    "education": "Attended",
    "schools": "",
    "occupation": "Undefined",
    "job": "--",
    "location": "xxx",
    "status": "Active",
    "selfieVerifiedStatus": 0,
    "accountPaidLevel": "NOT_PAID",
    "registrationLocation": "",
    "essays": [{
      "title": "My self-summary",
      "text": "xxx",
      "date": 1650830449000
    }],
    "essaysHistorical": [],
    "lastGeolocation": {
      "latitude": "41.0000000",
      "longitude": "-80.000000",
      "date": 1599491366000
    },
    "loginHistoryAggregate": [{
      "date": 1693267200000,
      "ip": "xx.xx.xx.xx",
      "count": 2
    }],
    "messageThreadsPaged": {
      "pageInfo": {
        "hasMore": true,
        "after": "2"
      },
      "data": [{
        "type": "Message Thread",
        "messages": [{
          "from": "5555555555555555555",
          "to": "0",
          "date": 1651836433000,
          "body": "xxxx message text",
          "attachments": "",
          "mmsUrl": null
        }]
      }],
      "isSenderOnly": true
    },
    "photos": [{
      "id": "2259404591077287153",
      "url": "xxx",
      "status": "User Picture Active",
      "uploadDate": 1574398524000,
      "caption": "xxx",
      "isSelfieVerified": false,
      "selfieVerifiedDate": null
    }],
    "purchases": [{
      "id": "12534035755645328131",
      "product": "A-List subscription (via acct level)",
      "eventType": "Changed",
      "transaction": "lost subscription",
      "paymentType": "Credit card",
      "charged": "",
      "date": 1526695256000,
      "comments": "userid 5555555555555555555 lost feature 10001"
    }],
    "questions": [{
      "id": "72086",
      "text": "xxx",
      "answer": "Yes",
      "acceptableAnswers": ["Yes", "No"],
      "importance": "irrelevant",
      "date": 1652205239000,
      "comment": null,
      "commentDate": null,
      "isPublic": true
    }],
    "searchFilters": {
      "ageMin": 50,
      "ageMax": 50,
      "genderTags": [],
      "genderFilter": "Everybody",
      "relationshipType": ["Short-term dating", "Hookup", "New friends", "Long-term dating"],
      "distance": "25 mi"
    },
    "selfieVerificationHistory": [],
    "signupUserAgent": "OKCA 8.1.3",
    "thirdPartyIntegrations": [{
      "name": "facebook",
      "accessToken": "xxx",
      "isActive": true
    }],
    "userDevices": [{
      "hardwareId": "xxx",
      "hardwareVersion": "xxx",
      "lastUse": 1693195008000
    }]
  }
}

Annnyyywwaayyy, that bummed me out a bit.