Over a year since Pokemon Go was launched and we still have thousands of players mad over it, regardless of the hype going down. Niantic has been very strict against the hacks and other teleportation websites, since many users faced the soft ban or even a permanent ban because of indulging into such activities. To be honest, even I did use the popular hack called the Tutuapp Pokemon Go hack since it worked like a charm and allowed me to travel any place in the world by GPS spoofing method.
Today, i am going to talk about everything you need to know about Soft ban (checking, time duration, how to recover). You can say that this guide is your best bet if you want to get out of the ban zone. Since the main goal was to make people explore and travel to new places, this will be a never ending battle between the players and Niantic.
Contents
What is Pokemon Go Soft Ban?
A Soft Ban is a type of ban wherein you won’t be able to catch any new wild Pokemon, collect items via Pokestops and neither be able to battle in any of the gyms. In short, you will have no interaction with the entities in the game. All you will be able to do is roam around and hatch eggs or evolve Pokemon. You get no Pokemon, no loot, no wins, nothing.
3 Steps to Detect Soft Ban
If you want to know if your account is facing Soft ban penalty or not, below is a checklist you might want to glance at.
- You can swipe at Pokestops but get nothing (no items or rewards)
- When you throw a any Pokeball and the Pokemon escapes everytime
- When you go and try to challenge the gym but you get kicked out instantly
How to Get Soft Banned?
There is no official list of the activities that can get you soft banned. Though, based on my personal experience and the players who reported on various online communities, I have curated a list of things which can get you in trouble.
It basically depends on how far you you change your GPS location when spoofing. From my own research I have found out that it’s anything between 2-3 kms, but it’s not certain. There have been instances when I was soft banned even when I wasn’t GPS spoofing. This was because I was traveling at a speed over 60km/hr, which is way too fast according to Niantic for exploring using your feet.
So here’s the list:
- GPS spoofing
- Logging in from different devices with different timezones
- Playing the game while traveling in a car/bike/train
Pokemon Go Soft Ban Time Duration
The duration of soft bans depend on the speed at which you travelled, distance covered and the time taken. Some are very short (maybe the server glitches), but going to different continents and countries worldwide attracts the most serious bans which can last from 30 minutes upto 12 hours.
Pokemon Go Soft Ban Fix (Working Methods)
There are multiple ways in which you can remove Soft ban from your Pokemon Go account. It depends on what you did to get yourselves banned in the first place.
1. Using Phone Settings
Let’s say you were in Thailand and by accident (or not) somehow you jumped to the United States, you should:
- Open your Google/Apple maps app
- Check your location
- Restart your phone if needed to fix it
I had the same issue for Chrismas holiday when I traveled from France to Paris (378kms). My GPS indicated that I was still in France (this may be confusing!).
2. Using Pokemon Go App
- Walk to a nearby Pokestop
- Spin it and close it
- Repeat the above step for 40 times (without getting any rewards and for nothing, this is a painful task I agree)
- Once you complete this, you will recover from Soft ban
Watch the video below for a live demonstration on how to do it.
3. Account Replacement Method
If the Soft ban persists for a long period of time, you can try this method.
- Log out of your current Pokemon Go account
- Create a new account, log out of it and delete Pokemon Go from your smartphone
- Now re-install the game and log back in with your old account
- This should remove Soft ban from your current account
If you don’t wish to reinstall the game and if you haven’t progressed much on the old account, then you can try continuing your new journey with the newly created account.
4. Appeal Niantic Labs
The last resort to get back your Pokemon Go account back recovered from the soft ban is to appeal to the developers. Niantic has put out this amazing ban appeal system where one can send their appeal by filling a form if they feel they have been unfairly banned.
In order to access this appeal, all you need to do is simply click on this link and you will be redirected to the request form. Fill it completely and submit. You will hear from them in 7 days at most.
Final Words
To go through so much for such a wonderful game is not my type of a life. I do not recommend you to use any kind of hacks or tricks to get ahead of the other players by risking all your hard earned progress.
However if you still want to use them, try using a dummy account. This will keep your main account safe from getting a permanent ban from Niantic.
I hope you guys enjoyed reading my guide on Soft ban and the ways to recover from it. Feel free to comment below your experiences or any questions you want to ask me.
