Duolingo friends feature completely missing

[RonaldoMullen]

I signed up for Duolingo about two weeks ago. At the time of sign up, I was asked to add a few friends from a seemingly random list of other users in my area. I added a couple of people, and then when I started a language and saw the leagues feature I added a couple of the people near the top and one of them added me back. Since then I cannot seem to access the friends feature. When I view someone's profile the only thing I can do is report them, I cannot add them or follow them.

Both the app and website version seem to be missing all of the friends and social features based on what I've seen on screenshots of other accounts. I am not part of a school or anything, and I don't believe I accidentally made a child account. Additionally, when I try to use the profile viewer for Doume it says "no response / privacy mode." I am not in privacy mode as I am part of leagues, and I checked and it's public. I read that it could be an issue with not enough XP but I'm nearly halfway done with a course already and have about 20000 XP. I'm not really sure why this is happening, and I emailed support but never heard back. I don't understand why it was there when I signed up and for a couple of days after I started and then disappeared.

My Duolingo account name is the same as my Doume forum name, RonaldoMullen, if someone would be willing to check it. I've seen a couple of people have issues with friends and recently created accounts so maybe this is a bug?

[Thomas.Heiss]

Seems to be a general issue.

Two more people have it, see this German thread:
viewtopic.php?t=36400-freunde-werden-nicht-angezeigt

You can submit a bug report here:
https://www.duolingo.com/help/support-request

[RonaldoMullen]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I already used that feedback form and never heard back.

[RonaldoMullen]

Seems to be a general issue.

Two more people have it, see this German thread:
viewtopic.php?t=36400-freunde-werden-nicht-angezeigt

You can submit a bug report here:
https://www.duolingo.com/help/support-request

Have you heard anything more about this? I’ve now sent two emails/bug reports and still haven’t heard anything back, it’s been weeks at this point. All social features are still missing, I can’t search for friends or do anything, and I can’t even see my own profile. Duome is still returning “ no response / privacy mode.”

[Thomas.Heiss]

@RonaldoMullen

I didn't hear anything, have not sent a bug report.

But when clicking on the usernames in my League for most of these users (with 1-2 exceptions) the web portal always says they've gone PRIVATE.

Can't be, not for so many users.

FYI: My old Android app V5.73.2 doesn't have these issues and I can view their user profiles.

Must be a bigger bug, rolled out with one of the last maintenance updates.

You may not be able to find bug reports on the /r/Duolingo channel on Reddit as they encourage all users to directly communicate with DL staff and don't want to play anymore the garbage dump for bug reports which some AI system can scan through.

[RonaldoMullen]

Okay, thank you again for the information, you’re exponentially more helpful than Duolingo even with your user level access. Thank you for taking so much time to help people across this forum.

[Thomas.Heiss]

@duome

Unfortunately this private vs public profile bug heavily affects how the Duome server itself sees some/many profiles on the Duolingo server.

I tried to open a profile from one different user who posted in a thread here but the blue refresh on the Duome profile page clearly says "No response / privacy mode ···".

Works for me until now but I didn't change the public privacy mode for a longer time.

[RonaldoMullen]

An update: I emailed the general support email and finally heard back. They changed whatever it was they needed to change to enable my social features. I told them that lots of other people are reporting this and they didn’t really acknowledge it or anything. I told them it seems like there’s an issue with their system turning the features off for accounts. Hopefully they’ll fix whatever that is, but maybe it would be best to pass on the information to just email the support email instead of filling out a bug report since they never responded to the ones I filled out.

Duome is finally loading for my profile, but it seems like something is still off. It’s showing a bunch of things missing or blank, like the strength %, which I was really interested in seeing. Maybe that will start to show up now that it can see my profile? Anyways, it seems like it’s best to email support to fix this issue.

[John Little]

An update: I emailed the general support email and finally heard back. They changed whatever it was they needed to change to enable my social features.

I switched my account to public, found you and followed you (John661162) and checked your profile ok but I'm going back to private now because I'm not into the leagues. But it all seems fixed whatever the problem was. You seem to be doing extremely well by the way.

[RonaldoMullen]

I saw that wondered why it kept erroring out when I clicked on your profile! Well, anyways, thanks for checking and be sure to pass on the information about emailing support@duolingo.com if you see anyone else reporting that their social features aren’t working. It’s 100% an issue with their system so anyone that didn’t accidentally make a child account and can’t access the features will need to email them to get it fixed. Submitting a bug report won’t get them to fix it.