Soft bans - What we know, should you be worried and how to avoid it

[HunterHero]

Disclaimer: This post is meant for people using GPS spoofing, but soft banning can happen to people playing without spoofing!

What is a soft ban?
A soft ban is exactly what it's called, but it's more like a time out where you can't interact with pokestops, catch pokemon or battle gyms.. You can "banned" for a non specific amount of time depending on the amount of distance you travel when spoofing.

How do I get soft banned?
As explained earlier it depends on how far you change your GPS location but from spoofing for the last four days it seems, that when you change your GPS location over 2km from your current GPS location, then it can start. The certain distance is not known yet, but it's around 2-3km from my own research and what I've heard people say on OC.

But people not doing GPS spoofing can also get soft banned. Some representative of Niantic wrote a post on r/thesilphroad, stating that people can get softbanned from playing it in their cars on the highway etc. I've tried getting softbanned when sitting in the car with my girlfriend so it seems about right. The soft ban isn't only about distance traveled but also how fast you travel it. The game is meant for discovering your environment and catch pokemons on feet, so when you travel faster that running/biking then you might risk it.

How long does it last?
The soft bans last depending on speed and travel distance. Some seem extremely short but that's usually the servers messing up. But the bans last from 30 minutes to 12 hours.

Can I bypass it?
No you can't bypass it. The ban is on your account, not on your current PoGo process, IP or phone. You can try shutting down the game, restarting your phone or killing the app process in your phone settings, but it won't work.

Well if it's a soft ban, why should I worry or even have read this?
Great question! You should worry because today (15th of July) the game releases in most of the world, and there will be more updates for the game. In the beta phase of the game, people who did GPS spoofing got permabanned instantly. Niantic could and probably will go down on people spoofing more when they get more updates out and more content gets released like trading.

CHECK LIST TO KNOW IF YOU'RE SOFT BANNED:

• You keep swiping pokestops but get no message or rewards.
• You throw any kind of pokeball and the pokemon escape everytime.
• You try a battle at a gym but you get kicked out of the fight instantly.

So what can you do when you're soft banned?

• You can walk around and hatch eggs.
• You can evolve pokemon.

[Sheetka]

It seems that if you wait a couple hours before teleporting large distances you'll minimize the chances of getting softbanned

So for example: Start in the netherlands - log out and wait a few hours - set your location in australia before you log in again - log in and play.

I don't know the exact amount of time required to wait, or if it's calculated between time/distance or a set amount of time, but it seems that around 2 hours is enough.

[HunterHero]

It seems that if you wait a couple hours before teleporting large distances you'll minimize the chances of getting softbanned

So for example: Start in the netherlands - log out and wait a few hours - set your location in australia before you log in again - log in and play.

I don't know the exact amount of time required to wait, or if it's calculated between time/distance or a set amount of time, but it seems that around 2 hours is enough.

It doesn't have to be that long. It's not like they track how long it's been since you were in the last spot and if you arrive half around the world in 30 mins then you're banned. I switch between Sydney, NYC and Copenhagen and I just close down the app, wait 15-30 mins, change GPS and open it up and it works.

[jimmys96]

Personally I do at least 1 30km jump every day (depending on if I stay spoofed the entire day or not) and so far it hasn't gotten me softbanned once. I did try a 70km one and it softbanned me, so not sure what the distance limit is... Might be worth mentioning I did drive to the 30km away place with PoGo open before I started spoofing locations at all

[HunterHero]

Personally I do at least 1 30km jump every day (depending on if I stay spoofed the entire day or not) and so far it hasn't gotten me softbanned once. I did try a 70km one and it softbanned me, so not sure what the distance limit is... Might be worth mentioning I did drive to the 30km away place with PoGo open before I started spoofing locations at all

The soft bans are not always instant. People have jumped a long distance without soft ban but from today it seems the soft bans are much longer. I'm still soft banned from trying a NYC to Sydney jump 6 hours ago.

[Schroom]

I sometimes jump 3-4 km and have not been softbanned. I ussualy jump about 200-500 meters when I hunt pokestops.

Although save for now, it would be very easy for Nintendo to lower the jumping parameters to lower distances. At the moment I don't think this is a major concern for them as they are still focosing on the launch. When the game matures we should be carefull when updates are launched, nintendo might just lower their parameters or implement more accurate algorithms.

[summertimes]

The soft bans are not always instant. People have jumped a long distance without soft ban but from today it seems the soft bans are much longer. I'm still soft banned from trying a NYC to Sydney jump 6 hours ago.

Same experience here. I only got soft banned before one time for one hour. but today I've been soft banned for at least 3 hours so far.

[owlporridge]

Hi guys, I've reach level 21 now I spoof like you guys do but not too far away places since i learned about the softban. So now today I only spoof 1-2 km away and since its raining I spoof just closeby for pokemons. Now here's the thing whenever I tried to spoof looking for pokemons nearby I noticed the 3 footprints never go down to two, one or none. and I have to idea whats happening.
All of a sudden the pokemon just pop outs next to you even though he's like 3 pokemons away plus 3 steps away. It wasnt like this yesterday. I tried spoofing with my other 2 accounts and they all do the same. I need help, I dunno whats happening, I dont know if this is part of the softban we dont know about or is this just occasional bug problems, I was thinking of reporting this to niantics but I'm afraid I might get found out for spoofing that It may be one of there ways of finding out people who spoof their gps. :/

[John17]

What does a soft ban look like? Are the pokestops and gyms just gone or do you see them but something happens if you try and interact with them?

[HunterHero]

What does a soft ban look like? Are the pokestops and gyms just gone or do you see them but something happens if you try and interact with them?

You can interact with pokegyms but they reset when you begin the fight. When you interact to a pokestop and swipe it keeps spinning but doesn't reward you with anything or says "try again later".

[John17]

hmm interesting, i just started using Poke++ today and all of the gyms and pokestops disappeared from my map like 7 hours later. Was wondering if that was a new form of softban or a server issue

[HiddenCore]

i honestly dont get it .... lets say i want to travel and i get for LA to Sydney ... they gonna ban me for traveling ? or that my brother lives in NY and i live in Sydney if i use his account to capture a local gym they gonna ban me ? that makes no sence and its not cheating ...

[summertimes]

Perhaps OP can add this info to the first post

When you do get soft banned there are still things you can do. For example I use this time to clean my pokemon inventory and do lucky egg / evolution boost. You get xp just fine and level up and receive items.

[ohnobye]

i honestly dont get it .... lets say i want to travel and i get for LA to Sydney ... they gonna ban me for traveling ? or that my brother lives in NY and i live in Sydney if i use his account to capture a local gym they gonna ban me ? that makes no sence and its not cheating ...

That's why you have to be smart, you can't keep changing your location to different countries every 30 or so minutes.

[lyan123]

Why risk it?

You won't find a super extreme rare pokemon just because you traveled to NYC or Sydney. Just stay at one location per day... Go to Berlin, walk around there 1 day, go sleep. Go to NYC walk around there 1 day go sleep.

Actually, just walk the same speed/distance as you were walking in real life... you still don't have to move, that should be enough! Sometimes take the speed of a car or smth. that's ok too.

But with all the data their servers collect, you guys can be sure that they will get strong algorithms that detects "obvious" spoofing.

Earlier or later there will be a first banwave where the first group - all the super-obvious cheaters will get banned. That will be a signal to the second group - all those cheaters who did it carefully and they have the chance to stop with cheating then without losing their account - be smart and belong to the second group.


Edit:// ok nvm, I NEEDED to go to sydney Kappa - I am softbanned/banned now GG