We all make mistakes, even if we don’t like to admit it. That can be particularly annoying on social media platforms because many apps don’t make it easy to easily retrace your steps and correct the error.
One of the common mistakes people make on TikTok is deleting videos by accident. That usually happens when they’re removing outdated TikTok posts or getting rid of some old videos they’ve bookmarked — but accidentally checked one they had wanted to save.
The good news: some of those deleted vids can be restored. The bad news: you have to act quickly.
Here’s what to do.
How to Recover Your Own TikTok Videos
When you delete a video, it’s no longer publicly visible but that doesn’t mean it immediately disappears forever. It remains on TikTok’s servers, but only for about 30 days. If you’re still in that “grace period,” here’s what you need to do to restore your post.
- Open your TikTok profile by tapping on the “Profile” icon at the bottom right of the screen.
- Tap the “Menu” icon (three horizontal lines) at the top right of your profile.
- Choose “Settings and privacy” from the popup menu.
- Tap on “Activity center” and then scroll down to “Recently deleted,” where you’ll see the videos that you’ve deleted but are still in the system.
- Choose the video you want to restore. When it opens full-screen, click “Restore” at the bottom.
Even if it’s been less than a month since the TikTok content’s deletion, there’s no guarantee that your video will be there. However, it’s worth a shot.
A better way to ensure you’ll never lose a video is enabling the setting that automatically saves your new videos to your phone’s camera reel. The next time you record a video, choose “More options” on the Post screen. Scroll down to the “Save to device” toggle, and make sure it’s set to “on.” That puts all of the content you record onto your phone so it’s easy to retrieve.
How To Recover Someone Else’s Deleted TikTok Video
This won’t always work. But if you’ve viewed another TikTok user’s post and they’ve since deleted it, you can look in several locations to see if it’s still available:
- Your phone’s cache
- Your TikTok favorites (saved on your profile page)
- Your TikTok watch history (accessible from the Activity Center menu mentioned above)
Again, there are no guarantees. If you watched the video fairly recently, though, there’s a decent chance you may be able to find it again.
About the Author
Peter Hasselworth is a contributor at iDigic, sharing valuable insights about Instagram growth and social media marketing strategies.