How To Delete Drafts On TikTok

You might be tempted to ignore the option on the posting screen that lets you save a draft version of your TikTok video. You shouldn’t.

At some point in their life, almost every reader has probably experienced the panic and disappointment that comes after losing a document because of a computer crash. The same thing can happen while you’re creating TikTok content, too.

There’s no “automatic save” feature in the social media platform’s video editor. If your phone battery dies or TikTok locks up for some reason, there’s no way to recover the post you were editing when the phone or app crapped out. It’s gone.

Occasionally saving a draft can be a life-saver; all you have to do is move to the posting screen and hit the “Drafts” button, then go to your TikTok profile page and open the draft version that you saved. You can go right back to work from there — but if the worst happens, you won’t have to start from scratch.

Drafts are also a terrific safeguard to use if you have to stop editing for the day but still want to use your phone, or if you run out of ideas and want to think for a while before finishing a video.

(An even better safeguard is saving the draft to your photo reel. TikTok drafts are only saved to the app; they can’t be seen or edited on a different device, and they’re lost forever if you have to reinstall TikTok for some reason. To save to your photo reel, click “More options” > “Save to device” on the posting screen, and then post the video privately so only you can see it.)

Drafts can pile up quickly, though, if you create a lot of videos. How do you get rid of them once you don’t need them anymore?

Deleting a TikTok Draft

You’ll find all of your drafts in your TikTok profile. They’re saved in the content grid that’s in the middle of the screen. Here’s how to delete one or more of them.

1. Open your profile by clicking the icon in the bottom right corner of your home screen.
2. Tap the “Drafts” thumbnail to open the collection that you’ve saved to TikTok.
3. A screen with all of your drafts will open. Click “Select.”
4. Tap the circle in the right-hand corner of each draft you want to delete. You can empty the folder by choosing “Select all.”
5. Click on “Delete” at the bottom of the screen, confirm the action, and you’re done.

Remember, those drafts can never be recovered. You might want to get into the habit of saving to your camera reel as well, in case you mistakenly delete a draft you need later.