My High-Quality TikTok Videos Look Bad On The App. Why?

You’re using one of the latest iPhones or Androids with a 48MP camera, and you’ve learned the best way to shoot high-quality video with it. But when you upload your edited TikTok content to the app, it looks fuzzy, blurry, or out of focus.

It looked great in the preview — so what’s going wrong?

Many issues can cause high-quality TikTok posts to look decidedly low-quality once they’re in your profile or on users’ feeds. Here are the stumbling blocks to be aware of and avoid.

Potential Technical Issues

These aren’t the most common problems when your videos don’t look high-quality on the app, but they should be considered when you’re troubleshooting.

• You have a bad Internet connection: High-quality uploads require a stable connection. You should make sure you have a strong signal; if not, try changing your location, restarting your modem or router, using a different network, or switching from Wi-Fi to mobile data. (Wi-Fi generally preserves the best quality.)
• Your phone’s storage is almost full: High-quality video requires lots of space to handle its greater detail. Clear space by deleting or moving files or apps.
• Your high-quality video file is too big: Phones and devices can only handle videos of a certain size; it’s 287 MB for iPhones (as of this writing) and 72 MB on Androids. Check the size of the file and see if it’s too large to upload to TikTok.
• A glitch: TikTok may be experiencing a (rare) problem, or your app may be locking up. Wait a bit and try again; if that doesn’t resolve the issue, try restarting your app and/or phone, or reinstalling TikTok.

Potential Video Issues

There are very important specifications for TikTok videos. If you create your content right in the app, it automatically meets those specs. Video shot outside of the app, however, may not be optimal for display on TikTok — and the system will resize or format the video before showing it, meaning a loss of quality.

Here are the optimal video specifications, which will guarantee perfect duplication of a clip’s original quality.

• Resolution Size: 1080p, which is 1080 by 1920 pixels. (720p, or 720 x 1280 pixels, is also accommodated well by TikTok.)
• Aspect ratio: 9:16, which is a vertical format.

Most phones shoot video with these specifications by default, but most video cameras and other devices do not. Using other formats and resolutions will lead to a degradation in quality when posted to TikTok unless the video is reformatted before uploading.

Potential App Setting Issues

TikTok has several settings that may help when you’re concerned with data consumption or upload time. However, taking advantage of those benefits can downgrade the quality of the high-quality video you’re trying to post.

The first is called Data Saver Mode. If you’re using cellular data to connect, enabling this option automatically compresses your videos so they don’t consume too much data during the upload. Disabling it, though, will keep your videos at their original specs and make them look their best.

1. Open your TikTok profile by tapping the “Profile” icon at the bottom right of your home screen.
2. Tap the “Menu” icon (three horizontal lines) in the upper right corner of your profile page.
3. Choose “Settings and privacy” from the popup menu.
4. Scroll down to and click on “Data Saver,” and make sure the toggle is moved to the left.

The second setting to check is the High Definition option. When you shoot or edit a video in TikTok and move on to the “Upload” screen (the one where you add a description for your video before posting it), look for and click on the “More options” link. Scroll down to find “Allow high-quality uploads,” and move the toggle switch to the right.

That allows HD uploads and will maximize the quality of your TikTok post.

Taking all of these steps will ensure that your video will look as good to the TikTok users viewing it as it did when you previewed it.