Our parents and grandparents love to warn us that ‘everything on the internet is permanent’. However, there are ways to remove traces of your online presence, and this, of course, includes deleting posts from your social media accounts.
If you want to learn how to delete a TikTok video from your account, you’ve come to the right place. Continue reading to find out how to do this.
How To Delete A TikTok Video
If you want to delete a video that you have already uploaded to TikTok, the steps to follow couldn’t be any easier.
If you have ever deleted a photograph from any other app, or any kind of file from a social media account, this is very similar.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to delete a video from your TikTok page:
First, you are going to want to open up the TikTok app on your phone or smart device.
Once you have opened the app, it will automatically take you to the Home page, or the FYP (For You Page). Find the Profile icon in the lower left corner, and click on it to be diverted to your Profile page. This is where you will find all your uploaded videos.
On your Profile page, you will be able to see all of your uploaded videos, including the one that you want to delete. Click on that specific video, and it should start playing on your screen.
On the left side of the screen, you will see several icons, including the Comment icon and the Like icon. Just above the Sound icon, you should see three horizontal dots, or an ellipsis. Click on the Ellipsis icon to bring up another menu.
On this menu, you will see three rows of options:
The first row will allow you to send the video to friends and followers.
The second row will allow you to send the video as a link through other social media apps, e.g., Snapchat.
The third row will reveal a number of other options.
You will want to focus on the third row.
Scroll vertically to the very end of the third row, scrolling past every other option. Right at the end, you should see a trashcan-shaped icon with Delete written below it.
Click on the Delete icon, and this should bring up a pop-up that reads ‘Delete this video?’. Select the ‘Delete’ button, and the video will be deleted.
Can You Recover A Deleted Video From TikTok?
If you have deleted a video from your TikTok, and you regret not having saved it beforehand, you may be pretty disappointed that you will never be able to see that video ever again.
Well, thankfully, there are a couple of ways that you can recover that lost footage.
1. Locate It Through Your ‘Liked Videos’ Folder
If you, by chance, happened to have liked this particular video before you deleted it, you will be able to recover it by searching through your ‘Liked Videos’ folder.
On your Profile page, just below your bio, there will be, at least, four icons across the screen:
An icon of 2 rows of 3 vertical dots – this is where you can find your uploaded videos.
A padlock icon – this is where you can find your archived/’Only Me’ videos.
A ‘saved’ icon – this is where you can find your saved videos.
A heart icon – this is where you will find your liked videos.
Select the heart icon to find every single video that you have ever liked. Scroll through, and you may find a video (or several videos) with a gray background and a broken video icon.
Click on it, and identify whether this is your deleted video or not.
If it is, click on the Ellipsis icon at the side of the screen. This will give you the option to Save Video.
Once you have saved it to your device, you will be able to find your video in your photo gallery on your phone or smart device.
2. Restore The Video From Backup
The backup is a convenient place to seek for deleted TikTok videos.
The video ought should be accessible in one of these folders/apps if your phone is set to automatically upload videos to the default photographs app, such as iOS’ Photos app or Android’s Google Photos app.
You won’t be able to use this option if you haven’t backed up your videos.
How To Edit The Privacy Of An Already Uploaded Video
Deleting a video entirely isn’t the only way to remove a video from your public page.
Instead, you could always alter the privacy settings to ensure that only specific people can view it, whether you’d rather just your friends be able to see it, or just you.
How To Make A Video Private
If you want to remove a video from the public view, but you don’t want to remove it entirely, you can always archive it on your page.
Here is how you can do this:
Follow the first 4 steps that we listed in the How to Delete a TikTok Video section of this guide.
Scroll horizontally through the third row of options, and find the Privacy Settings option (with a padlock icon).
The first option will be ‘Who can watch this video’, which should be automatically set to ‘Everyone’. Click on this option.
Select ‘Only Me’, and click back to the original menu.
This video will no longer be visible to anyone other than yourself. You will be able to view this video by clicking the ‘Only Me’ icon on your Profile page (the padlock icon just below your bio).
How To Make A Video Only Viewable By Friends
If there are some videos on your page that you don’t want the whole world to see, but you’d like to keep it visible to your friends, this is possible too. Here is how to do it:
Follow the first 3 steps that we listed in the How to Make a Video Private section.
Select ‘Friends’, and click back to the original menu.
This video will now only be visible to you and your friends (those who you follow and are followed by on TikTok).
Final Thoughts
Whether you want to archive your video, adjust the privacy settings, or completely wipe it from the face of the earth, it couldn’t be easier to complete any of these options.
Check out our step-by-step guides, and your video will be hidden in no time.
Hi, I’m Matt Johnson, and I work as a Digital Marketer. I started out as a PR assistant for a publishing company, and I quickly learned how important digital platforms are for marketing in the modern world.
This is why I started EngageDigital.com, to offer you a behind the scenes look at all of the most popular sites, applications and platforms, from Amazon to Snapchat, Venmo accounts, Instagram, NFTs, to Omegle and Tik Tok.
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