You can’t see others deleted videos on TikTok. People delete videos for a reason, and if it’s their content, they decide if a video should stay deleted. That said, there are a few tactics you can still try if your friend accidentally deletes a video. I’ll also show you how to recover your own deleted TikTok video.
Do you know the ways to make TikTok videos longer?
Table of Contents
A step-by-step guide to recover and see others’ deleted TikTok video
Depending on your choice, you can see others’ deleted TikTok videos in a few different ways.
Check if the video is cached on your phone
The first thing to check is if the deleted video is cached on your phone.
If you haven’t cleared your cache, there’s a chance the video is still in your phone’s memory.
There are two ways you can do this – by checking your favorites or your watch history.
See a deleted video through your Favorites
You may have the cached video saved because you favorited it. If you do, go to your Favorites under your TikTok profile.
If the video is still in your phone’s cache, save it to your phone or share it with a third-party source like Time Machine or Google Drive.
But what if you haven’t favored the video? Then read on…
See a deleted video through your Watch History
TikTok saves your Watch History for a default period of 7 days.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to see your TikTok Watch History:
- Go to your TikTok profile
- Click the menu button at the top-right corner (the three short horizontal lines).
- Scroll down to “Watch History” and tap it.
With a bit of luck, the deleted video is still there if it is still in the cache memory of your iPhone or Android.
Use a third-party archive site like Urlebird.com
Sites like Urlebird.com automatically archive popular TikTok videos. You can search for any username or hashtag for the video you are looking for.
Notice, however, that I said “popular” TikTok videos. If a video has few views, you can’t find it.
I don’t know exactly how many views, likes, or comments should have before a video is archived.
But Urlebird can do more than that if you want to see the latest trending hashtags, music, or videos, the site compiles lists of these so that you can target them for more views.
Ask the original creator for the video
If you find a video you enjoyed, you can always ask the original content creator for the video.
You can send a Direct Message to a person (over 16 or 18 years of age – depending on their settings) you follow on TikTok if they’ve not deactivated this option under privacy settings.
If they’ve deactivated direct messaging, you can contact them by writing a message to one of their other videos or using the Q&A option below their profile picture.
Also, for direct messaging to work, both parties must have their phone number linked to their account.
If they choose, they can then send the video through a direct message.
Ask the TikTok community for the deleted video
Other TikTok users might have saved the video already.
If they’ve only favored the video, they can’t see it if it’s been deleted. They’ll need to save it physically to their device or a third-party storage service like Google Drive.
Again, you can use the Q&A feature under a profile to invite friends and the community to help locate and find a specific video.
It’s also worth noting that they’re essentially sharing someone else’s content and violating the copyright of the original content creator if they share it with you.
However, asking for help might help you track down the video if it has been included in TikTok compilations on fx YouTube or Instagram.
It could also be that the video has been included in Duet videos. If that’s the case, even if the original video is deleted, any Duet videos that have been made remain on TikTok.
You can’t see others deleted videos even if I have a direct link
Even though you have a direct link to a video on TikTok, you can’t watch it anymore if that video gets deleted or taken down.
Instead, you’ll get a grey screen with a broken camera icon.
This is true whether you have copied or followed a link from Instagram stories or other third-party apps.
Always save and download important videos!
The big takeaway is that you should always download important videos to your phone, computer, or a third-party storage option.
If you’ve created a backup, you can keep the video. If you haven’t and the video from your favorite influencer is deleted, there’s a good chance it’s gone forever.
If you find a video you like and want to keep, the best way not to lose it is to save (download) it to your phone’s storage and use a third-party app like Google Drive to make a backup.
If you run into problems saving your video, check out our article Why Won’t TikTok Let Me Save Videos?
How to see a deleted video saved to Google Drive
Instead of saving the video to your phone, you can also share the video to an external source or photo app, like Google Photos or Google Drive, with the share icon.
You could save it to your text messages or another storage device like an SD card, USB drive, or memory card. You should be able to see the old video in the phone’s gallery or Google Drive, wherever you choose to share it.
Once you share the video with a third-party source, like Google Drive, you can view the shared video, and it should be able to be played.
TikTok automatically saves videos you’ve posted or created as a draft to your phone’s camera roll (photo and video folder).
However, there may be times you’re unlucky and delete a posted video or draft you wanted to keep.
In that case, keep reading…
How to watch your own deleted TikTok videos
If you’ve accidentally deleted a video, you can retrieve it again in a few ways. I’ll cover all of these below, so keep reading.
Write TikTok support
If you’ve accidentally deleted a video, you can write TikTok support. Within 48 hours, you should have your video back again.
Here are two ways you can contact TikTok support to recover your deleted video back again:
- Go to your TikTok profile page
- Tap the menu button in the top right corner (the three short horizontal lines)
- Scroll down to “Report a problem.”
- Tap the small icon in the top right corner that looks like a piece of paper with a pen. Now, you’ll be asked for your feedback.
- Tap the small icon again to open up the feedback page where you can write.
- Write that you’ve accidentally deleted some of your videos and would like to get them back.
- Tap “Report.”
- Within 48 hours, you should receive an email with links to your deleted videos
Alternatively, you can also do this:
- Go to your TikTok profile page
- Tap the menu button in the top right corner (the three short horizontal lines)
- Tap “Settings and privacy.”
- Scroll down to “Report a problem.”
- Scroll down and tap on “Videos and sounds.”
- Scroll down and tap on “Video missing.”
- Tap on “Other”
- Tap on “No” when you see the page where the app asks, “Is your problem resolved?”
- Tap “Need more help?”
- Under “Tell us your feedback,” you write that you’ve accidentally deleted some videos and need them back.
How to prevent your videos from being deleted
While we’ve covered several ways to recover a deleted video, it’s not simple.
TikTok used to have the recover button, but these new ways are workarounds to that feature being hidden.
But if you want to protect all your TikTok videos for a long time, you need to do the following:
- Open the TikTok App and hit the plus button at the bottom of the screen.
- Record a test video with the red button, then save the video as a draft.
- Return to your person icon (profile page), and you will see the video in the gallery tap.
Tap the video, and at the bottom of the options, as you’re about to post, you will see something called “More Options.”
This allows you to check “save to device,” which will automatically save all your videos to your device, creating a backup for every video you create on your phone. - If a video is deleted accidentally, you can upload it from your device. This will help prevent the loss of videos that are deleted in the first place.
This is similar to saving a TikTok video without posting it.
Summary
TikTok has also become THE place for GenZ – beating Facebook – to watch popular videos featuring your favorite music, record videos of yourself, or visit with your friends in chat messages or live video streams.
You can’t see a deleted TikTok video for various reasons.
Fx, this could be due to privacy settings changing, like an account you follow is changed to a private account, and now you can’t see their private videos.
Or it could be that a video broke TikTok’s community guidelines and was taken down.
Sometimes, the social media platforms themselves will delete the video. Sometimes it was an accidental deletion. Believe it or not, this can also happen to popular TikTok creators.
Creators often delete underperforming videos, unwanted videos, or criticized videos. If you’re a regular TikTok user, you probably delete videos.
I hope you found this guide to viewing deleted TikTok videos useful. For more tips on TikTok videos, short videos, or other social media tips, check out our other guides on the Filmdaft.com website.
As always, you can enter your email to get updates from the FilmDaft newsletter directly in your inbox. Until next time!
FAQ:
Here are some answers to some frequently asked questions related to this subject.
What are the ways I can access my TikTok account? Mobile app vs. web browser
Many beginners don’t know this, but TikTok isn’t just an app. It’s also a website.
So basically, there are three ways to access TikTok: the Android app, the iOS app, or a web browser on your computer.
If you have an Android phone, open the Android app (it is a black icon with a white music note on it.)
If you don’t have an Android device, like for iOS users with iOS devices, the method is the same.
You can also access the site through the TikTok browser app (https://www.tiktok.com).
Both PC and Mac users can create an account on their web browser, but you’ll need the app for all the share and save features to work.
If you want to be able to save or share videos to yourself, then you’ll need to go to the app store and download it, as these methods won’t work without the account.
If you don’t have a TikTok account, you won’t have all the same share features, so I recommend signing up and creating one.
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