TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms, especially among young people. The app makes it easy to create and share short videos, and its algorithm is very effective at showing users content that aligns with their interests. As a result, many TikTok users end up with large collections of favorited videos that they have liked and want to save for later.
However, what happens to those favorite videos if you decide to delete your TikTok account? Are they gone forever, or can you get them back? In this post, we’ll take an in-depth look at what exactly happens to your favorite TikTok videos when you delete your account.
What Happens When You Delete Your TikTok Account?
When you decide to delete your TikTok account, you have two options: deactivate or permanently delete. Let’s look at what each of these options means for your favorite videos:
Deactivating Your Account
If you choose to deactivate your TikTok account, it will be temporarily disabled but not permanently erased. Your profile, likes, follows, and favorite videos will all be saved and restored if you later decide to reactivate your account.
Deactivation is essentially putting your account on hold – nothing is actually deleted. So rest assured that deactivating your account will not delete your favorite video collection at all.
However, keep in mind that other users will not be able to visit your profile or see your favorited videos during the time your account is deactivated. But everything will reappear if and when you reactive your TikTok account.
Permanently Deleting Your Account
Permanently deleting your TikTok account is a much more drastic action that cannot be undone. When you choose this option, your account is completely removed along with all of its data.
Unfortunately, this does mean that your favorited videos are deleted and lost forever when you permanently delete your TikTok account.
TikTok states in its Privacy Policy: “If you decide to delete your account, we will delete things you have posted, such as your videos, comments and likes.” There is no way to recover or access favorited videos from a deleted account.
So if you want to hang on to your collection of favorited TikTok videos, do not choose the permanent delete option. Deactivating your account temporarily is the best way to keep your favorites intact in case you ever return to TikTok.
Backing Up Favorited TikTok Videos Before Deleting
Since permanently deleting your TikTok account means losing your favorited video collection, you may want to back up those videos beforehand. Here are some options for downloading and saving your favorite TikToks before deletion:
Use a TikTok Video Downloader
There are various third-party apps and websites designed specifically for downloading TikTok videos. Examples include TikTokSaver, TikTokX and TikTok Downloader.
These tools allow you to easily save TikTok videos without a watermark along with their captions and sounds. All you need to do is copy and paste the link of any TikTok video, and the downloader will extract and save the video to your device.
This is the quickest way to grab your favorite TikToks before shutting down your account. You can download individual videos or batches as needed.
Connect to a Computer
If you connect your phone to a computer, you can access and copy TikTok videos from your device. Navigate to the Internal Storage/Android/data/com.zhiliaoapp.musically/files/MyFavorite folder to find all your favorited videos.
Keep in mind that the videos will have a TikTok watermark when downloaded via this method. But it still allows you to quickly transfer favorites en masse to your computer for backup before account deletion.
Use Screen Recording Software
Another option is to manually record your phone’s screen as you browse through your favorites feed saving each video. This takes more effort than automated downloaders, but lets you capture videos exactly as they appear in the app.
You can use built-in screen recording features on iOS and Android devices. There are also third-party apps that offer advanced recording and editing options for higher quality.
Save to Camera Roll
From the TikTok app, you can tap the Share arrow on any video post and choose “Save video” to add that individual TikTok to your camera roll. It’s more time consuming than the previous methods, but does allow you to capture favorites directly within the app.
Once in your camera roll, the videos are accessible even if you delete your TikTok account. Just note that this option also adds a watermark.
Recovering Deleted Favorited Videos
Unfortunately, once your TikTok account is permanently deleted along with your favorites, it is almost impossible to retrieve them. Here are a few last ditch ideas that may work in rare cases:
- Check your backups: If you ever backed up your device or TikTok data to external storage, there is a tiny chance your favorites may be salvaged from those archives.
- Subpoena TikTok: You could technically take legal action and try to subpoena TikTok to regain data from your deleted account. But this would be an unrealistic and costly endeavor in most cases.
- Contact TikTok: While TikTok has no official avenue for recovering deleted favorites, you could always try reaching out to plead your case and see if an employee is willing and able to help you. But there is very little chance of this working.
- Check other devices: In rare cases, some TikTok data may still remain in cached folders on devices even after deletion. This is unlikely but it could be worth digging through archives on any phones/computers where you used the app.
So in summary, there is very little hope of recovering deleted favorites unless you already backed them up elsewhere. This is why it’s so important to proactively download or record any favorites you want to keep before deleting TikTok.
Alternatives to Deleting Your Account
If you don’t actually want to get rid of your TikTok account altogether, but are looking for options to clean up your account, there are couple alternatives worth considering:
Temporarily Disable Your Account
As mentioned previously, deactivating your account pauses it without deleting anything. You can take a break from TikTok while maintaining your data, and reactivate whenever ready. This avoids permanently losing your collection of liked videos.
Remove Liked Videos
You can also manually delete individual favorites from your account without fully deleting everything. Simply go to your profile, click the video you want to remove, and tap the “Unlike” button to unsave it from your account.
This lets you curate a collection of only your most beloved favorites if your like list has grown too large and unwieldy. But any video you “unlike” will be permanently gone, so only remove ones you’re certain you don’t need to keep.
Make Your Account Private
If you’re comfortable keeping your TikTok account active but want to limit who can see your favorited videos, you can change your settings to a private account. This makes your profile and likes only visible to approved followers, keeping your activity more restricted and concealed.
Conclusion
To wrap up, deleting your TikTok account permanently erases all of your favorited videos, while deactivation keeps them intact. If you do choose to fully delete TikTok, be sure to download any favorites you want to keep onto another device beforehand, as there is almost no way to recover them after deletion.
Alternatively, consider temporarily disabling your account, manually unliking certain videos, or making your profile private. These options allow you to curate and conceal your liked video collection as needed without having to say goodbye to your TikTok favorites forever!
Frequently Asked Questions
Does deactivating TikTok delete my favorites?
No, deactivating your TikTok account temporarily pauses it without deleting any of your data. Favorited videos remain stored and will reappear if you reactive your account.
Can I download my liked TikTok videos?
Yes, there are several methods to download your favorite videos for backup before deleting your account, including video downloader apps, connecting your phone to a computer, screen recording, and saving to camera roll.
What happens if I delete a favorite video?
If you “unlike” a video from your TikTok favorites list, that individual video is permanently removed and cannot be recovered after deletion.
Is there any way to restore my favorites if I already deleted TikTok?
Unfortunately no, once your account is permanently deleted there is almost no way to retrieve your lost favorited videos. Your only hope is finding a backup on another device.
Can I temporarily disable my account instead of deleting?
Yes, deactivating your TikTok account just pauses it temporarily without erasing anything. This allows you to take a break while saving your profile data including liked videos.
How do I limit who can see my liked videos?
You can make your TikTok account private so only approved followers can view your profile and favorites. This hides your activity from the public without deleting anything.
I changed my mind – how do I restore my TikTok account?
As long as you only deactivated and did not permanently delete your TikTok account, you can quickly restore it by simply logging back in, which will reactivate your profile with all your data intact.
