TikTok’s gift feature allows fans to send virtual gifts to their favorite creators as a way to show support and appreciation. The gifts trigger animated effects and stickers during TikTok live streams.
However, sometimes these video gifts fail to show up properly even after being purchased. There are a few potential reasons for this issue.
When TikTok gifts don’t display correctly, it can be disappointing for both gift senders expecting to see their gift animation, and for creators missing out on revenue and gift effects.
The good news is there are some troubleshooting steps viewers and creators can follow to get TikTok gifts triggering properly again.
Reasons Why TikTok Gifts May Not Be Showing
There are a few common reasons why TikTok gifts may not be visibly showing up from the sender side or displaying properly for the creator receiving them. Understanding the cause can help troubleshoot the issue.
Connectivity Issues Interrupting Gift Loading
One of the most common reasons TikTok gifts fail to display is connectivity problems interrupting the loading and displaying of gift animations. Users may purchase and send the gift, but visible issues like lag, buffering, or freezing on the viewer or creator side prevents the gift animation from loading.
Issues can occur on the mobile network, home WiFi, between the TikTok servers, CDNs, or overall internet infrastructure serving the traffic. High latency and packet loss tends to disrupt real-time gift effects. Restarting network equipment, switching connections, or waiting for congestion to ease can help.
Outdated App Version Causing Display Bugs
Over time, bugs and glitches affecting the display of TikTok gifts can crop up on older versions of the TikTok app. For example, an outdated app may trigger the back-end purchase of a gift but fail to load visible animations. Updating to the latest TikTok app version helps resolve these display and compatibility issues.
New TikTok app releases often contain bug fixes, performance improvements, and compatibility changes allowing gifts to show properly on both sender and receiver ends. Staying on an old app version too long can expose issues sending and viewing gifts.
TikTok Server Outages Impacting Gifts
Major outages on TikTok’s back-end servers can cause widespread issues with gifts not showing up to creators even after being purchased successfully. Viewers can still buy and send the gifts, but disruptions in TikTok’s APIs, CDNs, messaging queues or databases can prevent gift data from reaching creator devices and displaying properly.
These intermittent server problems are usually fixed relatively quickly by TikTok’s engineers through restarts, scaling resources or software patches. Checking TikTok’s status page on Down Detector can confirm whether an ongoing outage is affecting services like gifts sitewide. Waiting for stabilization resolves most global issues.
Account Limitations Blocking Gift Features
TikTok gift functions rely on access via official TikTok APIs requiring a standard user account in good standing. But users who have had restrictions, bans or limitations placed on what API features they can use due to violations may find gifts unusable. For example, being unable to directly message creators can prevent gift deliveries.
Appealing unfair or mistaken restrictions to lift API limits can potentially restore access to TikTok gifts after review. Severe repeat violations leading to permanent banning often prohibit gifts indefinitely without overturned appeals however. Understanding TikTok rules helps avoid usage issues.
Glitched Gift Data Failing to Load Effects
Even with no connectivity, app, server or account restrictions causing problems sending TikTok gifts, the gift transaction records themselves can become corrupted or glitched at times. The back-end data for the gift purchase may fail triggering visible gift animations despite technically being received and counted.
Trying to resend the same or new gift can work around one-off data glitches by generating fresh gift records triggering animations correctly. Sporadic glitched gifts tend to resolve themselves without intervention too. Persistent issues may require TikTok support for database fixes.
Creator Device Compatibility Causing Display Issues
The device, mobile OS and app version used by TikTok creators receiving and displaying gifts also plays a role in whether gift effects show properly. Old phones, outdated operating systems or stale TikTok app installs can suffer compatibility bugs around handling new gift data records and visible UI animations.
Even if sent successfully, the creator recipient’s device ultimately has to support rendering the gift effect graphics and overlays seamlessly during live streams. This requires sufficient processing power, supported firmware and updated TikTok builds. Lacking those elements prevents visible display independent of sender issues.
Step-by-Step Troubleshooting for TikTok Gifts Not Showing
If you are experiencing issues with purchased TikTok gifts not visibly showing either from the sender perspective to your own account, or as a creator failing to see gift animations from followers, consider trying these troubleshooting steps:
1. Check Network Connection Reliability
First, inspect overall connectivity stability on both the viewer/sender side as well as creator receiving end. Lag, buffering or choppiness in stream playback can signify network problems disrupting real-time gift views.
Changing WiFi channels, temporarily switching cellular data connections, or waiting out traffic spikes can improve reliability.
2. Update to Latest TikTok App Version
Ensure both the user account sending gifts and the creator account open for receiving them have the latest TikTok app release installed. Bug fixes and compatibility changes in newer versions frequently address known gift issues.
Updating also gives the latest feature support, stream reliability and security patches.
3. Restart Network Gear and Mobile Devices
If updated apps and stable connections don’t resolve missing TikTok gift animations, soft resetting local network equipment, as well as mobile devices, can clear other variables preventing visibility.
Router/modem device reboots refresh DHCP assignments, DNS caches and congestion. Powering off smartphones entirely then back on also resets apps and services system-wide.
4. Log Out and Log Back Into TikTok Accounts
Sometimes fully logging out then returning back into both viewer and creator TikTok accounts refreshes user sessions which may have corrupted temporary data or lost proper server authorizations for sending/receiving gifts.
The logout clears server-side associations allowing cleaner validation checking and cached data on next app launch.
5. Send Test Gift from Separate User Account
Troubleshoot whether issues are isolated to just your own TikTok user account failing to display sent gifts vs more widespread creator issues.
After other steps, send inexpensive test gift from different viewer account you own to check for broader creator-side display problems resolving on that fresh transaction. Narrow probable root cause directionally.
6. Delete and Reinstall TikTok Apps
If all else fails, completely wiping and freshly downloading updated TikTok apps on both sender devices showing issues as well as creator stream recipient phones can reset corrupt local app data potentially preventing gift transactions from completing properly.
Sign back into accounts after reinstalling to essentially start fresh resolving one-off glitches.
7. Contact TikTok Customer Support
For persistent TikTok gift delivery problems not resolvable through DIY troubleshooting, submit an issue report directly to TikTok’s customer support detailing exactly when sent gifts fail displaying including date, time, gift type, directionality andscope patterns noticed. Provide user IDs and transaction records.
TikTok staff best positioned to investigate and fix account or back-end issues.
Hopefully these detailed troubleshooting steps help resolve any problems experienced with TikTok live stream video gifts failing to trigger proper visible animations and effects after being purchased and sent.
Let us know in comments if certain fixes end up working for you!
