If you’ve spent a lot of time creating the drafts currently sitting in your TikTok account, the last thing you want to do is lose them.
Unfortunately, doing so is far too easy – I’ve heard horror stories of people losing hundreds of drafts by completely by accident. Obviously, this is something we want to avoid!
But are drafts deleted when you delete TikTok from your phone? What about when you simply log out, or update the app?
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know.
Does Deleting TikTok Also Delete All Of Your Drafts?
If you delete the app from your phone entirely (even to quickly reinstall it,) are all of your drafts also deleted?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes.
This is because drafts are not stored on TikTok’s servers – they are stored locally on the device itself. This is why you can’t view your drafts if you use a different phone, even if you log in to the same account.
When you delete an app on iOS (iPhone, iPad etc.) as well as on Android, it also deletes all of the data associated with that app.
Drafts are considered part of that data, which is also why TikTok takes up more and more space on your phone as your number of drafts grows.
Therefore, if you plan on deleting TikTok for whatever reason (even to uninstall it), make sure to keep a copy of your drafts! You should either take the time to download them to your phone, or upload them to TikTok. You can still keep them private to ensure nobody else is able to view them, however, once they’re actually uploaded they will finally be sent to TikTok’s servers for permanent storage.
So, they’ll still be there once you reinstall the app.
Does Updating TikTok Delete Your Drafts?
Next, let’s look at updating. If you update the TikTok app, will your drafts be erased?
Thankfully, the answer is no. TikTok pushes out periodic updates and there would be an absolute outrage if these updates caused people to lose their drafts.
When applications are updated on phones or tablets, the data remains on your phone during the updating process. This is how you’re able to stay signed in and keep things exactly how they were prior to updating.
Because no data is deleted, your drafts should remain completely untouched.
However, it always helps to have a spare backup just in case!
Does Logging Out Of TikTok Delete Your Drafts?
Finally, what happens if you simply log out?
This one seems to have mixed responses, according to other TikTok users on the internet. While some people claim they lost their drafts after logging out, this shouldn’t be the case.
Logging out of the app shouldn’t delete any account related data, unless you also delete TikTok itself.
Curiously, I tried creating a few drafts in my account, then logging out.
I closed the app, opened it up, and signed back in. After logging back in, all of my drafts were still there.
Note that drafts are tied to the specific device itself. If you log out of your account on one device and log into it on a different phone or tablet, your drafts won’t be there.
However, when you log back in to the original device you created the drafts on, they should all appear again.
Logging out may seem risky, but in my experience it isn’t a problem.
A Word Of Warning – Automatic App Deletion
If you use an app to manage this or you have this setting enabled on your iPhone, then you should be warned:
Drafts can take up a lot of space on your phone, especially if you have a lot of them. Settings on your phone that automatically free up space by deleting apps you no longer use may cause your drafts to be deleted unintentionally, if you do not use TikTok often.
For example, iPhones have an option to automatically remove unused apps, and reinstall them whenever you actually go to open them again. This can cause a loss in data.
Although they claim the data is backed up, this may not be true if you have iCloud completely disabled from your phone.
You can check if this setting is enabled by opening your Settings app, going to ‘General’, then ‘iPhone Storage’. Make sure that ‘Offload Unused Apps’ says ‘Enable’, indicating that it’s off.
I wanted to point this out as some people have lost their drafts this way!
Conclusion
Losing all of your TikTok drafts can be a devastating experience, especially since there’s not really anything you can do to get them back.
Fortunately, as long as you don’t delete the TikTok app entirely, your drafts should remain on your phone.
Remember that they are stored on the specific device you made them on. If you log into your account on another phone, your drafts won’t be there – but you’ll still be able to access them again when you switch back the original phone you recorded them with.
I hope this article was helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them using the comment form below.
– James McAllister