One of the most frustrating things on TikTok is when you accidentally click ‘Not Interested’ on a video that you actually enjoyed.
After all, it is positioned right next to the button to download the video, which you would normally do for videos that you really like.
But is there anyway to undo or reverse this?
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know.
Can You Undo ‘Not Interested’ On TikTok?
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any way to undo it after you click on ‘Not Interested’. However, there may be a way to minimize and even reverse its impact.
Some people believe that if you know the username of the person who posted the video or you liked the video beforehand, then you can simply revisit the video and undo the process.
I tested this out for myself, and unfortunately this wasn’t the case.
The Not Interested button only appears on videos that come up on your For You page. If you click the share button to pull up more options, the Not Interested button simply isn’t there when viewing videos from people’s profile pages, or even on the ‘Following’ tab.
And because TikTok pushes the video away the moment you click on ‘Not Interested’, there is simply no way to get it back – however, we can minimize its impact (which I’ll talk about in a moment.)
A Poor Design Choice By TikTok
If you’re here reading this article, you’re likely as frustrated by this as I am.
It makes absolutely no sense for TikTok to have two buttons that are polar opposites right next to each other, particularly when one of them is irreversible.
The buttons are tiny and lots of people browse TikTok with one hand. It is far too easy to accidentally click on Not Interested when in fact, you actually wanted to save the video.
Even now that they’ve added the ‘Why this video’ button between ‘Save video’ and ‘Not interested’, it is still way too close!
Seriously, why couldn’t they swap the location of the Add to Favorites and the Not Interested button? Then at least if you misclick, you’re still doing something positive and can fix your mistake.
This doesn’t really make sense for TikTok either. TikTok makes the most money when they have as accurate information as possible about you. TikTok uses what it knows to tailor its feed.
If you end up telling TikTok you’re not interested in something when in fact, you are very interested in it, this directly hurts TikTok’s ability to understand you, which ultimately costs them money.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why this was a poor design choice!
What Does ‘Not Interested’ Actually Do? How To Minimize Its Impact
To understand the Not Interested button, you must first understand a little bit about how TikTok’s For You page works.
TikTok is constantly making predictions about who you are and what you like, using all available data given to them.
Every single TikTok you watch (0r don’t watch) gives TikTok valuable data about you, which is why your TikTok feed tends to become even more tailored and personal over time.
They almost certainly track things such as:
- What’s in the video you’re watching, including its topic, hashtags, sounds, objects in the video, etc.
- What other types of people also showed interest in this video.
- Exactly how long you watched it.
- Whether or not you interacted with it further (liking, downloads, comments, etc.)
- How your interaction with this video compares or contrasts with other videos you’ve been exposed to.
- How your current behavior pattern compares with your past behavior pattern.
- And much, much more.
TikTok makes predictions on the videos it shows you, then validates its predictions using the data you provide it.
TikTok is designed to show you content it believes you’re interested in. Therefore, when you click on ‘Not Interested’, it sends incredibly important data back to TikTok. Everything about that video – its topic, the type of audience that responds best to it etc, will be fed back into TikTok’s specific recommendation algorithm tailored to you.
The effect of this is that whatever made that video unique will be factored in, showing you less videos on your feed that are similar to the one you marked ‘Not Interested’ on.
How To Reverse It
Now that we know that the For You algorithm operates based on data, and that marking ‘Not Interested’ affects the videos that are shown to you, we can begin reversing the process.
Note that if you’ve shown a strong interest in something, TikTok won’t start hiding all of those videos simply because you click the Not Interested button once. The effect of the Not Interested button can be very subtle, especially if it’s only done once or twice.
Therefore, in order to reverse it, you should start interacting more heavily with the type of video you want to see more of.
If you know the creator that you marked Not Interested on, go back to their page and watch a bunch of their videos, liking the ones that are most interesting to you.
While you shouldn’t spam like them, you should take the time to really watch them and show TikTok that you are actually interested in this type of content.
Likewise, when similar content comes across your For You page, don’t skip over it. Skipping over similar content will show TikTok that you actually aren’t interested in it anymore, and it will show you less and less.
Instead, interact with that content even more heavily than before. Like the videos. Watch them several times. Try to download it, being very careful to click the right button.
Watching videos, liking, commenting tells TikTok to show you more of that content.
Skipping over videos or clicking Not Interested tells TikTok to show you less of that content.
Ultimately, that is what it boils down to.
Don’t Trust Scam Services
I’ve heard stories of people claiming that they can find the videos and undo all of your ‘Not Interested’ videos for you, if you’ll just give them your login information.
I’m here to warn you that there is no ability to do so, and this is just a scam to try and steal your password. There is no way for anyone to undo the clicking of ‘Not Interested’, and TikTok staff will never ask you for your password.
Never give your personal login information to anybody.
Conclusion
The fact that the Not Interested button is so close to the download button is incredibly frustrating.
While there’s no way to undo the process completely, there are steps you can take to minimize the button’s impact.
Simply by watching and interacting more with the videos that you’re actually interested in, you can be sure that your TikTok feed will remain as tailored and personal as possible.