TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms for creating and sharing short video content. As a content creator on TikTok, you may often save your videos as drafts before posting them to have the flexibility to edit them later. However, you may sometimes accidentally delete these drafts or lose access to them when switching devices.
Recovering deleted TikTok drafts may seem challenging, but there are a few methods you can try to get your videos back. This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to find and recover your recently created TikTok drafts.
Table of Contents
Finding Your Drafts on TikTok
When you save a video as a draft on TikTok, it is stored locally on your device and not on TikTok’s servers. To access your drafts:
- Open the TikTok app and tap on your profile icon on the bottom right of your screen
- This will take you to your TikTok profile page
- At the top left of your profile, you will see a “Drafts” folder
- Tap on this folder to view all your saved draft videos
If you do not see a Drafts folder on your TikTok profile, it likely means you do not have any saved drafts.
Why Your TikTok Drafts May Disappear
There are a few common reasons why your TikTok drafts may disappear unexpectedly:
Switching Mobile Devices
Since drafts are saved on your device and not the TikTok servers, they will not transfer over if you switch to using TikTok on another mobile device. Your drafts are device-specific.
Uninstalling and Reinstalling the App
If you uninstall TikTok from your device and reinstall it later, you will lose access to any saved drafts you had.
Restoring Your Device to Factory Settings
Doing a factory reset on your mobile device will wipe all locally-stored data, including any TikTok draft videos you saved.
Methods to Recover Deleted TikTok Drafts
If you have lost access to your TikTok drafts through any of the above reasons, you may still be able to recover them through a few methods:
1. Device and Cloud Backups
Check your device and cloud storage backups to see if they contain your deleted TikTok drafts:
- iPhone users can access backups via iCloud or iTunes to recover lost iOS data and TikTok drafts.
- Android users may be able to restore TikTok drafts from Google Drive if backups were enabled.
2. File Recovery Software
If you don’t have backups that contain your TikTok drafts, you can use file recovery software to scan your device’s storage and restore deleted videos.
Some options to try:
- iMyFone D-Back – Recovers lost iOS data including TikTok drafts.
- Disk Drill – Restores deleted files on both iOS and Android devices.
Make sure to avoid using your device excessively until your drafts are recovered, as this can overwrite your deleted files making them unrecoverable.
3. TikTok Data Download
You can attempt to recover deleted TikTok drafts by requesting a download of your TikTok data:
- Open TikTok and go to your profile
- Tap the 3-dot menu and select “Privacy and settings”
- Choose “Data and management”
- Select “Download your data” to request your TikTok data archive
This takes up to a few days but will provide you access to a download link to all of your TikTok data that exists on their servers. Your drafts may be included in this download if they were backed up.
Tips to Avoid Losing TikTok Drafts
To ensure you do not lose your TikTok draft videos again in the future:
- Enable backups on your device or cloud storage platforms to keep copies of your drafts.
- Manually save copies of important drafts to your camera roll for safekeeping outside of the TikTok app.
- Avoid uninstalling TikTok without first backing up drafts you want to keep.
- Be careful while factory resetting your device to not permanently delete locally-stored drafts.
Conclusion
Losing your creative TikTok drafts can be upsetting but is usually recoverable through device backups, file recovery apps, or requesting your TikTok data download. Be proactive about backing up your draft videos externally to avoid relying solely on the TikTok app to store these files. With the right tools and preventative habits, you can have peace of mind that your TikTok drafts will be safe even if accidentally deleted.
