You can find watched TikTok videos through your watch history. Open your profile, use the menu to go to settings and look for the section related to your activity. From there, you can open your watch history. The names and location may vary. Can’t find the video? Search for a distinctive detail or check your likes and favourites.
Below, you’ll read where to search and what you can do if your watch history is missing.
Open your TikTok watch history in the app
Follow these steps to find the section:
- Open Profile.
- Open the menu.
- Go to Settings and privacy.
- Search for Activity centre , the section for your activity.
- Open Watch history , your watch history.
This route appears in the Popular Science guide to watched TikTok videos , updated in 2023. The Dutch names and the location in the menu may have changed since then. Use these steps to find the section, rather than treating them as a fixed route for every phone.
Looking for a video you just watched? Start with the most recent videos in the list. Look for recognisable images, such as a jacket, a dish or the background. You may recognise these sooner than the creator’s name.
Find a watched TikTok video using a filter
Search for words that fit the video. Then check the search filters to see whether you can choose watched videos. Popular Science also mentions this filter in the guide above. Don’t see that option? Continue searching without a filter.
A fictional example: you saw someone making lemon pasta in one pan. Search for ‘lemon pasta one pan’ instead of just ‘pasta’. Was the video in English? Also try ‘lemon pasta one pot’.
Can’t find anything useful? Change one thing at a time:
- Try another word, such as ‘sneakers’ instead of ‘trainers’.
- Add a distinctive detail, such as a place or object.
- Search for the creator’s name if you still remember it.
- Leave out a detail if you are unsure whether you remembered it correctly.
Choose words that are likely to appear in the description or spoken explanation. An object that was only briefly visible may be less helpful when searching.
What can you do if your TikTok watch history is missing?
Can’t find the section, or does the list open but keep loading? Check below which situation applies to you.
| What do you see? | What can you try? |
|---|---|
| You can’t find the watch history. | Search the settings for sections about your activity. Also check whether you can update the app. An update does not guarantee that the watch history will appear. |
| The screen keeps loading. | Check whether other videos and apps load properly. Close TikTok and reopen the app. |
| You see a list, but one video is missing. | Search for words from the video and check your likes and favourites. You cannot assume that the list contains every video you watched. |
| You use multiple accounts. | Check that you are signed in to the account you used to watch the video. |
Are other sections not loading either? Read what you can do when TikTok has no internet connection.
Find TikTok videos again through likes and favourites
Did you tap the heart or save the video? Also check your likes and favourites on your profile. These are different lists from your watch history:
- Watch history: this is where you find videos you watched earlier.
- Likes: this is where videos you tapped the heart on appear.
- Favourites: this is where videos you saved yourself appear.
A video therefore does not appear in your likes or favourites simply because you watched it. Did you send the video to someone? Search the shared link in that conversation.
For example, do you want to make a recipe later? Save the video to your favourites. Doesn’t that work? Read the guide to TikTok favourites that are not working.
Delete your TikTok watch history
Open your watch history and check whether you can select or delete videos. Before confirming, read exactly what you are deleting: one video, a selection or the entire visible list. The buttons may differ between apps.
Save the links to videos you still need first. Anything you remove from the list cannot be found again through that list afterwards.
Can’t see a delete option? Then you cannot follow these steps. Also do not assume that you can turn off the recording of future watch history.
An empty list does not mean that TikTok has deleted all data about your viewing behaviour. Clearing your visible history is not evidence of that.
What does your TikTok watch history say about recommendations?
According to TikTok’s explanation of recommended content watch time, watching in full and skipping can influence the videos TikTok recommends to you.
Your watch history does not show all the reasons why TikTok displays a video to you. You also cannot tell from it how much weight one watched video carries.
Use your watch history to find videos again. Do not expect watching or clearing the list to reset your recommendations. If you are also considering paid options, our TikTok services lets you compare packages for views and followers, including the available quantities and prices.
