You open TikTok ready to finish editing that video you’ve been working on and your drafts are gone. Just… gone. All of them (:
I know that sinking feeling in your stomach because I’ve been there too and it’s absolute bullshit!
Let me show you how to get your TikTok drafts back and why they disappeared in the first place. Some of these methods actually work, motherfuckers…
Why Your TikTok Drafts Vanished
Before we fix it, let’s understand what happened. TikTok drafts aren’t saved on TikTok’s servers like your published videos – they’re stored locally on your phone! That means if anything happens to your phone or the app, your drafts can disappear.
Common reasons drafts vanish: You switched to a different TikTok account (drafts are account-specific), you updated or reinstalled the TikTok app, you got a new phone and didn’t transfer them, your phone ran a cleaner app that deleted TikTok’s cache, or TikTok just glitched out because this dumbass app does that sometimes…
Understanding this is important because it affects how you recover them, you know what I mean?
Check If You’re Logged Into The Right Account
This sounds stupid, but it’s the most common reason people think their drafts are gone! If you use multiple TikTok accounts, your drafts are tied to specific accounts and these motherfuckers at TikTok don’t make this clear at all.
Open TikTok and tap your profile icon in the bottom right. Check which account you’re logged into at the top – if it’s not your main account, tap it and switch accounts.
Once you’re on the right account, tap profile again and look for the drafts section. See that number next to Drafts? That’s how many you have saved on this account on this device.
If you see your drafts there, congrats – you just panicked for nothing 🙂
Quick Fixes That Might Bring Them Back
Try these solutions first before getting desperate:
1. Check your phone’s gallery – When you save a TikTok as a draft, it might also save to your phone’s gallery if you had that setting turned on. Open your Gallery or Photos app, look for a folder called TikTok. Your drafts might be sitting right there as regular video files! If you find them, you can just upload them to TikTok again – not ideal because you lose any in-app edits you made, but at least the video itself isn’t gone.
2. Log out and back in – Sometimes TikTok just needs a refresh, not gonna lie… Go to your profile, tap the three lines in the top right for settings, scroll down and tap Log out, then log back in with your account. Check your drafts section again – did they come back?
3. Check other devices – Remember how drafts are stored locally on your device? That means if you made a draft on your iPad, it won’t show up on your iPhone even if you use the same account! Grab any other phones or tablets where you’ve used TikTok, open the app on each one, go to your profile, and check for drafts.
4. Restart TikTok completely – Force close the app (don’t just minimize it), wait 10 seconds, then reopen it. Sometimes drafts reappear after a fresh app restart because TikTok’s code is glitchy as hell…
And if you’re dealing with other annoying TikTok app issues, check out what to do when TikTok removes your videos for copyright since app problems tend to come in groups!
Advanced Recovery Methods
If the quick fixes didn’t work, here’s what to try next…
Restore From Phone Backup (iPhone Users)
If you back up your iPhone to iCloud regularly, there’s a chance your drafts are in a previous backup. This only works if you haven’t made a new backup since the drafts disappeared!
Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings. When your phone restarts, choose Restore from iCloud Backup and pick a backup from before your drafts vanished.
WARNING: This erases your current phone data and restores everything from that backup… Only do this if those drafts are really important and you’re willing to lose any new data since that backup.
Restore From Phone Backup (Android Users)
Android users can try restoring from Google Drive backups if you have auto-backup enabled. Go to Settings > Google > Backup and check if you have a recent backup available. But same warning applies – you’ll lose current data when restoring!
Use Recovery Software (Last Resort)
If nothing else worked, you can try data recovery software like iMyFone D-Back for iOS or EaseUS MobiSaver for Android that scan your phone for deleted files including TikTok drafts.
These apps usually have a free scan so you can see if your drafts are recoverable before paying. Download the software, connect your phone, run a scan, and see if it finds your TikTok videos…
I’m not gonna lie to you, recovery software is hit or miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t! But if you had 50 drafts you spent hours on, it might be worth trying.
The Harsh Truth About TikTok Drafts
Here’s what TikTok doesn’t tell you clearly enough – drafts are NOT backed up, they’re not synced across devices, they’re just sitting in your phone’s storage hoping nothing bad happens!
If you delete the TikTok app? Your drafts are gone.
If you clear the app’s data? They’re gone.
If you factory reset your phone without backing up? Gone.
If you get a new phone and don’t manually transfer them? Gone.
This is by design, but it’s also complete bullshit… Every other app backs stuff up to the cloud, but TikTok stores everything locally. What the fuck is happenning here? It’s frustrating as hell when you lose work you put hours into!
Sometimes you’ll also run into issues like videos getting reversed or mirrored, which shows how many technical problems this app has…
How To Never Lose Drafts Again
Learn from this pain, motherfuckers. Here’s how to protect your drafts going forward:
Turn on “Save to device” – This way even if TikTok loses the draft, you’ll have the video file in your gallery! Go to TikTok Settings > Privacy > turn on Save to Photos/Gallery.
Use cloud backup – Set up Google Photos or iCloud to automatically back up your phone’s videos. Then even if you lose the draft, the raw video is safe in the cloud…
Don’t use phone cleaner apps – Or if you do, whitelist TikTok so it doesn’t delete TikTok’s data. Those cleaner apps love deleting cache and app data which includes your drafts!
Before getting a new phone – Save all your drafts as videos to your gallery or upload them as private posts. Don’t trust that they’ll transfer automatically because they won’t, I’m not playing.
Export important drafts immediately – Don’t leave them sitting in drafts for weeks hoping they stay there. TikTok updates, glitches, and bugs can wipe them out without warning…
When Drafts Are Really Gone For Good
Sometimes despite trying everything, your drafts are just gone. It sucks, but you gotta accept it and move on!
If you reinstalled TikTok without backing up first, those drafts are gone forever. If your phone crashed and you had to factory reset without a backup, they’re gone. If you switched phones and traded in the old one before transfering drafts, they’re gone…
I’ve seen people lose 100+ drafts and it’s heartbreaking! But sitting there trying recovery method after recovery method when the data is genuinely erased just wastes time you could spend recreating content.
What You Need to Know
TikTok drafts disappearing usually happens because they’re stored locally on your device, not in the cloud like every other modern app should do it. Check if you’re on the right account, look in your phone’s gallery, try logging out and back in, check other devices, and if you’re desperate try recovery software…
But the real solution? Preventing it from happening again! Turn on save to device, use cloud backups, be careful with cleaner apps, and export important drafts immediately.
Losing drafts you spent hours editing absolutely sucks, and you can kiss my ass TikTok for not backing this stuff up properly. Now you know why it happened and how to protect yourself going forward – learn from this and make sure it doesn’t happen again!
Saved your drafts or learned how to prevent this nightmare? Share this with your creator friends before they lose hundreds of hours of work too!