How to Delete Drafts on TikTok

Your TikTok drafts folder can feel like a secret digital junk drawer - a chaotic collection of half-formed ideas, cringey bloopers, and trendy audio clips you swore you’d use but never did. When it gets cluttered, it can feel more like a source of creative anxiety than inspiration. This guide provides the step-by-step process for clearing out that clutter, whether you're deleting a single video or tidying up in bulk, so you can make room for your next great idea.

Why Your TikTok Drafts Folder Matters (And Why You Should Tidy It Up)

At first glance, your drafts folder is just a holding pen for videos that aren't ready for primetime. But for a creator, marketer, or brand builder, it's a vital part of the creative process. It’s where raw ideas take shape, where you experiment without pressure, and where you store content for a rainy day. However, an unorganized drafts folder can stall your momentum and even slow down your phone. Regularly cleaning it up has a few practical benefits.

• It Frees Up Valuable Phone Storage: This is the big one. Unlike a published TikTok, which is stored on TikTok's servers, your drafts are saved locally on your device. Every single take, blooper, and unfinished video file is taking up space on your phone. If you shoot in high quality, that space can add up quickly, leading to "Storage Almost Full" warnings and a sluggish device. Deleting unwanted drafts is one of the easiest ways to reclaim that storage.
• It Reduces Mental Clutter: A messy workspace often leads to a distracted mind. Your drafts folder is your creative workspace on TikTok. Sifting through dozens of outdated or irrelevant clips to find the one you want to work on is frustrating and drains creative energy. A tidy folder with only relevant, promising ideas makes it easier to focus and feel inspired to create.
• It Helps Refine Your Content Strategy: Cleaning out your drafts isn't just about deleting, it's also about reviewing. Looking back at old ideas, you can see how your style has evolved. You might find a concept you abandoned months ago that now fits perfectly with your current strategy. It’s a chance to audit your ideas, see what still has potential, and get rid of what no longer serves your brand or content goals.

How to Find Your Drafts on TikTok

Before you can start cleaning, you need to know where to look. For new and occasional TikTok users, the drafts folder isn't always immediately obvious. Thankfully, it's simple to find once you know its location. It's cleverly integrated right into your profile page, looking almost like another one of your video playlists.

Follow these quick steps to access your drafts:

1. Open the TikTok application on your smartphone.
2. Tap the Profile icon in the bottom-right corner of the main navigation menu.
3. On your profile page, look at the grid where your published videos appear. The very first item in the grid, before any of your public videos, will be a box labeled Drafts. It will also show you a number indicating how many videos are currently saved there.
4. Simply tap on this Drafts box to open the folder and view all of your saved video drafts.

From here, you can choose to either edit and finish a draft or begin the deletion process to clean out the ones you no longer need.

How to Delete a Single Draft on TikTok

Sometimes you just need to get rid of one bad take or an idea that didn't pan out. Deleting a single draft is a straightforward process that only takes a few seconds. The most common pitfall is forgetting that the "select" button is for bulk actions - for a single deletion, a long press is what you need.

Step-by-Step Guide:

• Step 1: Go to Your Drafts Folder. Navigate to your profile and tap on the 'Drafts' folder at the top of your video grid.
• Step 2: Press and Hold the Draft. Scroll through your videos until you find the one you want to remove. Instead of tapping it, press your finger down on the video's thumbnail and hold it for a second or two.
• Step 3: A menu will appear. Depending on your device, a menu might slide up from the bottom or a pop-up will appear. You should see a big red 'Delete' option.
• Step 4: Confirm the Deletion. Tap the Delete option. TikTok will ask you for a final confirmation to make sure you didn't press it by accident. The prompt will usually say something like "Delete draft?"
• Step 5: Tap 'Delete' a Final Time. Press the final 'Delete' button to permanently remove the draft from your device.

A quick word of caution: once a draft is deleted, it is gone for good. There is no 'Undo' button or recovery bin for drafts within the TikTok app. Before deleting, be absolutely sure you won’t want the footage later. If you're hesitant, consider saving the video to your phone’s camera roll as a backup first.

How to Delete Multiple Drafts on TikTok at Once

If you're a heavy user who batch-records content, your drafts folder can get messy fast. Manually deleting dozens of bloopers one by one is a tedious process. Fortunately, TikTok has a built-in feature to delete multiple drafts simultaneously, allowing you to perform a digital Marie Kondo on your content backlog in under a minute.

A Faster Way to Declutter:

• Step 1: Open Your Drafts. As before, go to your Profile and tap on the 'Drafts' folder.
• Step 2: Tap the 'Select' Button. In the top-right corner of the screen, you'll see a button that says Select. Tap it.
• Step 3: Choose Your Drafts to Delete. After tapping 'Select', small empty circles will appear on top of each draft thumbnail. Now, you can tap on each draft you want to get rid of. A red checkmark will appear in the circle to show it has been selected. If you want to delete everything, you can use the 'Select all' option that appears in the top-left corner.
• Step 4: Tap the 'Delete' Button. As you select drafts, a red button will appear at the bottom of the screen that says Delete (#), with the number updating as you select more videos. Tap this button when you're ready.
• Step 5: Confirm Your Decision. A final confirmation screen will pop up to make sure you're aware of your action. It will clearly state, "Delete selected drafts?" and remind you that "This cannot be undone."
• Step 6: Tap the Final 'Delete.' Tapping this last 'Delete' command will erase all the selected videos from your phone for good.

Creative Workflow: When to Keep vs. Delete a Draft

Knowing how to delete is only half the battle. A more strategic question is knowing what to delete. Not every abandoned draft is junk. Some are seeds of future viral hits. Developing a system for your drafts can make your content creation process much smoother.

Three Categories for Your Drafts: Keep, Delete, and Save Externally

Keep These Drafts:

• Unfinished Concepts with Potential: Videos where you’ve started editing a story, a tutorial, or a skit but haven’t finished. The core idea is strong, but you just need to find the time to perfect it.
• High-Quality B-Roll Footage: Beautiful shots of lighting, nature, or your workspace that don’t have a specific purpose yet. This footage can later be used as background for voiceovers or to fill gaps in longer videos.
• Saved Audio & Trend Starters: You’ve filmed a clip using a trending sound but haven’t added the text yet. Keep these so you can post them when the time is right.

Delete These Drafts Liberally:

• Outdated Trend Videos: That trend from three weeks ago? Its moment has passed. Don't let it clog up your feed. Just delete it and move on.
• Clear Bloopers and Bad Takes: Videos with stumbling words, poor audio, or subpar lighting that can't be fixed in editing. Get them out of your way.
• Duplicate Versions: After you finish and post a video, you might have several near-identical versions left in your drafts. Keep the final one maybe, but delete all the preliminary versions.
• Ideas That No Longer Fit Your Niche: You had a funny idea that doesn't align with your brand or content strategy anymore. If it's off-brand, let it go.

Save These 'On the Fence' Drafts Externally:

What about the drafts you like but just can’t seem to finish? If an idea has been sitting in your drafts for over a month, it has become clutter. But instead of just deleting it, consider saving it to your device's camera roll (or cloud storage). This frees up space in TikTok while preserving the core idea. You can always re-upload and re-edit the raw footage later if inspiration strikes.

Troubleshooting: Common Questions About TikTok Drafts

Even with the right steps, you might have lingering questions about how drafts behave. Here are answers to some of the most common issues users run into.

"What happens to my drafts if I uninstall the TikTok app?"

This is a major point of confusion for many creators. TikTok drafts are stored locally on your physical device, not in your account on the cloud. This means if you uninstall the TikTok app, all of your drafts will be permanently deleted with it. They will not reappear if you reinstall the app. The same goes for getting a new phone - when you log into your account on a new device, your drafts from your old phone will not magically transfer over.

"Why are my drafts taking up so much phone storage?"

Because they are video files. High-resolution videos, even short ones, are large files. A 60-second video draft shot in 1080p can take up over 100MB of space. If you have 20, 50, or 100 drafts, that number balloons into gigabytes of occupied space on your phone. Deleting them is one of the most effective ways to free that up quickly.

"Can I recover a draft that I deleted by mistake?"

Unfortunately, no. Inside the TikTok app, the deletion process is final. There is no trash bin or 'recently deleted' folder for drafts that allows for recovery. This is why the app gives you a very clear final warning before you confirm the deletion. The only way you could 'recover' a deleted idea is if you happened to save the video to your camera roll before deleting it from your drafts folder.

Final Thoughts

Keeping your TikTok drafts organized, whether by deleting a single old video or mass-deleting a collection of bloopers, is a simple task that makes a big impact. It clears up crucial storage space on your device and provides a clean, focused environment that allows your creative well to flow more freely. With these steps, you can keep your content workflow tidy and efficient.

Once your drafts are tidy and you're focused on scheduling out your finished content, the logistics can still feel chaotic. We built Postbase to solve that very problem. Our visual calendar lets you plan and schedule your perfected TikToks alongside Reels, Shorts, and other content, giving you a clear view of your entire strategy without the guesswork. It keeps your creative efforts organized long after they’ve left the drafts folder.