How to Delete TikTok Videos

Thinking of cleaning up your TikTok profile? You've come to the right place. Whether a video just didn't land right, you're rebranding, or you simply want to remove some old content, knowing how to delete your TikTok videos is a must. This guide will walk you through exactly how to delete a single video, manage multiple videos at once, and explore a helpful alternative you might not have considered.

First Things First: Why Delete a TikTok Video?

Before jumping into the "how," let's quickly touch on the "why." People remove TikToks for all sorts of reasons, and yours is probably on this list. Understanding your motivation can help you decide if deletion is truly the best path or if another option, like making a video private, is a better fit for your goals.

Common reasons to delete a video include:

• It's Underperforming: The video has very low views or engagement compared to your others, and you want to curate a feed that only shows off your best work.
• Rebranding Your Profile: Your content's focus has shifted. Maybe you started out posting dance trends but now you're a go-to source for financial advice. Deleting old, off-brand videos can help create a more cohesive and professional profile for your new audience.
• A Mistake or "Flop": You noticed a spelling error, said something incorrectly, or the joke just didn't hit. Sometimes it's easier to remove it and start fresh than to deal with comments pointing it out.
• Copyright or Usage Rights Issues: You used a sound that's no longer available for commercial use, or you featured a product you no longer have the rights to promote. It's always safer to remove content that could cause legal headaches down the road.
• Privacy Concerns: The video might accidentally show personal information, feature people who no longer want to be in your content, or just feel a little too personal for you to keep public now.

How to Delete a Single TikTok Video: The Step-by-Step Guide

When you're ready to remove a specific video, the process is straightforward. TikTok makes it fairly simple to find the delete option right from the video itself. Here’s how to do it in just a few taps.

Step 1: Open TikTok and Go to Your Profile

Launch the TikTok app and tap the Profile icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen. This will take you to your main profile grid where all your published videos live.

Step 2: Find and Select the Video You Want to Delete

Scroll through your video grid to locate the one you want to remove. Once you find it, tap on it to open it in full-screen view, just as if you were watching it.

Step 3: Access the "More Options" Menu

On the right side of the screen, you'll see a small circle with three horizontal dots (...). This is the "More options" menu. Tap on it to bring up a panel of actions at the bottom of your screen.

Pro Tip: This three-dot icon is your gateway to everything you can do with a video after it's posted, including checking analytics, pinning it to your profile, and changing privacy settings.

Step 4: Find the Delete Button

A menu will pop up from the bottom with two rows of icons. The top row is for sharing, and the bottom row contains actions like "Save video," "Analytics," and "Privacy settings." Swipe this bottom row of icons to the left until you see the Delete option. It looks like a garbage can icon.

Step 5: Confirm Your Decision

Tap the Delete icon. TikTok will show you one final confirmation pop-up to make sure you really want to permanently remove the video. The message will read, "Delete this video? You won't be able to restore it after you delete it." If you're sure, tap the red Delete button to finalize the process. The video will be gone for good.

Important: What Happens When You Delete a TikTok?

Before you go on a deleting spree, it’s really important to understand the consequences. Unlike some platforms that have a "trash" or "recently deleted" folder, when you delete a TikTok, it's gone forever.

Here’s the breakdown:

• It's Permanent: There is no undo button. You cannot recover the video, the data, or anything associated with it. If you don't have a copy saved to your device, the file itself is lost.
• You Lose All Metrics: All the views, likes, comments, shares, and saves associated with that video will be erased from your account's analytics. This can affect your overall engagement totals and historical data.
• Potential Algorithm Adjustment: While deleting one or two videos won't tank your account, removing a lot of content at once might confuse the algorithm temporarily. It may take some time to "re-learn" what your profile is about and who it should show your content to.

The Best Alternative: Setting a Video to Private

If the permanence of deleting makes you nervous, there's an excellent alternative: change the video's privacy setting to "Only Me." This essentially hides the video from everyone else without removing it from your account completely.

Setting a video to private is often a better strategic move because:

• It's Reversible: You can make the video public again at any time.
• You Preserve Data: All the likes, comments, and views remain attached to the video. If you make it public again, that social proof comes right back.
• It Gives You Time to Decide: If you're unsure about a video, making it private lets you "archive" it. You can see how your profile looks without it and decide later if you want to bring it back or delete it for good.

How to Make a TikTok Video Private

1. Navigate to the video you want to make private.
2. Tap the three dots (...) on the right to open the options menu.
3. In the bottom row of icons, find and tap "Privacy settings."
4. Under "Who can watch this video," change the setting from "Everyone" to "Only Me."

Your video will now be moved to a private tab on your profile, marked with a padlock icon. Only you can see it there.

How to Delete Multiple TikTok Videos at Once

What if you need to remove more than one video? Maybe you're cleaning up dozens of old posts from a content strategy that no longer serves you. Thankfully, logging into each video one-by-one isn't your only option anymore. TikTok has a feature that allows you to select and delete videos in bulk.

Step 1: Go to Your Profile Page

Make sure you're on your main profile grid where you can see all your videos.

Step 2: Select Videos to Manage

In the top-right corner of your video grid, you'll see a "Select" button. Tap it.

Step 3: Choose the Videos to Delete

Your profile will switch into a selection mode. Little circles will appear on the corner of each video. Tap the circles on all the videos you want to remove. A counter at the bottom of the screen will show you how many you've selected.

Step 4: Tap the Delete Button

Once you've selected all the relevant videos, tap the red "Delete" button at the bottom of the screen.

Step 5: Confirm Your Action

Just like with a single video, TikTok will ask for a final confirmation, reminding you that this action is permanent and cannot be undone. Tap "Delete" again to remove all the selected videos simultaneously. This feature is a huge time-saver for anyone doing a major profile overhaul.

Should You Delete Low-Performing Videos?

This is an ongoing debate among creators and marketers. On one hand, you want your profile to look like a C.V. of your best work - a highlight reel of viral hits and high-engagement content. Deleting the duds seems like a logical way to puff up your success rate for visitors and potential brand partners.

But there's another side to consider. The TikTok algorithm has a funny way of making things trend weeks or even months after they've been posted. A video with 200 views today could get picked up by the algorithm and soar to 200,000 views next month for no apparent reason. If you delete it, you remove that possibility entirely.

Our advice? Privatize, don't delete. If a video is truly off-brand, contains errors, or raises privacy issues, then deleting it is the right call. But if a video is just a "flop" with low numbers, it's probably not hurting anything by existing. The best move is to set it to "Only Me." You get the benefit of a cleaner public profile without permanently killing the video's potential to have a second life later on.

Final Thoughts

Cleaning up your TikTok profile is a normal part of growing as a creator or brand. Now you know how to delete single videos, remove them in bulk, and cleverly use the "private" setting as a powerful alternative that preserves your content and its hard-earned engagement data.

While managing published content is a key task, we've learned over the years that much of the stress from deleting "bad" posts can be avoided with a strong plan upfront. Having a visual calendar to see your entire content strategy at a glance helps you build a cohesive feed and spot potential issues before they go live. That’s a big reason we built Postbase, it’s designed from the ground up to help you plan, schedule, and analyze your social media content - especially short-form video for platforms like TikTok - so you can post with confidence every time.