How to Schedule Drafts on TikTok

Managing a consistent TikTok presence often means having a bank of ready-to-go videos, and that’s where drafts become your best friend. But once you’ve filmed a dozen videos, how do you get them out of your drafts folder and scheduled to post at the perfect time? This guide will walk you through exactly how drafts work, the limitations of TikTok's native features, and the best workaround for scheduling your saved videos to create a seamless content workflow.

So, What Exactly Is a TikTok Draft and Why Should You Use Them?

A TikTok draft is simply an unfinished video that you’ve started creating but haven't published yet. After filming your clips, adding sounds, or starting your edits, you can choose to save the video as a draft instead of posting it immediately. This stores it privately within your app, ready for you to finish and publish later.

For any serious content creator, marketer, or brand builder, using drafts is less of a feature and more of a strategy. Here's why they are so valuable:

• Embrace Batch Creation: Inspiration doesn’t always strike at your optimal posting time. Drafts allow you to batch-create content by filming multiple videos in one session when you’re feeling creative, then edit and post them over the following days or weeks.
• Plan Your Look and Feel: Want to film content in different outfits or locations? Drafts let you capture everything at once without overwhelming your feed. Film a week's worth of videos in one afternoon and line them up for later.
• Perfect Your Content Later: Sometimes you don't have time to find the perfect trending sound, write a compelling caption, or fine-tune an edit. Saving it as a draft gives you the flexibility to handle the creative post-production when you have more time to focus.
• Build a Content Buffer: We all have days when we have zero time or energy to create. A healthy folder of drafts acts as a content buffer, ensuring you can still post consistently even on your busiest days.

How to Find Your TikTok Drafts (The Not-So-Secret Hiding Spot)

Finding your saved drafts is simple, but if you’re new to the app, it’s easy to miss. They aren't hidden away in some complex settings menu.

Here’s exactly where to look:

1. Open the TikTok app and go to your Profile tab (the icon of a person in the bottom-right corner).
2. Look at your video grid. The very first item, appearing before any of your published videos, will be a box labeled "Drafts."
3. Tap on that box, and you’ll see all the videos you’ve saved. Just tap on any video to continue editing it.

Here’s a critical piece of information many people learn the hard way: Your TikTok drafts are saved locally to your device, not to your account in the cloud.

This means if you delete the TikTok app, change phones, or your phone breaks, your drafts will be gone forever. They do not transfer when you log into your account on a new device. Always keep this in mind before deleting the app or upgrading your phone!

The Million-Dollar Question: Can You Directly Schedule a Draft on TikTok?

Let's get straight to it: No, you cannot directly schedule a video that is saved in your TikTok drafts folder using the mobile app. There is no "schedule" button inside the drafts folder. When you open a draft, your only options are to continue editing, post it immediately, or delete it.

TikTok’s native scheduling feature is powerful, but it comes with a few specific conditions:

• It's a Business/Creator Account Feature: The ability to schedule posts is only available for Creator or Business accounts, not Personal accounts. If you don't see the option, check your account settings.
• It Primarily Works on Desktop: The scheduler is a function of the TikTok website on a desktop browser, not the mobile app. You have to upload a video directly to the desktop site to schedule it.

So, we have a problem. Your brilliant, batch-created content is sitting in your phone’s drafts, and the scheduler is sitting on your computer. This feels disconnected, but don’t worry - there’s a simple and effective workaround that connects these two workflows.

The Ultimate Workaround: How to Schedule a "Draft" Using TikTok's Native Scheduler

Even though you can't schedule from your drafts folder, you can easily get your draft content into the scheduler with a few extra steps. This process moves the final video file from your phone to your computer so you can schedule it.

Step 1: Finalize Your Draft and Save It to Your Device

Before you can schedule a video, it needs to be a fully finished file. Get it ready for its debut.

• Go to your Drafts folder and open the video you want to schedule.
• Complete all your edits. Add your text overlays, apply filters, sync your audio, and make sure everything is perfect.
• Proceed to the final post screen where you write your caption and add hashtags. Don’t hit post!
• On this screen, look for “More options.” Inside, make sure the toggle for “Save to device” is turned on.
• Once that’s done, you can simply exit the posting screen. You don't need to post it. The video file, with all its edits and sounds, is now saved to your phone's camera roll or gallery.

Step 2: Transfer the Video File to Your Computer

Now that the MP4 file is on your phone, you need to get it onto the computer where you’ll be scheduling it. You can do this in a few ways:

• For Mac/iPhone users: Use AirDrop for a quick, wireless transfer.
• For PC/Android users: Use a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox. Upload the file from your phone and download it on your computer.
• Old-fashioned but reliable: Connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable and transfer the file directly.

Step 3: Upload and Schedule on TikTok Desktop

This is where the magic happens. Your video file is polished, on your computer, and ready to be scheduled.

1. Open a web browser on your computer and go to Tiktok.com.
2. Log into your account. Make sure it's the same Creator or Business account you were working on.
3. In the top-right corner, click the "Upload" icon (it looks like a cloud with an arrow).
4. You’ll see an upload interface. Drag and drop your video file into the designated area or click to select the file from your computer.
5. Once uploaded, fill out all the details just as you would on the app. Write your caption, add relevant hashtags, tag accounts, and choose your cover image. This is a bit of a copy-and-paste task if you already had it written in a note.
6. Below the caption box, you'll see a toggle for "Schedule video." Turn it on.
7. Select the future date and time for your post to go live. TikTok will even show you recommended posting times based on your audience’s activity.
8. Review everything one last time, and when you’re ready, click the "Schedule" button.

That's it! Your video, which started as a draft on your phone, is now officially scheduled to be published at the exact time you chose.

Pro Tips for Managing TikTok Drafts Efficiently

Knowing the scheduling workaround is one thing, building an efficient system around it is another. Here are a few strategies to take your content management to the next level:

1. Create a System for Your Drafts

Your drafts folder can get chaotic quickly. To keep track of what’s what, use the caption field as a status indicator before you even start adding the real copy. Label your drafts as you save them.

Example Naming Convention:

• "[IDEA] - Unboxing video for widget X" (for a freshly filmed, unedited idea)
• "[EDITING] - 3 tips for better coffee" (for a video that's been edited but needs a caption)
• "[READY TO SAVE] - Weekend vlog part 1" (for a video that is finalized and ready for the scheduling workaround)

2. Separate Your Creation and Scheduling Time

Avoid trying to do everything at once. Use the "batching" method to streamline your work. Dedicate different blocks of time to different tasks:

• A "Filming Block": Spend an hour or two just filming as many videos as you can and saving them to drafts. Don't worry about edits.
• An "Editing Block": Go through your drafts, trim your clips, add sounds, and apply text. Get them to a "READY TO SAVE" state.
• A "Scheduling Block": Once a week, save all your finalized drafts to your device, transfer them to your computer, and schedule out your content calendar for the next seven days.

3. Keep a "Copy Bank" for Your Desktop Uploads

One of the small annoyances of the workaround is re-writing captions and hashtags on your desktop. To speed this up, keep a "copy bank" in a notes app, Google Doc, or spreadsheet. As you finalize a draft on your phone, write a polished caption and hashtag set for it in your document. When it’s time to schedule on your computer, all you have to do is copy and paste.

Final Thoughts

While you can't hit a button to schedule a video directly from your drafts folder on TikTok, the workaround of saving the finished video to your device and using the desktop scheduler is a reliable way to plan your content in advance. Mastering this process transforms your drafts folder into a powerful tool for consistency, helping you build a content pipeline that works for you, not against you.

This process of downloading, transferring, and re-uploading content across devices works, but it can still add friction to your creative flow. That's actually one of the core reasons we built Postbase. We designed it for the way people really create today - especially with short-form video. Our platform lets you upload your finished videos once and schedule them directly to TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts from one cohesive visual calendar. It's built to eliminate those extra steps so you can stay in your creative zone and focus on making great stuff, not just managing files.