Whether you’re celebrating success or trying for a fresh start, everyone needs to delete their social media stories now and then. For the TikTok users among us, that means it’s time to figure out how to delete your TikTok story quickly.
But before we dive into the nitty-gritty of deleting your TikTok story, let’s talk about why you may have felt the need to delete it in the first place. Maybe you accidentally added something inappropriate or embarrassing? Or maybe you just wanted to switch up your content? Whatever your reason, read on for an easy guide on deleting your TikTok story.
We’ll start off with a quick overview of why deleting a TikTok story is different from deleting a regular post. After that, we’ll go over how to delete a single story and how to delete multiple stories at once. Finally, if you’re still stumped, we’ve got some helpful tips on where else to look for help with deleting your TikTok story.
How to Delete a TikTok Story
Wondering how to delete your Tiktok story? You’ve come to the right place! Did you post something you regret? Don’t worry, it’s easy to remove a story from your account in no time. Here are the steps:
- Go to your profile page.
- Select the ‘Stories’ option on the bottom left corner of your screen.
- Tap and hold the story you want to delete until a ‘trash can’ icon appears.
- Tap on the trash can icon to delete your story!
Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good—so if you’re unsure about an upload, double-check before hitting that publish button! Don’t let one wrong post make you regret making stories—you have full control over what you make public on Tiktok.
How to Find Your Older Stories and Delete Them
Sometimes, you may find yourself wanting to delete one or more of your older stories. After all, not all your content is timeless. To get started, the first step is to find the story you would like to remove.
To do this, start by navigating to the “me” tab at the bottom of your TikTok home screen. There, you will see a page with your profile photo and handle at the top, followed by a grid of your recent posts—including both videos and stories. Here, you can easily scroll through until you find the story you want to delete.
Once you locate it, all that’s left for you to do is tap on it so that it turns into a full-screen video. Once there, an “options” icon will appear in the upper right corner of the screen—tap this icon to reveal several different options for managing your content. From here, simply select “delete from my story” and confirm on the subsequent pop-up window to remove it from your profile forever!
How to Delete Drafts or Unpublished Stories
If you’ve already started work on a TikTok story and you decide you don’t want to finish it or publish it after all, no worries! Deleting your “story drafts” is just as easy as deleting any published story—just follow the steps below.
How to Delete Drafts or Unpublished Stories
- On the TikTok app homepage, make sure you are in the “For You” section.
- Tap on the “+” icon in the bottom right corner of your screen.
- Tap on the profile icon (looks like a teardrop) near the top left side of your screen. This will open up your profile page with all of your TikTok creations listed out.
- Locate the story draft that you want to delete from this page, and tap on its thumbnail image to open it up for editing again if needed.
- Once you have opened it up for editing, tap on that same small profile icon near the top left side again to return back to this list of creations (you’ll have to do this even if you don’t need to edit).
- From here, locate and tap on the three-dot menu beside any item that you’d like to delete from this page, and then select “Delete” from this menu when asked if you’re sure that you want to delete it permanently!
What Happens When You Delete a TikTok Story
Once you delete your Tiktok story, it’s gone for good. Deleting a story does more than just hide it from view—it removes it from the network entirely. No one will be able to view your story, regardless of whether they’ve seen it before or not.
Now, if you change your mind and want to put the story back up, you’ll have to re-upload it again like you did the first time. Fortunately, the process is quick and easy—so if you decide you want your story back, all you have to do is upload it again.
You may find that some aspects of the story are slightly different after re-uploading—for example, its caption or tags may be different. This is because Tiktok’s algorithm automatically generates some of this information based on your content and other related elements.
If any of this does happen after re-uploading your story, don’t worry: You can manually go in and edit the caption or tags as needed. This customization feature makes it easy for you to perfectly tailor each and every one of your stories to suit your needs!
Deactivating Your Account and Deleting Stories
Deactivating your account is the first step to removing your stories from your profile. While deactivating your account is easy, it can take up to 30 days for your data to be removed from Tiktok’s public servers.
If you want to remove content faster, it’s best to manually delete stories. Here’s how:
Step 1: Navigate To Your Profile
Head over to your profile page, and click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the story you want to delete.
Step 2: Confirm Removal
A confirmation window should appear. Select “Remove from My Profile” and click “Confirm” if that’s what you want to do.
Step 3: Review Changes
Your story should have disappeared from view immediately after clicking “Confirm.” You can repeat this process for any other stories you wish to remove from your profile. Be sure to review all changes before hitting confirm, as stories can not be recovered once deleted!
Common Issues When Deleting Tiktok Stories
When it comes to deleting your Tiktok story, there are a few issues you might come across, that can be easily avoided.
Be mindful of the time limit for deletion
You need to be aware that the time limit for deletion on TikTok stories is 24 hours. Any stories older than this cannot be deleted and will stay saved in your account. To make sure you stay within the limits, delete any stories as soon as possible after posting them.
Watch out for the Save Story feature
TikTok has a helpful feature called “Save Story” which conveniently stores all your recent stories but it doesn’t delete them! To make sure you don’t have unwanted stories visible, disable this feature first before deleting any stories.
Be careful not to archive instead of deleting
When you tap on Delete Story on the Settings Menu, make sure to select Delete instead of Archive as archiving a story will not delete it but move it over to a separate folder instead.
These few tips can help save you time when you’re trying to quickly delete your TikTok story. Just remember to always be mindful of the 24 hour time limit, disable Save Story first, and select Delete instead of Archive and your story will be gone in no time!
Conclusion
Deleting your TikTok story is a quick and easy process. All you have to do is open the app, go to your profile page, and find the stories you want to delete. Tap on the story and then select ‘Delete’. After you confirm the deletion, the story will be removed from your account.
Removing your stories is a great way to keep your profile neat and organized, as well as ensuring that your followers can quickly find the content they are interested in. Whether you’re trying to create a professional image or just want to get rid of old content, deleting your stories will help you keep your profile looking fresh and engaging.
