Discover why TikTok Videos aren’t showing up for your followers and the best Fixes.
Douyin might not ring a bell to most social media users, but when you hear ‘TikTok’, what first comes to mind is Pranks, Jokes, dance, and funny videos.
TikTok became the number 1 most popular website in 2021, toppling the Giant Google (according to Cloud flare), with over 2 Billion downloads across all mobile device platforms.
One major problem faced by a growing number of video uploaders, on TikTok, is that videos to be viewed by streamers don’t upload correctly.
This article focuses on some of the causes of TikTok Videos not Showing Up for Viewers and the best possible ways to fix these issues.
Causes and Fixes for TikTok Videos not Showing Up for Viewers
1. Smartphone’s Internet Speed
Like every VOD (Video-on-Demand) streaming platform, uploading a video on TikTok requires a consistent and fast-enough internet speed.
While a stable 3G internet speed should be fast enough, it’s safer to connect to a 4G (2.4GHz) or 5G (5GHz) network.
The minimum internet speed to safely upload videos on TikTok is 5mbps, and you can verify the internet speed on your Smartphone right now using the speed test tool.
2. TikTok Account set as Private
TikTok Account Holders have the liberty to choose their privacy preferences, depending on their ‘TikToking’ activities.
A TikTok private account is vital as a safe space to upload personal videos of fun memories which you do not wish to share with your TikTok followers.
If you wish to build a strong following with your video uploads however, you’ll need to either create a separate account for your audience or change your current TikTok account privacy from Private to Public.
- Swipe to the right from the bottom of your TikTok app and select Profile
- Select the 3-line at the upper right to go to Privacy settings
- Now set your account preference as either Private or public
3. Mobile Device in Airplane mode
Your TikTok videos not uploading might be related to the Smartphone’s network settings.
Your Smartphone may have been accidentally placed in flight mode, either by you or other persons, thereby shutting down all radio frequencies.
- Swipe down from your device’s home screen and tap on the airplane icon to turn it off, if it’s turned on.
4. Uploading a digitally edited Video
Some TikTok video uploaders, in a bid to improve the quality of their content and enhance engagement, go to extreme lengths in editing the videos, sometimes using heavy and Unsupported digital video editors.
TikTok has a maximum picture quality of 1080P and doesn’t support 4K UHD uploads.
What to do if your video was recorded using higher Quality editing apps
To reduce your video quality inorder to meet TikTok’s requirements, you can use the TikTok app’s inbuilt video editor.
- Play the original video from a different smartphone and use your TikTok app to record as it plays in the TikTok video editor.
5. Uploaded Videos are under Review
In some cases, the uploaded video raises concerns (flags) relating to TikTok’s usage terms and conditions. This may lead to a delay in the approval of the video by TikTok’s algorithms.
You can beat TikTok’s algorithms by ensuring your video uploads don’t violate TikTok’s usage conditions.
Verify if your video violates TikTok’s usage policies here.
6. TikTok Account is Banned/Flagged or Suspended
TikTok may restrict your video uploads because the active account has been banned or Suspended.
Getting a ban or suspension on your TikTok account will most likely result from multiple adverse reports and complaints about the account’s activities, or uploading video content that violates TikTok’s community guidelines.
A Red flag appears on your account notifying you of the ban/suspension, and you can protest this by communicating with the TikTok support teams.
7. TikTok Account Shadowban
TikTok shadowbans are another gentle approach employed by almost all social media platforms to limit the online activities of certain accounts whose methods they find to be suspicious or generally unacceptable.
One thing with shadow banning is that the affected account won’t get any official notification but will continue to observe a drastic drop in visibility
If you suspect your account has been shadowbanned, you should lay a complaint to TikTok support.
8. TikTok App Technical Errors/Glitches
Your TikTok app may suffer lags and glitches because of accumulated app cache and memory files.
You should clear the app cache and memory files by going to your phone’s settings > apps > TikTok.
Clearing the app cache and memory data wipe all redundancy, but you may lose some saved app preferences and settings.
9. Uploading with a Lagging/Slow Smartphone
The speed of your Smartphone is also contributory to your uploading success.
Your phone’s uploading speed will be slowed down when there’s heavy background Internet usage such as downloading heavy files or streaming a live online game.
You can free up memory space in your Smartphone by clearing all background apps, deleting unnecessary files, and performing a memory cleanup.
10. Attempting to upload a video already uploaded by another account
Unknown to some TikTok video uploaders, every trending video on the internet has a source uploader, and TikTok only recognizes the first account to upload a trending video.
TikTok’s algorithms may be refuting your video uploads when they already went viral on the internet knowing that some TikTok uploaders use viral videos to grow their Following.
11. Using an outdated TikTok App Version
Just as we always advise, it’s imperative to keep your apps and devices updated in order to maintain your online security, and enjoy unstoppable streaming activities.
You can verify if TikTok is updated by heading to the Google play store or Apple AppStore and searching for TikTok. Once you tap on the app, you’ll be able to perform an update if there’s any available.
12. Using Unsupported VPN
Unsupported VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) benefit us by allowing us to stream online videos locked to specific locations, but they also have some Cons.
TikTok’s servers often see VPN networks as potential threats to users’ security and block their IPs.
So if you’re using a VPN to upload your videos on TikTok, consider stopping the VPN and uploading directly.
13. TikTok Servers Down/Lagging
Before concluding that your account has been shadowbanned or flagged, you should check the TikTok Servers for any downtimes.
Most times, this happens unannounced, and there may be no official reports about it; but your Video uploads will encounter no delays once the servers are back online.
Don’t forget to leave a comment below and let us know if any of these fixes was helpful to you.