You’ve spent three hours perfectly syncing that transition to the beat. You saved it. You went to grab a coffee, came back, and suddenly—poof. Your drafts folder is looking like a ghost town. It’s a gut-punch feeling. Honestly, it’s one of the most frustrating things about being a creator on the platform. If you're frantically googling how to get my drafts back on TikTok, you are definitely not alone, but I need to give it to you straight: the results depend entirely on why they disappeared in the first place.
TikTok doesn't store your drafts on their cloud servers. They live locally. That’s the core of the problem.
The Brutal Reality of Local Storage
Most people assume TikTok works like Instagram or Google Drive where everything is backed up to a central account. It isn't. When you hit "Save to Drafts," that video file is tucked away in your phone's internal storage, specifically within the app's cache and data folders. This means the moment you delete the app or factory reset your phone, those files are wiped. There is no "Restore" button in the settings menu that can magically pull a deleted file from a server that never had it.
However, don't give up yet. There are a few sneaky ways to find them if they were moved, hidden, or if you accidentally messed with your account settings.
How To Get My Drafts Back On TikTok After a Glitch
Sometimes, the drafts haven't actually been deleted; the app just isn't displaying them. This usually happens after a software update or if the app's cache gets corrupted. Before you panic, try the "Refresh" method. Log out of your account, close the app completely (swipe it away so it's not running in the background), and log back in.
Wait.
Sometimes the folder takes a minute to populate. If that doesn't work, check your "Likable" videos or your private folder. On rare occasions, a glitch causes a draft to "post" but only to your private videos. It’s weird, I know. But check there anyway.
Did You Switch Devices?
This is the number one reason people lose their work. If you started a draft on an iPhone 13 and just upgraded to an iPhone 15, those drafts will stay on the old phone. They don't migrate through the TikTok cloud. You’d need to physically have the old device, save those drafts to the camera roll (set them to "Only Me" and post them so they save to your phone), and then AirDrop or transfer them to the new device.
It’s tedious. It’s annoying. But it’s the only way to move them.
The "On My Phone" Search
If the app isn't showing them, but you haven't deleted the app, the files might still be in your phone's file system. For Android users, this is a bit easier. You can use a File Manager app to navigate to Android > data > com.zhiliaoapp.musically > files. Sometimes, temporary video files are cached here. They won't be named "Funny Dance Draft," they'll be a string of random numbers and letters ending in .mp4 or .tmp.
iPhone users are mostly out of luck here because of how Apple "sandboxes" apps, preventing you from digging into the internal data of TikTok.
Why Your Drafts Disappeared (And How to Prevent It)
We need to talk about the "Offload Unused Apps" feature on iPhones. If your phone is running low on space, iOS might automatically "offload" TikTok. While this is supposed to keep your data safe, users have reported that re-installing the app often results in a cleared drafts folder. If you're serious about your content, disable this in your iPhone settings under App Store > Offload Unused Apps.
Another culprit? Clearing your cache within the TikTok app. While TikTok claims clearing cache won't delete drafts, bugs happen. If the app is acting laggy, don't just hit "Clear Cache" blindly.
The Storage Crisis
If your phone hits 0kb of available space, it starts deleting temporary files to stay alive. Drafts are often categorized as temporary files by the operating system. If you see that "Storage Almost Full" notification, your drafts are in the danger zone. Move your photos to the cloud immediately to give your phone some breathing room.
Can TikTok Support Help?
You’ll see a lot of "gurus" telling you to message TikTok support to get your drafts back.
I’ll be real with you: they probably can't help.
Since the files are local, the support team doesn't have a copy of your unposted video. However, if your entire account was deactivated and then recovered, and that is why your drafts are gone, reaching out via the "Report a Problem" section in the app is worth a shot. Use the "Feedback and Help" tab and be specific. Tell them you lost access to local data during an account recovery. It’s a long shot, but if there was a server-side sync error, they might be able to trigger a refresh.
Stop Saving to Drafts Alone
If you want to avoid asking how to get my drafts back on tiktok ever again, you need a better workflow. Experts like Rachel Pederson or social media managers for big brands never trust the drafts folder.
Here is the pro way to do it:
When you finish editing, don't just hit "Drafts." Hit "Next," go to "More options," and ensure "Save to device" is toggled on. Then, post the video but set "Who can watch this video" to "Only me." This uploads the video to TikTok’s servers (private to everyone but you) and saves a hard copy to your phone's gallery.
Now, even if you drop your phone in a lake or delete the app in a fit of rage, your edit is safe.
Recovering from a Deleted App
If you deleted the TikTok app and reinstalled it, your drafts are gone. Period.
Unless...
Did you do a full phone backup to iCloud or Google Drive while those drafts existed? If you're desperate, you can restore your entire phone from a previous backup. This is a "nuclear option" because you’ll lose any new texts, photos, or data you’ve gathered since that backup was made. But if that one draft is worth it—maybe it's a once-in-a-lifetime memory—restoring the phone backup will replace the app data, potentially bringing the drafts back.
The Screen Recording Hack
If you can still see the thumbnail of a draft but it won't open or it's "corrupted," try to play it and screen record. It’s not ideal. The quality will drop. You’ll have the UI elements on top of your video. But it’s better than losing the footage entirely. You can then use an app like CapCut to crop the video and salvage the content.
Moving Forward Without Losing Work
Look, TikTok is a social media app, not a professional video editor like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. It’s built for speed, not for long-term storage.
If you're spending more than 30 minutes on an edit, do yourself a favor and edit in an external app like CapCut or InShot. These apps are much more stable. They save your projects more reliably, and you can export the final version to your camera roll before ever touching the TikTok app.
Final Checklist for Recovery
- Check other devices: Did you log in on an iPad or an old phone?
- Verify the account: Are you sure you're logged into the right @handle? Sometimes people have a "finsta" or a burner account and don't realize they're on the wrong one.
- Update the app: If there's a version mismatch, the folder might be hidden.
- Look in "Recently Deleted": Not in TikTok, but in your phone's Photo app. Sometimes we "Post and Delete" and forget the original was saved to the gallery.
The most important thing to remember is that the "Drafts" folder is a temporary workspace. Treat it like a whiteboard—great for sketching, but if you want to keep the drawing, you better take a picture of it.
💡 You might also like: Charging Power Bank With Power Bank: Does It Actually Work or Just Kill Your Battery?
To keep your future content safe, make it a habit to "Post to Only Me" immediately after finishing a complex edit. This moves the file from your phone's volatile temporary storage to TikTok's permanent cloud. It also guarantees a copy in your phone's native video library. If you ever see your drafts folder empty again, you won't even flinch because you've already got the files backed up in two other places.
Start moving your current high-value drafts to "Private Posts" right now. It takes five minutes and saves hours of potential heartbreak later. Don't wait for the next app crash to realize your best work wasn't actually backed up. Take control of your files today.
Actionable Steps:
- Disable "Offload Unused Apps" in your phone settings to prevent accidental data wipes.
- Check your phone's local "File Manager" (Android) for any .tmp files in the TikTok data folder.
- If the drafts are missing after an update, log out and log back in to force a library refresh.
- For all future "must-keep" edits, use the "Post to Private" method to ensure a cloud backup exists on TikTok's servers.