Why Does TikTok Take Up So Much Storage?

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Why TikTok uses so much space on your Android, iPhone, or iPad

Written by Travis Boylls

Last Updated: June 9, 2024 Fact Checked

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Why does TikTok take up so much space?

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Clear Your Cache

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Delete Your Downloads

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Clear Your Watch History

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Delete Unneeded Drafts

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Uninstall and Reinstall TikTok

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Video

Does TikTok take up a lot of storage space on your phone? Some users have reported that TikTok can take up tens or hundreds of gigabytes on their phones and tablets. Your TikTok watch history, cache, saved drafts, and downloads all consume space on your device. Fortunately, it's easy to free up storage space by making a few quick changes. This wikiHow teaches you why TikTok can take up so much storage space on your phone and shows you how to free up space.

Things You Should Know

Your cache, downloads, watch history, and video library can cause TikTok to take up a lot of storage space.
If you have a lot of video drafts, this may also take up a lot of storage space.
You can free up space by clearing your cache, downloads, watch history, deleting drafts, or uninstalling and reinstalling the app.

Section 1 of 6:

Why does TikTok take up so much space?

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There are many reasons TikTok may take up a lot of storage. The TikTok app by itself takes up about 300 MB of storage space on your Android, iPhone, or iPad. In addition to the app itself, other files created by TikTok can take up a lot of storage space:
- Cache: Cache is temporary storage and files that the app saves to make it run smoother. TikTok caches certain files as you browse, which can consume a lot of storage space over time.
- Watch History: When you watch videos on TikTok, it saves the videos you've watched to your watch history. The more videos you watch, the more space your watch history is going to take up.
- Downloads: Videos you download from TikTok are saved to your phone. This includes video downloads, effects, and filters, as well as stickers and emojis.
- Your Drafts: If you save a lot of videos as drafts and do not post them, those videos are saved to your phone. Some users can rack up tens or hundreds of drafts. This adds up to a lot of storage space.

Section 2 of 6:

Clear Your Cache

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Clear your cache in the TikTok app. One of the easiest and least destructive ways to free up space that TikTok is using is to clear your cache. You can delete your TikTok cache in the TikTok app, or in the Settings menu on your Android. There is no option for clearing the cache in your iPhone settings, but deleting it from the TikTok app itself should free up plenty of space. Use the following steps to clear your cache from within the Tiktok app:
- Tap your profile icon in the lower-right corner of TikTok.
- Tap the icon with three horizontal lines (☰) in the upper-right corner.
- Tap Settings and privacy.
- Tap Free up space.
- Tap Clear next to "Cache."
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Clear your TikTok cache on Android. If you are an Android user, you can use the following steps to clear your TikTok cache in your settings:
- Swipe down from the top of the screen.
- Tap the Gear icon to open the Settings menu.
- Tap Apps.
- Tap the TikTok app.
- Tap Storage.
- Tap Clear Cache at the bottom.
  - Additionally, you can take Clear Data to free up more space. However, this will also delete your drafts and watch history.

Section 3 of 6:

Delete Your Downloads

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Clear your downloads to free up space. If you have downloaded a lot of videos, effects, filters, or stickers from TikTok, it can take up quite a bit of space on your phone. If you have a lot of downloads that you aren't using, you may want to delete your downloads. Use the following steps to delete your TikTok downloads:
- Open the TikTok app.
- Tap your profile icon in the lower-right corner.
- Tap the icon with three horizontal lines (☰) in the upper-right corner.
- Tap Settings and privacy.
- Tap Free up space.
- Tap Clear next to "Downloads."

Section 4 of 6:

Clear Your Watch History

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Clear your watch history to free up storage space. TikTok saves the videos you have recently viewed as watch history. If you watch a lot of videos on TikTok, it can add up. If you don't use your watch history a lot, you can use the following steps to clear your watch history:
- Open the TikTok app.
- Tap your profile icon in the lower-right corner.
- Tap the icon with three horizontal lines (☰) in the upper-right corner.
- Tap Settings and privacy.
- Tap Comment and watch history.
- Tap Watch history.
- Tap Select in the upper-right corner.
- Tap the radio option next to "Select all watch history" in the lower-left corner.
- Tap Delete in the lower-right corner.
- Tap Delete in the pop-up.

Section 5 of 6:

Delete Unneeded Drafts

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Delete some of your drafts to free up space. Drafts are saved to your phone storage. If you have a lot of saved drafts, this can take up a lot of space. Use the following steps to go through your drafts and delete the ones you don't want to keep:
- Open the TikTok app.
- Tap your profile icon in the lower-right corner.
- Tap the icon with 6 lines to view your videos.
- Tap the Drafts image at the top of your list of videos.
- Tap Select in the upper-right corner.
- Tap the video drafts you want to delete.
- Tap Delete at the bottom.
- Tap Delete in the pop-up.^{[1]
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Section 6 of 6:

Uninstall and Reinstall TikTok

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Deleting and reinstalling TikTok will free up storage space. Many users have reported that they were able to free up space by deleting and reinstalling the TikTok app. This will clear your watch history, downloads, cache, and drafts all at once. Use the following steps to delete and reinstall TikTok:
- Open the Apps menu (Android only).
- Tap and hold the TikTok icon.
- Tap Uninstall (Android) or tap the "x" icon (iPhone & iPad).
- Open the Google Play Store (Android) or the App Store (iPhone & iPad).
- Search for TikTok.
- Tap the TikTok app.
- Tap Install (Android) or GET (iPhone & iPad).