TikTok is a popular short-form video app known for its fun and entertaining user generated videos. With over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok has become one of the fastest growing social media platforms. On TikTok, users can create, watch, share, and interact with short videos typically ranging from 15 seconds to 3 minutes in length. These bite-sized videos cover a diverse range of genres including dance, comedy, education, and more.
One of TikTok’s key features is its “For You” page, which uses an algorithm to deliver a personalized feed of videos for each user. As users watch, like, share, and interact with videos, the app learns their preferences and tailors the “For You” page to show them more of the content they enjoy. This creates an addictive, endless scroll experience that keeps users engaged.
Within the TikTok app, there are options to find and rewatch videos you’ve previously interacted with. This allows users to rediscover and share old favorites, catch up on any missed content, or reminisce about videos they enjoyed. Specifically, finding previously watched videos refers to using TikTok’s built-in tools to locate videos you’ve already seen and engaged with at some point. The app offers several ways to uncover this nostalgic content from your personalized viewing history.
Why Find Old TikTok Videos?
There are several reasons you may want to find and rewatch old videos on TikTok:
Remind yourself of funny or entertaining videos. If you come across a hilarious, cute, or otherwise enjoyable video on TikTok, you’ll likely want to be able to easily find it again later to get another laugh or to show friends. Being able to access your TikTok watch history allows you to rediscover these gems.
Find videos to share with friends. You may see a TikTok video that you know your friend or family member would love. With access to your viewing history, you can conveniently find that video again to send to them.
Revisit videos for inspiration or ideas. Some TikTok videos are informative or inspire creative ideas. By looking back through your watch history, you can find those videos again to rewatch when you need a little inspiration or want to learn more about something.
Viewing History Page
TikTok has a Viewing History page that shows users the videos they have watched in the past 7 days. This page provides an easy way to find and re-watch recently viewed videos.
To access the Viewing History page on the TikTok mobile app, tap on the profile icon in the bottom right corner. Then go to Settings > Content & Activity > Watch History. Here you will see a feed of all the videos you have watched in the past 7 days in reverse chronological order.
The Viewing History page is useful for finding funny, informative, or entertaining videos that you want to watch again or share with friends. Since it only shows the last 7 days, it’s best to bookmark or like videos you want to save long-term.
Overall, the Viewing History page gives TikTok users an convenient way to rediscover videos they’ve recently enjoyed but didn’t save. It’s a great feature for revisiting content without having to scroll for ages or rely on search.
Favorites Page
One of the easiest ways to find videos you’ve previously watched on TikTok is through your Favorites page. This feature lets you “favorite” or “like” videos so they are saved for later viewing. Any video you favorite will be added to your Favorites page.
The Favorites page acts as a playlist of all the videos you’ve liked over time. It’s the simplest way to bookmark videos you want to watch again or save long-term. Rather than trying to scroll back endlessly through your feed or search to re-find an old video, you can just go to your Favorites page.
To access it, tap your profile icon in the bottom right corner, then tap the bookmark icon at the top. This will open your Favorites page showing thumbnail previews of all your liked videos in chronological order 1. You can scroll through and tap any video to watch it again.
Search Bar
One of the easiest ways to find a previously watched TikTok video is by using the search bar. You can search for specific keywords, sounds, hashtags, or anything else you remember about the video. As explained on Reddit, “If you liked the video then it will be in your ‘liked videos’ section. Go onto ‘me’ at the bottom of the screen and there should be a heart. Click on that and it will have all your liked videos” [1].
The search bar is helpful for finding vaguely remembered videos that you don’t have saved anywhere. Just type any keywords, usernames, sounds or hashtags into the search bar and scroll through the results to find the video you’re looking for. As noted by MakeUseOf, “Any videos in your watch history will show up in the results” when searching [2].
Following Page
The Following page on TikTok shows you the latest videos from all the accounts you follow. This can be a great place to rediscover videos shared by creators you follow that may have gotten lost in your For You feed. The Following page shows videos in reverse chronological order, with the most recent videos from accounts you follow at the top.
To access the Following page, tap on the profile icon in the bottom right corner, then tap on “Following” under your profile picture. This will open up your Following feed. Scroll through to see the latest videos from creators you follow.
The Following page is useful if you want to make sure you don’t miss any new content from your favorite creators. It can also help you rediscover old videos you may have forgotten about or missed the first time around. Spend some time occasionally browsing your Following feed to catch up on videos from accounts you already follow and enjoy.
Sounds Page
The Sounds page on TikTok allows you to find videos that used a specific sound that you may remember hearing but can’t find the video for. This can be a great way to jog your memory if you vaguely recall a sound from a video you previously watched.
To use the Sounds page to find a lost video, go to the Sounds tab on the Discover page. Here you will see trending sounds as well as a search bar to look up specific sounds. If you remember even a few lyrics or the tune of the sound, search for it here. The Sounds page will show you videos using that sound to help you rediscover videos you watched before.
For example, searching a phrase like “Oh no no no no no” brings up the popular TikTok sound of the same name. Clicking on it leads to a page showing all videos using that sound. This allows you to scroll through and potentially find that funny video with that sound that you wanted to watch again. Using Sounds as a search tool can help bring back forgotten videos you want to rediscover.
Hashtags
One way to find old videos on TikTok is by searching hashtags. When a video is posted on TikTok, it can be tagged with relevant hashtags. You can then search these hashtags to find videos.
This can be helpful if you don’t remember the specific video, but you do remember a hashtag that was used. For example, if you remember watching some food videos tagged with #homecooking, you could search for that hashtag to find videos you may have seen before.
To search hashtags, tap the search bar at the top of the TikTok app and type in the hashtag you want to find. You’ll then see results for videos using that hashtag. You can also tap on a hashtag in a video caption to search for it.
Searching by hashtag can be a good way to rediscover old videos you’ve watched if you have some memory of the hashtags used.
Google Search
One method to find old TikTok videos you’ve watched before is to search for them directly on Google using the site:tiktok.com filter. This allows you to search only within TikTok’s domain and find videos even if you just vaguely remember details about them.
For example, you could search “site:tiktok.com funny dog video” and it would show TikTok results for funny dog videos. If there was a specific one you remember watching before, this search technique may help uncover it again.
The site filter narrows results down to only TikTok, allowing you to essentially search the platform via Google. It’s helpful for finding old videos you don’t remember enough about to search for directly within the TikTok app.
Conclusion
In this piece we explored the main ways you can find those old videos you loved on TikTok but can’t seem to track down. By using TikTok’s Viewing History page, Favorites page, Search bar, Following page, Sounds page, and Hashtags, you’re likely to rediscover most if not all of the videos you want to watch again.
Being able to find old videos provides many benefits – you can rewatch funny or informative videos that made an impact, share old favorites with friends, or get inspiration from viral videos you want to emulate. TikTok makes it simple to rediscover the videos you loved if you just know where to look.
Try using some of these suggestions next time you want to take a trip down TikTok memory lane. With a few taps in the app, you’re sure to find those unforgettable videos you want to watch all over again.