TikTok allows users to view their video viewing history to see what videos they have watched in the past. This can be useful for finding videos that you want to watch again or keeping track of what content you have consumed on the platform.
Finding your TikTok view history
To access your TikTok view history, open the TikTok app and tap on the “Profile” icon in the bottom right corner. This will take you to your profile page.
From your profile, tap on the three horizontal lines “hamburger” icon in the top right corner to open the side menu. Towards the bottom of the side menu you will see a “Viewing history” option.
Tapping on “Viewing history” will open up a page that shows your video watch history for the last 7 days. You can scroll down to see your full viewing history for the past week.
What gets saved in your view history
Your TikTok view history records any video that you have watched for more than a few seconds. This includes videos that show up in your For You feed, videos from people you follow, viral videos, hashtag searches, etc.
If you tap on a video but then immediately tap away before a few seconds elapse, that view will not be saved to your history.
Your view history does not record any likes, comments, messages, follows/unfollows or other activity. It is solely focused on video views.
How far back does view history go?
TikTok’s view history only goes back 7 days. So you will be able to see the videos you have watched in the past week, but no further back than that.
There is no setting to extend the view history period beyond 7 days. This is a limit imposed by TikTok.
Deleting a video from your view history
If there is a specific video in your view history you want to remove, it’s a simple process:
- Go to your Viewing history page
- Find the video you want to delete
- Tap on the video to open it
- In the bottom left corner of the video, tap on the clock icon
- A popup will appear asking “Delete from viewed history?” – tap Delete
This will remove that video from your TikTok viewing history.
Clearing your entire viewing history
You can also completely clear your TikTok viewing history if you want to wipe the slate clean. To do this:
- Go to your Viewing history page
- Tap on the trash can icon in the top right corner
- A popup will appear asking “Delete viewing history?” – tap Delete
This will erase your entire TikTok viewing history for the last 7 days.
Does deleting history affect recommendations?
Deleting videos from your viewing history, or clearing your history entirely, does not seem to have any significant effect on the recommendations you see in your feed going forward.
TikTok’s recommendation algorithm appears to rely more heavily on your interests, likes, profile info, follows, and other behavioral signals beyond just your viewing history.
So if you are looking to change the recommendations you get on TikTok, clearing your viewing history alone likely won’t have a big impact.
Private account viewing history
If you switch your TikTok account to private, your viewing history will remain visible to you but it will no longer be accessible to anyone else.
TikTok viewing histories are not public and are only visible to the account holder. Making your profile private just provides an additional level of privacy and control.
Downloading your TikTok data
TikTok allows you to download all of the data associated with your account through its privacy settings. This TikTok data package you can download includes your complete viewing history.
So if you want to save your viewing history beyond the 7-day limit, or export it for personal records, you can download your full TikTok data to access this information.
View counts on videos
It’s important to note the difference between your personal viewing history and the view counts displayed on videos in TikTok.
Your viewing history only tracks the videos that you have personally watched while logged into your account. The view counts on videos show how many times that video has been watched by all TikTok users globally.
Watching a video does add +1 to its overall view count. But your private viewing history contains only the videos you’ve seen and is not publicly accessible.
So clearing your viewing history would not affect the public view counts. Those counts come from the aggregated viewership data across all TikTok users.
Why TikTok limits history to 7 days
TikTok has never officially commented on why they limit viewing histories to just 7 days. But there are a few potential reasons:
- Keeping storage costs down on their servers by minimizing data saved per user
- Reducing exploitability – longer histories could expose more user data
- Encouraging users to live in the moment rather than obsess over historical data
The 7 day limit cannot be extended by users, so checking your viewing history will only show the past week of video views.
Remembering videos without history
Because the view history period is short, you may want to use other methods to keep track of videos you want to rewatch or find again in the future:
- Like videos you want to save – they are stored under the Liked Videos section of your profile
- Comment on videos so you can find them again through your comments
- Follow the video creator so their new videos show up in your Following feed
- Bookmark videos to your device if you want to store them offline
Relying solely on your TikTok viewing history to find videos again in the future is difficult due to its 7-day limitation. Using likes, comments, follows or bookmarks/saves can help you rediscover video content you enjoy.
In summary, TikTok’s view history records the videos you have watched for the last 7 days. You can access it to see your recent viewing activity, delete specific videos you don’t want saved, or clear your full history. However, the 7-day limitation means you may need to use other tools like likes and follows to rediscover videos beyond that period.
