Clearing your search history on TikTok can be useful for maintaining your privacy and protecting sensitive information. With all the recent concerns around TikTok’s data privacy and security issues, many users want to minimize the amount of personal data collected by the platform. TikTok collects information about everything you search for in the app, which could reveal private details about your interests, location, relationships, and more. While TikTok claims not to use search history for ad targeting, many users are uncomfortable with that data being stored indefinitely. Clearing your search history regularly eliminates this trove of personal information, preventing improper access or use. It also provides peace of mind, allowing you to search freely without worrying about judgment or embarrassment down the line. For these reasons, knowing how to clear your TikTok search history is an important skill for any regular user of the platform.
Viewing Your Search History
TikTok keeps a log of all the searches you make within the app. This allows you to easily access and view your recent search history. To find your TikTok search history:
1. Open the TikTok app on your iPhone or Android phone.
2. Tap on the search bar at the top of the screen. This will open up your recent searches.
3. You will see a list of all your recent search terms and queries. TikTok stores up to 100 recent searches.
4. Scroll down to view your full search history. You can tap on any search term to search for it again.
5. On Android, you can also tap on “Recent searches” next to the search bar to view your history. On iOS, tap on “Search history” under the search bar.
So in summary, your entire TikTok search history can be easily accessed by simply tapping on the search bar in the app. This history persists across sessions, so you can view searches from previous days or weeks if available.
Clearing Search History Entirely
If you want to erase your entire TikTok search history all at once, you can do so through the app’s settings menu. Here are the steps:
- Open TikTok and tap on your profile icon in the bottom right corner.
- Go to the menu icon in the top right and select “Settings and privacy.”
- Choose “Clear cache.”
- Tap “Delete search history” to erase your full search history.
This will wipe your search bar clean and remove all previous searches from your account. According to TikTok’s help page, your search history should be deleted within 24 hours (source). After clearing your cache, you’ll have to retype searches instead of relying on suggested results.
Clearing Individual Searches
If you just want to remove specific searches from your history, you can delete them one by one. Here’s how:
- Open the TikTok app and tap on the search bar at the top.
- You’ll see a list of your recent searches. Find the search you want to delete and tap on the “X” icon next to it.
- This will immediately remove that search from your history.
- Repeat this for any other individual searches you want to delete.
This is useful if you just want to remove an embarrassing or irrelevant search but keep the rest of your history intact. You can also use this method to delete autocomplete suggestions from the search drop-down menu that you don’t want to see again.
Some users have reported that deleted searches may still appear under “Recent searches” for a short time before being permanently removed. So you may need to wait a few hours before that term disappears completely from your history. But rest assured it is deleted from the backend even if still briefly visible.
You can also clear individual searches from your browser history outside of the TikTok app, but this won’t affect the searches stored in your TikTok account. To fully remove a search, you need to delete it directly within the TikTok app.
Source: https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/how-to-delete-tiktok-search-history-2156410/
Turning Off Search History
One of the easiest ways to keep your TikTok searches private is to turn off search history tracking in your account settings. Here’s how to disable search history on TikTok:
1. Open the TikTok app and tap on your profile icon in the bottom right corner.
2. Tap on the 3 bar menu icon in the top right corner to access your account settings.
3. Scroll down and tap on “Privacy”.
4. Toggle off the “Enable watch history” option. This will prevent TikTok from tracking your search history going forward.
By turning this setting off, TikTok will no longer keep track of the content you view in the app. Your previous search history will still be there, but new searches will not be logged.
Using Incognito Mode
TikTok has an incognito mode that allows you to browse TikTok anonymously without anything being linked to your account. When incognito mode is enabled, your viewing, likes, comments, and other activity will not show up in your account history. According to TikTok’s Help Center, “Browsing as a guest is a new way to enjoy watching TikToks without needing to create an account. We realize many people come to TikTok each day with the intent to casually browse videos” (https://support.tiktok.com/en/log-in-troubleshoot/log-in/browse-as-guest).
To enable incognito mode on the TikTok mobile app, tap your profile picture in the bottom right and select “Enable Incognito Mode”. This will make your profile picture disappear, indicating you are now browsing anonymously. To disable incognito mode, simply tap your profile picture again and select “Turn Off Incognito Mode”.
When in incognito mode, your searches, likes, comments, and other activity will not be saved to your TikTok account history. However, TikTok does caution that your activity can still be visible to your internet service provider, the websites you visit, and advertising partners. So incognito mode protects your privacy from being tracked on TikTok itself, but not necessarily from all online tracking.
Clearing Cache and Data
Clearing the cache and app data on TikTok can help resolve issues you may be having with the app and improve performance. The cache stores temporary data like thumbnails, videos, and images, while app data includes your settings, search history, and other saved information.
According to TikTok’s support page, clearing the TikTok cache and data can fix problems like the app freezing, crashing, or videos not loading properly. It essentially gives the app a fresh start by wiping stored data that may have become corrupted or bogged down.
Clearing the cache and data will log you out of your TikTok account, so make sure to backup anything important first. You’ll then need to login again after the reset. Overall, this can improve performance and help resolve odd issues you may encounter in the TikTok app.
Logging Out of Your Account
Another way to clear your TikTok search history is by logging out of your TikTok account. Logging out will clear all cached data associated with your account, including your search history, liked videos, watch history, and more. Any searches or activity done while logged into your account is stored in the app’s temporary memory, so logging out gives the app a fresh start.
To log out on the mobile app, go to your profile page and tap the three line menu button in the top right corner. Then select “Log out” and confirm. On the website, click your profile icon in the top right and choose “Log out”. This will immediately clear your local search history and data. Just make sure to log back in if you want to continue using TikTok.
Logging out is a quick and simple way to wipe your TikTok slate clean. It’s more thorough than individually deleting searches. However, your search history will begin rebuilding as soon as you log back in and start searching again. So logging out works best if you just want a one-time wipe of your recent activity.
Using a Different Device
Switching to a different device is another way to clear your TikTok search history. TikTok’s search history is device-specific, so using a new device will start your search history fresh.
For example, if you’ve been searching on your iPhone and want to erase that history, simply log into your TikTok account on an Android phone or tablet. The previous iPhone search history will not carry over. You’ll have a blank slate for searches on the new device.
This method essentially compartmentalizes your search history by device. The history exists in isolation on each separate device. So moving your account to another phone, computer, or tablet gives you a clean search history.
One thing to note is that if you log back into the original device, the old search history will still be intact. Clearing search history per device does not delete the history from those devices. But accessing your account on a new device gives you the freedom to search without your previous terms appearing.
Conclusion
In summary, there are several methods you can utilize to clear your search history on TikTok or to prevent it from tracking searches in the first place.
The easiest options are to clear your entire search history at once from the app’s settings, or to selectively delete individual searches. You can also turn off search history tracking completely, use incognito mode when searching, or clear the app cache and data. Logging out of your TikTok account or using a different device also prevents search history from being tracked.
It’s important to be aware of and manage your TikTok search history for privacy reasons. The searches you conduct reveal information about your interests and activity, which many users prefer to keep private. By clearing your search history or disabling the feature entirely, you can browse and search on TikTok freely without having your searches tracked and saved.
