TikTok can end up taking up a lot of storage space on your phone for a few key reasons. The main culprits are the cache and downloaded videos. TikTok automatically saves videos you watch to your device so you can keep scrolling without waiting for buffering. Over time, this cache of videos builds up and starts eating away at your storage. Downloading videos also quickly fills up space. Luckily, there are ways to reduce TikTok’s storage footprint by clearing the cache, limiting auto-saving, and deleting downloaded videos.
TikTok Saves Videos to Your Cache
One of the biggest reasons TikTok takes up so much storage is that it automatically saves videos to a cache on your device. This allows you to keep scrolling smoothly without waiting for each video to buffer. However, it also means TikTok is constantly downloading videos in the background and saving them locally on your phone or tablet.
This cache can grow quite large over time, especially if you use TikTok frequently. Every video you watch gets added to the cache, which can quickly eat up gigabytes of storage. For heavy TikTok users, it’s not uncommon for the app cache to take up over 1GB of space.
The more you use TikTok, the more videos get saved in the cache. Longer viewing sessions lead to more downloaded videos. Even just casually scrolling through your For You page adds more and more videos to the cache in the background.
TikTok’s cache also doesn’t clear itself out automatically. The videos stay saved on your device indefinitely unless you manually clear the cache. So all those funny cat videos and cooking tutorials just sit there taking up valuable storage space.
Downloading Videos Directly Takes Up More Room
In addition to the cache, directly downloading videos also increases how much space TikTok takes up. On TikTok, you can download any video to your device’s local storage. This lets you save videos to watch later even when you don’t have an internet connection.
Of course, each downloaded video is going to take up space proportional to its length and quality. A few short videos may not make much impact, but longer videos or downloading many clips can substantially increase TikTok’s storage footprint.
For example, a typical one-minute TikTok video may be around 10MB. Downloading just 20 videos would already use up 200MB. Download 100 videos and you’re looking at 1GB of space taken up. With TikTok making it so easy to save videos, it’s easy to see how downloaded videos can quickly add up.
High-Resolution Videos Take Up More Space
Higher quality videos also means larger file sizes, which also increases how much storage space TikTok takes up. TikTok lets you choose between lower-resolution or high-def videos in the app settings.
Switching to the high-resolution mode will make videos look crisper and clearer. However, the tradeoff is that high-res videos take up significantly more storage space when cached or downloaded.
A video file saved in low resolution may be 5MB, but switching to high-res for the same clip could be 15MB. So you get nicer looking videos at the cost of tripling the storage required. The impact is even greater for longer videos.
If you notice TikTok suddenly taking up way more space after changing resolution settings, this is likely the reason why. Just something to be aware of if you want to save space while still enjoying TikTok.
Creators and Influencers Cache More Content
For regular TikTok users, the cache and downloaded videos make up the bulk of storage used. But for creators and influencers, there are a few other factors that can result in TikTok taking up more storage.
Prolific TikTok creators generate lots of their own new content. All of those drafts and works-in-progress still take up storage space on their device even if not posted yet.
Influencers also typically follow lots of other creators and tend to cache or save more videos for competitive research and tracking trends. This results in a larger cache and more downloaded videos than casual users.
Additionally, the original high-resolution versions of videos take up more space than the compressed versions uploaded to TikTok. So all of that unused RAW footage builds up over time.
For TikTok creators and influencers, the many videos and drafts involved in the content creation process lead to the app occupying more storage compared to the average user.
How to Reduce TikTok’s Storage Usage
Luckily, there are some steps you can take to limit how much storage space TikTok hogs up:
- Clear the cache – This instantly frees up space by deleting saved videos.
- Turn off auto-save – Stops cache from building up in the background.
- Delete downloaded videos – Removes any clips saved locally.
- Switch to lower resolution – Smaller video file sizes means less storage used.
- Remove drafts & unused footage – Clears out unused content.
- Use storage manager – Helps find and delete large files.
Clear the Cache
Clearing the cache is the most effective way to instantly reduce TikTok’s storage usage. It will delete all the videos saved on your device so they are no longer taking up space.
To clear the TikTok cache on iOS, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and tap on TikTok. You’ll then see the option to delete the cache. On Android, go to Settings > Apps & Notifications > TikTok > Storage > Clear Cache.
Do this periodically to mass delete old videos and free up storage. Just be aware cached videos will need to re-buffer when you watch them again.
Turn Off Auto-Save
Stopping TikTok from auto-saving videos to your device prevents the cache from continually growing. With this setting disabled, videos won’t save in the background as you scroll.
On iOS, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage > TikTok and toggle off Save Videos. On Android, go to Settings > Apps & Notifications > TikTok > Storage and turn off Auto-Save Videos.
This means you’ll encounter more loading times as videos buffer each time. But it also keeps TikTok’s storage usage under control.
Delete Downloaded Videos
If you’ve been saving a lot of videos for offline viewing, consider removing ones you don’t need anymore. This can rapidly free up storage space if you’ve built up a large library of downloaded clips.
On iOS, go to your profile > Settings > Account > Downloads > Edit and delete unneeded videos. On Android, go to your profile > Settings > Downloads and delete videos you no longer need.
To avoid downloaded videos taking up space in the future, you can also turn off the “Save to Device” option when sharing videos.
Switch to Lower Resolution
If you have TikTok set to high resolution, switching to a lower video quality saves storage space. Lower-res videos have much smaller file sizes.
On iOS, go to Settings > Video and choose either Low or Medium. On Android, go to Settings > Data Usage and toggle on Save Data. You can also limit video quality when on cellular data only.
The tradeoff is videos won’t look as sharp. But this trick can meaningfully reduce TikTok’s impact on your storage.
Remove Unused Content
For TikTok creators and influencers, clearing out unused drafts, unfinished videos, and raw footage can recover a good chunk of storage. These unused files just take up space if left sitting around.
In your drafts folder, review and delete any incomplete or scrapped video projects. Then check your camera roll and permanently remove any unused or archived TikTok clips.
Staying on top of removing old drafts and footage avoids these unused files turning into storage hogs.
Use Storage Manager Tools
Both iOS and Android have built-in storage manager tools that can help identify and remove large files like those used by TikTok.
On an iPhone, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to see which apps are taking up space. You can delete the TikTok cache and downloaded videos here.
On Android, go to Settings > Storage to see which apps are occupying storage. Tap TikTok and choose to delete the cache or any downloaded videos.
Use these tools periodically to see if TikTok is building up a large storage footprint, then take action to delete the files.
Conclusion
TikTok automatically saving videos to your device as you scroll leads to it steadily consuming more and more storage space over time. Downloading clips to your phone and using high-resolution settings also increases its storage impact. But by clearing the cache, limiting auto-saving, deleting unneeded downloads, and more, you can control how much storage TikTok takes up.
Following these tips will help keep your phone from getting filled up as you enjoy scrolling through TikTok and watching funny, entertaining videos.
