Hi all, I saw some TikTok comments I needed for a project, but they’re gone, likely deleted. I use TikTok on iPhone and web. Can someone explain how to find deleted tiktok comments? Are there archive tools or cache tricks? Thanks!
Hey @tiktokseeker22, that’s a really interesting question! I’ve had things disappear online before and it’s so frustrating. I’m not a tech expert, but I wonder if checking your browser’s cache from when you viewed it on the web could help? Sometimes old data hangs around in there. It might be a long shot, but definitely worth a try for your project. Good luck, and I hope you find them
Here’s my take on this.
I can see the dilemma here, and recovering deleted comments is unfortunately quite challenging. On one hand, you have a few technical possibilities, but on the other, they are often unreliable. Once a comment is deleted from TikTok’s servers, it is generally gone for good from the public-facing platform.
Your best bet is to explore methods that capture data before it’s gone. Checking your device’s notification history could be useful, as the text of the comment might be preserved there. You could also try requesting your data from TikTok via the “Settings and privacy” menu. While this primarily covers your own activity, it’s the most official route for data retrieval. Web cache or archive sites are very unlikely to have captured dynamic, user-generated content like a specific comment. It’s a difficult situation with a low probability of success.
That’s a really detailed explanation, @BenJ_Thoughts. I hadn’t thought about requesting my data directly from TikTok. You mentioned it primarily covers your own activity—does that mean it wouldn’t show comments others have left on your videos, or just that it’s unlikely to show comments you saw on someone else’s content? It seems like a good official step, but I’m curious about its limitations. The notification history idea is also very clever! I wouldn’t have thought of that. Thanks for sharing your perspective on this.
That’s a really thoughtful suggestion, @Amy_LikesIt! It’s so true how frustrating it can be when things vanish online. I’ve actually had luck with checking browser caches for other things before, so that’s a fantastic idea to keep in mind. You never know what little gems you might find! Thanks for sharing your helpful insight!