There are legitimate reasons why it might be time to cancel your TikTok account, including privacy concerns and worries about what short-form videos might be doing to your attention span.

Keep in mind that if you delete your TikTok account, all of your videos will be removed unless they were saved or downloaded by another user. Therefore, save any favorite videos on your phone before performing the crime.

Here’s how to permanently say goodbye to TikTok once you’ve backed up the videos you want to save.

A quick tip: Your TikTok account will be “deactivated” for 30 days after you delete it before being completely erased. Simply log back in within this period to reactivate your account if you change your mind.

What to know before deleting your TikTok account

Your videos will be removed after your TikTok account has been successfully deactivated. That implies that you are spared the laborious chore of eliminating them yourself. The same is true of every message in your inbox; they are all permanently lost.

How to back up TikTok data before deleting

The data on your TikTok account can be easily backed up if you don’t want to lose it. Your profile details, activities, and app settings are among the information that TikTok might store.

• Open TikTok on your favorite web browser and log into your account.
• Click on your profile picture on the top right and select Settings
• In the Privacy section, click Data to access the Download TikTok data page.
• Under Select file format on the Request data tab (it’s selected by default), choose whether you’d like the data to be in TXT or JSON format. The former is a human-readable text file, while the latter is machine-readable. Then, click Request data.

It’s effortless to back up your TikTok data if you don’t want to lose it. Your profile information, activities, and app settings are just a few of the data that TikTok might store.

A little tip: Download the data as soon as possible because TikTok will remove it after four days and require you to request it again.

How to delete your TikTok account

After you decide if you want to back up your data, you can delete your TikTok account.

On mobile

• Open the TikTok app, and tap the Profile button in the bottom right-hand corner of the app.
• Tap the three-line menu in the top-right corner of the screen and then select Settings and privacy.
• Tap Manage account from the list of options.
• Tap Delete account, which is the last option.
• Follow the on-screen prompts and tap Continue again to confirm your decision.

After you delete your account, the last and final step to permanently deleting TikTok is to uninstall the app from your phone.