Why does TikTok use so much storage? How to clear TikTok cache & free up space

If you’ve been using TikTok for a while, you may have noticed the video app taking up a lot of storage on your device. But why does TikTok use so much storage, and how can you clear the cache to free up space?

With so many trends and challenges to watch and partake in, and endless communities to explore, some people can spend hours every day scrolling through their For You Pages on TikTok.

However, some have been noticing that the app is taking up a huge amount of space on their devices, sometimes gigabytes worth of storage.

Why does the TikTok app use so much storage?

It’s not known why TikTok can take up so much room on people’s devices.

The TikTok app by itself takes up about 300MB of storage space. But this builds up quickly by other files created by the app, which include cache, watch history, downloads, and drafts.

TikTok has not commented on people’s complaints about how much storage it takes up. Despite this, users have figured out a few solutions to reduce the size of the TikTok app.

How to reduce the size of the TikTok app

There are a few ways you can reduce the size of the TikTok app on your device. The most popular ways are to delete your draft, clear the TikTok cache, or delete and reinstall the app.

Here’s how you can reduce the size of the TIkTok app.

Delete your drafts

TikTok allows users to save videos as drafts, and some people can rack up hundreds of videos that all take up space on your device. If you want to clear some space, it may be a good idea to go through all of your drafts and delete the ones you don’t want.

If you decide you want to get rid of all of your drafts at once, deleting the app will also automatically delete all of your drafts.

Clear TikTok cache

Another way to reduce the size of the app is to clear your cache. To do so, simply follow these steps:

1. Open TikTok.
2. Go to the ‘Profile’ tab.
3. Tap the three lines in the top right, then ‘Settings and privacy.’
4. Scroll down to ‘Cache and cellular data,’ then click ‘Clear cache.’

Clear your watch history

TikTok saves all the videos you’ve recently viewed in your watch history. If you frequently watch a large number of videos on the app, this history can accumulate and take up significant storage space on your device.

Clearing your watch history not only helps free up this space but can also improve the app’s performance and make it easier to manage your content.

Delete and reinstall the app

Some users have found success by deleting and reinstalling the app entirely. As noted above, deleting the app will also delete any of your saved drafts, so make sure you download any you want to keep before doing this.

Many have found that this helps significantly reduce the amount of space TikTok takes up on their device, so it could be a good option if the size of the app is frustrating you.

If you want to learn more about how to use TikTok, you can check out our other guides including how to find contacts on TikTok and how to use TikTok Stories.