Why is TikTok glitching? Users report strange bugs
TikTokTikTok users have been reporting strange bugs on January 25, with some glitches prevents people from watching more than a few videos in a row, others seeing a particular glitch involving green and black pixels.
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Particularly over the past year, TikTok has become an absolute hub of activity, with millions flocking to the app each day to post and view content, using their For You Page to discover new trends and sounds.
With so many users and new features being added all the time, it’s expected that there will be the occasional technical hitch. In May 2020, some users found that they weren’t even able to open the app, leading to some panicked posts on social media.
This time it seems that rather than having trouble opening the app, people are experiencing bizarre glitches when watching videos, that either block the screen or leave them unable to play videos altogether.
My tiktok fyp is glitching, every other video stops working half way through. And will just stop or start over after 10 seconds. Anyone else have this problem? #TikTok #fyp #tiktokfyp #tiktokglitch
— kayla nichole (@k_aylanichole) January 25, 2021
@tiktok_us my tiktok is glitching really bad. Video freezes and turns into green and black pixels. Anyone else? #tiktok #glitch
— Jinni Campbell (@JinniWorkmanxox) January 25, 2021
https://twitter.com/angelaalmightyy/status/1353720378741329921
The issues only seem to be happening for certain people and does not seem to be an issue affecting the app as a whole.
As for why the glitches are happening – that is yet unclear, as TikTok support have not currently released any statements regarding the issue.
While it says on the iOs App Store that TikTok was last updated on January 21, on the Google Play store it says it was last updated on January 24, but whether that’s anything to do with the reported glitches at all is not confirmed.
Wikimedia Commons, Solen FeyissaHow to fix TikTok glitches
While it does appear that this is an issue affecting more than just a few users, it could be worth running through the troubleshooting steps that TikTok suggests on their website to see if it will help restore the operation of the app and allow you to watch videos again. They suggest:
- Restarting the app, or your whole device.
- Check your internet connection.
- Clear your cache (Go to the ‘Me’ tab, click the three dots to open settings, scroll down to the clear cache button.)
There’s no guarantee that these steps will solve any issues you may be having, but as the current glitch issue does not seem to be affecting all users, it may help you establish whether your issue is a part of this wider outage.
It’s likely that these issues will be resolved soon, and many users are awaiting the return of their functional FYPs so they can carry on scrolling through content as normal.