Don’t do this if you still have TikTok on your iPhone

With TikTok’s ban in the US being postponed until April 2025 and the app not being available to download, don’t do this one thing unless you want to lose access to TikTok.

The law banning TikTok in the US took effect on January 19, 2025, but President Trump signed an executive order the next day postponing enforcement of the ban.

Apple and Google removed TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps ahead of January 19, and have yet to bring them back into their respective app stores. Users who already have the app installed can access TikTok just fine.

Those who uninstalled the app ahead of the initial ban date have been unable to re-download TikTok due to it not being listed in the app store. However, there are several other common instances where you would lose access to the app.

You can’t change your device at all

If having access to TikTok on your phone is important to you, you should refrain from resetting your device, getting a replacement through AppleCare+, or upgrading from an older model.

Without TikTok in the app store, iPhones can’t download the app again if you have to reset your phone to factory settings or change the device in any capacity.

Even if you restore your new phone from an existing iCloud backup, or do a device-to-device transfer, all of the apps will download from the app store. Since TikTok is not available, the download will fail.

If you try to install TikTok on your new device, it will give you an error message that reads: “Unable to install TikTok. The app is no longer available in the App Store.” There will also be an option to keep the icon or delete it.

It’s unknown when Apple and Google will add TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps to the App Store again, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated if it happens.