Sound clips are one of the most important features available on TikTok. Although the video-sharing app is by nature visual experience, a staggering amount of the trends, dance crazes, and challenges that feed the platform’s insatiable algorithm simply would not work without easy access to popular music and film clips.
TikTok is well aware of this and has a built-in clip function that allows users to save clips they want to reuse or feature as ‘favorite sounds’. So it should come as no surprise that more than a few users took to Twitter in dismay after they noticed that all of their fave clips had vanished.
If you’ve never used the favorites function on TikTok, it’s fairly easy to learn how. To save a sound clip, tap the circular icon that appears in the bottom-right corner of a post. Then just tap ‘Add to Favorites’. The clip should load into your favorites section for you to use and reuse as you wish. To access your favorites, just navigate to your profile and tap the bookmark icon. This should take you to your entire library of favorites including your favorite sounds.
That’s how it’s supposed to work anyway. A system glitch that seems to be affecting many users is causing their saved sounds to disappear. And, as yet, it remains to be seen whether or not the tracks are lost forever or if users are just being minorly inconvenienced.
This certainly isn’t the first time a glitch has affected a large number of users on the platform. Recently, users found that any emojis they used in their captions were converting back to their source code. In 2020, Screenrant reported on numerous instances of user likes and views disappearing.
So far, TikTok has not the issue on social media or via other media. Users who are experiencing the issue may just have to wait until TikTok takes care of the issue in house. However, there are a few things you can try to see if you can get your favorites to disappear.
First, just log out and then back into the app. If that doesn’t have any effect, try erasing the app’s cached data. Launch your phone’s settings and select Apps & Notifications. Tap See All Apps and select TikTok, followed by Storage & Cache. Tap on Clear Cache to erase the stored data. You can also try doing a hard reboot of your phone.
If none of these methods work, you may simply be in for a wait. When TikTok patches the issue up they should issue an update that will take care of the problem.