Your TikTok video is likely private because you chose that specific visibility setting when you uploaded or edited the post. TikTok provides tools that allow you to control who can see your content on a per-video basis.
Understanding TikTok's Privacy Settings
On TikTok, you can apply different privacy settings to each post you share whether your account is private or public. This means that even if your main account is public, you can still set individual videos to be viewed only by certain people. Your visibility settings help play a role in how your content is seen on TikTok.
TikTok gives creators the power to manage their audience for every upload. We provide tools that allow you to control who can see your posts and select the audience of each post.
Post-Level vs. Account-Level Privacy
It's important to understand the difference between your overall account privacy and the privacy setting applied to a single video.
| Feature | Account Privacy | Video Privacy (Per-Post) |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Affects all your content visibility | Affects only one specific video |
| Default | Set in your main account settings | Set during the posting process |
| Control | Limits who follows or interacts | Limits who sees that one video |
Setting a specific video to "Private" means only you can see it, regardless of your account's overall status (public or private). Other options like "Friends" (followers you follow back) may also be available depending on your region and app version, allowing you to limit viewership to a specific group.
How You Control Video Visibility
When you are in the final steps of uploading a video on TikTok, before posting, you are presented with options under "Who can watch this video". Here, you select the desired audience for that specific post. If your video is private, it means you selected the "Only Me" option during this step.
- Public: Anyone on TikTok can see your video.
- Friends: Only your followers who you follow back can see your video.
- Only Me: Only you can see your video.
By choosing "Only Me", you are actively making the video private. This setting can usually be changed later by editing the video's privacy settings from your profile.
In summary, your TikTok video is private because you utilized the built-in tools TikTok provides to select a restricted audience (most likely "Only Me") for that individual post, separate from your main account settings.
