A private TikTok account lets you approve every follower, and only those people can watch your videos and see your likes and follower lists. The setting is called Private account, it lives under Privacy in the app, and it takes under a minute to switch on. Your name, username and profile photo still stay public, and a few related settings are worth a look straight after.

Quick steps:

  1. Open the TikTok app and tap Profile at the bottom.
  2. Tap the Menu button (☰) at the top.
  3. Tap Settings and privacy.
  4. Tap Privacy.
  5. Switch on Private account.
  6. While you are in Privacy, check Suggest your account to others and Sync contacts and Facebook friends.

Turning it on in the app

TikTok's help page gives one set of app steps, the route in the quick steps above, with no separate iPhone or Android version. To go back to public, switch the same Private account toggle off. TikTok's help pages don't describe a separate route on the website, so make the change in the app.

From that point on, anyone new who wants to follow you has to send a request, and you choose whether to accept it.

Accounts for teens

TikTok accounts are for people aged 13 and up (or a different minimum where TikTok's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service set one). According to TikTok's teen settings page, accounts for anyone aged 13 to 17 start out private at sign-up, and the user can change that later in privacy settings. For 13 to 15 year olds, TikTok switches off several features no matter what: direct messages aren't available, video downloads are off and can't be turned on, and comments are limited to friends. If a parent or guardian manages the account through Family Pairing, some settings may work differently.

What private changes, and what stays public

TikTok draws the line like this:

Visible to anyone, on or off TikTok Only for followers you approve
Your name and username Your videos and LIVE videos
Your profile photo Your bio
Your account in TikTok search, so people can find it and ask to follow Your likes
A follow button, which now sends you a request to approve Your followers and following lists

A private account also shuts off ways of reusing your work. Nobody can Duet or Stitch with your posts, turn them into stickers, download them, or add them to their own Stories. A public account, by contrast, can be followed by anyone, and its videos may end up in search engines, blogs, other social networks and news sites.

You can still fine-tune individual posts on either kind of account, because each post has its own audience setting.

Settings to change next

Everything below is under Profile, Menu (☰), Settings and privacy, Privacy, unless noted.

Downloads. Tap Downloads and switch Video downloads off. With a private account (or if you are under 16), it is already off and can't be turned on. Turning it off stops new downloads of everything you have posted and will post, but copies people saved earlier stay on their devices, and anyone can still share a link to your video.

Duet and Stitch. These only work on public accounts. If you go public later, TikTok lets you choose between Everyone and Friends (followers you follow back) in your account privacy settings, and you can switch off Allow reuse of content for a single video before you post it. If someone does Duet with you, their own privacy settings decide who can watch and download that Duet.

Suggest your account to others. This controls whether TikTok recommends you to your Contacts, your Facebook friends, and People who open or send links to you. For adults these suggestions start out on; for users under 18 they start out off. Turning everything off reduces suggestions but doesn't end them completely: TikTok may still show your account to people you follow, people you interact with, or people you share connections with. Accounts of users under 18 are never suggested to mutual connections.

Sync contacts and Facebook friends. Syncing only happens if you give TikTok permission to read your contacts, and it is optional. Open Sync contacts and Facebook friends to switch syncing off, and use the option to remove previously synced data. Note that withdrawing contacts access in your phone's settings stops new syncing, but TikTok can keep suggesting accounts based on contacts it already has, so removing the old data is the step that actually clears it.

Direct messages. Tap Direct messages. For Potential connections and Others on TikTok, choose Requests or Don't receive. On a private account, neither group can send you a request unless they follow you.

Comments. Under Comments, set Allow comments from. Private accounts can choose Followers or Friends (followers you follow back); Everyone is only offered on public accounts. For a single post, you can also switch Allow comments on or off from its More options button.

Likes and following list. On a private account, only approved followers see these. TikTok's Safety Center also lists a separate control for who can view your liked content; look for it in your privacy settings. Menu wording here varies by version, so we don't give an exact path.

Followers you already have

TikTok's private-account page is about approving new followers; it doesn't say that switching removes anyone who already follows you. So go through your followers list and remove or block anyone you don't want there. TikTok's Safety Center lists both Remove a follower and Block an account, and blocking also stops a person from messaging you. If you use other networks too, our guides to making Instagram private and protecting your posts on X cover the same clean-up there.

Run a Security checkup

Go to Profile, Menu (☰), Settings and privacy, Security & permissions, and tap Security checkup. From there you can link and verify your phone number and email, turn on 2-step verification, review trusted devices, check recent security activity, and add a passkey. A passkey or two-step code makes a stolen password much less useful. For the password side, see our guide to password hygiene after credential leaks.

What TikTok still learns from your connection

Private account decides which people see your videos, not what your connection reveals. TikTok still receives your IP address, and its own privacy blog says it uses that address, along with things like your device language, to estimate your city or region even if you never share precise GPS location. The Wi-Fi network or mobile provider you are on can also see that you are connecting to TikTok. A VPN hides your real IP address from the apps and sites you use and keeps the local network from seeing which services you connect to or what you send, which is useful on public Wi-Fi. You are still signed in, though, so your TikTok account is not anonymous. What is my IP shows the address others currently see, and VPNRice apps are on the download page.

FAQ

Yes. Your account still appears in search, and your name, username and profile photo stay visible. People can send a follow request, which you can accept or ignore.

Will my current followers lose access?

TikTok doesn't say that going private removes anyone, so assume your current followers keep access and remove or block the ones you don't want.

Can someone still download my videos?

Not while your account is private, because downloads are off and locked for private accounts. Copies saved earlier, and screen recordings, are outside TikTok's control.

Which TikTok accounts start out private?

TikTok says accounts for users aged 13 to 17 are set to private when they sign up. If you are 18 or older, open Privacy and check the Private account toggle yourself.

Last checked: October 2026. Menu names can differ slightly between app versions and regions.

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