3 Ways Tell If You've Been Blocked On TikTok
Let's face it, you spend more time scrolling on TikTok than you'd like to admit. One minute you're watching a cute little duck, and before you know it, an hour has passed. But who can blame you? Not only are TikTok videos entertaining, but they're quite educational too. You'll learn new life hacks like creating spiral cucumbers with just a knife and a pair of chopsticks and discover new words, such as morose (which means to be in a bad mood) and misanthrope (someone who isn't a big fan of other people).
However, one other reason why you might be on TikTok is to stay connected with friends and family. It's fun to watch their creative content, chat with them, and send them funny videos that show up on your For You Page. But these are not the only similarities TikTok has with other social media platforms — there's an option to block accounts on TikTok too. If you're curious whether someone on TikTok might have blocked you, here are three easy ways to tell.
Look up their username
One of the quickest ways to check whether a user has blocked you on TikTok is to look up their username. Here's how to do so:
- Launch the TikTok app on your phone.
- Tap on the search icon in the upper right corner.
- Type in the username of the person you want to look up.
- Go to the Users tab.
If you can't find the username in the list, then there's a chance they might have blocked you. However, keep in mind that all users have the flexibility to change their name and username on TikTok once every seven and 30 days, respectively. If you're unsure whether they blocked you or they just have a new name or username, try logging out of TikTok and searching for their username again (yes, you can use TikTok even without an account). To log out, go to your profile, select the hamburger menu (three lines) at the top-right corner, and tap on Log out found at the very bottom of the page. Then look up the person's username. If it pops up, then it's more than likely that they blocked your account. But if it still doesn't appear, they might have changed their name or username, or perhaps they've deactivated or deleted their account.
If you follow each other, check your Friends list
Your Friends list is made up of people you follow who also followed you back. It's typically smaller than your general Following and Followers lists, making it easier to browse if you're trying to verify whether someone has blocked you. To find your Friends list, here's what you need to do:
- In your TikTok app, go to the Profile page at the bottom right of the screen.
- Tap on either your Following or Followers number.
- Switch to the Friends tab.
- Do one of the following:
- Type their name or username in the search bar. However, remember that they might have changed their name or username, so it might not appear.
- Manually scroll through the list and check each profile to see if the person you're looking for is still there. If they're missing, they might have blocked you, unfollowed you, or deactivated/deleted their account. To double-check if they simply unfollowed you, go to your Following list and look for their profile. However, this might prove to be a bit time-consuming, especially if you follow over 50 other people.
This same method also applies If the person who might have blocked you followed you before but you never followed them. If you have two-digit followers, it'll be pretty easy to notice if it went down. You can also manually check the list to look for that person. But it's unfortunately a different story if you're an influencer with hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers.
If you previously DM'ed each other, go back to your conversation
In the event that you and the person who might have blocked you exchanged messages before, you can also check your chat thread. The way your conversation appears can help you distinguish between someone who has blocked you and someone who has deactivated or deleted their account. Here are the key differences to look for:
- If the person blocked you:
- In your conversation, you'll still see the person's name or username and profile photo at the top.
- Attempting to hit the 'Follow' button will prompt a pop-up message saying, "You can't follow this account due to this user's privacy settings."
- When you go to their profile by tapping on their name/username, their page will display an "Account not found" message. However, their username and profile photo are still visible, but their following, followers, and likes counts are set to zero.
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- If the person deactivated or deleted their account:
- In your conversation, you will notice that their profile photo is blank. On Android, their name and username are also not displayed (both are still visible on iOS though).
- When you tap on the Follow button (which you can see on Android but not on iOS), you will get a "Something went wrong. Please try again." error.
- You'll find a "Couldn't find this account" message on their page, which is completely blank with no username, profile photo, and dashes instead of the following, followers, and likes counts.
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