The two settings, and where they are
If you're at least 18, TikTok gives you two choices: add a legacy contact to manage your account after it's memorialized, or choose to have the account deleted after your death. You can change or remove either at any time.
Both are in the same place. In the app, tap Profile, then the Menu button at the top, then Settings and privacy, then Account, then Account legacy. From there it's Add legacy contact, or Delete after death.
Who your legacy contact can be
One person, and it has to be one of your TikTok friends, which TikTok defines as a follower you follow back. So if the person you'd trust with this has never opened the app, that's a conversation to have first.
You can change the contact at any time before the account is memorialized. They can only reach your account after it's been memorialized, and TikTok only tells them then, though you can choose to send them a message when you add them.
What they can do, and what they can't
You grant one or both of two permissions:
- Profile and account settings: updating your bio, accepting new friend requests, managing who can mention you or comment on your posts, and asking for the account to be deleted
- Data download: downloading your posts, including the private ones marked Only me, if you choose to include those
Whatever you grant, TikTok says a legacy contact can't log in to your account, remove or edit your posts, read your direct messages, or remove existing friends.
What a memorialized account is
The profile and what's already on it generally stay viewable. The account can still be found in search, the comments stay, and hashtags tied to it may stay active.
What stops: no one can log in. Nothing new can be posted. The account isn't recommended to others and doesn't appear in the For You feed. Other people can't Duet or Stitch the videos, and can't send new direct messages. The message history won't be accessible. The profile can't be edited, unless a legacy contact was given that permission.
If you set nothing
TikTok says the process typically begins with a request from a family member or legal guardian, to memorialize the account or delete it. Whoever asks has to give three things: their relationship to the person, proof of death, and proof that the account was the person's. The page doesn't say which papers count as proof.
The request goes through TikTok's online form for deletion and memorialization requests, linked from the help page. TikTok adds that with no request at all, it may memorialize an account itself once the owner's death is confirmed through credible sources. And if you did name a legacy contact, it says it honors that choice.
What the page doesn't cover
Money. TikTok's page on accounts after death says nothing about a creator's earnings or anything else TikTok might owe an account holder. If your account earns, tell the person who'll settle your estate that it does, so they know to ask.
What to set up now
Open Account legacy and make the choice. If you choose a contact, decide whether they should be able to download your posts, the private ones included. It's the only way to the private ones that TikTok's page describes. A password left behind won't do it: TikTok says no one can log in to a memorialized account.
Then say it outside the app too. TikTok's setting tells TikTok. It doesn't tell the rest of your family what you chose, or why.
