Not Interested on TikTok: How to Undo?

Here’s how to undo Not Interested on TikTok:

If you accidentally click Not Interested on a TikTok post, undoing that process can be difficult.

There is no immediate button that unchecks “Not Interested” for you, so you have to instead like or favorite the video.

Unfortunately, that also means that you have to find the video so that you can interact with it again.

So if you want to learn all about TikTok’s Not Interested button and how to undo it, then this article is for you.

Let’s jump right into it!

Not Interested on TikTok: How to Undo? (All the Info)

Why Does TikTok Have a Not Interested Button? (3 Mechanisms)

If you’ve used TikTok, then you’re familiar with the experience.

Everything about the app is designed to personalize your experience to bring you content that you enjoy.

TikTok wants to tempt you with more scrolling and more videos.

If you’re enjoying the experience, then TikTok feels like it’s doing its job.

The Not Interested option is geared towards this purpose.

It’s one part of a larger means for you to curate your own experience on the platform.

In fact, the TikTok algorithm (which is really made of many, many algorithms) is there specifically to curate content. 

TikTok is very good at collecting data and extrapolating to figure out exactly what users want, but the developers figured out a long time ago that there is one source of information that will do better than anything else available to them.

The source is you.

So, TikTok gives you the means to tell them what you do and don’t like.

When you do, the algorithm takes your feedback very seriously, and your content is curated accordingly.

Not Interested is really one of three user feedback mechanisms that TikTok cites in its help pages.

So if we really want to understand the Not Interested button, I should probably take you through all three mechanisms.

#1 Like

Let’s start with the like button.

TikTok didn’t invent the like button.

They didn’t reinvent it either.

This button works exactly how you would expect.

If you like a video, then TikTok takes note, and it tries to send you more videos that have things in common with what you like.

What kinds of things will it have in common?

For starters, TikTok will recommend videos with at least some of the same tags as anything you have liked.

That’s one of the easiest ways to follow the logic of the like button.

But behind the scenes, the TikTok algorithm works very hard to break every video down into categories.

Using an artificial intelligence system that is kept quite secret, TikTok weighs your likes in specific ways to carefully pick your next video recommendation.

And if you use TikTok, you probably agree that the app is very good at this.

If you want to like a video, it’s very easy.

Tap the heart icon.

It should go from white to red.

That means that the video has been added to your like list.

You can browse that list to rewatch your favorite videos whenever you want.

To do that, go to your profile panel. On the right side, there’s a heart.

Tap it, and it will pull up your liked videos.

To unlike a video, tap the red heart icon on it.

It will change back to white, and that means the algorithm will no longer consider it a liked video.

#2 Dislike

Next up is the dislike button.

“Wait a minute,” you tell me. “I’ve never seen a dislike button for videos.”

You’re not crazy.

There is not a dislike button for TikTok videos.

Supposedly, the app is experimenting with a dislike button for comments, but not for videos.

Yet strangely enough, on the TikTok support site, it says that there is a dislike option for videos.

It’s a little weird.

I can only draw two possible explanations.

The first is that the dislike button is actually the Not Interested button.

That would make sense.

Assuming that’s true, I’ll explain the Not Interested button in the next section.

The other possibility is that TikTok is referring to dislike as the action you take to remove a like.

That could be the case, so assuming that’s what they mean, then you dislike a video by un-liking it.

That would mean that the algorithm doesn’t negatively weigh the tags and categories related to such a video.

It just stops going out of its way to bring you more than that.

In either case, a dislike on TikTok is clearly different from what you might experience with other social media apps.

#3 Not Interested

Ok. Dislike is out of the way.

Let’s get into the Not Interested button.

This works exactly as you might expect.

When you tell TikTok that you are not interested in a video, then it negatively weighs the tags and categories attached to that video.

It doesn’t do this in a simplified way.

It’s possible that you like one video with a sports tag and are not interested in another video with a sports tag.

While I can’t show you the exact code of the TikTok algorithm, it’s safe to assume that it is sophisticated enough to reason through your varied tastes.

The point is that you are providing TikTok with more data that it can use to curate your experience.

How do you use the Not Interested button then?

Do a long press on the video that you want to de-rank.

The option for “not interested’ will pop up on the screen.

You can tap on it, and that’s all it takes.

TikTok has classified the video as not interested, and your experience will reflect that moving forward.

How Do You Undo Not Interested on TikTok? (3 Steps)

We’ve covered a lot to get to this point.

You have a better idea of how the TikTok algorithm works.

You also have a better idea of how you can curate your content and why your decisions matter.

Now we can get back to the original question.

You’re enjoying TikTok.

You watch a video that you like.

When you go to add it to your favorites, you accidentally tap Not Interested instead.

Why are those two buttons next to each other anyway?!

Instead of saving the video, you just banished it from your experience, and the algorithm is going to do the opposite of what you want.

Surely, there’s a way to fix this, right?

If you read the quick answer at the beginning, then you already know that this isn’t simple or straightforward.

For whatever reason, TikTok has decided that you don’t need an undo button for marking content as Not Interested.

Annoying as that may be, not all hope is lost.

You can still pull the video back up, and when you do, you can like it and/or add it to your favorites.

By doing that, you will fix the algorithm, even if there isn’t a “no really, I actually am interested” button that you can tap.

So really, the battle is all about finding the video again so you can interact with it and tell TikTok how you really feel.

#1 Search for the Video

Here’s the problem.

After you tell TikTok that you’re not into a video, it goes away.

On top of that, TikTok isn’t going to recommend it to you anymore.

On top of that top, TikTok isn’t going to recommend similar videos, so it’s not entirely easy to retrace your steps to stumble back into the video.

If you happen to remember exactly what the video was, you can try to search for it directly.

Unfortunately, if you weren’t paying close enough attention, this can prove a challenge.

Also, the TikTok search feature isn’t geared around exact videos as much as the people who create them.

This is one way to find the video and like and save it, but it’s not the end of the road.

#2 Search for the Content Creator

More likely, you’ll have success by searching for the account that posted the video.

Again, this does require you to remember anything about the video, so if you were on autopilot, things can get tricky.

But if you can find the content creator, you can browse their profile.

It might take a while if they’re extremely active posters, but you can probably find the video again.

If the one video wasn’t as important as just getting the type of content into your feed, then there’s another option.

Watch some other videos by that creator.

If any of them hit the right notes, like those videos instead.

Ultimately, it will fix your algorithm.

#3 Search Other Social Media

But, you might really just want to save that one video.

And, you might not be able to find it on TikTok for any number of reasons.

Your deep-dive method is to get off of TikTok and check all of the social media apps.

You might be able to find a tweet with the video embedded in it.

Maybe the original creator of the video also posted it to Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

If none of that works, you can mobilize your personal social media army and scour the internet together until someone finds it.

Social media exists to help you find things.

You might as well put it to work for you.

Author

  • Theresa McDonough

    Tech entrepreneur and founder of Tech Medic, who has become a prominent advocate for the Right to Repair movement. She has testified before the US Federal Trade Commission and been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, helping influence change within the tech industry.