Why Is My TikTok Video Still Processing and How to Fix It
So you‘ve spent time creating an amazing TikTok video filled with laughs, great dances, or clever transitions. You eagerly hit post, expecting your TikTok fans to start liking and commenting on your video right away. But instead of going live, you get an ominous message saying your TikTok video is still processing. Ugh!
Getting the "video is being processed" message in TikTok can be super frustrating when you‘re excited to share your latest creation. But don‘t worry, there are several troubleshooting tips you can try to get your stuck TikTok video successfully posted.
Why TikTok Struggles With Smooth Video Processing
Before jumping into solutions, it‘s worth understanding exactly why short-form social video apps like TikTok struggle to process user uploads instantly every time.
The core challenge is that TikTok needs to ingest and transform an enormous volume of videos in different formats, resolutions and aspect ratios – then make them ready for billions of daily views on both mobile and desktop.
It‘s an incredibly complex and resource-intensive process:
To grasp the processing load TikTok handles, check out these stats:
- Over 1 billion monthly active TikTok users
- Over 3.5 billion total TikTok downloads
- TikTokers spend 95 minutes per day on the platform
- 700 million people use TikTok daily
- 499 hours of video are uploaded every minute
With this astronomical amount of video traffic, bottlenecks frequently occur:
Under this level of load, it‘s no wonder you sometimes have to wait for your TikTok videos to make it through processing and go live.
Across social networks like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, video processing works better today – but still runs into issues. For a new generation platform like TikTok experiencing rapid user growth, it can be especially hard to keep up.
But while TikTok works on expanding its video ingestion capacity globally, there are troubleshooting steps you can try to unclog stuck videos as a creator.
6 Fixes to Try When Your TikTok Video Gets Stuck Processing
Once you identify the likely bottleneck, here are 6 troubleshooting tips to try to get your TikTok video successfully posted:
1. Restart Your Device and App
One quick fix is to fully force close and restart both your device and TikTok app. Restarting clears out system memory leaks or small in-app glitches that may be slowing things down.
On iPhone, double click the home button and swipe up on the TikTok preview to fully close it. On Android, open the app switcher and swipe the TikTok app preview to dismiss it. Then relaunch TikTok from your home screen icon grid.
2. Check Your Internet Connection
Make sure your WiFi or mobile data connectivity is strong before retrying video uploads. Try switching between WiFi and cellular data if needed to diagnose where the issue may lie.
Run a speed test here as well:
If your upload speeds fall below 5 Mbps, delays are very likely.
3. Update The TikTok App
Go to your device‘s app store, search TikTok, and tap "Update" to download the latest available version. App updates often contain critical bug fixes, performance upgrades and compatibility improvements that help with video processing.
4. Adjust Your Video Export Settings
Before uploading your next TikTok video, double check your editing export settings. Export using the MP4 video format at 720p or 1080p resolution to provide the optimal source file.
Match your export frame rate to the original frame rate of your video clip too. Incompatible resolutions, frame rates or codecs usually trigger processing delays.
5. Clear TikTok Cache and App Data
In your device settings, find the TikTok app and select the options to clear cached data and reset app data/preferences. Wiping the temporaries can resolve conflicts slowing down uploads.
6. Try Compressing Your Video
If you‘re uploading very long or high resolution TikTok videos, try compressing them to smaller file sizes first using online tools like Clipchamp. This puts less strain on TikTok‘s processing capacity.
Aim for a final video file under 100MB to avoid excessively large uploads.
When TikTok Video Processing Issues Should Resolve Themselves
In many cases, the "video is being processed" message clears itself eventually without any troubleshooting needed from you. Here‘s when to just sit tight and wait things out:
Uploading Lengthy Videos
Processing times take longer for videos exceeding 60 seconds. Budget 24-48 hours for very long videos to complete. TikTok may prioritize shorter clips first.
Peak Usage Hour Uploads
Weekday afternoon and evening hours tend to see flurries of traffic that slow down TikTok. Try scheduling uploads for very early AM hours when fewer users are active.
As this TikTok data shows, usage spikes around 3 pm and remains high until midnight when processing capacity maxes out.
New or Inactive User Accounts
If your TikTok account is completely brand new or has been inactive for months, TikTok moves slower putting first videos live from an account, processing them in a queue. Allow 12-24 hours for clips to publish.
So try not to panic if your TikTok gets stuck processing for a reasonable time, especially longer videos or new accounts. But attempt fixes if your wait exceeds 48 hours. And reach out to TikTok support for one-on-one troubleshooting help if videos remain stuck processing indefinitely.
Why Rivals Like Reels & YouTube Shorts Handle Video Processing Better
As frustrating as delays can be, TikTok‘s technology is still playing catch-up to other major video apps when it comes to smooth uploading.
Platforms like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts leveraged their parent companies‘ (Meta and Google) years of scaling expertise when building short-form video functionality. Integrating directly with existing infrastructure allowed them to focus less on foundational upload and transcoding challenges.
In contrast, TikTok had to fully custom build an enormous uploading system almost from scratch to drive its meteoric success. Being pioneering comes with growing pains tech wise!
Over the coming years, TikTok will likely borrow best practices from mature rivals and increasingly prioritize upgraded video ingestion tools. Their future roadmap focuses directly on improved uploading for users.
The Future of Social Media Video Formats
While today TikTok caps videos at 10 minutes, some analysts foresee longer and higher fidelity TikTok uploads coming as technology advances:
"Assuming TikTok resolves its political challenges in Western markets, longer-form video could be the next frontier for the platform. As cameras and 5G connections continue improving, uploading and viewing high-resolution videos will become more viable on mobile devices." — Paul Armstrong, Forbes
Indeed, the constraints around short clips under 60 seconds may fade over time. Rather than purely brief entertainment, TikTok may end up hosting more varied video formats – from cinematic travelogues and mini documentaries to serialized dramas.
But this evolution depends on the app massively scaling up infrastructure and technology to ingest next-gen video smoothly. Until then, users face processing frustration as the Norm.
In Conclusion
Getting the dreaded "video is being processed" error today is unfortunately common on a hyper-viral network like TikTok with its booming usage.
Hopefully these tips help you troubleshoot delays when your TikTok gets stuck in processing limbo:
- Restart device and app
- Check internet connectivity
- Update TikTok
- Adjust export settings
- Clear cache/data
- Compress videos
- Retry off-peak hours
And remember – stay patient particularly with very long or large videos which strain systems most. Also give extra processing time for newly created accounts working through an upload queue.
TikTok may never offer the instant video publishing of rivals given its uniquely massive scale. But creators will likely see steadier improvements post-upload over time as infrastructure expands.
For now, hang in there through the stuck videos! And let me know which fixes ended up working to speed up your TikTok processing woes.
