TikTok has exploded in popularity because the platform makes it easy for users to quickly create, edit, share and watch short videos shot on mobile devices.
However, with TikTok’s rapid growth, 3+ billion downloads, and more than 350 million active users, even this giant among social media apps can experience occasional technical issues that can frustrate its users.
TikTok is a great app for posting video clips, but some of the technical aspects of the app can create a lot of questions. Here are our tips to help you overcome some of the more common TikTok technology issues. This article will continue to be updated periodically as new solutions to TikTok challenges are uncovered.
TikTok Issue 1 – What Is the Aspect Ratio of TikTok and What Does It Mean?
Do your videos ever look distorted or stretched once you’ve uploaded them to TikTok? If so, you may not know the difference between the various video aspect ratios and in what situations each aspect ratio is ideal.
You might ask, “What is the video aspect ratio on TikTok?” Video aspect ratio is a frequent question and often a challenge for TikTok users. The term “aspect ratio” applies to both images and videos and is really a formal way of describing a shape, like a picture frame that comes in different formats.
Aspect ratio is defined as the width of a picture or video frame in relation to its height. In essence, it is the proportion of your content asset—or, put more simply, its final shape: horizontal, vertical, or square.
The aspect ratio is important because it affects how videos and photos will look when you post them on different platforms. Understanding the different aspect ratios will make sharing on various social media sites easier and ensure your content visibility is optimal on each site.
It’s important to note that most social media platforms allow many different aspect ratios but not all will perform well for every social media site.
Currently, the most popular video aspect ratios across nearly all social media sites are 16:9, 9:16, and 1:1. Here’s a quick explanation of each:
- 16:9 is a horizontally-oriented aspect ratio, also called landscape viewing. It is most often used for movies, mobile games, and sites like YouTube.
- 1:1 is the square aspect ratio, and while many social media platforms can accommodate it, it is not the ideal aspect ratio on most platforms (however, 1:1 is how Instagram became popular).
- 9:16 is a vertically-oriented aspect ratio, also called portrait viewing. TikTok and a few other platforms are optimized to use 9:16.
You can easily create videos in the 9:16 portrait aspect ratio for TikTok or other social media platforms simply by holding your phone vertically when you shoot the videos.
TikTok Issue 2 – What Is The TikTok Safe Zone and What Does It Mean?
Have you ever shot a video only to find that, once you’ve uploaded it to TikTok, the video is off-center, or its top, bottom, or sides have been cut off? If so, you’ve likely violated TikTok’s safe zone.
You are likely asking, what is the safe zone in TikTok videos? The safe zone is essentially TikTok’s area where your video is guaranteed to be seen across all devices. It consists of an optimized size and shape for your videos. Violating the safe zone with your videos can cost you time, money, and, perhaps most importantly, your patience.
Social media site safe zones can change frequently, so the best way to check TikTok’s safe zone is to check this complete list of TikTok safety zone rules. Once you’ve taken a look at these, you can use TikTok’s preview tool to check your content.
TikTok Issue 3 – What Are The TikTok Dimensions for Videos and How Do I Stay Within Them?
Video quality plays an important role in audience engagement on TikTok. Video quality is dependent on several factors, but perhaps the most important of these is video dimensions.
You may be asking, what are the TikTok video dimensions? For best viewing results, TikTok’s optimized video dimensions are 1080×1920 pixels. Also, as noted above, the standard TikTok aspect ratio is 9:16 portrait mode for the best visual experience when viewing them on phones vertically.
Note that social media platforms can accept different dimensions and aspect ratios, although they may not all be optimized for best viewing on each particular platform. For example, Facebook can accommodate 4:5, 2:3, 16:9, 9:16, and 1:1 aspect ratios.
However, Facebook Feed and Carousel are best viewed at 1:1, while Facebook Stories look best at 9:16. YouTube’s optimized aspect ratio is 16:9, which is horizontal, or landscape viewing.
TikTok Issue 4 – Why Is My Profile Picture Fuzzy on TikTok?
Have you ever opened TikTok and asked, why is my TikTok profile picture blurry? This is probably because you are not using the ideal image size for your profile picture. Using an image for your profile picture that is not the ideal image size or aspect ratio will result in a distorted profile picture.
You might be wondering how to make your profile picture clear on TikTok. TikTok profile pictures must be at least 20×20 pixels to upload.
However, that size will likely produce a distorted profile pic image. The ideal image size for TikTok profile picture images is 720×720 pixels, which is a 1:1 aspect ratio.
All the other social media platforms have their own ideal image size and aspect ratio.
I hope you’ve enjoyed and found this information useful. If you have additional experiences or tips to share related to solving additional TikTok issues, post them in the comments below!
— Sean