How Can I Get The Attention of Tik Tok Support?

May 21, 2020 8:25 PM

My college-bound daughter has virtually locked herself out of her TikTok account. I say 'virtually' because she still has access to it through the app on her iPhone but she doesn't remember the email address she used to open it nor does she have the phone number she used to open it. She neglected to update those things when they changed, not a surprise for a teenager. She's tried to contact their tech support to get this fixed but never gets a response.

She opened her account years ago when she was in middle school and it was called music.ly. Because she opened the account so long ago, she wasn't hip to remembering what email address was attached to it and has no idea what it is. She starting getting harassing calls from fans prompting us to have her phone number changed.

Unfortunately, changing the password requires either the old phone number or the email address, neither of which she has. What she DOES have is more than half a million followers and quite a number of paid sponsorships that she lives in fear of losing should anything happen to her phone. She keeps it backed-up but it would be nice if she could get someone at TikTok to help her resolve the problem. Can anyone suggest another strategy? There are certainly bigger problems in the world right now but she's spent hundreds of hours creating really creative content and lives in fear of losing access.

posted by Jamesonian to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Were you paying your daughter's phone bills when she had the phone that she used to open the account? (I assume you were since she was in middle school -- I'm thinking of something along the lines of a "Friends and Family Plan.") Is it possible that her old phone number is in your financial records somewhere?
posted by virago at 8:39 PM on May 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Probably they need to have access to a phone with that phone number; it’s not enough to know the phone number.

My suggestion to you: scroll back and get the date of her first post. Then you check your old emails for that date to see what email address she might have been using with you at the time.

You can also try emailing [e-mail]. Maybe you should do this, explain the situation, reference her account, and ask what she should do next.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:44 PM on May 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

There may get be some info in the saved passwords section of her phone, or any other place that she might have logged into Tik Tok. Google chrome saves login info that can be accessed, for example.
posted by kjs4 at 11:57 PM on May 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: From the terms of use:
You can reach us at [e-mail] or write us at TikTok Inc.: 10100 Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232 , USA

So maybe send a registered letter, or Fedex, to that address. Maybe include a copy of her drivers license, and offer to post a tiktok with a code word or something that they suggest.
posted by Sophont at 12:40 AM on May 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Is the problem that she knows the password but can't log in because she forgot the email address, or that she's forgotten the password but can't reset it because she forgot the email address?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:17 AM on May 22, 2020

This sounds like a great problem for the podcast Reply All's Super Tech Support, where they have definitely solved similar problems in the past, but I am sure they get plenty of requests. Alex and PJ are both Metafilter users, so they might already have seen this question, but it looks like you should send an email to [e-mail].

Also, another strategy is to see if there are other influencers with MORE followers that can reach out to Tiktok directly. Another option would be to ask her sponsors for support. If the sponsor also does paid advertising directly with Tiktok, they may also have access to a human that can help sort this out.
posted by rockindata at 3:10 AM on May 22, 2020 [9 favorites]