Guide 1 of 3 · Everyone
Setting up your new account.
Do these steps in order. Don’t skip ahead — especially step 5. Skipping it is the number one reason accounts get banned, and not following this guide can leave you not covered under our guarantee.
15 minutes, then a few days of waitingDo you live outside the US?
If you do, set your phone up first — otherwise TikTok shows your videos to people in your country instead of Americans, and they can’t buy from a US shop.
Read the International Setup guide, then come back here.
If you live in the US, ignore this and carry on.
Check your internet is OK to use
TikTok can see roughly where you are from your internet connection. If your connection has been used for anything dodgy in the past, TikTok may not trust it — even though that had nothing to do with you.
This takes two minutes and saves a lot of trouble.
- Go to whatismyipaddress.com. It shows you a number near the top — that’s your connection’s ID. Copy it.
- Go to scamalytics.com. Paste the number in and press enter.
- You’ll see a “fraud score”. That’s how risky your connection looks to websites.
A score under 38. Most home internet is well under this, so you’ll probably be fine.
Try your phone’s mobile data instead of wi-fi, or a different wi-fi network. That usually fixes it.
Don’t log in until it’s under 38. If you can’t get it down, open a ticket and we’ll help before you go any further.
Log in for the first time
Use a phone that has never had a TikTok account banned on it. If you’ve had an account banned on your everyday phone, use a different one.
Getting your login code:
- Open TikTok and choose Log in.
- Choose to log in with email, and type in the email address we sent you in your ticket.
- TikTok sends a code to that email address. To read it, go to the website we named in your ticket and type the same email address in there.
Almost every time, it’s one of two things:
1. The email address has a typo. Copy it from our message rather than typing it out.
2. You’re on the wrong website. Different accounts use different ones — check the message we sent you, don’t guess.
Check the account isn’t restricted
Before you do anything else, make sure the account is healthy. Go to
TikTok Studio → TikTok Shop for Creator and see whether it lets you
in.
Stop and open a ticket straight away. Don’t post, don’t change anything, don’t try to fix it.
An account that arrives restricted isn’t what you paid for, so it’s covered — but only if you tell us inside the 14 days. Tell us on day one and it’s simple.
Change the email and password
Do this as soon as TikTok lets you, so the account is properly yours.
That’s normal, and it’s nothing wrong with your account. TikTok locks these details for a few days after anyone logs in on a new phone. It’s a security rule on their end — it happens to everyone.
It normally takes 3–5 days. Try once a day until it lets you. Carry on with the rest of this guide in the meantime.
Don’t keep trying over and over. Repeated attempts look like someone stealing the account, and TikTok may lock it.
While you’re in there, have a look at which devices are logged in:
Settings and privacy → Security → Manage devices
If you see any device that isn’t yours, remove it.
Verifying your TikTok Shop account
Then skip this whole step. It is already done for you.
Nothing to do here — go straight to Step 6.
Everyone else — do it now rather than later. On your phone:
TikTok Studio → TikTok Shop for Creator → Verify
Full instructions are in the Getting Verified guide.
Warm up the account for 2–3 days
“Warming up” means using the account like a normal person for a few days before you change anything or post anything.
TikTok watches new logins closely. If an account suddenly changes its name, photo and starts posting all in one day, that looks like someone took it over — and TikTok bans it.
If you skip this and the account gets banned, it is not covered by the guarantee.
For 2–3 days, just do this:
- Scroll through your feed like you normally would
- Watch videos all the way to the end
- Like a few things, leave the odd comment
- Spend about 15–20 minutes a day on it — not all in one go
And during those days, don’t:
- Change your name, photo or bio
- Post any videos
- Like or follow lots of things quickly
If the account has old videos on it you’d rather people didn’t see, you can hide them:
Settings and privacy → Activity centre → Manage post visibility
Hide them, don’t delete them. Hide up to 50 at a time. Deleting a lot of videos at once makes TikTok suspicious.
iPhone only — check for Passkey
A passkey is a way of logging in with your face or fingerprint instead of a password. TikTok offers it on iPhones once it trusts the account.
Check once a day. If TikTok says “Try a different device”, that’s normal — just try again in a day or two.
On Android there’s no passkey. Ignore this step and carry on.
Make it yours and start posting
Once you’ve done 2–3 days of warming up — or your iPhone offers you a passkey — you’re free to:
- Change the username and display name
- Add your own profile photo and bio
- Unfollow the accounts it already follows
- Start posting your own videos
Post no more than 10 videos a day. More than that and TikTok thinks a robot is running the account.
Once the warm-up is finished, you can start adding shop links to your videos.
Not before. Putting shop links on videos during the warm-up is one of the fastest ways to get the account banned, and that isn’t covered by the guarantee.
TikTok may only let you post a few shop videos a week at first. That’s normal and it lifts on its own.
Things people ask
Why aren’t my followers American?
Older accounts have followers from all over. Once you post regularly, TikTok starts showing your videos to Americans instead. Give it a couple of weeks.
My first videos only got 50 views. Is something wrong?
No, that’s completely normal. TikTok is still working out who to show your videos to. Keep posting.
It says my account is restricted. What now?
Open a ticket straight away and don’t touch anything. If the account came to you restricted, that’s on us and it’s covered — but tell us inside the 14 days.
How do I actually get paid?
In the US, TikTok pays you directly once you’ve added your tax details. Outside the US you use the 1% method instead, where brands pay you directly. It’s explained in full in the Getting Verified guide.
Something’s gone wrong. What do I do?
Open a ticket straight away. Don’t try to fix it by changing more settings — that usually makes it worse.