How to Find Someone on TikTok (With or Without a Username)

To find someone on TikTok, type their username or name into search and open the Users tab. Without a username, sync your phone contacts from Profile, then Add friends, or scan their TikTok QR code; contact sync only shows people who allow TikTok to suggest their account to contacts.

TikTok search matches usernames and display names, so even a nickname often works. This guide covers 7 ways to find a person, why some people can’t be found, and how to check you’ve got the right account. Searching for anything else is covered in how to search on TikTok.

How Do You Search for Someone on TikTok?

You search for someone by typing their @username or name into the search bar and switching to the Users tab. Listed below are the 4 steps.

1. Tap the magnifying glass at the top of the Home screen.
2. Type their username, without the @, or their name.
3. Tap Search.
4. Open the Users tab and check each result’s photo, bio and videos.

The username is the unique handle in the profile address, tiktok.com/@username. Display names are not unique, so many accounts can share one.

7 Ways to Find Someone on TikTok

When a plain search doesn’t work, these 7 methods find most accounts. The table shows what each needs.

Method	What you need	Works when
Username search	Their exact @username	Always, unless they blocked you
Name search	Their display name or nickname	Their display name matches what you type
Contacts sync	Their phone number in your contacts	They allow suggestions to contacts
Facebook friends	A Facebook friendship	Both accounts are linked to Facebook
QR code	Their TikTok QR code	They share it with you
Mutual connections	A friend who follows them	You can open your friend’s Following list
Web search	Their name	Their profile is public and indexed

How Do You Find Someone on TikTok by Phone Number?

You find someone by phone number by saving the number in your phone’s contacts and syncing contacts in TikTok. They’ll appear only if their number is linked to their account and they allow TikTok to suggest their account to contacts. Listed below are the 4 steps.

1. Save their number in your phone’s contacts.
2. Open your TikTok Profile and tap Add friends.
3. Choose Contacts and allow access.
4. Browse the list of contacts who have TikTok accounts.

There’s no way to type a phone number into TikTok search, and tools that claim to look up any TikTok account by phone number rely on data TikTok doesn’t publish.

How Do You Find Someone on TikTok Without Their Username?

Without a username, search their display name, a nickname, or words from their bio, then narrow the Users results by photo and location clues. If you know who they’re friends with, open that friend’s Following list and look there. If you remember one of their videos, search its caption or sound and open the creator’s profile from the video. A web search for their name plus “TikTok” also turns up public profiles.

Does Someone Know If You Search for Them on TikTok?

No, TikTok doesn’t notify anyone when you search for them. Opening their profile is different: if you both have profile view history switched on, your visit appears in their viewer list for 30 days. That’s covered in TikTok profile views, and whether searches themselves are visible is in can people see what you search on TikTok.

Why Can’t You Find Someone on TikTok?

You can’t find someone when they blocked you, changed their username, deleted or deactivated their account, were banned, or turned off suggestions. Private accounts still appear in search; only their videos are hidden. If an account you used to see has vanished, check whether you’ve been blocked with how to know if someone blocked you on TikTok.

How Do You Check You’ve Found the Right Account?

Check the account’s bio, profile photo, follower count and first videos against what you know about the person. Impersonation accounts are common for well-known people, so look for the verified badge on public figures.

How to Check Many TikTok Profiles at Once With apidojo

When you have a list of candidate accounts, apidojo’s TikTok User Scraper on Apify returns each profile’s bio, follower and following counts, total likes, video count, verification, region and language, so you can compare them in one spreadsheet instead of opening each one. It takes profile URLs, or video URLs, from which it reads the creator’s profile. With follower and following collection switched off, a run needs at least 10 profile URLs. It charges $0.005 per URL (Apify).

For keyword searches across TikTok users, the developer guide is how to scrape TikTok search results.