Help someone too Ancient (or Stupid) to log into TikTok?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have reasons (that I won’t go into) to upload video from my computer to TikTok. So I go to sign up for a TikTok account.

“Use phone or email, or log in using Google, Apple, Twitter, whatever”. Email, please. I enter it. Create a password that it finds acceptable. “Next” (clicks Next button). They send a 6-digit code to my email, which I then type in the code field. It does a Capcha-esque thing (“choose which two items have the same shape”).

Then it flings a QR code and tells me to scan it, so I go find my cell phone, turn it on, find the camera button, aim it at the QR code, and it prompts me to install TikTok on the phone, so I do that. On the computer I’m now back at the starting screen so I click “Log on”. Enter the email address, enter the password, select which letters match (“have the same shape”). It then tells me “Account does not exist”.

Lather, rinse, repeat (minus having to install TikTok on my cell phone again).

?@??$?

2

Have you tried the old suspects? Delete cookies, turn your devices off and on again, check whether the internet is conected to the electric grid.

3

I was able to log in using “Log in via Google”. That’s not what I would have chosen but it works.

4

Rather than trying to log in on the computer, try doing it on your phone (try the TikTok app first, or a browser). See if that does anything different.

I’ve never set up a TikTok account, so I can’t really say whether my suggestion will work or not. It just seems as though some online services are migrating to where they work exclusively on phones, to the absence of laptops or (gasp!) desktops. I find it to be a pain in the ass, but no one asked me.

5

As a fellow ancient/stupid person, I have found that many such companies prefer, but don’t require, you to use the app instead of being on your computer. So this screen with the QR code will usually have an X on it, which you can click to close that screen and finish creating the account you started. I have never tried tiktok, so I am only presuming that they are the same. (I just tried it, I didn’t get the QR code at all. That probably doesn’t help.)

6

Tiktok is phone-centric.

You think all those kids are using the family PC? Or Moms laptop?
No, they’re using the phone.
The APP is so easy a 6 yo can do it. And they do.

7

I would edit the thread title to indicate that it’s no longer a problem, but I can’t. Thanks, folks.

I logged in with the option of using my Google account. Still don’t know why I couldn’t successfully create and use an independent TikTok account but I don’t care.