Make a TikTok loop video

A loop edit hides its own ending. The final moment of the video sets up the first, so when the app plays it again the action just carries on. People who don’t spot the restart often find themselves halfway through a second viewing before they notice.

• Matched movement: a camera move, a hand gesture or a spin that finishes exactly where it started.
• Continuous action: a pour, a stir or a wave that is cut at the same point in its cycle at both ends.
• Spoken loops: the last sentence leads into the first, so the line reads naturally across the join.

Many creators make loop edits hoping rewatches help a video travel further. TikTok doesn’t publish how much a replay counts, so treat that as a possibility rather than a rule. The reliable benefit is that a clean loop is pleasant to watch twice, and a clumsy one isn’t.

Software can only choose from the frames you give it. Find the best loop can’t invent a loop in footage that never returns to where it began, so it pays to set one up while filming.

• Start and finish in the same pose, position and framing. Mark your spot with tape if you move during the shot.
• Use a tripod or prop the phone up. A drifting frame is the most common reason a loop edit fails.
• Keep the light steady. Film away from windows when clouds are passing, and lock exposure on your camera if it lets you.
• Avoid anything entering or leaving the frame near the start or end.
• Record a few seconds extra on both sides, so there is room to choose the cut.
• For a spoken loop, write the last line first and make the first line its continuation.

Find the best loop compares frames across the whole clip and picks the start and end whose join is smallest. The label and percentage tell you how close that join is.

• Excellent match or Good match: a straight Cut is usually enough. Check it with Watch the join and export.
• Fair match: switch to Blend to soften a jump of a frame or two without changing the length, or a short Crossfade.
• Poor match: the tool suggests Use a crossfade. A crossfade dissolves the end into the start, though fast action can look ghostly during the dissolve, so reshooting may be the better fix.

Shortest loop stops the search settling on a sliver of the clip. For TikTok, 2 s or 4 s keeps the loop long enough to watch. To loop one section of a longer recording instead, set the handles by hand; loop part of a video explains that workflow.

Ears pick up a jump faster than eyes. A word cut in half, a beat that stumbles or background noise that suddenly changes will reveal a loop even when the picture is perfect.

Using the clip’s own sound

With Sound on Original, Smooth the sound at the join is on by default and blends the last moment of audio into the first. Choose cut points in a pause between words rather than mid-sentence, and with a Crossfade the sound fades across with the picture.

Adding a sound in TikTok

If you plan to add a sound from TikTok’s library, the clip’s own audio matters less; export with Sound Off if you don’t want it in the file at all. If you want your own music in the file instead, see loop a video with music, and check you have the rights to use the track.

TikTok replays the video for you. Exporting the loop five times only makes a longer post in which the same moment comes round repeatedly, which is exactly what a loop edit tries to hide. One pass with an invisible join gives the endless effect at the shortest length. If you do want a longer video, raise Number of times, but the join then needs to be just as clean, since it appears several times in a row.

The same clip often works on Instagram too; the Instagram loop video page covers Reels, Stories and the 4:5 feed shape.