TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms, but it's not without its problems. One issue that many users have encountered is the "Settings Restricted" error message, which can be frustrating and confusing. This error message pops up when TikTok is unable to access certain settings, which can limit the app's functionality and put your privacy at risk.

What causes the “Settings restricted to protect your privacy” error?

In most cases, you won’t be able to change some privacy settings or duet or stitch your videos and this is caused because you set your age to 15 years or below when first setting up your account, or because screen time or content restrictions are blocking some parts of the app which can trigger the error.

Disable Content & Privacy Restrictions

On iOS devices, open up your settings application. From here, tap on Screen Time.

Under Content & Privacy Restrictions, make sure to completely disable restrictions.

Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions

Make sure that the Share Across Devices option is disabled to prevent these settings from being applied on all of your iCloud devices.

Screen Time > Share Across Devices (Disabled)

Request Age Change at TikTok

If this doesn’t fix the problem, then the age associated with your account is most probably causing the issue. Sadly, you won’t be able to change your age in the TikTok app settings simply.

To request to change your age, make sure to click on the link in the description below, or visit tiktok.com/legal/report/feedback on your favorite browser to get to this page. Enter the email address and username associated with your TikTok account.

Below, set the topic to Change account information and Other as the subtopic. You can then explain that you accidentally set your age to under 16 when setting up your account and that your age is currently something else. Lastly, attach a picture of your ID to this report to prove your identity before submitting the form.

Request the age chage from TikTok support

It might take up to a day or two to get feedback from TikTok and they will then go ahead and change your age in your profile information, which will fix the “settings restricted” error you are getting. Alternatively, you can also create a new TikTok account where you set your age to a value above 16 years old.