Feel the sudden need to save your TikTok videos in case the site goes down unexpectedly? Here are some methods for non-technical users who want copies of videos they have uploaded or personally made on TikTok. You can also download a copy of your TikTok data directly from your account, which doesn’t get you the video files themselves, but will give you other items, including your direct messages and follower list.
Here’s how.
Download individual videos
If you just want to save a few favorite videos you’ve taken at once, capturing them one by one is pretty simple. To download a video on an Android or iPhone, go to your TikTok profile page, select a clip, tap the three-dot menu icon on the right side of the screen, and tap Save Video. You can then email it to yourself, upload it to Google Drive (or another cloud service), or save it to your phone’s Files app or designated downloads area. Repeat as needed until you have all the videos you want.
You can also download videos to a computer by logging into your account on the TikTok site and right-clicking on a video. You should see a pop-up menu with the Download Video option. Note that when you download directly from the web browser, the clips usually have the TikTok watermark embedded.
If you don’t see a download option in the menu or you’re having trouble saving a video, make sure your video or account is set to public, not private.
Download all your videos
YouTube and other sites (including TikTok itself) are full of video tutorials on how to download all your TikTok clips at once using various third-party apps, websites, and techniques of varying technical sophistication. But keep in mind that third-party apps can vary in security and reliability — and some bulk downloaders may violate TikTok’s terms of service. Additionally, some soundtracks are copyrighted and may not be uploaded elsewhere.
But if you’re just trying to quickly get archive copies of your personal videos from your account, one solution is to use a computer browser extension designed to download all videos on one page without watermarks. Using Google Chrome, for example, search the Chrome Web Store for TikTok Downloader; there are many extensions with descriptions and reviews. Install the one you like best and read its instructions. (TikTok Video Keeper is used in this example.)
After installing the browser extension and returning to your TikTok profile page, click the Download All button to save copies of your clips to your computer. Some extensions also give you a download button on individual videos if you have trouble downloading everything at once.
Download your data
Like other social media sites, TikTok allows you to download information about your account to your phone or computer. This collection of data includes your activity on the site (browsing history, comments, list of your followers and more), your direct messages and a text file of your posts with links to videos.
To search for your account details, open the TikTok app, go to your profile page and tap the three-line menu icon in the top right corner. In the menu, select Settings and Privacy and on the next screen, select Account. Then select Download your data from the menu. (If you prefer to do this on the TikTok website with a computer browser, click your profile icon in the upper right corner, select Settings, and in the Privacy menu under Data, click Download your data.)
On the download TikTok data screen, select All data or tap Custom to search only certain files, such as direct messages you’ve sent and received. Choose a file format, either plain text (the default and easiest choice for non-technical users) or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), a standard that other social media sites can import. Once you’ve made your selections, tap the Search Data button.
Depending on your account, retrieving files can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. When your files are ready, you get a notification from TikTok and a Download button appears on the Download Data tab. Click it to pull up your files, which are compressed into a folder labeled TikTok that lands in whatever location you use for downloads, like your phone’s Files app or your computer’s Downloads folder.
If you chose the default text format, you should see a series of overlapping folders after opening the downloaded TikTok folder. Open the folders and then open a document to view your messages. The Posts.txt file has a list of all your videos posted on TikTok. You can paste the link for each video into your web browser and download the video from there.
TikTok’s situation may be more volatile than other social media sites, but it can also serve as a reminder to keep backups of the things you share on each site as you go — so you don’t risk losing your creations if something unexpected happens.
