How to bulk download and save your TikTok videos

First, TikTok was banned. Then, on Saturday afternoon, January 18, he disappeared. Then the next day he reappeared. It may be back for good, but whenever things become so uncertain, it's always a good idea to make sure you have backups of all your content, just in case.

While the app offers instructions on how download individual videosTikTok apparently doesn't like the idea of ​​allowing its creators to download their videos in bulk. You can Also download, in TXT or JSON format, a certain amount of your data, which, according to the support page, “may include, but is not limited to, your username, video viewing history, comment history, and privacy settings” . When I tried it, it didn't include my videos.

You can also share individual videos, the same way you do with any file, but if you have a library of a couple hundred or more TikTok videos, it's going to be quite a job. In that case, it is much better to have a bulk download strategy.

To find out how to do it, I went on TikTok and reviewed a group of videos that offer different methods to download their content. I tried several of the methods and found three that worked relatively painlessly. (By the way, everything should be done on a computer instead of a phone.)

A word of caution before we start: Not being an actual TikTok creator, I only had two TikTok videos posted to my account, which I did as an experiment some time ago. As a result, it didn't take me long to download them using either method. If you are a true TikTok creator, expect downloads and conversions to take some time.

Several people recommended an app called Reuse.io. This is not a free app: it costs $35 per month or $349 per year. For a short time, RePurpose.io was offering free TikTok downloads to Google Drive and Dropbox but had to withdraw the offer.due to high demand.” However, you can still download 10 videos for free for 14 days, so you can try it first.

RePurpose.io allows you to distribute your content on different platforms: you simply tell it where to upload the videos (in addition to TikTok, it will pull data from instagram, YouTube, Zoom and other services) and where you want them to be sent. them (in addition to instagram and other services, you can save them to Dropbox, SoundCloud, Google Drive and other applications). You can schedule recurring transfers, reuse only future content or all existing content, and even create clips (if, for example, you send YouTube videos to TikTok).

When I tried it, RePurpose.io easily took my two TikTok videos and transferred them to my Google Drive in a couple of minutes. Although it should take a batch If you have, say, several hundred videos, the interface keeps you up to date on which videos have been transferred and how many remain.

The paid app allows you to transfer an unlimited number of published videos to up to five different accounts. It could make a lot of sense if you're a dedicated TikTok video creator and thinking about moving your videos to another service.

If you don't mind playing around with the code, there's a free way to do that too. A consultant named Joanne Moxam has published a practical step-by-step YouTube video on how to use the Chrome browser console to save all your links at once, move the data to a spreadsheet, and then use an online tool to download your videos en masse.

Below I've summarized the steps Moxam suggests (which I've tried successfully). She highly recommends that you do this using the Chrome browser.

• go to your Profile page (by clicking on your personal icon in the upper right corner).
• Open the browser console by doing pressing the F12 key. (If you're on a Mac, you may need to use Fn-F12.) You will see an open window on the right filled with code; If you're not used to that, don't let it bother you: you won't have to deal with it too much. Just make sure the menu at the top (which will say Items/Console/Sources) has Console tested.
• At the bottom of the console, where there is a single >, paste the following:

let goToBottom = setInterval(() => window.scrollBy(0, 400), 1000);

According to Moxam, this scrolls all your videos down, making them part of a single window so they can be selected.

Note: You may see a warning not to paste code into the console that you don't understand; You will be asked to type “allow paste” and press Get into first. Forward; I used both codes without problems.

• Now enter the second code, which will automatically select and download a CSV file of your links to all the videos in your profile to your computer. It's a bit long: Here is a link to the Moxam code..
• The resulting file will be called my_data.csv.
• Import the CSV file into a spreadsheet.

Now you can use the links to do a bulk download of your videos. Moxam recommends a free online service called TOKdownloadwhich is what I used.

• Copy the links from the spreadsheet and paste them into the designated field. (Note: Since I only downloaded a couple of videos, I had no problems; as Moxam suggests, if you're dealing with large quantities, you may want to download in batches of 50 or so so as not to overwhelm the app.)
• Click on the Discharge button.

• The application will download and process the links for both the videos and the covers. It could take a while.
• Once this is done, you will get buttons to Download all videos and Download all covers. Click on the first one and you will get a zip file containing MP4 files of your videos.

If you are still unsure of yourself, you can watch Moxam's video: she is slow and careful in her instructions. And be sure to check too its associated website for any updates.

There are also a number of browser extensions that can help you download your content. This particular method comes courtesy of TikToker. bari.cait – It involves using a free Chrome application in a somewhat indirect but effective way. You can find the addresses. in bari.cait's TikTok video; I tried it and it worked great on both of my posts.

• First, if you plan to download your own videos, you'll need a TikTok “recorder” account; in other words, an account that is not the original one. Because? Because the app you will use only allows you to download videos you like or videos from people you follow (and you can't follow yourself exactly). If you have trouble creating a second account, maybe try borrowing a friend's account or ask a friend to download your videos for you.
• Open your new TikTok account on the web and follow your own regular account (the one with all your videos).
• Download the Chrome app myfavoriteTT from the Chrome Web Store and install it. You will have to give him access to your files.
• Go back to your TikTok page and click on the myfaveTT icon, which should now be in your list of extensions. If you don't see it, click the extension icon in the top right corner of your Chrome browser (it looks like a file folder) which provides a drop-down list of your extensions. Make sure myfaveTT is activated.
• Reload your TikTok page. You should now have the myfaveTT sidebar on the left side of your window.

• The app gives you the option to download all your Likes, your Favorites, or the people you follow. Select the last one. You'll get a list of all the people your new account follows; Make sure yours is the only one chosen.
• You will then be asked to select a folder to save the videos (if this is your first time using the app, it will ask you to create a new empty folder). So go ahead and hit Next.
• The app will download the videos associated with that account. The time it will take will depend on how many videos you have to download. When it's done, the app will let you know. The MP4 videos will be in your new folder in data > Following > (number) > videos.

There are actually a number of mobile and browser apps available that will allow you to download and save your TikTok videos. If you don't have access to a computer and must use your phone, you may find mobile apps useful, but I've tried a couple and found them cumbersome to use, usually limited to one video at a time, and (unless willing to pay) a lot of advertising.

Regardless of how you do it, and even if there should be some kind of last-minute respite for TikTok, it's always a good idea to back up your online videos, especially if they are personally important to you or represent creative work that you you will do. I want to preserve it and remember it for years to come.

Update, January 19, 2025: This article was originally published on January 15 and has since been updated to add the method using myfaveTT and to note that TikTok was temporarily down and has been restored for now.