How to download all your videos from TikTok before you lose access to the app

If you are in any country where TikTok is still accessible, we suggest you download your videos just in case. Particularly if you are in the US.

TikTok has been banned in India and it might also get banned in the US if parent company ByteDance is unable to find a buyer for its US ops soon. Just to be on the safe side, you might like to download your TikTok videos while the app is still accessible. (Pixabay)

TikTok has been banned in India since June end, so if you did not manage to download your TikTok videos withing a few days of the ban, there is nothing you can do now. However, if you are in any other country where TikTok is still accessible, we suggest you download your videos just in case. Particularly if you are in the US.

Currently, ByteDance has been asked to sell TikTok's US operations to an American company if it wants to remain accessible in the country. Several big tech heavyweights like Microsoft, Oracle and even Alphabet, Google's parent company are in talks to buy TikTok's US operations or a part of it. 

Trump has ordered ByteDance to sell TikTok's US assets within 90 days, building on an earlier executive order that would prohibit US people and companies from doing business with TikTok effective 45 days from August 6.

While it remains to be seen what happens on that front, you might want to download your videos, just in case, while the app is still accessible to you.

How to download TikTok data

TikTok data can be downloaded manually (downloading videos one by one) or directly in bulk by requesting data from TikTok.

To download videos manually -

- Open TikTok and go to your profile.

- Open any video and tap on the three dots you see on it.

- Now, tap on ‘Save video'

This will save the video on your device, you need to repeat this individually on all the videos you want to save.

This is not the fastest method but it's the only one there for now. Also, the videos you save will be saved with the TikTok watermark. To download TikTok videos without the watermark, you need to rely on third-party apps.

Now, the other way to save videos is by requesting data from TikTok. Once the request is processed, you can download all your data at one go from the app. Here's what you need to do -

- Open TikTok and tap the three-dots icon you see on the top-right corner.

- Click on Privacy and safety.

- Now, click on ‘Personalization and data'.

- Click on ‘Download your data'.

- On the next screen that shows up, you need to click on ‘Request data file'.

Clicking on this sends a request to TikTok to download all your data. It can take up to 30 days for your request to be processed.

You need to manually keep a check on the app to see of your download is ready. Once it is, you can click on the ‘Download data' tab that's right next to the ‘Request data' tab.

The requested data file will be available for only four days within which you must download it.