ANXIOUS ABOUT LOSING YOUR TIKTOK VIDEOS? HERE’S HOW TO DOWNLOAD THEM
We’ve broken down how to save the videos you’ve created (or videos made by your favorite creators) below.
United States lawmakers have voted on a bill to ban TikTok jeopardizing millions of videos made by American creators. US officials cite security concerns with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, which is wholly owned by the Chinese government. If the bill becomes law, millions of Americans could lose access to the short-form video app resulting in the loss of countless videos.
This bill is the latest attempt by US officials to ban TikTok on all American devices. In 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress over concerns with the app’s security parameters, and many governments around the world have already banned the app on employee phones.
Amid growing there are steps, however, that users can take to download TikTok content and safeguard their favorite videos from being permanently lost in the ether. We’ve broken down how to save the videos you’ve created (or videos made by your favorite creators) below.
Generally, it is good practice to backup all aspects of your digital life to prevent the loss of important documents, photos, or videos, and TikTok is no exception to that rule.
Download TikTok videos to your phone
If you are like most, then using TikTok on your mobile device to watch, create and post video content is a given. The ease and usability of the TikTok mobile app lends itself to consume content in an easy way, but downloading videos from TikTok back on to your mobile device is a bit more cumbersome. Here’s you iPhone and Android guide on how to do it:
Open the video you’d like to download in the TikTok app. On the lower-right corner of the screen, tap the share button.
A menu will pop-up with a row of gray icons at the bottom. Tap the circle that says Save Video.
A bar will appear along with a percentage counter indicating that the app is processing your request.
Once processed you will be prompted to choose from a selection of sharing options (i.e. email the video as an attachment, upload it to cloud service, or directly download it as a local file.)
Pro tip: for Android users we suggest saving the video with Files by Google.
Download TikTok videos to your computer
The process of downloading videos to your phone is easy enough if you have just a few to save. But for major content creators or those looking to download videos en masse, a computer is your best bet.
Log onto Tiktok.com with your favorite web browser and pull up the video you’d like to save.
Right click on the video and select Download Video. This will prompt the video to download as an MP4 on your computer.
Pro Tip: if you don’t see the option to download your favorite creator’s video, they likely have disabled the option to make their video downloadable.
Screen Record
As a last resort, especially if you’re unable to download a video made by another creator, you can screen record. Keep in mind that in doing so, your device will record anything that appears on your screen including push notifications from other apps. This also means that the screen recorded video will have all the menu options on the right-hand side that would typically be removed in a downloaded video.
For iPhone:
Click the settings icon and then tap into Control Center. Select the green plus sign button next to the Screen Recording option.
A gray-dot icon will then appear in your homescreen. Tap it to start Screen Recording.
For Android:
Swipe down form the top of your screen to pull up your notifications and settings screen.
Swipe through your settings widgets to find Screen Record.
Tap this option and you’ll be prompted to select whether you want device audio records and whether to show touches on the screen.
Once you’ve selected your options tap record to begin.