How to export your data from TikTok

Requesting the GDPR export, what arrives, and how to open it.

easy Wait: a few hours to four days

TikTok is required to give you a copy of the data it holds about you, including posts and social activity and messages. The request itself is free, and arrives as single JSON or TXT file, chosen when you request. Typical wait: a few hours to four days.

Download your data

Step by step

  1. Open your profile, then Settings and privacy

    Account, then Download your data.

  2. Choose all data rather than a selection

    Selecting only some categories has been reported to drop watch history entirely. All data avoids the problem.

  3. Pick JSON, not TXT

    JSON keeps the structure. The TXT version is easier to read by eye and holds noticeably less.

  4. Request the file

    It is prepared in the background; there is no email link to wait for.

  5. Collect it from the Download data tab

    You are notified in the app when it is ready. The file is available for four days and then deleted.

Opening your TikTok export

Muletto reads a TikTok export directly - the zip, without unpacking it first - and finds the posts and social activity and messages inside.

It runs in the browser: the archive is never uploaded, there is no account, and nothing is installed. Open several exports at once and they become one library, with the photographs that appear in more than one of them found automatically.

The export does not contain your videos. It contains links to them, held on TikTok's servers, and a link is not a copy - if the account goes or the platform does, so do they. If the videos are the reason you are exporting, save them separately rather than relying on this. Two other things worth knowing before you request: choose JSON rather than TXT, because TXT is a readable summary with the structure thrown away and cannot be parsed back into anything, and the download link is reported to last only about four days, after which the file is gone and the only route is to request it again and wait again.

Open your TikTok export

Worth knowing

The export does not contain your videos. It contains links to them, held on TikTok's servers, and a link is not a copy - if the account goes or the platform does, so do they. If the videos are the reason you are exporting, save them separately rather than relying on this. Two other things worth knowing before you request: choose JSON rather than TXT, because TXT is a readable summary with the structure thrown away and cannot be parsed back into anything, and the download link is reported to last only about four days, after which the file is gone and the only route is to request it again and wait again.
No media of any kind is included. Your own videos, your profile picture and anything sent in a message are all URLs pointing back at TikTok.
The last day or two of activity is usually missing, because of how far behind the export runs.
Everything is in one file. For a heavy account that is tens of megabytes of JSON in a single document.

Common questions

Are my TikTok videos included in the data download?

No. The export contains links to your videos rather than the files. The same is true of anything you liked or saved, and of media in messages.

Should I choose TXT or JSON for a TikTok export?

JSON. The TXT version is meant to be read by a person and is much harder for any tool to use, and by several accounts it contains less.

Why is my TikTok watch history missing?

Requesting only some categories rather than all data has been reported to omit it. Request everything and it comes back.

How long is the TikTok download link valid?

Four days from when it is ready. After that the request has to be made again.