How to Export Your TikTok Favorites: Every Method That Works in 2026

Short answer: yes, you can export your TikTok favorites. The official data download gives you every saved video's link and date in one file. Here's the exact procedure, what's actually in the file, and how to back up the videos themselves.

Updated August 2026 · by Ashray Chowdhry, Trove's founder

What you can and can't export

Set expectations first, because the two things people want are very different:

• Links and metadata, which is the official, free, easy half. TikTok's data export gives you a complete list of your favorites, each video's URL paired with the date you saved it. No titles, no thumbnails, no video files.
• The actual video files, which is third-party, desktop-bound and fiddlier. Downloading your favorites as playable MP4s takes an outside tool, and anything the creator already deleted is gone forever.

Most people want the first as insurance and the second only for a handful of irreplaceable saves. Both methods below.

Method 1: The official data export, step by step

1. Open TikTok → Profile → menu (three lines, top right) → Settings and privacy.
2. Tap Account → Download your data.
3. Under "Select data to download," choose Select all, or at minimum Activity, which is where favorites live.
4. Under file format, pick JSON (why below).
5. Tap Request data. TikTok says preparation can take up to a few days, though it's often much faster, and you'll get a notification when it's done.
6. When it's ready, go back to the same screen's Download data tab and download the archive. Don't procrastinate here: the link expires after a short window, and then you're re-requesting and re-waiting.

JSON or TXT? JSON, always. It's structured data, so every favorite is a tidy record with its link and date, which means a script, a spreadsheet, or another app can actually do something with it. TXT is a flat printout you can only eyeball.

What's inside the export

Unzip the archive and open the JSON (any text editor works; it's readable, just dense). Favorites live under the Activity section as a "Favorite Videos" list, each entry a date paired with a link, newest first, like:

You don't need to be a developer: search the file for "Favorite" to jump to the list, then paste links into a browser to check what they were. The export also holds far more than favorites — liked videos, full watch history, search history, comments, DM metadata, and login records. That bonus material is occasionally useful, since the watch-history list can rescue a video you never saved (more on that in searching your saved TikToks), and it's also genuinely sensitive, which brings us to the privacy warning below.

Method 2: Downloading the actual video files

For the saves you'd mourn — a family video, a tutorial you rewatch monthly — links aren't enough, because links die when creators delete. What you want is a favorites-export browser extension, of which myfaveTT is the best-known as of this writing: it signs into your account in your browser and bulk-downloads your favorited videos as files, with metadata. Tools in this category come and go, so search for a current one rather than assuming any particular name still works.

The fine print matters. This is a desktop workflow with no phone equivalent, bulk downloads take a while on big libraries, and videos already deleted by their creators are unrecoverable. Downloaded copies are for your own archive: reposting other people's work is a different thing entirely, so respect creators' rights. Treat this as a fire safe for the handful of saves you truly can't lose, not a routine.

Method 3: From dead list to living library

Your fresh export has one obvious problem: it's a wall of naked URLs. Six months from now it tells you nothing about which link was the knife-sharpening video. An export is a backup, not a library. It preserves your saves without making them useful.

The upgrade path runs through my own app, so discount it accordingly: re-save the keepers somewhere that reads them. Hand a TikTok link to Trove and it transcribes the video, summarizes it, works out what it is (recipe, place, product, tutorial) and files it, searchable by what was actually said in it. Working through a JSON backlog, the fast way is the clipboard: copy a link out of the file, open Trove, and it spots the copied link and offers to keep it — about two seconds, no share sheet, no app-switching detour. The share sheet is there too when you're coming from TikTok itself. What none of it does is bulk-import the JSON, and links whose source videos were deleted can't be resurrected by any app. Transcription runs primarily on our servers rather than on the phone, as the privacy policy spells out. Free to download with 100 free credits, then $2.99/month or $19.99/year for unlimited AI. iPhone, iOS 17+.

Privacy warning: handle the export like a diary

Your TikTok export contains your complete search history, watch history, and login records with timestamps, which adds up to a disturbingly complete portrait of your attention. Store the file somewhere encrypted or at least private: iCloud Drive with Advanced Data Protection, or a password-protected archive. Not your desktop. Not a shared family computer. And never upload the raw archive to random "TikTok analyzer" websites, which is exactly the data they're hoping you'll hand over.

Why export at all?

Three scenarios make the case. Accounts get locked — hacked, banned, or a forgotten password on a retired phone number — and your favorites go with the account. Creators delete: the recipe you cook monthly can vanish any Tuesday. And platforms die. Pocket users learned this the hard way when the service shut down in 2025 and the export window closed for good that November (the full story is in our Pocket alternatives guide). Fifteen minutes of export request today is what "I should have backed that up" looks like when it's done on time. A sensible rhythm: re-export once or twice a year, and keep your true keepers in a library you control, organized so you can actually find them (see organizing your saved TikToks).

Turn the backup into a library

Copy your keepers out of the export and open Trove — every video transcribed, summarized, and findable by asking.

Free download · 100 free credits · Pro from $2.99/mo · iPhone, iOS 17+