A TikTok download guide: how a TikTok video download works

Whether it’s your own TikTok videos or videos from others, the TikTok app has a built-in feature for TikTok video download. For your own videos, you just need to enable “Save to device” in the settings; for videos from others, it depends on whether they allow downloads. Besides, there are third-party apps that can be used to download TikTok videos without wa­ter­marks.

TikTok app:

1. Sign in to the TikTok app.
2. In the settings, enable “Save to device”. New own videos are then au­to­mat­i­cal­ly saved on the device during uploads.
3. You can download your own posted videos via the three-point menu by ac­ti­vat­ing “Save video”.
4. For third-party videos, use “Save video” if the account allows downloads.
5. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, use the “Share” button and send the video to yourself via email or as a Messenger message (file will be saved in library).
6. As a second al­ter­na­tive, use third-party apps for TikTok download like “Snaptik” or “Video Down­loader for TikTok - No Watermark”.

PC:

1. Download an app like BlueS­tacks (for Android emulation on PCs).
2. Open the Google Play Store through BlueS­tacks and download TikTok.
3. Open TikTok on the PC and record videos via screen capture.
4. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, use the TikTok web version to download video by logging into the TikTok website.
5. In the web app, the same app features are available except for camera access.

It’s been im­pos­si­ble to overlook TikTok for a long time now, with around 689 million users (as of 2021). The social media and video sharing app’s colorful, quirky short videos inspire young people in par­tic­u­lar, but also offer artists and in­flu­encers the op­por­tu­ni­ty to gain new fans. Since some videos are so stunning, funny or im­pres­sive that users want to download and save them, the question arises: is that even possible?

In fact, TikTok offers a video download feature. With this, new uploaded videos are au­to­mat­i­cal­ly saved on the smart­phone. Videos that have already been uploaded can be saved af­ter­wards.

If you want to save videos from other users, it depends on whether they allow the download. If so, you will find the “Save video” function in the menu of the video in question. If the function is not activated, you can forward the video via “Share video” as a file via e-mail or to your messenger, e.g. WhatsApp. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, third-party apps are available for down­load­ing online videos.

Step 4: Since probably many TikTokers have disabled the download function, you can cir­cum­nav­i­gate this. On the video page, tap the “Share” button. You can share the video and send it to your own email address or social media account, for example. If you share it via WhatsApp, for example, you will find it in your WhatsApp media library on your smart­phone. In this case, videos will be wa­ter­marked.

If they want to download TikTok videos, even then when account holders do not allow the download, third-party apps such as “Snaptik” or “Video Down­loader for TikTok - No Watermark” are available. With these, you use an ad­di­tion­al download button added by the TikTok video down­loader app. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, you can also copy video links into the app and save the video as a file.

Screen capture of TikTok videos: Whether in the emulator app, or the web version, an easy way to save TikTok videos is to capture a screen­shot in Windows 11 or take a screen­shot in Windows 10. Just play the video you want after the screen capture has started. Of course, you can also use mac screen record.

When asked whether TikTok video downloads are legal from a copyright per­spec­tive, there is a clear answer: it depends. For example, until 2020, TikTok was still offering back­ground music for which it had no user rights. In 2020, TikTok finally announced that it had signed multi-year copyright deals with in­ter­na­tion­al rights holders such as Universal Music Group, NMPA, and APRA AMCOS. Pre­vi­ous­ly, then, TikTok users were operating in a gray area of copyright in­fringe­ment, for which TikTok did not accept re­spon­si­bil­i­ty in its T&Cs. Due to the published deals, it can now at least be assumed that provided TikTok back­ground music does not violate copyright.

What about downloads? In the US, according to Article 17 of the Copyright Act, it can be argued that down­load­ing TikTok videos for private use may come under the Fair Use doctrine. However, it is a gray area as there is no clause for private copying within the Copyright Act. In 2021 efforts were made by the U.S. gov­ern­ment to ban the download of the TikTok app, this would have made it illegal to download the app. However, this was blocked, and the app is readily available to download.

Click here for important legal dis­claimers.