How to Export TikTok Data

Ever wondered what data TikTok has on your activity, or wished you could get a complete list of all the comments you've ever left? You can, and getting this data dump is simpler than you think. This guide breaks down exactly how to export your personal TikTok data, step-by-step. We'll also cover how marketers and creators can gather performance analytics to build a more powerful content strategy.

Why Bother Exporting Your TikTok Data?

Before jumping into the “how,” it’s worth understanding the “why.” Downloading your data serves different purposes depending on whether you're a casual user or a serious creator. For a personal user, it’s mostly about transparency and having a backup of your personal digital history. For creators, it's about unlocking deeper insights that the native app doesn't always make easy to see.

For Personal Users

• Privacy and Transparency: See exactly what information TikTok stores about you, from your login history to your ad personalization settings. It’s a great way to understand your digital footprint on the platform.
• Create a Backup: Your data file includes your entire comment history, direct messages, and a list of your favorite videos, sounds, and effects. If you ever lose access to your account, you’ll have a text-based record of your interactions.
• Build a Digital Scrapbook: Think of it as a journal of your time on TikTok. You can look back at conversations, find an old video you liked months ago, or rediscover sounds you've long forgotten.

For Creators and Marketers

• Deeper Performance Analysis: While TikTok's native analytics are good, they can be restrictive. Exporting your data allows you to pull numbers into spreadsheets where you can sort, filter, and cross-reference metrics to spot trends you might otherwise miss.
• Granular Content Strategy: By analyzing your video data over time, you can pinpoint exactly what types of content, sounds, or formats resulted in the highest engagement. Which video from six months ago had the best view duration, and why? Your raw data can help answer that.
• Custom Reporting: Taking screenshots of the analytics dashboard often doesn't cut it for clients or stakeholders. Compiling your performance data into a clean spreadsheet or building custom charts gives your reports a much more professional and detailed look.

How to Download Your Personal Data from TikTok (The Official Way)

TikTok is required by data privacy laws like GDPR to provide users with a way to download their personal information. This process gathers all your activity data - comments, messages, login info, and more - into a single downloadable file. It's a fantastic feature for record-keeping and understanding your own usage patterns. Be aware, this doesn't export your analytics - we’ll cover that next - but it’s the official method for getting a copy of your personal information.

Step-by-Step Guide to Requesting Your Data

The process is straightforward and done entirely within the TikTok app. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Open the TikTok App and Go to Your Profile: On the main screen, tap the "Profile" icon in the bottom-right corner.
2. Access 'Settings and Privacy': From your profile page, tap the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner to open the menu. Select "Settings and privacy."
3. Navigate to 'Account': This is usually the first option at the top of the Settings and privacy menu. Tap on "Account."
4. Find and Select 'Download Your Data': In the account section, you'll see an option labeled "Download your data." Tap on it to begin the process.
5. Request Your Data File: You’ll be on the "Request data" tab. Here, you get to choose a file format:
   • TXT: A human-readable text file. If you just want to browse your data yourself, this is the easiest option.
   • JSON: A structured format that’s easier for machines and software applications to read. Choose this if you're a developer or plan to import the data into another program for analysis.
   For most people, TXT is the best choice. After selecting your format, tap the red "Request data" button at the bottom.
6. Wait for Your File to Process: This isn't instant. TikTok needs time to compile all your information, which can take a few days. The app will show your request under the "Pending" section in the "Download data" tab. You'll get an in-app notification when your file is ready.
7. Download Your File: Once your file is ready, return to Settings and privacy > Account > Download your data and switch to the "Download data" tab. You'll see your file there. Tap "Download" to save the ZIP file to your device. IMPORTANT: The file is only available for about four days after it’s ready, so be sure to download it quickly!

What's Inside Your TikTok Data Export?

So you've downloaded the ZIP file and opened it up. What will you find? TikTok organizes your data into a series of folders and text files. It might seem a little overwhelming initially, but it’s pretty logically structured. Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect to find.

Key Folders and Files Explained

• Activity: This is where most of the interesting stuff lives. Inside, you'll find separate files for your browse history, comment history, direct messages (Chat History), favorite videos, hashtags you've followed, videos you've liked, and even what you've searched for. It’s a very complete log of how you’ve interacted with content on the platform.
• Profile: This folder contains your basic profile information, including your username, bio history, your contact information, and a log of profile changes.
• Video: Curiously, this section doesn't contain your actual video files. Instead, it provides a text log of videos you've posted, including captions, dates, and other metadata. It also contains logs of your LIVE activity and Tipping history.
• Settings: This section lets you review your privacy and ad settings. You can see how TikTok personalizes ads based on your data and review your notification settings.
• Ads and business: Here you can browse data that informs the ads that TikTok shows you.

Again, this export is a record of your activity, not a backup of your media. Your video files themselves are not included, nor are your drafts. This data dump is designed for transparency, not for creating a complete archive of your created content.

Exporting Performance Analytics: The Professional Approach

If you're a content creator or social media manager, the personal data download is interesting, but it isn’t what you need for performance tracking. You need hard numbers: views, engagement rates, follower growth, watch times, and traffic sources. Unfortunately, TikTok doesn't currently offer a simple "Export to CSV" button within its analytics dashboard. This is a common frustration, but there are effective ways to gather this data for analysis and reporting.

First, Switch to a Pro or Business Account

If you haven't already, you need to switch your account to a free Business or Creator account to access analytics. This unlocks the data dashboard you'll be pulling from. You can do this by going to Settings and privacy > Account > Switch to Business Account. It's free and only takes a second.

Once you’re set up, you can find your analytics by going to your Profile > Menu > Creator Tools (or Business Suite) > Analytics.

The Manual (But Effective) Reporting Method

Since there’s no official export button, the most reliable way to get your detailed video analytics is to access TikTok on a desktop browser and manually compile the data into a spreadsheet. It takes a little setup, but once you have a template, it becomes a simple weekly or monthly task.

Step-by-Step Guide for Manual Export:

1. Go to TikTok on Desktop: Open a web browser on your computer and go to TikTok.com. Log into your account.
2. Access Your Analytics Dashboard: Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner and select "View Analytics." The desktop dashboard is far more detailed than the one in the mobile app, providing a much clearer view of your data.
3. Set Up Your Spreadsheet: Open Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Create a new sheet and set up columns for the key metrics you want to track for each video. A good starting template would include:
   • Video Link
   • Publish Date
   • Views (Total)
   • Likes
   • Comments
   • Shares
   • Saves
   • Average Watch Time
   • Watched Full Video (%)
   • Reached Audience
4. Gather the Data: In your TikTok desktop analytics, navigate to the "Content" tab. Here you will see your most popular videos from the last 7 days. You can click on any video to see its detailed analytics. Go through each video you want to track, find the corresponding metrics on the TikTok dashboard, and manually enter them into your spreadsheet.

Yes, it's a bit tedious. But this manual method gives you complete control over your reporting. You can create charts, calculate averages (like average engagement rate per 1,000 views), and identify your top-performing content with much more precision than by just glancing at the in-app dashboard. Making this a regular part of your workflow is the secret to building a data-driven content strategy.

Final Thoughts

Exporting your TikTok data gives you a complete record of your personal activity for your private archives and is the foundation for creating a powerful analytics report. While the direct download is geared towards privacy and transparency, manually compiling your performance data from the desktop dashboard allows you to take full control of your content strategy and turn raw numbers into actionable insights.

We know that manually copying and pasting metrics into a spreadsheet is a frustrating workaround for what should be a simple task. At Postbase, we built our tool because we were tired of wrestling with platform limitations for core functions like reporting. We pull your performance data across all platforms, including TikTok, into one clean dashboard, letting you track what's working and export detailed CSV or PDF reports without the hassle, so you can spend less time on data entry and more on creating great content that your audience loves.