To be honest, I cried a lot this week thinking about losing TikTok. True, there are many more real life people I have interfaced with Meta platforms because of the legacy of those social networks; I’ve had Facebook since college and Instagram because it’s iOS only—I switched from Android to an iPhone 4S one summer because I wanted access to that app. WhatsApp allows me to keep in touch with anyone from another part of the world. But TikTok is a community I check out when I have time to lock in the algorithm.

TikTok is how I stay connected to international communities when I can’t go in person, to continents I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to visit. That’s where I was adopted by Gen Zers when I became hyper-fixated on Joost Klein. This is where I started to piece together why people thought I had ADHD for so long, and everything I learned on TikTok was enough to make me go to my doctor and say, “I think this is what’s going on after all.” of all.” During this latest wildfire disasterthat happened in the southern half of my country, TikTok allowed me to monitor which communities were affected and where I could donate money and supplies to help the victims.

Reader, it’s me WOE. I didn’t fully accept that TikTok would go the way of the Dodo-in the US, as happened in Russia a few years ago-and I kept logging in and hoping for a miracle. But I also face the reality that I don’t know what will happen January 19. So, like every time a company announces their website or social network is out, I try to back up my TikTok data. And we all do it now.

How to backup your TikTok data

A few nights ago, I checked the TikTok account settings to see if I could download my data. It looks like the only way to do this is through the mobile app, as I can’t replicate this next set of instructions on the web app. In the TikTok app, go to your profile page and tap the button to bring up the Settings and Privacy menu. Tap there, then select Account. Scroll down to where it says you can Download your data.

You must request a dump of your data before it can be downloaded. This process takes a few hours, and TikTok will offer a TXT or JSON file of your data to download from the same window. The package is available within four days from the time you request it.

I download my data in two formats. A ton of stuff can be exported, like the names of the accounts I follow, which helps me find them elsewhere, the comments I leave on other people’s pages, and direct messages. Shamefully, TikTok also enshrines data on my TikTok Shopping habits and the number of vouchers I haven’t used.

I don’t know what to do with the JSON file. Lifehacker suggests using the file with third-party apps to extract specific data and export it elsewhere. There is one GitHub Assistant you can tinker with the JSON file and export the videos as you choose. But all of this flies over my head as I try to multitask the other five things I should be doing.

If you’re like me and want to pay to make sure all your personal TikTok videos are downloaded locally, you can use a service like TokBackup to do the work. It’s a minimum $5/month transaction to get up to 6,000 of the videos, and that’s after a full scan of your account. TokBackup is still scanning my profile, so I can’t report on its efficiency in saving videos yet. The popular consensus seems to be that the easiest way to back up the TikTok videos you post is to save them to each other. I hope this TokBackup works because I don’t have time this week!

Suppose you want to save all your favorite TikTok videos before deleting the app, like Alderaan in Star Wars: A New Hope. This neat Chrome extension it will do it for you in the background. I had about 650 videos that needed to be downloaded, but I only made it to 145 before I closed the screen to stop it. After our chat here, I will come back to save every video I love on the TikTok platform.

Where to go next?

I think people will go RedNote to find their community on the Chinese version of TikTok. I haven’t jumped ship yet, but that’s because I’m not too keen on the idea of ​​translating every conversation between English and Mandarin. Some people simply resign themselves to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, even if no one ever makes the jump. The community is still hoping for a last-minute agenda change before abandoning the platform.

Alternatives to TikTok that have emerged recently have changed so much that it is hard to say whether they will offer the same magic that TikTok does. Apps like Byte and Lemon8(Android, iOS), owned by Tiktok’s parent company, can be places to try if Meta platforms aren’t your cup of tea. There is also Trillsalthough I hesitate to suggest you go there because it’s where the TikTok haters congregate since 2020.