What Does It Mean to Save a TikTok Post?
Saving a TikTok post means downloading the video from the TikTok app to your device’s camera roll or gallery. When you save a TikTok post, you are creating a copy of that video that is stored locally on your phone or tablet, rather than just existing within the TikTok app.
Specifically, saving a TikTok post will download the video file to your camera roll or gallery app, where you can then access it even when you don’t have internet access or the TikTok app open. This lets you preserve TikTok videos you want to keep and ensures you’ll still have them even if the original gets deleted from TikTok.
Why You Might Want to Save a TikTok
There are several reasons why you may want to save a TikTok post:
To share offline. If you want to show a funny or interesting TikTok video to someone later when you don’t have an internet connection, saving the video allows you to access it offline.
To reference later. You may want to save a useful or informative TikTok to refer back to later. Saving videos makes them easy to find again when you need them.
To prevent disappearing. TikTok videos can be deleted by the creator at any time. Saving a post you want to keep ensures you’ll still have access to it if it gets removed from TikTok down the line.
According to an article on Quora, people share TikTok videos on other platforms for entertainment and to show others funny or engaging content (source).
How to Save a TikTok Post
Saving a TikTok post to your device is easy to do right within the TikTok app. Here are the steps:
- Open the TikTok app and navigate to the post you want to save. Tap on the post to open it.
- Once the post is open, tap on the Share arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen.
- A menu will pop up. Select “Save video” to save the post to your device’s camera roll or gallery app.
Once you tap “Save video”, the post will begin downloading. You’ll then be able to find it in your phone’s gallery or photos app. The original audio and any text overlays will be saved along with the video.
Saving a TikTok post is as simple as tapping that Share arrow and selecting “Save video”. You can then quickly preserve memorable, funny, or informative TikTok videos to rewatch later without the TikTok app.
Saving Posts from Your Profile
To save a video post that you created and uploaded to your own TikTok profile, follow these steps:
- Open the TikTok app and go to your profile page.
- Tap on the video you want to save to open it.
- Tap the 3 dot icon in the bottom right corner of the video.
- A menu will pop up – tap “Save video” to save it to your device’s camera roll.
- You can access your saved TikTok videos in your phone’s photo gallery app.
Saving your own videos is a great way to have an offline copy or to share them outside of TikTok. The “Save video” option is only available for videos you have posted yourself.
Some key details according to TikTok’s help pages:
Saving Posts from Other Profiles
If you want to save a video from someone else’s TikTok profile, the process is slightly different but still straightforward. Here are the steps:
1. Navigate to the video on the profile you want to save from. Tap on the video to open it.
2. Once the video opens, press and hold anywhere on the video for 2-3 seconds. This will open a menu.
3. On the menu that pops up, tap “Save video.” This will save the video directly to your camera roll.
According to TikTok’s help center, this press and hold method is currently the only way to save someone else’s video on the app. The “Save video” option allows you to download videos you don’t own, as long as they are not private videos or copyrighted content.
Source: https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/exploring-videos/video-downloads
Where Saved TikTok Videos are Stored
When you save a TikTok video, it gets stored in the camera roll or gallery on your device. This allows easy access to view your saved videos later. On an iPhone, saved TikToks will appear in your Photos app mixed in with all your other photos and videos. For Android devices, the videos will be found in your Gallery or My Files app.
You can also choose to have TikToks saved to a specific album or folder on your device. When saving a video, select the “Save to Album” option and choose which album to save it to. This helps keep your saved videos organized and separate from other media.
The key thing to know is that saving a TikTok post stores it locally on your device’s storage in a camera roll or media folder. The videos are not stored within the TikTok app itself or associated with your account. So if you delete the TikTok app, your saved posts will not be deleted since they live independently on your device’s local storage.
Source: https://www.remote.tools/tiktok/find-saved-video-tiktok
Limits on How Many Videos You Can Save
Contrary to what some users may think, TikTok does not enforce any limits on how many videos you can save to your device. This means there is no cap set by TikTok on the total number of videos you can download and keep.
You are free to save as many TikTok videos as you want. The only potential limits are based on the storage capacity of your device. For example, if you are saving TikTok videos to your phone’s local storage, you may eventually run out of free space. But TikTok itself does not restrict users to saving a certain number of posts.
Some social media platforms do set limits on how much content you can download over a certain time period. However, TikTok does not currently have any such restrictions. You can download as many videos as you want at any time without hitting a save limit.
So feel free to save any TikTok videos that you want to keep and rewatch later. Just be mindful of your device’s storage capacity. But otherwise, there is no cap enforced by TikTok on how many videos you are allowed to save.
Do TikTok Posts Expire After Being Saved?
No, saving a TikTok post prevents it from expiring. When you save a post on TikTok, whether it’s your own post or someone else’s, it will remain accessible in your “Saved” section indefinitely, until you choose to remove it.
This differs from TikTok Stories, which automatically expire after 24 hours, even if you save them. But standard TikTok posts that you save will not expire over time. You can return to view your saved posts as much as you want.
According to this Reddit thread, saved videos and collections remain available even if you delete and re-download the TikTok app: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiktokhelp/comments/13k8w6b/what_happens_to_saved_videoscollections_when_you/
So saving a post is an effective way to prevent it from expiring if you want to be able to view it again later. TikTok does not impose an expiration date on saved posts.
Private and Copyrighted Content Restrictions
TikTok places certain restrictions around saving private videos or videos that contain copyrighted music. According to TikTok’s help center, users have the option to make their videos private so that only they can view them. Private videos cannot be saved by other users.
Additionally, TikTok states in their Restricted Mode guidelines that copyrighted music is filtered out. Users are unable to save TikTok videos that contain copyrighted music without permission from the rights holders.
Essentially, if a video is either private or contains unauthorized copyrighted music, other users are restricted from saving that content to their device or TikTok profile.
Other Ways to Preserve TikTok Posts
In addition to saving TikTok posts directly within the app, there are a couple other methods you can use to download and preserve TikTok videos:
Screen recording is one option. You can use the built-in screen recording feature on iOS or Android to capture a TikTok video as you play it. This will give you a copy of the video without a watermark that you can save to your camera roll. Just make sure to respect any copyrights and obtain permission when re-sharing.
There are also third-party websites and apps that allow you to enter the URL of a TikTok post to download the video. However, be cautious using third-party services, as some may have malware or try to collect your data. Only use reputable services that are secure and respect copyright.
While downloading from outside sources can work, the best way to reliably save TikTok videos is through the app itself, where you can store drafts or downloads without watermarks or quality loss.
