How to download your TikTok video viewing history

I have a very bad habit of accidentally touching my phone screen, which often results in the book I'm reading going forward or back a page or quitting the YouTube video I'm watching - or go to a different TikTok video than this one I was just enjoying. Also, if I have to take a phone call or respond to a Slack message, I can lose track of where I was.

Usually it's a simple fix:I can just go back to the previous page of the book or check my YouTube history. But unfortunately, it's not that easy with TikTok, which doesn't have an easy way to check the history of the videos you've watched.

For example, the day I started writing this, I accidentally deleted videos that I watched at least twice and couldn't get back to them immediately. And because I couldn't remember the name of the creator, I was basically sunk.

What to do?

Well, if I had been smart enough to "like" the video - or follow the creator - it would have been easy :

• Tap the "Me" icon in the lower right corner.
• If you "liked" the video, tap the heart icon under your profile to see thumbnails of all the videos you liked.
• If you follow the creator, tap the "Follow" link just below your username to see a list of all the creators you follow. Then tap that person to see thumbnails of all their videos.

However, if you haven't liked the video yet or aren't following that creator – which I often do – then the best way to find your viewing history is to download it .

• Go to your profile page (by tapping the "Me" icon in the bottom right) and tap the three lines in the top right corner.
• Select "Privacy"> "Personalization and data"> "Download your data"
• Under the "Request Data" tab, select whether you want to download your data as a TXT or JSON file, then press "Process Request"

And wait. Unfortunately, this is not a quick process; it may take at least 24 hours, or even longer, for your data to be available. Until then, if you go to the "Download Data" tab, you will see a grayed out "Pending" button.

It took me about three days before I saw the red "Download" button appear under the "Download Data" tab. This took me to the web version of TikTok, where I had to log back in and was eventually able to download a zipped file of my data. When I unzipped the file, I went to the Activity folder, where I found text files for favorite effects, favorite sounds, etc., and a file called "Video Navigation". This is where I finally found a list of dates and URLs for the videos I was watching.

Once your data is available, you can download it for up to four days. By the time you finally get it, of course, you might have completely forgotten which video you wanted to come back to or why. But it doesn't hurt to have a record of all the videos you've watched – and you might be surprised how many there are.

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