TikTok Crawling (yt-dlp)

TikTok Scraping with yt-dlp

yt-dlp is a CLI for downloading video/audio from TikTok and many other sites.

Setup

# macOS
brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg
pip (any platform)
pip install yt-dlp
Also install ffmpeg separately for merging/post-processing

Download Patterns

Single Video

yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle/video/1234567890"

Entire Profile

yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle" \
  -P "./tiktok/data" \
  -o "%(uploader)s/%(upload_date)s-%(id)s/video.%(ext)s" \
  --write-info-json

Creates:

tiktok/data/
  handle/
    20260220-7331234567890/
      video.mp4
      video.info.json

Multiple Profiles

for handle in handle1 handle2 handle3; do
  yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/@$handle" \
    -P "./tiktok/data" \
    -o "%(uploader)s/%(upload_date)s-%(id)s/video.%(ext)s" \
    --write-info-json \
    --download-archive "./tiktok/downloaded.txt"
done

Search, Hashtags & Sounds

# Search by keyword
yt-dlp "tiktoksearch:cooking recipes" --playlist-end 20
Hashtag page
yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/tag/booktok" --playlist-end 50
Videos using a specific sound
yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-1234567890" --playlist-end 30

Format Selection

# List available formats
yt-dlp -F "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle/video/1234567890"
Download specific format (e.g., best video without watermark if available)
yt-dlp -f "best" "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle/video/1234567890"

Filtering

By Date

# On or after a date
--dateafter 20260215
Before a date
--datebefore 20260220
Exact date
--date 20260215
Date range
--dateafter 20260210 --datebefore 20260220
Relative dates (macOS / Linux)
--dateafter "$(date -u -v-7d +%Y%m%d)"           # macOS: last 7 days
--dateafter "$(date -u -d '7 days ago' +%Y%m%d)" # Linux: last 7 days

By Metrics & Content

# 100k+ views
--match-filters "view_count >= 100000"
Duration between 30-60 seconds
--match-filters "duration >= 30 & duration <= 60"
Title contains "recipe" (case-insensitive)
--match-filters "title ~= (?i)recipe"
Combine: 50k+ views from Feb 2026
yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle" 

--match-filters "view_count >= 50000" 

--dateafter 20260201

Metadata Only (No Download)

Preview What Would Download

yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle" \
  --simulate \
  --print "%(upload_date)s | %(view_count)s views | %(title)s"

Export to JSON

# Single JSON array
yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle" --simulate --dump-json > handle_videos.json
JSONL (one object per line, better for large datasets)
yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle" --simulate -j > handle_videos.jsonl

Export to CSV

yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle" \
  --simulate \
  --print-to-file "%(uploader)s,%(id)s,%(upload_date)s,%(view_count)s,%(like_count)s,%(webpage_url)s" \
  "./tiktok/analysis/metadata.csv"

Analyze with jq

# Top 10 videos by views from downloaded .info.json files
jq -s 'sort_by(.view_count) | reverse | .[:10] | .[] | {title, view_count, url: .webpage_url}' \
  tiktok/data/*/*.info.json
Total views across all videos
jq -s 'map(.view_count) | add' tiktok/data//.info.json
Videos grouped by upload date
jq -s 'group_by(.upload_date) | map({date: .[0].upload_date, count: length})' 

tiktok/data//.info.json

Tip: For deeper analysis and visualization, load JSONL/CSV exports into Python with

pandas

. Useful for engagement scatter plots, posting frequency charts, or comparing metrics across creators.

Ongoing Scraping

Archive (Skip Already Downloaded)

The

--download-archive

yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle" \
  -P "./tiktok/data" \
  -o "%(uploader)s/%(upload_date)s-%(id)s/video.%(ext)s" \
  --write-info-json \
  --download-archive "./tiktok/downloaded.txt"

Run the same command later—it skips videos already in

downloaded.txt

Authentication (Private/Restricted Content)

# Use cookies from browser (recommended)
yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser chrome "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle"
Or export cookies to a file first
yt-dlp --cookies tiktok_cookies.txt "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle"

Scheduled Scraping (Cron)

# crontab -e
# Run daily at 2 AM, log output
0 2 * * * cd /path/to/project && ./scripts/scrape-tiktok.sh >> ./tiktok/logs/cron.log 2>&1

Example

scripts/scrape-tiktok.sh

#!/bin/bash
set -e
HANDLES="handle1 handle2 handle3"
DATA_DIR="./tiktok/data"
ARCHIVE="./tiktok/downloaded.txt"
for handle in $HANDLES; do
echo "[$(date)] Scraping @$handle"
yt-dlp "https://www.tiktok.com/@$handle" 

-P "$DATA_DIR" 

-o "%(uploader)s/%(upload_date)s-%(id)s/video.%(ext)s" 

--write-info-json 

--download-archive "$ARCHIVE" 

--cookies-from-browser chrome 

--dateafter "$(date -u -v-7d +%Y%m%d)" 

--sleep-interval 2 

--max-sleep-interval 5
done
echo "[$(date)] Done"

Troubleshooting

--cookies-from-browser chrome

--geo-bypass

-F

--concurrent-fragments 4

--playlist-end N

Debug Mode

# Verbose output to diagnose issues
yt-dlp -v "https://www.tiktok.com/@handle" 2>&1 | tee debug.log

Reference

Key Options

-o TEMPLATE

-P PATH

--dateafter DATE

--datebefore DATE

--playlist-end N

--match-filters EXPR

--write-info-json

--download-archive FILE

--simulate

-s

-j

--dump-json

--cookies-from-browser NAME

--sleep-interval SEC

Output Template Variables

%(id)s

7331234567890

%(uploader)s

handle

%(upload_date)s

20260215

%(title).50s

%(view_count)s

1500000

%(like_count)s

250000

%(ext)s

mp4

Full template reference →