Published a post months ago and now need the original photo — only to find you've already deleted it from your phone? Here's how to recover and backup your own Xiaohongshu (RedNote) posts for free, in full original quality.
If you're a creator or social media manager on Xiaohongshu (RedNote), chances are you've hit this wall before: you published a post, didn't keep the original files, and now the source material is gone — lost to a phone upgrade, a storage cleanup, or a laptop swap.
It happens more often than you'd think. Here are a few common scenarios:
- Switched phones or computers — original photos and videos disappeared with the old device, and cloud backups don't have them either
- Repurposing content for other platforms — you need watermark-free originals, not compressed screenshots
- Building a portfolio for brand deals or freelance work — but you don't have HD versions of your own content
- Starting a new account after getting shadowbanned or rebranding — you want to migrate the visual assets from your old posts
On Xiaohongshu itself, the only option is long-pressing to save — which gives you a compressed, watermarked version that's far from the original file you uploaded.
Existing Methods to Recover Your Posts — And Their Limitations
When you search for "how to download my own Xiaohongshu posts," you'll usually come across these suggestions:
Check Your Camera Roll or Cloud Storage
If you have good backup habits, the originals might still be in iCloud, Google Photos, or another cloud service. But realistically, most people clear their gallery after posting — especially videos, which take up the most space and get deleted first.
Long-Press to Save in the App
This is the most intuitive option, but saved images come with Xiaohongshu's platform watermark and your user ID overlay. The resolution is also compressed. If you need these for a portfolio or cross-posting, the quality simply isn't usable.
Use an Online Watermark Remover
Copy your post link, paste it into an online tool, and download. It works sometimes, but the experience is inconsistent: parsing fails often, many sites only handle videos (not batch image downloads), and the output is usually re-compressed. If you have dozens or hundreds of old posts to recover, copying links one by one is painfully slow.
Extract Source Files Directly via Browser Extension
When Xiaohongshu displays content on its web version, the server returns the original HD file URLs. A browser extension can intercept and extract these source links directly — giving you the exact files stored on the platform's servers. No watermark, no compression, no re-encoding.
Step-by-Step: Backup Your Own Xiaohongshu (RedNote) Posts
Using MediaClaw as an example — its media download feature is completely free, unlimited, and requires no signup. The process is exactly the same whether you're downloading your own posts or someone else's — technically, the extension treats them identically. You can also download posts you've bookmarked.
Step 1: Install the Extension
Search for MediaClaw in the Chrome Web Store or Edge Add-ons, or go directly to the download page. Installation takes less than a minute.
Step 2: Open Your Post
Log into the Xiaohongshu web version on your computer, go to your profile, and click on the post you want to recover. You can also batch-collect all posts from your profile page, then selectively export the ones you need (e.g., your top-performing posts).
Step 3: Export All Media with One Click
Click the attachment export 📎 icon in the extension panel. The extension automatically detects and extracts the original file URLs for all images, videos, and cover photos in the current post, then batch-downloads them to your local drive.
Exported images are typically in WEBP or PNG format, videos in MP4. Files save directly to your browser's default download directory. Whether the post was published yesterday or a year ago — as long as it's still live on the platform, you can get the original HD files.
The entire process requires no link copying, no switching to another website. You can do it all while browsing your own profile.
