How To Download A Video Off Of Youtube

There are billions of hours of video on YouTube. Literally. And that'southward hardly the most phenomenal statistic about the site, which has been the go-to destination for uploading and watching video since 2005. That said, sometimes, y'all actually desire or need to accept ane of those videos on your own figurer or phone. But when the topic of downloading YouTube videos comes upwardly, at that place's a side subject that must be broached: Is information technology legal?

On the copyright front, as long every bit you're downloading a video for your own personal offline use, y'all're probably okay. Information technology's more blackness and white when you consider Google's terms of service for YouTube, which read: "You lot are not allowed to...admission, reproduce, download, distribute, transmit, circulate, display, sell, license, modify, modify or otherwise employ any part of the Service or whatsoever Content except: (a) as expressly authorized by the Service; or (b) with prior written permission from YouTube and, if applicable, the corresponding rights holders."

Watching YouTube videos offline through unofficial channels takes money from Google and video creators. At that place'due south a reason YouTube runs ads: People make a living this way.

Obviously, stealing videos from YouTube is a big no-no. If you want to share a video, YouTube and virtually other video sites make it like shooting fish in a barrel, from embedding to emailing to sharing via social networks. You only do non need to download a video most of the time.

However, you have your reasons. If you must download a YouTube video—absolutely need to, simply for yourself, and not for dissemination, and not to exist a total douche-nozzle—here's how.

Notation: This story is updated frequently equally the tools involved modify regularly. Some of those changes are not e'er pleasant, such as software and so full of "extras," information technology gets flagged as malware by antivirus tools. The aforementioned goes for the helper websites—a change in a site's advertising network can besides create problems with malware.

To prevent this from becoming a laundry list of programs and sites that tin download YouTube videos, we came up with a few rules for inclusion. Services must:

Support 4K downloads even in the complimentary version.
Piece of work with tiptop 3 video sites:YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo.
Download unabridged playlists or channels in a batch (on YouTube), at least with a paid version.
Output to MP3 for sound (or offer companion software that does and then).
Take an interface thatdoesn't suck.
Non collect your personal data beyond your electronic mail address.
Not comprise malware. If there'south even a whiff of it in the air, fifty-fifty a PUP, it's out.

The programs, services, and sites in this story are all free of spam/virus/problems every bit of this writing, merely caveat emptor. Large time. Especially if you're not really emptor-ing.

YouTube Premium Downloads

Now bachelor for subscribers of YouTube Premium—the paid version of YouTube that allows you to watch without ads—are video downloads. Kind of. There'southward one caveat with quality: All the video y'all download is express to 1080p quality max, or lower. No 4K.

The biggest issue is, this feature doesn't really download a video to salve on your computer forever. It is more akin to the download characteristic establish on mobile apps for Netflix and Hulu, which makes a streaming video available to watch later using your local storage and views information technology using the app's interface only. This is not a method that allows y'all to, say, watch a video using different software such as the VLC Media Player.

You access the download by going to the YouTube hamburger bill of fare and selecting Downloads to view the listing of what you've grabbed. The folio says "Downloads remain available as long as your device has an active cyberspace connection at to the lowest degree once every thirty days." This probably isn't exactly what you are looking for in a download. Just the tools beneath deliver exactly that.

Desktop Software

Third-party software is where you lot volition get the best command over downloading online videos. Typically, you paste the URL for the YouTube video you lot desire into the program, and it downloads the highest quality version it can find. For videos in 1080p High Definition (HD) format, that'southward normally an MP4 file. For anything higher in quality—4K or 8K—the file format is typically MKV.

In the by, YouTube videos were Flash-based, then your download was an FLV file, but those tend to exist harder to play back. MP4 (short for MPEG-4 Office 14 multimedia format) plays everywhere

Note that the MKV file, likewise called a Matroska, is a container—the file could contain video utilizing any number of codecs inside. The fool-proof mode to play them all is to use the VLC Media Player for Windows, which plays everything. (Read more than about it beneath.) As for the downloaders, here are the all-time options.

VLC Media Actor

Costless; Windows, macOS, Linux

Nosotros mention VLC Media Player above because it's a fantastic tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux users that plays dorsum just virtually any media ever created. It too has the ability to download YouTube videos, admitting in a convoluted way. (If y'all encounter any problems, try a full re-install of VLC and clear your cache to arrive piece of work.)

Copy a URL from a YouTube video, and then open up VLC. From the Media menu, select Open Network Stream (Ctrl+N) and paste in the URL. Click Play. When the video is playing, go to Tools > Codec Information. There is a box at the bottom called "Source"—re-create the URL you find in that box.

Go back to your browser and paste the URL—it'south a temporary web address and volition elapse eventually—in the address bar and start playing the video. When you're viewing the video in the browser, click the three-dot menu at the lower right for the download option to go on it locally.

Even so, it appears that VLC is merely going to save your file as 1080p and not any higher, even if the original YouTube stream was available in 1440p or 2160p (aka 4K). It also won't convert video to other formats. To become those options, you need the desktop software beneath.

4K Video Downloader

Free or $fifteen for lifetime license on 3 computers; Windows, macOS, Ubuntu Linux, Android

Multi-lingual 4K Video Downloader (4KVD) is frequently updated and features clear download links on the program'southward website; no ad traps hither. The software does what it advertises in a unproblematic interface. It grabs videos up to 8K in quality and downloads to plenty of formats. Simply copy a YouTube URL and click the Paste Link button to get started. 4KVD volition even grab subtitles, entire playlists, and all the videos in a channel to which y'all subscribe. The sites supported are limited to the big names like YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and a few others, but that covers virtually of what you need. It does brandish a large banner advertisement to keep the lights on and you're express to 30 downloads a day on the free version.

I had to make a switch from MP4 to MKV format to get my examination video to download in 4K. 4KVD snagged the iii-minute, 229.7MB file for the picture trailer in near ane infinitesimal and 20 seconds. 4KVD defaults back to 1080p Hard disk, then I fabricated the same switch when downloading an Ultra Loftier Definition (8K) playlist.

If you enable the Smart Mode and its presets, 4KVD tin perform ane-click downloads to your favorite format. If you want to download more than 25 videos at a time or subscribe to YouTube channels to instantly download the latest, that requires the paid version. Playback of the resulting MKV files via VLC Media Player was flawless.

The program itself has an option to extract audio to MP3 format, so you don't fifty-fifty need the 4K YouTube to MP3 companion software.

VideoProc Converter

$59.90 for 1 year, $78.90 lifetime, $119.90 family (2-5 PCs); Windows, macOS

The powerful VideoProc from Digiarty comes in an editor edition and this converter, which also provides editing and effects. The downloading attribute is great, a version similar to Digiarty's WinX YouTube Downloader, which you tin yet detect just is not promoted by the company these days. This makes sense, as VideoProc Converter handles a lot of downloading, supposedly supporting 4K from over 1,000 websites. With hardware acceleration, it promises some speed. Thankfully, it frequently offers price discounts.

To use it, you open the software, let it discover your hardware to run across what you take to assist with acceleration (if anything). Click the Downloader button, click Add video to place as many URLs as you want to batch, so Download Now. Or you can get a whole YouTube playlist or live stream. It grabbed our 697MB test 4K video to WEBM format in about 2 minutes and fifteen seconds, which isn't bad. Best of all, the trial version of VideoProc Converter, which limits conversions to 5 minutes, doesn't appear to limit downloads.

FlixGrab

ane-twelvemonth license $44.99 plus tax (or $9.99 for Complimentary YouTube Download); Windows

Like some others, FlixGrab has several different programs available, many with overlapping features. For example, it has FlixGrabMS (a version you get from the Microsoft Shop to run on Windows 10/11)—simply it wouldn't let me grab video from YouTube. The straight download of the FlixGrab programme from the flixgrabapp.com site did work with YouTube and several other sites,. Plus information technology offers a Free YouTube Download that is specific to YouTube, all the same uses the aforementioned easy-to-use interface. The downside, equally with others, is the loftier subscription price, but information technology's the just way to get loftier-quality downloads. The YouTube-just version is substantially cheaper at $9.99 per twelvemonth, however. Neither comes with a trial menses.

5KPlayer

Free; Windows and macOS

The free 5KPlayer is a lot more than than a downloader, but it's got a heck of an integrated downloader. Promising no viruses, ads, or plug-in requirements is a good beginning. It is, sadly, one of the few tested that asks for a registration of your name and email—y'all have to practice that to get the full download function across 300+ sites. All the same, yous can withal nab 4K vids from YouTube without registering.

When downloading, the programme does effort to hibernate some things. Paste in the URL for a YouTube video and the analysis engine runs and shows only a few download options. Click the gear icon, then the Show All push button, and scroll to see more than—like a 4K iii,840-by-two,160 file in WebM format. The 227MB WebM test download took an agonizing 6.v minutes. Grabbing playlists was possible, but yous must adjust download settings ane video at a time. The confusing interface makes it hard to become back to the other videos in the playlist.

5K Histrion too features DLNA server playback so videos you grab can be watched on any devices that support DLNA, plus it supports AirPlay for quick playback to Apple tree devices. Selection a video in the library for quick conversion to MP4, MP3, or even ACC (the audio format preferred by iOS). The player didn't like playing back the overly large 4K file, though, and experienced buffering issues (VLC didn't take any problem with the same file).

Ultimately, at that place'south a lot to like about 5K Player, from the toll to the features, especially if you look at them equally extras on a downloader. But the bad interface, tiresome download speeds, and playback issues may take you lot looking elsewhere.

Helper Websites

Exercise y'all want to avoid installing software? Video download helper sites are supposed to practice the download work for you. All of them exercise one bones affair: You requite them a YouTube URL (or some other video site, if supported), they parse it, give y'all a selection of what size download you lot want, and provide a link to said download. They work on whatsoever platform, sometimes even on mobile devices. Y'all don't have to install anything on your PC. It tin accept a lot longer, depending on the size and quality of the video you want, only yous tin can't beat the convenience.

The problem is, you can't always trust them. There are hundreds of these types of sites out there—it seems anyone with a modicum of coding power has set ane up. Such sites easily go from useful to suspicious, especially if they become popular and the proprietor sells out to brand greenbacks off your visits.

Recommended past Our Editors

Since this story was commencement published, all the helper sites we recommended take been removed for reasons like adding sexually explicit ads, no longer working, switching to pushing its download utility simply, and one for going out of business organisation to avoid getting sued.

For that reason, we're not recommending any helper sites at the moment. Try one if y'all find it, but if your browser, antivirus, or instincts throw up warnings, avoid and motility on.

Extensions

A browser extension can save you lot a footstep. All the same, you're going to see some issues with downloading video from YouTube, especially if you're using Chrome every bit your chief browser.

The Chrome Web Store—where you get Chrome browser extensions—is controlled by YouTube's owner Alphabet/Google. Even an extension ostensibly for this purpose isn't going to allow YouTube direct downloads, because of Chrome Store restrictions. In general, with Chrome extensions, the download of any RTMP protocol video (protected videos) or streaming video isn't possible. Y'all tin can use them on other sites with video, of course. Just not YouTube.

Want to get effectually it? Go an extension that does not come from the Google Spider web Shop. Some of the programs and helper sites offer an extension component and will spell out how to do the install without the assistance the Chrome Web Store usually provides. Here are a couple.

YouTube Video Downloader

Free; Chrome, Opera, Border, Vivaldi, UCBrowser

YouTube Video Downloader from Addoncrop is on multiple browsers only with excellent side-load capabilities. It puts a button below whatever video you're playing on YouTube, or even an embedded YouTube video, making information technology easy to grab. Supported video quality goes upwardly to 8K. You can too catechumen sound from the video to an MP3. It volition even assistance you have video screenshots.

Video DownloadHelper

Free; Firefox, Chrome, Edge

Video DownloadHelper supports a huge number of sites—even those for adults. Yous'll know a video is downloadable when the icon for the extension animates when yous're on the web page. Video DownloadHelper for Chrome has stopped working with YouTube; that way, it could get placement in the Chrome Spider web Store. Get around that by using the Video DownloadHelper extension on Firefox or Edge instead.

Mobile

Downloading from YouTube using an Android app from the Google Play Store is a challenge, given that Google has a tight grip on the site it owns, and offers the paid YouTube Premium service that supports offline viewing.

That said, with Android, itis possible to install apps without going through Google. For example, InsTube – Free Video and Music Downloader for Android can only be institute at InsTube'due south site. Download the APK (Android awarding bundle) file to sideload on an Android device. Detect it in your device'south downloads and click to install. (You may have to get into your security settings and enable "Unknown sources.")

On iPhones and iPads, you'd think at that place would be no such restriction since Apple tree and Google aren't exactly the best of pals (or perhaps they are). Yet, on the iOS apps I accept tried, not only wouldn't they download from YouTube, only they're also typically not available for long. One of those apps said in its clarification, "Downloading from YouTube is prohibited due to its Terms of Service." Apple tree is ensuring that app makers play by the rules—even Google's rules.

Chances are, the infinitesimal yous notice an iOS app that tin can download YouTube videos, information technology will go "stock-still" or banned. The only real option is to jailbreak your iPhone and use sideloaded apps that download what you want.

There are workarounds. One is to subscribe to YouTube Premium; it lets you download video on your iPhone or iPad to watch later, much as Netflix and Hulu do.

Another is using a free iOS file director app similar Documents by Readdle. Use the Safari browser to visit a YouTube video, and employ the Share option to find Copy Link. Then go back to Documents, and apply the built-in browser in the app to surf to a video download helper site. Paste the link into the course (concur your finger down on it until you get the "Paste" menu to pop up). The site will give yous the links to download, and you can save the file to Documents. Hold and drag the file up, until y'all're back on the main screen, then drag it to the Photos binder. You lot'll need to give Documents permission to access Photos the first time. You lot can and then admission the video like yous would whatever video taken on the phone or tablet—in the Photos app.

Another workaround: Go back to the desktop and endeavor AnyTrans ($39.99 for a single figurer for one yr, Windows or macOS; $59.99 lifetime plan), a desktop file manager for iOS devices that has an integrated downloader supporting 900 sites, including YouTube and Facebook. It'll transfer the videos to the iPhone for you over the USB cablevision. Even if you don't pay for AnyTrans, the download option remains and is free forever.

YT Scribe

Want a truly unique way to "download" a video? YT Scribe lets y'all grab the transcription so y'all can read them instead. It auto-transcribes, punctuates, and paragraphs the text. The better the subtitles, the better the "article," of course. Best of all, it's totally costless.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-download-youtube-videos

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