How to download YouTube videos 2022

by
Spread the love

YouTubers upload hundreds upon hours of footage each minute. But what if you wish to download it? You might be told that this is a bad idea in some circles. But you can still use it. Here’s how.

YouTube has billions upon billions of hours worth of video. Literally. This is not the most remarkable statistic about the site. It has been the number one destination for watching and uploading video since 2005. Sometimes you may need or want one of these videos on your computer or smartphone. When the topic of downloading YouTube videos is brought up, it’s important to address a side issue: Is it illegal?

You’re likely fine as long as the video is being downloaded for your personal offline use. It is more complicated when you look at Google’s Terms of Service for YouTube . They state that “You are not permitted to access, reproduce, download and distribute, transmit, broadcast and display, sell or modify any part of YouTube or any Content except (a) as explicitly authorized by YouTube or (b), with prior written permission of YouTube and the respective rights holders.”

YouTube video creators and Google pay money to watch YouTube videos offline via unofficial channels. YouTube makes money by running ads.

It is forbidden to steal videos from YouTube. YouTube and other video sites make sharing videos easy. You can embed, email, or share the video via social media. A majority of videos are available online, so you don’t need to download them.

You have your reasons. If you must download a YouTube video–absolutely need to, just for yourself, and not for dissemination, and not to be a total douche-nozzle–here’s how.

Note: This story is updated frequently as the tools involved change regularly. Some of those changes are not always pleasant, such as software so full of “extras,” it gets flagged as malware by antivirus tools . The same goes for the helper websites—a change in a site’s ad network can also create issues with malware .

We have a few guidelines to prevent it from becoming a list of sites and programs that can download YouTube videos. Services must be:

  • Support 4K downloads even with the free version
  • You can work with the top three video sites: YouTube and Facebook.
  • Download complete playlists or channels in one batch (on YouTube), minimum with a paid edition.
  • Output MP3 for audio (or provide companion software that does this).
  • An interface that doesn’t sucking.
  • Do not collect personal data other than your email address.
  • Not contain malware. It’s possible to smell it, even in a PUP.

This story’s programs, services and sites are all free from spam/virus/problems at the time of writing. But caveat emptor. Big time. Even if you aren’t really emptyor-ing.

YouTube Premium Downloads

Subscribers of YouTube Premium – the paid version of YouTube which allows you to view videos without ads – now have access to video downloads. It’s kind of. One caveat about quality: The video you download must be at least 1080p. No 4K.

download

This feature doesn’t download a video to save forever. This is similar to Hulu and Netflix’s download feature on mobile apps. It makes streaming videos available for later viewing using your local storage. You can only view them through the app’s interface. This does not allow you to watch the video with different software, such as VLC Media Player.

To download the file, go to YouTube’s hamburger menu and select Downloads to view the list. According to the page, “Downloads are available for as long as you have an active internet connection at minimum once per 30 days.” This may not be what you’re looking for in a downloaded file. The tools below provide exactly that.

Desktop Software

You will have the most control over downloading online video using third-party software. The program will download the highest quality version of the YouTube video URL you have entered. The MP4 file is used for videos in 1080p HD (HD) format. The file format for anything higher quality, such as 4K or 8K, is usually MKV.

YouTube videos used Flash in the past. Your download was an FLV file. However, these files are more difficult to play back. MP4 is short for MPEG-4 part 14 multimedia format. It can be played everywhere.

The MKV file (also known as a Matroska) is a container. It could contain video using any number of codecs. VLC Media Player for Windows is the best way to play them all. You can read more about it here. Here are the top downloaders.

VLC Media Player

Free; Windows, macOS, Linux

VLC Media Player is a great tool for Windows, Mac and Linux that can play back almost any media ever made. You can also download YouTube videos from it, though this is a complicated process. If you have any issues, you can try a complete reinstall of VLC. Clear your cache and restart the program.

You can copy a URL from YouTube and then open VLC. Select Open Network stream (Ctrl+N), and then copy the URL. Click Play. Go to Tools > Codec Information once the video has started. You will see a box called “Source” at the bottom. Copy the URL in that box.

Now, go back to your browser. Copy the URL (it’s temporary and will expire eventually) in the address bar. Then you can start the video. Click the 3-dot menu in the lower right to download the video.

VLC will save your file at 1080p, and not higher, regardless of whether the original YouTube stream was in 1440p, 2160p, or 4K. VLC won’t also convert video to any other formats. The desktop software below will allow you to access these options.

4K Video Downloader

Get a lifetime license for or just $15

Multi-lingual 4K Video Downloader (4KVD). is regularly updated and has clear download links. There are no ad traps. It does exactly what it says in a simple interface. It can download videos in many formats and grabs videos up 8K in quality. To get started, simply copy the YouTube URL and then click on the Paste Link button. 4KVD can even extract subtitles, playlists, and all videos from any channel you subscribe to. Although YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook are the only sites that are supported, this covers most of your needs. The banner advertising is there to keep the lights on. You can only download 30 times per day with the free version.

To get my 4K test video, I had to switch from MP4 format to MKV format. 4KVD grabbed the 3 minute, 229.7MB movie trailer file in just 1 minute and 20 seconds. 4KVD defaults to 1080p HD so I did the same thing when downloading an Ultra High Definition (8K), playlist.

4KVD will perform one-click downloads of your preferred format if you enable Smart Mode and its presets. The paid version is required to be able to download more videos at once or subscribe to YouTube channels in order to receive the latest. The MKV files were played flawlessly via VLC Media Player.

You don’t need the 4K YouTube MP3 companion program. The program can extract audio from MP3 format.

VideoProc Converter

$59.90 per year, $78.90 lifetime, $119.90 families (2-5 PCs); Windows; macOSVideoProc Converter

Digiarty’s powerful VideoProc comes in an editor edition as well as this Converter. This allows for editing and effects. Digiarty’s WinX YouTube downloader is a great option for downloading. VideoProc Converter supports 4K downloads from more than 1,000 websites, which makes sense. It promises speed with hardware acceleration. It often offers discounts on price.

Open the program and let it detect your hardware. If necessary, it will show you how acceleration can be improved. Click the Downloader button and click Add video. You can place as many URLs in a batch as you like, then Download now. You can also download a YouTube playlist or stream. It downloaded our 697MB test 4K video format in just 2 minutes and 15 seconds. That’s not bad. The best part is that the VideoProc Converter trial, which limits conversions time to five minutes, does not appear to limit downloads.

FlixGrab

1 year license $44.99 plus tax (or $9.99 to get a free YouTube download); WindowsFlixGrab

FlixGrab is a similar program to others. Many of the features overlap. It has FlixGrabMS, which you can get from the Microsoft Store for Windows 10/11. However, it won’t allow me to grab YouTube video. FlixGrab was able to download directly from the flixgrabapp.com website. It also worked with YouTube and other sites. It also offers a YouTube Download which is specifically for YouTube but uses the same user-friendly interface. Although it has its downsides, such as others, it is the best way to obtain high-quality downloads. However, the YouTube-only version costs $9.99 per annum. Both versions come with a trial period.

5KPlayer

Free Windows and macOS

The 5KPlayer free downloader is more than just a downloader. It also has an integrated downloader. It promises no viruses, ads or plug-ins. Unfortunately, it is one of the few that requires you to register your name and email to access the full download function on 300+ sites. You can still download 4K videos from YouTube by not registering.

The program will try to hide certain things when you download. The URL of a YouTube video can be pasted into the analysis engine. It will only show a few options for downloading. Scroll down to view more, such as a 4K file in WebM format, 3,840 by-2,160. It took 6.5 minutes to download the 227MB WebM test file. You can grab playlists, but you need to adjust the download settings for each video individually. It is difficult to navigate back to other playlist videos due to the confusing interface.

5K Player supports DLNA server playback, so you can watch videos on any device that supports DLNA. It also supports AirPlay for fast playback to Apple devices. You can quickly convert any video from the library to MP4, MP3, MP3, or ACC (the preferred audio format by iOS). However, the player had trouble playing the 4K file and had buffering problems. VLC did not have any issues with the same file.

Overall, 5K Player has a lot to love, including the price and the features. You might consider looking elsewhere because of the poor interface, slow download speeds and playback problems.

Helper Websites

Are you looking to avoid installing any software? These video download assistance sites will do all the downloading work for you. They all do the same thing. You provide them with a YouTube URL or another video site if it is supported. Then they parse that URL and give you a choice about how big you would like to download. Finally, they will give you a link to the downloaded file. They can be used on any platform and sometimes on mobile devices. It doesn’t require you to install anything on your computer. You can expect it to take longer depending on how large and detailed the video is, but the convenience is worth it.

You can’t always trust these sites. These sites are numerous and can be found on the Internet. Anyone with any programming skills will have one. These sites can quickly become suspicious and even dangerous, especially when they are popular enough that the owner sells them to make a profit.

All the helper websites we recommended were removed from this story. They are no longer available for sexually explicit ads, not working anymore, switching to pushing their download utility only and one to go out of business in order to avoid being sued.

We are not currently recommending any helper websites. If you do find one, go ahead and try it. However, if your browser, antivirus or intuitions give up warnings, move on.

Extensions

An extension for your browser can help you save a step. You might have problems downloading YouTube video, especially if Chrome is your primary browser.

YouTube’s owner Alphabet/Google controls the Chrome Web Store, where you can get Chrome browser extensions. Chrome Store restrictions mean that even extensions intended for this purpose won’t allow direct YouTube downloads. Chrome extensions don’t allow the downloading of protected RTMP video or streaming video. They can be used on other websites with video, however. YouTube is not an option.

You can get around it. You can get an extension that does and notcome directly from Google Web Store. Many programs and other helper websites offer extensions that will show you how to install without the help of the Chrome Web Store. These are just a few.

YouTube Video Downloader

Free; Chrome, Opera, Edge, Vivaldi, UCBrowserYouTube Video Downloader

YouTube Video Downloader by Addoncrop works on many browsers, but has great side-loading capabilities . It places a button under any YouTube video or embedded YouTube video. This makes it easy to grab. The supported video quality can reach 8K. Audio from the video can be converted to MP3. You can even take video screenshots.

Video DownloadHelper

Free Firefox, Chrome, Edge

Video downloadHelper supports many sites, even those for adults. The extension icon will animate when you visit a web page and indicate that a video has been made available for download. Video DownloadHelper Chrome is no longer compatible with YouTube. This allows it to be placed in the Chrome Web Store. You can get around this by installing the Video DownloadHelper extension for Firefox or Edge.

Mobile

Google Play Store Android apps can be difficult to download from YouTube. Google controls the site and offers the YouTube Premium paid service that allows offline viewing.

It is possible with Android to install apps without having to go through Google. InsTube is the only place to find InsTube, a free video and music downloader for Android. To sideload the APK file on your Android device, download it. Locate it in your device’s downloads, and then click install. You may need to change your security settings to enable “Unknown sources.”

You’d expect no such restrictions on iPhones or iPads since Apple and Google don’t seem to be the best of friends (or maybe they’re). The iOS apps that I tried didn’t allow them to download YouTube videos, and they are often not available for very long. One of these apps stated in its description that “downloading from YouTube is prohibited because of its Terms of Service.” Apple has made it clear that app developers must follow the rules, even Google’s.

Most likely, once you find an iOS application that allows you to download YouTube videos, it will be “fixed” or blocked. You have two options: jailbreak your iPhone or use sideloaded apps to download the content you desire.

There are ways around this. You can subscribe to YouTube Premium to download videos to your iPhone or iPad for later viewing, just like Netflix and Hulu.

Another option is to use an iOS file manager app such as Documents from Readdle. To visit YouTube videos, use Safari browser. The Share option will allow you to locate Copy Link. Go back to Documents and then use the Safari browser to navigate to a video download site. Paste the link in the form. Hold your finger down until the “Paste” menu appears. You will be able to download the links from the site. Drag the file to the Photos folder by holding down. To access Photos for the first time, you will need to grant Documents permission. The video can be accessed in the Photos app, just like any other video you have taken on your phone or tablet.

Another option is to go back to your desktop and use AnyTrans (39.99 USD for a single computer, Windows or macOS) a desktop file manager that supports iOS devices and has an integrated downloader. It supports 900 sites including YouTube and Facebook. The USB cable will transfer the videos to your iPhone. The download option is available for free even if You don’t have to pay AnyTrans.

YT Scribe

Do you want a unique way to “download” video? YT Cribe allows you to grab the transcription and read them instead. It automatically transcribes, punctuates and paragraphs the text. The subtitles are more important than the article. It’s also completely free.


Spread the love