On YouTube, you can find almost anything. You may need to download some of that stuff for various reasons, and happily, for you, there are a variety of ways to download a video from YouTube depending on your needs.
How to save a YouTube video to your computer for offline viewing
The most popular reason for someone to download a YouTube video is to watch it while they aren’t connected to the internet. This used to require dubious websites and applications, but now it’s built right into the YouTube app!
1. Sign up for YouTube Premium.
You must be a YouTube Premium subscriber to enable offline playback on Android and iOS apps. The monthly fee is $11.99 for this service. You’ll receive more than just downloads with YouTube Premium, as it also comes with an ad-free experience and access to YouTube Music, a streaming service that works with both ordinary music (such as Spotify) and videos. Here is where you may join up for YouTube Premium.
2. Locate the videos you wish to save.
When you have a YouTube Premium subscription, downloading videos for offline viewing is a breeze. Simply go to the video you want to download and look for the “Download” button beneath the video player. This is what it looks like on an iPad. On Android smartphones and tablets, the procedure is nearly the same. You may also use the three-dot menu to download videos from search results.
How to save a copy of your own YouTube video to your computer
If you’re a YouTube creator, having copies of your work on hand can come in handy. However, if something is accidentally deleted, it might be a nightmare! Fortunately, YouTube saves a duplicate of every video you submit, even if it’s set to private, and you can easily download it.
Simply go to studio.youtube.com, login, find the video you want to download, and click the three-dot menu option next to it. You’ll see a button labeled “Download” there. Simply pressing that button will download an MP4 file of your movie, however, the resolution will be limited to 720p.
How to save a YouTube video that is publicly available
If you want to share a YouTube video clip with someone else, all you have to do is send them the URL. This keeps YouTube pleased and ensures that producers are compensated. Anything else, including downloading and redistributing the video on your own, is against YouTube’s Terms of Service and can get you in serious trouble. However, if you need to download a copy of a video directly from YouTube for personal use, there are a few options.
Here are a few tools to help you finish the work.
VLC Media Player is an open-source multimedia player.
VLC Media Player is one of the most versatile media players for any device, and it also has the capacity to help you download anything from the internet. You’ll need to use the desktop software instead of the Android or iOS versions to accomplish this. VLC is also accessible for Windows, macOS, and Linux users to download.
Go to the YouTube video you want to download and copy the URL to your clipboard as the first step. Then, in VLC, go to the toolbar and choose Media Menu. Find Open Network Stream and click Play under that section. Next, select Codec Information from the video stream’s Tools menu. At the bottom of the window, there will be a text area where you can type in whatever you like. Then, on the video stream, go to Tools and look for Codec Information. A URL will appear in a text field at the bottom of that window, which you must copy and paste into your browser. Simply press the download icon to begin downloading the video. However, keep in mind that this method only allows for a resolution of 1080p.
VidPaw/U2Convert
There are websites that make the process quick and straightforward if you don’t want to download a program merely to receive a video. VidPaw has long been a well-known tool for this, but it’s just recently begun dumping download services to “U2Convert.”
Regardless, users can just paste a YouTube URL into the site and receive download options in MP4, WEBM, and MP3 (audio) formats. Unless you pay a few dollars or stitch the A/V together yourself, you’ll be stuck with 720p, but it works well for a free tool.
Best of all, unlike many other online conversion tools, it isn’t cluttered with advertisements.
Video Downloader in 4K
There is a really useful program for downloading videos from YouTube if you have access to a desktop computer. 4K Video Downloader is a free download that may download videos in full resolution from a variety of sources like YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Instagram, and many others.
There are limits to the number of videos you can download per day, per playlist, and per channel in the free version of this program, but there are subscription tiers that can remove those restrictions.
What do you think?