How to Download YouTube Videos Successfully: 5 Ways

Do you want to download videos from YouTube and don’t know how to download YouTube videos to watch them when you are offline?

As per Statista report, over 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute as of May 2019.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to download YouTube videos to your computer, phone, or tablet.

Let’s see 5 different methods on how to download YouTube videos on Mac and Windows.

Disclaimer: We at Software Testing Material don’t encourage or support downloading copyright videos in violation of the YouTube terms and conditions. YouTube provides certain copyright-free videos for users to download without any problem, but most of the videos are copyright protected by the video owners. Get permission from the video owner to legally download videos using the following video downloader application. 

How to download YouTube Videos on Mobile or Desktop: 5 Methods

Method #1: Download videos using SnapDownloader YouTube Downloader

SnapDownloader YouTube Downloader is one of the best tools to download YouTube videos. Downloading videos from YouTube using SnapDownloader is like a piece of cake.

Step 1: Download the SnapDownloader software on your computer from the SnapDownloader site

Step 2: Once downloaded, open the installer to begin installing the SnapDownloader on your PC or macOS.

Step 3: Choose your destination folder and click on Install.

Step 4: Once completed, click on Finish.

Step 5: Enter your license key by clicking on “Enter License Key” or click on “Continue with free trial” to continue with the trial.

Step 6: Once the SnapDownloader is opened. In the search tab, enter the video URL you would like to download and click on ‘Search’

Here you can choose the output format and video quality.

Step 7: Click on the “Download” button to download video files in high quality.

Your video will start downloading.

Other Settings:

Output format: Video – MP4, AVI, MOV

Output format: Audio – Original, MP3, AAC, M4A, WAV, AIFF, WMA, FLAC

You can see the status of your downloaded files under the Downloads tab.

You can do settings depends on your needs. As shown below you can do settings like downloads location, parallel downloads, proxy settings, etc.,

Method #2: Download YouTube videos using Y2Mate on a Computer, Mobile Phone, or Tablet

Step 1: Go to https://www.youtube.com in a web browser on your computer, mobile phone, or tablet.

Step 2: Open your favorite video you want to download.

Step 3: Click or tap the web address at the top of your web browser and copy it. On a computer, right-click it to copy. On a phone or tablet, tap and hold to select and copy the address.

Step 4: Go to https://y2mate.com in a web browser. Y2Mate is a free video downloader site that helps you in downloading video and audio files from YouTube and many other sites.

Step 5: Paste the copied URL by right-clicking the “Search or paste the link here” bar and select paste.

Step 6: Click on the “Start” button to start the download

Step 7: Choose whichever format you want to download and click the download button.

Step 8: Save the video or audio to your computer. The download will start automatically.

Method #3: Download YouTube videos using Video DownloadHelper Firefox extension

Video DownloadHelper is a popular Firefox extension for extracting videos and images from sites like YouTube to your local drive.

Download videos with Video DownloadHelper is simple and easy. If you simply go to the YouTube page, you will be able to download the video which is currently playing to your local drive.

It supports a wide range of formats such as MP4, AVI, WEBM, and many more.

You can download videos like ADP 1280 x 720, 176 x 144 low, ADP 854 x 480, and 480 x 360 medium WEBM etc.,

It also supports sites like DailyMotion, Facebook, Vimeo, Periscope, UStream, Twitch, Liveleak, Vine, Bloomberg, Fox, Metacafe, RAI, France 2-3, Break, and thousands of others.

Step 1: Download Firefox extension from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

Step 2: Open the YouTube Video and play it

Step 3: Double-click on the DownloadHelper extension icon to open it.

Step 4: Click on the desired file format to download the video.

Step 5: File will download automatically to your computer (Example: C:\Users\Your_Computer_Name\dwhelper)

Method #4: Download YouTube videos using VLC Media Player

VLC is a free and very popular open-source cross-platform multimedia player for Windows PC, Mac.

With VLC, we can play almost all media formats as well as Audio CDs, VCDs, and DVDs.

Step 1: Go to https://www.youtube.com in a web browser on your computer, mobile phone, or tablet.

Step 2: Open your favorite video you want to download.

Step 3: Click or tap the web address at the top of your web browser and copy it. On a computer, right-click it to copy. On a phone or tablet, tap and hold to select and copy the address.

Note: If you don’t have VLC Player on your computer, download it from https://www.videolan.org

Step 4: Open “VLC Media Player”. It should be in the Start menu on Windows and in the Applications folder on macOS.

Step 5: Open a new network stream.

Note: Network streams helps in playing content from a web browser in VLC.

• On Windows: Go to Media and click Open Network Stream…
• On macOs: Go to File and click Open Network

Step 6: Paste the copied YouTube video’s URL that you want to download.

Step 7: Click on the Play button on Windows or the Open button on macOS.

Step 8: Go to the video’s Codec information

• On Windows: Go to Tools and click Codec Information.
• On Mac: Go to Window and click Media Information.

Step 9: Copy the “Location” field

• On Windows: Right-click the highlighted link and click Copy.
• On Mac: Right-click the text field and click Open URL.

Step 10: Copy-paste the URL into your web browser and press enter.

Note: There is no need to do this step in Mac.

Step 11: Right-click on the video and select ‘Save Video As’ to store the video on your computer.

Step 12: Select the location and save the video

Method #5: How to Download YouTube Video on iPhone

To download YouTube videos on the iOS system, we have to install the “Documents: Files, PDF, Browser” app.

“Documents: Files, PDF, Browser” app is a file manager. It allows us to download video clips.

Step 1: Go to the YouTube application for iOS and search for your favorite video. Tap on the share icon and copy the URL.

Step 2: Next, go to the Documents app and find a web browser icon and tap on it.

Step 3: Paste the URL you have copied in the previous step and choose the quality option of your choice and download the video.

Note: You can find the downloaded file in the downloads section of the Documents app.

Step 4: Lastly, drag it over Photos – Camera Roll in order to play it outside the Documents app on iOS.

Bonus Method #6: Save YouTube Videos with YouTube Premium

YouTube Premium not only allows you to watch videos without Ads but also allows you to download videos to watch them offline – like when you are on a plane or commuting.

Note: You can watch and listen to downloaded videos and music offline for up to 30 days without being connected to the internet. To watch video clips offline, you must be signed in to your Gmail account.

Open your favorite video and tap the download button under the player. You will be allowed to choose video quality.

You can find the downloaded video in your Account tab or your Library.

FAQs: Downloading Video From YouTube

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