

The app is available for macOS, Windows and Ubuntu Linux and offers a myriad of options beyond mere downloading of content. If you're a bit more serious about downloading videos off of YouTube and other services such as Vimeo and Facebook, you should consider getting the 4K Video Downloader app (opens in a new tab). The 4K video downloader program is a viable alternative to shady software. Note that YouTube Premium is probably your best bet if you must download videos on your phone there are third-party services that promise this functionality, but I haven't found one I'd comfortably install on my phone without fear of compromising safety. Check out all of the details here (opens in a new tab). There are numerous other limitations as well: Downloading is only available on mobile devices, you can only view downloaded videos in YouTube's native app, you cannot move them anywhere, and they go away after your subscription runs out. An obvious one is that Premium costs money $11.99 per month with a one-month free trial at writing time. Another, very important advantage is that this way you're not breaching YouTube's terms of service. One of the advantages of Premium subscription is that you get to download videos for offline viewing right there on YouTube itself. So we'll start with the simplest option: Buy YouTube Premium (opens in a new tab). And this brings another problem: Because of this, many of the ways to download YouTube videos that you'll find online are fairly dangerous as they're riddled with spamware and shady ads. However, before we continue, note that downloading videos from the regular, free version of YouTube is against the site's terms of service (opens in a new tab). YouTube has no easy "download" button, so how do you download a video off the platform?įortunately, there are a few ways to grab a YouTube video fairly easily (opens in a new tab), and in good quality. Say you've encountered a cool YouTube video and want to download it for your archive to make sure you still have it in case it disappears.

But sometimes, an important video can be hard to find, or can even be permanently removed from a platform, in which case it's not a bad idea to have a personal copy. In this time of ubiquitous internet and abundance of content, downloading videos to your hard drive is rarely necessary.
