How to Download YouTube Videos and Music: Everything You Need to Know

It seems incredible, but it has been almost 11 years since YouTube began to take its first steps. In a short time, the video platform now a Google company became a reference for this type of audiovisual content. Its significance is such that it went from putting television videos on YouTube to doing just the opposite, putting YouTube videos on television, even in the news, which is said soon. Already in 2016, many of the doubts we look for on the Internet have a solution on the video website of what this article is about. But, if we find a video that we like, is it necessary to replay it from the browser using an Internet connection? Luckily not.

It is something of the most logical that sometimes we want download a video so you can watch it offline again. For example, I have downloaded tutorials on how to play some songs on the guitar. I really like a style of music that is difficult to get by ear or even its scores, so, sometimes, I look on YouTube how to play them. When I find a demo that satisfies me, I don't hesitate for a second to download the video to my computer until, at the very least, I learn the song. If, like me, your desire is to be able to download videos from the Google video platform, keep reading because we will try to explain all the possible ways, which includes from mobile devices and download only the audio of the videos.

Desktop programs to download YouTube videos

aTube Catcher

One of the options that my brother always recommends is aTube Catcher, a free application for Windows that allows you to download both videos and music from YouTube and other web pages. The good thing about aTube Catcher is its versatility, which will also allow us to convert files to other formats, and its ease of use. To download YouTube content with this application, we will have to go to the web with any browser and copy the URL of the video. Later we carry out the following steps:

1. We paste the link in the dialog box as shown in the picture.
2. We indicate the profile output.
3. We click on "Download". As you can see, it will offer us a good handful of options.
4. We select one of the video or audio options, depending on whether we want to download all the video or just the music.

Website: http://www.atube.me/video/

Although I have commented on this option, I have to admit that it is not my favorite. It's true that aTube Catcher is a great program, but I don't usually use Windows or need an application that offers so many options. As you will see later, there are much simpler options that, in addition, we can use them in any operating system, as long as we use a browser that allows downloading files from the Internet.

JDownloader

An application that includes the word "downloader" in its name should work for us, right? Well it does. The good of JDownloader is that we already installed it on the computer to perform many other downloads of all kinds, so we will not have to install software just to download videos or music from YouTube.

The best thing about JDownloader is that it does everything almost automatically. I say "almost" because, logically, we will have to tell it which file we want to download from a web page or it can download a lot of garbage. To download a video or music from YouTube with JDownloader, we just have to copy the URL of the video and it will be added as a pending task in the program without having to do anything else.

If we had it open, at the same time we copy the URL we will see a small window that warns that it has also been copied in JDownloader. If not, it will be added as soon as you open the program. In order not to get confused, I detail the steps to follow to download videos or music from YouTube with JDownloader:

1. We open JDownloader (It is not necessary to start this way, but it is how I do it).
2. In our web browser, let's go to the video we want to download.
3. We copy the URL from the address box. It will be copied automatically to JDownloader.
4. Now let's JDownloader.
5. If it has not been opened automatically, go to the section Link grabber.
6. We click on the plus symbol 🇧🇷
7. Here something like what you see in the previous image will appear. As you can see, there are several video and audio options. We choose the one we prefer.
8. We right click on the desired file and select Add and start download.
9. We wait and it will be downloaded to the Downloads folder.

If I have to choose a program to download content from YouTube, I choose JDownloader. Not that it is my favorite, but it is available both in Windows, such as for Mac and Linux (actually the capture is from Ubuntu). Another multi-platform application that may interest you is 4k Video Downloader, but we'll talk about that in the section on how to download 4K videos.

notMP3

Kigo Video Converter

Kigo Video Converter It's a program that I like so much that I can't quite understand how it's free. I do not have it installed on my computer to download videos or music from YouTube, but it is a good option to convert videos to another format. But it also helps us to download content from the Google video website, which is why I include it in the article.

Downloading content from YouTube with this program is very simple, like everything it does. We just have to perform the steps detailed below:

1. Although it is not in the capture, the first thing, as always, will be copy url of the desired video from our preferred web browser.
2. We open Kigo Video Converter and click on download video.
3. Then we click Add URL. We will see that many options appear. This is because the application can also convert to other formats.
4. We select the desired option.
5. Finally, we click on OK.

If we want it, too we can drag a url to the window Kigo Video Converter to detect the content. I really like this application and I recommend it.

Website: kigo-video-converter.com

Download YouTube videos from Android

From a browser

The good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) Android is that it is a very open system. Almost any browser can download things on the Internet and therefore YouTube videos can be downloaded directly from the browser. As it is one of the most famous browsers and my favorite, what I am going to explain next is achieved with Firefox, but it surely works with Google's Chrome too. Of the browser methods, I am going to explain a new one that tries to add the letters "dlv" in front of "youtube" in the URL. We will do it as follows:

1. We open the Internet browser. In this case, the Firefox.
2. We go to the video that we want to download.
3. If we are in the mobile version of YouTube, we have to change the "m" to "www" and after the period (in front of "youtube") add the letters "dlv", as you can see in the following image:

4. We touch on go or Enter and it will take us to a new page, ready to download the desired video.

5. We touch on the drop-down and choose in which format we want to download the video.
6. Next, as we want to save the file, we choose Download.

7. We wait for the download to finish. We can see what's missing from the notifications (Twitter notices are not for my x) I had to go to my father's house and borrow the Galaxy Tab 3 from him).

8. And finally, we can now play the video.

With YouTube Downloader

Although I like the browser options better, there are also other options that are equally or better as an application. YouTube Downloader is a great application for Android that will allow us to download the videos and even convert the audio once downloaded. The problem is that It is not in the Google Play application store, so if you decide to use this method, you and only you are responsible for what may happen. In any case, I have tried it myself to create this tutorial, but it is better to warn and that nothing happens than the opposite. To download videos with YouTube Downloader we will do the following:

1. With our Android device, we go to the web dentex.github.io/apps/youtubedownloader/, we download the .apk and install it.

2. We open YouTube Downloader and search for the video as we would with any other application.

3. A menu will open with the available formats. We choose one of them.

4. We confirm the download.

5. We wait for the download to finish and open it. As you can see in the image, we can also extract the audio from the file and convert it to MP3.

6. And to enjoy. By the way, the one in the picture is Elize Ryd from Amaranthe (one of the bands I like the most these days) and the song is "Hunger."

And with Remix OS?

If you are Android users, you probably know Remix OS. Based on the Androidx86 project, Remix OS is the best thing that could have happened to some computers, especially those with low resources. At first they were not going to launch a version compatible with 32-bits, but they have already anticipated that they will, so we can dust off those 10-inch computers, which the poor little ones almost drag with other operating systems, and someone who has one with Lubuntu tells you.

The point is that Remix OS is also capable of downloading videos with the "SS Method" (explained later and similar to the previous one by adding "dlv"). Right now, the operating system is in its early stages, so there is nothing simple, but it is capable like any other version used by every Android device. In this article we cannot show you how to add the Google Play store to Remix OS, but we start from the basis that you already have it installed.

The current Remix OS browser is not very capable, so we will need to download another one. The Firefox it works perfectly, as the following screenshots show.

The good thing about Remix OS is that it is a system that is very similar to any other desktop system, so we will have the video waiting in the file explorer, in the Downloads folder. If you haven't tried it yet and you have a low-resource computer, I recommend you try it.

Download YouTube videos from iOS

If you think it is necessary to do the jailbreak to your iOS device to be able to download YouTube videos, you couldn't be more wrong. It is true that there is no such simple and direct way as with other devices, but it can be done. Without having to try too hard, I can think of two apps and one of them is totally free at the time of writing. It's about the app Turbo Downloader - File Manager and Browser (to avoid confusion, I'll add the link later).

With Turbo Downloader

The process to download YouTube videos with this free application It is simple, but you need to know the way. Here are the steps to follow in order to save the videos on the iOS reel:

1. Logically, the first step would be to download e install the app. To do this we can search for the application in the App Store, but the best thing is that you click on one of the links that I will put below from your iOS device. Thus, as I said before, we will avoid confusion and install the correct application.
2. If we have accessed the video with another application such as Safari, we have to copy and paste the url in the corresponding box, which is none other than the box for Turbo Downloader URLs. If we wish, we can navigate to it with Turbo Downloader just as we do with any other browser.
3. As you can see in the first screenshot of the previous ones, next to the URL appears a lightning icon with the number 1. That means there is a video available for download. We played on that ray. If it does not appear, we can also access the options pressing and holding about the video.
4. The next step is a one-way street. As we cannot do anything else, we touch on the video indicated by the blue arrow. A menu will appear.
5. As you may have already guessed, now we have to tap on Download. If you want to indicate a specific folder, you have to choose the option with the ellipsis at the end.
6. Now we have the video on our iOS device, but surprise! We can only see it with Turbo Downloader. This is not what we want, so it will take a few extra steps. We go to the downloaded file, we touch on the three points and then we touch on Share.

7. The trick is to add the video in a note to later save it on our reel. Thus, we touch on the icon Notes.
8. Then you can put what you think is best, but if we consider that what we want is to save the video on our reel, I would put a letter or even nothing. Simply, we keep the note.
9. The next step, as you can see in the last screenshot, we have to open the application Notes.
10. We touch on the icon share.
11. And finally, we touch on Save video. Now we will have it on our reel to do what we want.

The downside of this method? Well, in reality the method is very good, but the application is free and without integrated purchases, which means that the developer will have to obtain benefits in another way. A good way to get these benefits, as the famous Flappy Bird game has shown, is by selling advertising. Every little time we use Turbo Downloader, we will see a pop-up window with an advertisement which we can skip at 5 seconds. Everything has a price and this is the one for this application

Alternative link: Turbo downloader.

With Workflow

This is my favorite method on iOS. Workflow It is a paid application, but it is used to do many things, even some that are restricted by Apple. Workflow allowed us, for example, to send a photo from the reel by WhatsApp long before this was possible natively. Another example of restrictions that we remove with Workflow is that we can send more than 5 photos by mail. In addition, with Workflow we do not limit ourselves to videos, but we can also download music. The app is worth it, and as I have already purchased it, I use it if I want to download any content from YouTube.

The process to download YouTube videos and music with Workflow is very simple. It is only necessary to have the application and extension necessary. The steps we have to take are the following:

1. Logically, the first thing will be to go to the App Store and download Worflow.
2. With Workflow already installed, we open Safari and we navigate to the video that we want to download.
3. We played on Share, Then in More and we activate the Run Workflow option. This step will only be done once and will be valid for other Workflow extensions used in Safari.
4. We tap on the share icon and choose Run Workflow.
5. We choose the extension from YouTube to Reel (or the extension YouTube to MP3 if we want to download only the audio).
6. We wait. At the end of the task, the video will be available on the reel.

What is it worth? The only bad thing is that the application is paid, but if you look at the information of THIS LINK You will realize that it is worth paying for it.

Alternative method

Although the previous method is the one I like the most, I must also admit that it fails many times, but it must be when something strange happens on the YouTube website. What does not usually fail is the "SS Method", but the iOS Safari does not allow to download files natively. What we will do then is add the two S's in front of youtube.com, hit Intro and go to the web. Then we click on Download, which will take us to a web that is reproduced with the native Safari player. At that point we have to launch another extension that I have created for the occasion. The video will download to the reel. To download the extension in question, you just have to tap on THIS LINK from your iPhone.

Alternative link: Workflow.

Amerigo

If you download a lot online, you might be interested in trying Amerigo. It is not that it is a cheap application, but it will allow us to download practically anything. The process to download videos with Amerigo is very simple. We just have to:

1. We open Amerigo.
2. We navigate to the video that we want to download.
3. If it does not play automatically, we touch on the triangle (play).
4. The window that you see in the central screenshot above these lines will appear. We tap on the down arrow (download).

5. Next we touch on the desired video and then on "Show in files".
6. Finally we touch on the two down arrows and we touch Save on the reel. By the way, the first video is there for one of the tests I did.

Alternative link: Amerigo

How to download YouTube videos from the browser

The method of adding SS

As simple as everything that appears in this article may seem, everything can still be simpler and without installing software on our computer, something that always ends up loading the system. Can be done directly from the browser and there are options that are so simple that we will not understand how we have been able to live without them. The option that I am going to explain is good to remember, since we can use it practically in any browser.

Although I am aware that there are other web pages that will allow us to download YouTube content from the browser, I recommend this method. We will do the following:

1. As always, we open the web browser and go to the desired video.
2. We do not need to copy the URL or paste it into any program. What we have to do is put two eses (ss) in front of «youtube». It has to look like this (frame in red what we will have to add): https://www.ssyoutube.com/watch?v=3rFoGVkZ29w
3. We leave the rest of the URL as it is. Then we press the Enter key and you will see what happens.

4. It will take you to a page like the one you see in the previous screenshot. Now we only have to download the video by direct download. Or, if we want to download only the audio, choose that option from the drop-down menu. Easy, right?

The best thing about this option is that it works in any browser that allows you to download files. It's just great.

Other similar methods

SaveFrom.net can also be used to download from other pages. If we want to download any file from a web, we can always try adding sfrom.net/ in front of the http: // of the URL. If instead of adding the two s's in front of youtube.com we add sfrom.net/ in front of everything, it would take us to the same website.

But, as we have explained previously and also in the section of downloading directly to .avi, it can also be downloaded by adding "dlv" in front of youtube.com or "lataa".

How to download a YouTube video in Full HD or 4K

With 4K Video Downloader

A very interesting option to download YouTube videos because it is multiplatform is 4K video Downloader. This small but powerful program will allow us to:

• Download previous YouTube playlists and channels, being able to record them in MP4, MKV, M4A, MP3, FLV, 3G formats and with the possibility of generating playlists in .M3U format.
• Download HD videos in 1080p, HD 720p or 4K resolution to enjoy the content on our television without quality loss.
• Possibility of also downloading the subtitles integrated in the video or separately in an .srt file.
• Possibility of downloading videos in 3D format. This is interesting to enjoy the videos on our 3D television. Logically, it is useless if we have nowhere to reproduce them.
• Download embedded YouTube videos from any web page, just by copying the link from it and pasting it in the application.
• Download videos from Vimeo, SoundCloud, Flickr, Facebook and DailyMotion.

Downloading YouTube Videos in 4K

Downloading videos with 4K Video Downloader couldn't be easier. We will only have to do the following:

1. We copy the URL of the video from our web browser.
2. We click on Paste link.
3. We choose the format wanted.
4. We click on Download.

Logically, for the video to be downloaded in 4K, the video must have been uploaded in that resolution. If this is not the case, we will not be able to download it in 4K.

But if we want it to be even simpler, we can use the Smart mode. If we activate the Smart Mode, the downloads will be just one click away. When we click on the smiley face, a window will appear informing us of how this mode works. In this window we will also indicate with what quality we want you to download the videos. If we want them with the highest quality, on the menu Quality we have to choose Original. If the video is available in 4K resolution, the program will download it to us in 4K quality. Easy, right?

The bad thing about 4K Downloader? Well, as you can see in the previous image, it contains advertising. But, as we always say, everything has a price and this is 4K Downloader.

Website: 4kdownload.com/products/product-videodownloader

How to download a YouTube video directly in .avi format

Adding "lataa" in front of youtube.com

This method is practically the same as adding "ss" or "dlv". We will only have to do the following:

1. As always, we open the browser and go to the video that we want to download.

2. A message will appear that the web is not secure. If you don't want to take any risks, don't keep reading. I think it has to do with the language of the web, which has symbols that the browser does not quite understand. If you are not afraid, go ahead, like those from Alicante.
3. On the LataYouTube.com page, we will have to make three clicks, the first of which is to display the «Laatu» menu to choose the video / audio format we want.

4. The menu that interests us in this section is the second, "Valitse muoto". This is where we have to choose «AVI».
5. And finally, we click on Lataa. It will start to convert.

6. When the conversion is finished, the download window will appear automatically. You can be calm. The downloaded file is an .avi, no weird executables or anything like that.

How to download an MP3 from a YouTube video

With VidToMP3

Almost as easy as the method of adding SS in front of youtube.com that we have explained above is to go to the VidToMP3 page and do more or less the same. The only difference is that, instead of entering the letters and going directly to the web, we will have to go to the page manually as we would to access any other web page. We will only have to go to the web that I will put you later and do the following:

1. We paste the URL of the video in the box.
2. We click on "Download". Then it will begin to show a percentage, the tool is extracting the audio and preparing the file for download, when the percentage is complete it will notify you that the conversion has been completed. So that, we wait for the conversion to finish.
3. In the next window, we click on "Click here to get your download link".
4. Then uncheck the box and we click on "Download MP3".

It is also a simple method, right? The thing is, it's not my favorite either. With programs like some of the ones detailed in this article, it is not an option that I consider either. Of course, it is the best if what we want is to download the audio in MP3. If we do not do it via the website of VidToMP3On many occasions we will only have audio available in, for example, M4V format. This must be taken into account.

VidToMP3 website

I think that is all. In this article you have explained a good handful of options to download video and audio from YouTube and for practically all operating systems or, failing that, there are systems that can work on systems that are not explained here. Do you have any better suggestions that could have made this list? In case you've been wanting more, OffLiberty It is also another alternative to consider.