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How to Download YouTube Videos on Mac

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If you find a YouTube video that you want to watch later on, but may not have an internet connection at that time, here’s how to download YouTube videos on Mac.

If you know you’ll be in an area without WiFi, like on a plane ride or in the car during a road trip, downloading YouTube videos ahead of time can be a great way to pass the time and enjoy your favorite YouTube videos while you’re at it.

Of course, you can do this on your iPhone, and if you have a YouTube Red subscription, then you have this feature built in, but if you watch videos on a larger screen, then you’ll likely use your MacBook.

YouTube is more than just short funny clips of cats and other funny stuff. There are a ton of YouTubers out there making some great entertaining videos that can keep you occupied for hours.

If you’re someone who doesn’t quite do movies and TV shows while on a flight, here’s how to download YouTube videos on Mac and watch them without an internet connection.

How to Download YouTube Videos

Downloading YouTube videos to your computer has been a controversial subject for a while, and YouTube is unsurprisingly against the idea, shutting down countless online services and browser extensions that let you download YouTube videos.

However, one piece of software that still stands (mostly because it’s rather new still) is called YouTube Converter from Softorino. We’ve covered Softorino before, as they’re the makers of WALTR, which is an easy-to-use Mac app that lets you transfer music and movies to your iOS device without iTunes.

https://youtu.be/_LiN_TpuYx4

YouTube Converter is just as easy to use as WALTR and it makes it really easy to turn a YouTube video into a playable file on your Mac that just about any video player can read.

First off, you’ll want to download the YouTube Converter software onto your Mac. It’s only available for OS X currently, but Softorino says that a Windows version is coming soon.

After you download and install YouTube Converter, open it up and you’ll be introduced to a small window where all the magic happens.

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Next, simply just go to YouTube in the web browser on your Mac and select a YouTube video to watch. Copy the video URL in the address bar and YouTube Converter will automatically detect the URL from your Mac’s clipboard.

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From there, select a video quality (1080p HD is the best) and the click Download to MacBook Pro (or whatever Mac you have). You can select 2160 4K, but that should only be used for YouTube videos that are actually in 4K. Otherwise, downloading a smaller video in 4K will simply upscale the resolution and make it look like crap.

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Depending on the length of the video and the quality, it may take a bit of time to download the video to your Mac, so be patient while the download process does its thing.

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When the download is done, the video will automatically be located in your Downloads folder, but you can transfer it to wherever you want on your Mac. You can also change the default download location for videos in the app’s preferences.

This is perhaps the best way to download YouTube videos on Mac, and it’s the easiest way we’ve found so far.

7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. sethheydinger

    01/04/2016 at 10:26 am

    Have you tried youtube-dl?
    https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/

  2. mazzly89

    01/06/2016 at 3:00 am

    When I find a Youtube video I’d like to download I just put “dlv” in front of youtube in the url so it becomes http://www.dlvyoutube.com and there it gives me the option to download it, no need to install any extra apps and paste the video url there..

  3. Debra

    01/11/2016 at 6:53 am

    Youtube Converter is a nice app, I’ve tried it
    But I’ ve got used to Airy Youtube Downloader for Mac. Maybe becasue it’s simple and effectve enough for me (https://www.eltima.com/products/youtube-downloader/)

  4. Ritesh Singh

    04/04/2016 at 5:25 am

    thank u for suggestiones
    I am using Bytesloader ( https://www.bytesloader.com) for download videos in my Mac. I recommend you to try at least ones.
    Hey all we will need any type of videos any time. But the problem is that, you may have no internet connection in 24 hours or you have no enough time when you are on Internet. So you may need to download videos from YouTube to watch it latter, I mean when you are free. .
    BYTESLOADER is an online downloading tool and download manager. It is made by collage student .this site is very easy to use and it have a lot of other features like Download entire website, Youtube playlist, 22Tracks, Vimeo plus 700 more websites which covers almost all your daily needs and interests..

    • Ritch Cloud

      05/14/2019 at 6:19 am

      As Bytesloader has been dead for a while, I suggest https://bitport.io/ as a modern alternative, that is fast, secure and reliable.

  5. Scott Bailey

    02/23/2017 at 11:53 pm

    Thank you for these instructions, really helpful!! I always use acethinker video downloader to save YouTube videos to my macbook pro, It is a free cloud based software to download videos without install any software in your Mac. Share it here as an alternative to Softorino.

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