Tip: Unless you plan on transferring the video from your computer to your smartphone or tablet after it has been downloaded, we suggest using our how to download a YouTube video on a smartphone or tablet steps for these devices. Here's a conversion program you download and run on your Windows PC or Mac. The basic version of 4K Video Downloader is free. If you want to cut out the ads, download YouTube playlists. With Apowersoft in hand, one can easily download online videos from YouTube, record game videos, and convert videos taken by camera to more popular formats so that users can easily edit and upload them to YouTube. Free YouTube Downloader. This is a highly recommended tool to download YouTube videos on.

YouTube is designed only to allow users to watch and view (stream) videos and movies on their website. Many users want to download or save their favorite YouTube videos to their computer so they can be watched offline, viewed on other devices, or edit them.

YouTube does not allow you to download videos directly from their site. You need to use a third-party service, install software, or get a YouTube subscription service to download a YouTube video. Below are our recommendations for downloading and watching YouTube videos on your computer.

To download YouTube videos to your smartphone or tablet, see: How to download YouTube video on a smartphone or tablet.

This page only provides recommendations for downloading or saving a video to your computer. For instructions for saving a video as audio, see: How can I record sound from YouTube videos?

Download a YouTube video using a website service

Most websites that offer a service of downloading a YouTube video for free are no longer safe to use. These websites often results in malware being downloaded to your computer, either from the website service itself or through one of their partner websites.

Websites that offered free YouTube video downloading services have now permanently shut down their sites (e.g., Savefrom.net), resorted to malware-related ads, or employ other deceptive tactics.

Due to these reasons, Computer Hope doesn't recommend the use of any website service offering free YouTube video downloads and no longer provides instructions for those websites.

How To Download A Youtube Video To My Macbook Pro

Instead, we now recommend the use of youtube-dl, a screen recorder, or a YouTube Premium subscription. These are the best options to keep your computer free of malware.

Download a YouTube video using youtube-dl

One of the best ways, and our favorite method, to download a YouTube video is with the free program youtube-dl. It's capable of downloading any available YouTube video format to your computer, including the HD version.

However, using youtube-dl is a bit more complex and is designed for more experienced, and advanced, computer users. Youtube-dl utilizes the Windows command line for Windows computers, and the Terminal for macOS and Linux computers.

For help with installing and using youtube-dl on your computer, click the link below to review the instructions.

Saving a YouTube video using a screen recorder

How To Download A Youtube Video To My Mac Desktop

Screen recorders are software programs designed to run on a computer, smartphone, or tablet and record anything on the screen. In addition to recording your screen, these programs can also be used to record a video or sections of a video.

Download a YouTube video using YouTube Premium

Another safe option for downloading YouTube videos is YouTube Premium, which is a user-friendly service designed for computer and mobile device users at any level of experience.

YouTube Premium requires a monthly subscription, but at $11.99 per month, you're allowed to download as many videos as you want, and watch them offline at any time. Additionally, you can listen to music offline using the YouTube Music app, as well. Similar to other video streaming services, YouTube Premium provides unlimited access to YouTube videos and music, at a price that's cheaper than other streaming services.

Unlike youtube-dl, however, YouTube Premium only allows users to view videos from in the app. After 48 hours in your downloads library, you can no longer access the videos offline until reconnecting to the Internet to prove the validity of your YouTube Premium subscription.

YouTube offers a one-month free trial for YouTube Premium, so you can try it out and decide if you like it before paying for the service.

What about a private video?

Services and programs designed to record YouTube videos don't have the same rights as your YouTube account, and therefore would not be able to record a private video. However, if you can view the private video, you can use a screen recorder to record anything shown on your screen.

Related pages

• See the YouTube definition for further information and related links.

YouTube is our frequently visited website where we can watch any type of video, such as action movies, pop music, practical courses, TV series, talk shows, variety shows, comedy, etc. The only downside is that the website does not provide a direct download button, which is very inconvenient if we want to save our favorite videos to watch while offline. Fortunately, there are tools specifically designed for this purpose on the market. To save your time, we have selected two of the best YouTube video downloaders for Mac to share with you.

Method 1. Use 4K Video Downloader for Mac

The first tool we are going to introduce is 4K Video Downloader for Mac developed by Jihosoft. It has advanced algorithms and exquisite interface, integrates multiple functions in one, provides a full range of services, and is regarded as the best software for downloading YouTube videos on Mac in this article. The following are its main features:

• Download 4K & 8K UHD, 360° VR, 60FPS YouTube videos
• Download full-length YouTube movie
• Download YouTube channel and playlist
• Download songs from YouTube
• Extract subtitles/CC from YouTube video
• Merge YouTube videos and subtitles
• Save videos from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
• Download Twitch clips, videos, and highlights
• Download music from SoundCloud, VEVO, MixCloud, etc
• Convert videos to MP4, MOV, MKV, and AVI
• Download Ted Talks

As for how to use it, please check the simple steps that are given below:

Step 1. To download YouTube videos to Mac, you first need to get the 4K YouTube video downloader installed on your computer. To do this, please click the download button provided in the article, then open the .pkg file and follow the prompts to install it.

Step 2. Open your browser and go to the YouTube website, then find the video you’d like to download and copy its link address. Next, run the Mac YouTube video downloader, and then click the blue “+Paste URL(s) button on the interface to insert the URL into the program.

Step 3. The software will start automatically parse the video link. After a few seconds, there will pop up a window where you can select the output quality of the video like 720P, 1080P, 2K, 4K, etc., and whether to download subtitles, video cover or convert the video to mp3. After selection, tap the “Download” button.

Step 4. Next, the downloader will automatically start downloading YouTube videos, and you can clearly see the progress bar. After downloading, all the videos will be auto-saved to the “Finished” page, you can play them directly or convert them to the format you need.

Tips: If you need to download multiple videos simultaneously, please enable the one-click download mode in advance, which will save you a lot of time.

Method 2. Use QuickTime Player

The second way to save YouTube videos to Mac is through screen recording. QuickTime is a multimedia application developed by Apple that can handle digital video, pictures, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity in various formats. In addition to being a video player, it can also act as a screen recorder, supporting simultaneous recording of video and sound on the screen. Although this method is very simple, it will seriously affect the quality of the video, and the efficiency is relatively low. If you don’t mind, the following is the specific steps:

• Step 1. Go to YouTube and open the video you want to download, then click Pause playback.
• Step 2. Click the gray and blue “Q” icon on the launchpad directly or open the Applications folder and find the “QuickTime Player” app to run it.
• Step 3. Click the “File” option in the menu bar at the upper left corner of the computer screen and select “New Screen Recording”. Then QuickTime will automatically create a selection area on the screen.
• Step 4. Adjust the size of the selection area so that the edge is close to the video window, and then click “Options” at the bottom to select “Build-in Microphone“, this can ensure that the recorded video has sound.
• Step 5. When everything is ready, play the YouTube video and click the “Record” button to start recording. After the recording is complete, save the video to your favorite directory.
  

The above are two practical methods for downloading YouTube videos on Mac. The first is to use desktop software, it supports batch downloading, and can maintain the original quality of the video, which is very powerful. The second method is to use the screen recording tool, which is also a good choice if you only need to download a few videos.

In addition to what we mentioned, you can also use an online Mac YouTube video downloader to save your favorite videos. However, with the update of the YouTube algorithm, most websites have stopped working, even if there are survivors, they are very unstable thus not recommended to use. If you like this article, please share with your friends and family. By following Jihosoft’s blog, you can learn more useful video-related tips and tricks.