The Easiest Ways to Download YouTube Videos on macOS

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Download YouTube videos to watch offline on your laptop or desktop computer

Co-authored by Yaffet Meshesha and Megaera Lorenz, PhD

Last Updated: August 28, 2024 Fact Checked

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Using an Online Downloader

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Using 4K Video Downloader

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Using Your Mac’s Screen Capture Tools

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Using Yt-dlp

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Q&A

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Warnings

Are you looking for a way to save a YouTube video to your Mac so you can watch it offline? You have more options than you'd think! This wikiHow tutorial will teach you simple ways to download videos from YouTube to your Mac for free using an online downloader, your Mac’s screen capture tools, or a video downloader app. Keep in mind that YouTube's Terms of Service does not permit downloading videos without permission, and that downloading copyrighted videos may be illegal in your area.^{[1]
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Downloading YouTube Videos on Mac: The Basics

The easiest solution is to use a free online downloader. However, since these sites can be sketchy and often stop working, you might want a more stable solution like using the 4K Video Downloader app or taking a screen recording. You can also use the command-line tool yt-dlp if you’re an advanced user.

Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Using an Online Downloader

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Open the YouTube video you want to download. You can use any web browser, including Safari or Chrome, to download a video with a free online downloader.
- Computer specialist Yaffet Meshesha recommends using online YouTube downloaders as the simplest solution to saving YouTube videos to your Mac.
Click the address bar to highlight the URL, then press Command + C to copy.

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Go to a YouTube downloader site. There are hundreds of these sites to choose from, and they tend to come and go quickly since they are often shut down due to YouTube TOS violations. To find some options, open Google and search for “online YouTube downloader” or something similar. Select one of the options that comes up.
- Some of these sites can be a little shady, so make sure you have antivirus software installed and enabled.
- We tested https://www.mediamister.com/youtube-video-downloader for this article.
Most of these websites will have a field where you can paste the URL of your YouTube video. Select it and press Command + V on your keyboard. This pastes the copied URL into the field.
Depending on the website you’re using, you might see a different button, such as Find Video, Download Options, Save Video, etc. This button will be located next to the video URL field on the downloader website.
On the next page, you may be offered different video size or quality options for your download. Select your preferred format and click on it to begin the download.
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Save your video if it opens in a new tab. Some downloader websites may automatically begin downloading the video to your Mac, in which case it will likely be saved to your Downloads folder by default. Others will open the video in a new tab. If this happens, Ctrl-click the video in the new tab and select Save Video As….
- Change the name of the video and the destination folder if you like.
- Once the download is complete, just double-click the downloaded file in Finder to open the video in your default video player.

Method 2

Method 2 of 4:

Using 4K Video Downloader

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Install 4K Video Downloader on your Mac. This is a "Freemium" app that lets you download up to 10 YouTube videos per day at no cost.^{[2]
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Research source} This app has been around for a long time and doesn't come with any sketchy software installs.
- To download the app, go to https://www.4kdownload.com/downloads and click Download next to "macOS 10.13+." Use the dropdown to select either the Intel installer or the Apple Silicon installer, depending on what kind of processor your Mac has.
- Once the file is downloaded, double-click the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions to install.
If you haven't already done so, bring up the video in your favorite web browser now. To copy the URL, click the address bar to highlight it, and then press Command + C to copy.
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Click Paste Link in 4K Video Downloader. It’s a green button in the top left corner of the app window.
- By default, 4K Video Downloader is set to “Smart Mode,” which will automatically download the video as soon as you click the Paste Link button, using the selected presets at the top of the window.
  - To access advanced settings, click the link that says Enable Advanced Mode in the Smart Mode notification box.
- The video will save to a 4K Video Downloader+ folder in your Mac’s Movies folder. Double-click the file to view it using your default video player.
- If you want to change the format of the download, use the dropdown menus at the top of the app window before you paste the link. You can use these menus to change the quality of the video, the output format, or the save location.

Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Using Your Mac’s Screen Capture Tools

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1
Open the video you want to record on YouTube. Don't play the video just yet—just bring it up on the screen so it's ready.
- This option is not the fastest or highest quality, but it's good if you don't want to (or can't) download any additional software.
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Press ⇧ Shift+⌘ Command+5. This will bring up your Mac’s built-in screen recording tools.
- You can also access these tools through the QuickTime app. Open QuickTime, then click File > New Screen Recording.
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Click Options and select a microphone. By default, your Mac will record your screen without sound. However, you can change the settings to capture sound. Click Options in the recording toolbar that pops up at the bottom of your screen, and then select one of the microphones from the list.
- For example, you may see an option like MacBook Air Microphone, which will allow you to record sound with your Mac’s built-in mic.
You won’t see a countdown or any other warning—the screen recording will start automatically.
Go back to the window with the YouTube video you want to record. Maximize it if you like, then hit the Play button. Let the video play all the way through.
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Click the Stop Recording icon when the video ends. It's on the menu at the top of the screen and looks like a black circle with a white square inside. Your Mac’s screen recorder will stop recording the screen and display the finished recording, which is also saved to your desktop.^{[3]
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- If you want to trim the beginning and/or end from the recording, open it in QuickTime, click the Edit menu, and select Trim. You can then drag the yellow trimming bar to select the part of the video you want to keep and click Trim to save your changes.

Method 4

Method 4 of 4:

Using Yt-dlp

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Install Homebrew on your Mac. If you don’t mind messing around with your Mac’s command line, yt-dlp is a good option for downloading YouTube videos. The easiest way to install it is to use the Homebrew package manager. If you don’t already have Homebrew installed, here’s how:
- Start by installing Apple’s Command Line toolkit. Launch the Terminal app from your Utilities folder, then enter the command xcode-select --install and press Return.
  - A window may open asking if you want to install the Command Line. Click Install and follow the prompts to finish the installation process.
  - If you’ve already installed the Command Line toolkit in the past, you’ll get an error message.
- For macOS Catalina or later, switch to the bash shell before moving to the next step. To do so, type or paste chsh -s /bin/bash, enter your Mac’s administrator password, and then restart Terminal.
- Paste or type the following command and press Return: /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
- Enter your administrator password when you’re prompted to do so and press Return, then press Return again. Wait for the installation to complete.
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Enter the command brew install yt-dlp. Press Return and wait for the installation process to complete. Your Mac may need to update Homebrew first, which can take a few minutes.
- Once the installation is done, you can then run the command brew upgrade yt-dlp to make sure you’re running the latest version of yt-dlp. If it is up to date, you’ll see an error message stating that the tool is already installed.
Go to the video and copy the URL from the address bar at the top of the browser window.
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Go back to Terminal and enter the command yt-dlp “URL”. Replace “URL” with the URL for the video that you copied. Keep the quotation marks around the URL. The command won’t work without the quotation marks. Press Return to begin the download. Wait a few moments for the process to complete.
- By default, the video will save to Macintosh HD > Users > [Your Name] as an MP4.
- For detailed instructions on how to use the more advanced features of yt-dlp, including changing the quality or format of your download, downloading just the sound from a video, or downloading an entire YouTube playlist, see the official yt-dlp page on GitHub.

Community Q&A

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Question

The VLC app keeps saying the link is insecure. What should I do?

godidico

Community Answer

Check out Vidsnipe.com. It's much easier than VLC. All you have to do is go to the link, click the YouTube icon, copy the YouTube short link, and paste it in the search bar. Click download, then download in HD. No limits and it's free.

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Warnings

YouTube encourages users to stream their videos and does not support the act of downloading YouTube videos for offline viewing. Download YouTube videos at your own risk, and keep in mind there may be penalties for downloading videos from YouTube.

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There are a lot of other applications for downloading YouTube videos. Keep in mind that some of them may be potentially malicious, so make sure to use good security software.

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