Best Apps to Download and Archive YouTube Videos
In one of the most bizarre tech gimmicks in recent memory, the Recording Industry Association of America has taken the fight against digital piracy to an unexpected level: by targeting open source software that can be used to do something they shouldn’t be doing online, regardless on whether the program can be used for lawful purposes.
I’m talking, of course, about youtube-dl , an incredibly handy tool that allowed anyone to download videos directly from YouTube through the command line or terminal – or the user-friendly graphical interface that I prefer.
I don’t envy the RIAA for targeting youtube-dl, especially since its developer foolishly listed music videos like Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off as examples of content you can download with the program (oops).
I’m not here either to argue about the legality of youtube-dl. This certainly violates the Permissions and Limitations section of YouTube’s Terms of Service , but it is still a useful tool for saving videos that you would like to watch offline later, including your own, and at a higher resolution than you would normally allow. YouTube. access. (This is also handy for archiving, say, a favorite video recipe in case it ever disappears on the digital airwaves.)
The RIAA may have followed the main youtube-dl github, but that doesn’t mean you just lost all your ability to download YouTube videos. In fact, this is far from the case. Here are our favorite free alternatives:
youtube-dl (original)
If you want to try out the command line tool for yourself, just go to its official website and download it. How simple it is. Losing access to github only hinders the public development of youtube-dl (including the ability for people to improve it). The program still works because it connects to YouTube’s public APIs and can still be downloaded directly.
youtube-dl (mirror)
This is the digital age. You really didn’t think that youtube-dl would disappear from the face of the Earth overnight, did you? If you can’t get youtube-dl on github or even its website, this mirror – or more – will be available forever.
youtube-dl (copyrighted version)
In this fork, youtube-dl have removed all potentially offensive language about “suggested videos for downloading with the program.” Also, the new license disclaimer for this version of youtube-dl reads:
“The authors of this software acknowledge that most technologies can be used for both legal and illegal purposes. The authors ask that this software is not used in violation of any local laws. The authors acknowledge that this is public code, that they have no real power to dictate how it is used other than a polite non-binding request, and therefore cannot be held responsible for what someone decides to do with it. “
Is this enough to avoid the RIAA’s repeated request for deletion? Let’s see.
youtube-dl-gui
This is the youtube-dl version that I prefer. With youtube-dl-gui, you get a lovely little interface for copying and pasting YouTube URLs. Then you click on a button in the app to add these URLs to the download list, which automatically starts collecting whatever you’ve queued up. Restarting failed downloads is very easy and the app grabs the highest quality video it can find by default from any URL. It is an easy and effective way to create backups of your personal YouTube content.
4K video downloader
I know it sounds sketchy, but you don’t even need to install this app. A portable version of 4K Video Downloader is also available and you can scan it for viruses as much as you like before you get started. However, it is a very convenient and useful way to extract YouTube videos of all kinds, whether you want the highest quality or something more reasonable for your device’s screen size and limitations.
Jdownloader 2
This handy application, which can be used to import and download a list of files at the same time, has taken on a fair amount of responsibility for packaging the adware into its primary installers. Even though the company offers an adware-free version , I would probably run Jdownloader 2 in a sandbox just in case. However, when you do that, you have a super easy way to download all the YouTube videos you want.
Browser extensions? No, it’s not .
There are many browser extensions that you can use to download YouTube videos. However, some of them seem to be pretty scam, so I would suggest just avoiding them all. Also, why allow an extension to have access to your browser to potentially do all sorts of shady things when you can instead use a user-friendly website that links to tons of other YouTube download websites?