How to Download YouTube Videos to IPhone
When you have a reliable internet connection, you don’t think about watching YouTube on your iPhone. It just works. But in many cases, you need to either unplug or take a data break. In such situations, it is quite easy to download YouTube videos to your iPhone to watch them offline or without using data, but not all methods are created equal.
Is it legal to download videos from YouTube?
It’s a little complicated. If you download videos to your iPhone using the YouTube service (more on that below), it’s 100% better. However, the platform does not approve of downloading videos from its servers beyond this capability. In fact , YouTube’s terms of service prohibit app developers from creating YouTube downloaders and putting them on app stores.
However, the company won’t do anything if you download videos from third-party solutions. They will take action if you upload these videos, especially copyrighted videos, back onto the internet. So be careful: download these videos for personal use only.
How to Download Videos Using YouTube Premium
YouTube’s preferred method for downloading videos to your iPhone is, of course, paying for the service. With YouTube Premium, you’ll find a handy Download button next to most videos on the platform so you can quickly save your favorite videos for offline viewing whenever you want.
YouTube Premium has other benefits, including no pre-video ads and high-quality “1080p Premium” bitrate for $13.99 per month . This is an expensive way to download videos from YouTube, but YouTube approves of it.
Use a shortcut
If you don’t have YouTube Premium, you can use the Shortcuts app on your iPhone. Shortcuts are a treasure trove of powerful programs. Some of them simply downloaded YouTube.
The problem is that these shortcuts tend to break quickly. It’s not clear why, but it’s possible that YouTube often changes something on its end and stops working with these shortcuts. It wouldn’t be so bad if the developers stuck around and fixed problems when they arise, but unfortunately these shortcuts are often abandoned. So, when something goes wrong, a shortcut is useless.
One shortcut I’ve found that works is Sur . Sur is quite simple: once installed and running, you need to give it permission to connect to its host sites, and then choose whether to paste the YouTube URL or retrieve it from the clipboard. Sur treats your URL as a “contact” to submit to the site it uses to download videos, so you need to give permission for that “contact” to be sent to the site. Allow it to start and then allow Sur to connect to the Google Video URL. How long you wait depends on the size of the video in question, but once it’s done, click OK in the pop-up window to choose what you want to do with the video. Since this opens a shared list, you can do whatever you want with it: you can save it to your iPhone or the Files app, send it through Messages or a third-party app, AirDrop, save it in a note. whatever you want to do.
A previous version of this article recommended JAYD (just another YouTube downloader), and if you search online, you’ll also find older posts about the shortcut. Unfortunately, it seems to have suffered the same fate as other YouTube downloaders, so we can no longer recommend it.
Use YouTube download site (but be careful)
Mobile browsing on iPhone has come a long way. In many ways, it’s just as efficient as browsing on a Mac or PC. For example, you can use the YouTube downloader in Safari and download YouTube videos just like you would on a desktop computer.
However, this method is not recommended. Online YouTube downloaders can spam you, bombard you with sketchy ads, and create an overall malicious atmosphere. However, it works, so it’s a noteworthy option. But I’d stick with Sur or another reputable YouTube download shortcut if you can.