How to Download YouTube Videos?

There are many potential reasons to convert YouTube videos to MP3 or MP4 format and store them on your local hard drive. For instance;

The owner may remove the video at any point in time, which happens a lot more frequently than you might expect. By saving a backup of the video locally, you ensure that you'll always have access.

When traveling, you may encounter low-bandwidth networks or no Internet connection at all. If you'd like to watch YouTube content while flying or traveling, downloading YouTube videos is your best bet to avoid buffering or interruptions!

Not all devices support the YouTube app. If you have an iPod or a multimedia player that's not compatible with YouTube, then you're best off first converting the videos to MP4 or the music to MP3.

As a content creator, then you'll likely want to use clips of other people's YouTube videos at some point.

If you'd like to share a big video with friends or family, you could upload it to YouTube and recommend that they download it using Viddly. This way, you don't have to pay for an expensive subscription for a file hosting or file transfer service such as WeTransfer, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.

In case you don't have access to YouTube Red, downloading videos is one way to avoid interruptions during video playback due to advertisements.

For privacy protection, you may want to download a YouTube video rather than watching it. When you watch a YouTube video, both the owner and YouTube can access information regarding what parts of the video you watched, on what device you watched it, and tie this information to your account if you're logged in. YouTube has a spotty track record when it comes to privacy. They've previously faced lawsuits in the UK for running highly targeted ads to 'influence vulnerable young minds'. YouTube was also fined $136 million for collecting personal data without consent.

YouTube specifies in their Terms of Service that you shouldn't download content by any other means than their download-button. However, downloading videos is legal for personal use or under the fair use provision in most countries.

Here's what YouTube's TOS states specifically:
You shall not download any content unless you see a 'download' or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that content. You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the content.

Technically, YouTube only allows you to download videos for which they've expressly provided that option. However, YouTube does not enforce this policy because it'd be practically impossible for them to win from a legal standpoint.

To an extent, copyright law in many countries permits downloading copyright-protected content for personal use, for instance, Canada and EU member states.

To make a long story short, downloading copyright-free content is not illegal in any way, shape, or form. If you'd like to download copyright-protected content, you should ask for permission from the copyright holder.

Since YouTube was founded in 2015, We've never heard of a single instance of this happening. Even if they were intent on banning users who download videos, it would be virtually impossible for YouTube to detect whether or not you're simply watching a video or if you're downloading it.

We have not found any other application that's faster than Viddly when it comes to downloading either a single video or an entire playlist. We've considered both the number of clicks required and the total time, including download speed, measured from pasting the URL to when the file is ready to be played. If you've found any faster application, please let us know!

We've tested the following online YouTube downloaders and found them all to have issues ranging from privacy violations to promoting malware;

OnlineVideoConverter: Only 360p resolution was offered. No download took place. A new tab was opened trying to install an unknown executable under the guise of a Media Player update.

SaveFrom: A fake virus scanner ad disguised as a notification tried to download malware. After a long wait, an error occurred.

YT1s: The maximum quality is 720p. The site requested access to provide browser notifications.

Y2Mate.guru: The maximum quality offered is 720p. Any higher-resolution files do not include audio. The site triggers a misleading ad to trick users into thinking that they've won a prize.

YTMP3.cc: Misleading download and play buttons trigger ads for gambling and adult sites. We were unable to download any videos due to an error.

As such, if you would like to download YouTube videos in high definition, a desktop-based YouTube downloader is recommended.

Unfortunately, neither the Google Play store nor the Apple store will allow any YouTube downloading apps or APK's to be listed. Because you would have to root or otherwise disable anti-virus protection on your device, we strongly advise you not to use any YouTube downloaders for mobile devices.