How to Download YouTube Videos on Your Computer?

By: Ritika Purohit - Updated: October 9, 2018 8:30 am

YouTube is a famous video sharing platform. It’s mainly popular for its wide range of entertainment videos, from top music videos to general informational videos.

As long as you have a working internet connection to your mobile or PC, you enjoy YouTube videos endlessly.

But how to watch YouTube videos if there’s no internet? How to download YouTube videos and save them on your computer so you can watch them whenever you want to?

Downloading YouTube videos is also an excellent way to reduce data usage. You can use the inbuilt download feature or use third-party video downloaders for this.

The third-party video downloaders are helpful to download the restricted videos (videos with no download option) on YouTube.

Let’s see how to download your favorite YouTube show and watch them without an internet connection.

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Is Downloading YouTube videos an Illegal Process?

YouTube has its terms and conditions of service, and it strictly mentions that “you are only allowed to stream videos directly from its servers.” Hence, making use of a third-party application to download YouTube videos is illegal .

Until you don’t have permission from the copyright holder from the public domain or you, own the videos yourself, downloading YouTube videos can be a copyright violation .

However, you can save and access the videos offline through the YouTube app or web service.

Note: The following guide is for education/information purpose only. Downloading YouTube videos is illegal , we don’t support such activities. Please read YouTube Terms and Conditions before proceeding with the download.

How to Download and Save YouTube Videos on Your Computer?

There are various ways to download YouTube videos on your computer. Many users enter the URL and get a link to download a video. You can directly download YouTube video without any help of a third-party tool.

1. Direct Download using Savefrom.net URL

Follow the below-listed steps, to do so:

Go to the YouTube website and open the video file you want to download
Now, press and hold Ctrl + L keys to select the video URL in the address bar
Press Ctrl + C to copy the link (If you are an Apple user, press Ctrl with Command Key)
Now, type net/ and paste the YouTube address (URL)
Below the green box “ Download the app and get your video box ,” click on the Download video in browser link (wait for a few seconds to get the link)

Note: Ignore any advertisements that ask you to pay money to download a video as the above link enables you to download a YouTube video for free.

After the above process, you can see the preview of the video and a green Download button along with the video format. (The format for downloading video is either Low or Medium quality by default)
To see extra video formats including WebM, MP4 or 3GP, click on the drop-down menu which is to the right side of the Download box
There is more than one quality option for each aspect of video format, Select your desired format
Now, click on the green Download icon
Your video downloads in a while and you can see the video in your Downloads folder

Downloading HD quality video is not available at the moment. Also, the MP4 360 video format only plays but doesn’t download the video file.

2. Download YouTube video through the 4k Video Downloader

The 4k Video Downloader is a free, versatile software and one of the best YouTube downloaders. It can download 360-degree and 3d videos. To use 4K Video Downloader, follow the steps given below:

Step 1: Get 4k Video Downloader

You have to download and install the 4k Video Downloader from the app store of your device. It is free of cost, so hurry!. Once the download and installation process is over, Check if you have marked the box on the “Launch” option and now, click “Finish.”

Now, follow the next step to download your favorite video.

Step 2: Copy and Paste the YouTube Video URL

Just copy the address URL and paste it in the 4K Video Downloader . Let’s do this:

Open your web browser and search for your YouTube video you wish to download.
Now, copy the video’s URL from the address bar
Open the 4K Video Downloader app and click on the green “Paste Link” icon (at the top left)
The software now receives data about the video and offers you the choice of quality option

The options may differ from the original quality of YouTube video, but the software downloads the YouTube video in 4k.

Step 3: Select the format and Quality of the Video

Although the downloading option varies from the quality of YouTube video, you still get to choose the best format and quality for you.

Select your preferred choice in the drop-down menu (on the left)
Select a format using the menu on the right side

We usually prefer MP4 for our videos, as it adjusts the quality and file size well and plays on almost every device.

Now, Choose your quality depending on the file size and how much space it requires

(We recommend you to select the highest resolution for your TV or PC)

Use the Browse icon and select the folder where you want to save your downloaded videos
Click on Download
You can search for the downloaded video in the selected folder

You have now downloaded your favorite YouTube video. The 4K Video Downloader can save up to 24 videos together.

You can also try the Smart Mode to save your download process time as it automatically loads your download preferences. Just click on the lightbulb button which is on the top right before pasting a URL into the 4K Video Downloader. It downloads instantly using your last settings functions.

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