Any free software to download youtube video?

worf

@amelia
If you're on a Desktop PC running Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc, and you're comfortable with using command prompts, a really powerful YouTube downloader is "yt-dlp"

It's open-source, updated regularly to adapt to the roadblocks YT develops, can list all files & resolutions available for download, but normally it DLs the best video/audio available.

I use it to DL videos, but also to DL audio-only formats such as mp3, mp4, etc... It can batch DL playlists if you're savvy enough, but there are GUI's as well for more of a traditional experience...

It can be found here...

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation

Regards...

sswzqr

if you use mac or linux: yt-dlp

you need to:

have Brew installed. Brew is the package manager.
- do it via terminal [cmd+space > terminal].

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

install yt-dlp.
- also in terminal, type:

brew install yt-dlp

that's it.

youtube will always require cookies. so, usually the command will be:

yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser [safari/chrome/firefox/etc] http://youtube.com/video

works for (almost) every page/site with video. x/twitter, reddit, etc.

note: to make life easier, i save the config file (~/.config/yt-dlp/config) with the following content:

-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best
--audio-quality 0
--concurrent-fragments 8
--retries 10
--fragment-retries 10
--file-access-retries 5
--cookies-from-browser safari
--restrict-filenames

to do this via terminal:

mkdir -p ~/.config/yt-dlp 
cat > ~/.config/yt-dlp/config <<'EOF'
-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best
--audio-quality 0
--concurrent-fragments 8
--retries 10
--fragment-retries 10
--file-access-retries 5
--cookies-from-browser safari
--restrict-filenames
EOF

on Windows, or if you need extra help, any AI chat can help youuu.

Kevin4fm

@amelia I use Video Download Helper on Firefox to download from YouTube constantly. (I'm now on Linux, but I'm fairly sure I used it when on Windows too.)

I download multiple videos daily. Every now and then it does stop working, but usually a simple browser restart fixes it. I think there have been a couple of times I had to reboot, and there was once a period of a day or two when it stopped, so I had to save stuff to my Watch List to grab wn it started working again.

MrMazda

If you use Firefox, I find Video Download Helper works GREAT. Always has for me.

OKCancel

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doobiedeluxe

I use yt-dlp for a long time and miss nothing. With all the possible combinations on the -f (or in .config/) you can exactly define what you want. Î run it with deno as JS-Interpreter.

On Windows i run it into a WSL Ubuntu. In the past i used Cygwin for that.

Important is to have ffmpeg working to merge video+audio or convert something.

Stacher is not bad, i tested it but rarely used it. It comes with all you need. I have more fun hammer it into a shell

With your own youtube API key you can automize downloading of unseen videos of favourite channels. Or like me, i got an overview of new Videos from a list of channels linked in my Telegram bot, so i can directly access. Search and Sort in Channels is a pain in the youtube android tv app. Just playd around a bit.

The youtube-dl fork (yt-dlp) is very well maintained and up to date. Specially when a website change something, the yt-dlp modules for it will be updated fast.

I can't suggest any other software i haven't used. If you are not so into command line stuff the best is to try Stacher. All other GUI's i know are for linux.

Have fun. Tell us if you like it.

Doobie.

amelia

@eusanderse Yeah, it works for me. But i dont know why after using it for a while, it stopped working and a error message showing asking me to sign in. I must stop using it for few hours then restart the software and it works again but only for a while before same error message showing up again.

eusanderse

@amelia Hmm I never had that problem before. That is a very strange error. I should mention that I'm using the older software version (6.0.28) for Windows since I never felt the need to update it.

Are you using the most recent version of Stacher 7, by the way? That might have something to do with the error, though I would assume that newer versions should be more bug-free. I'll recommend looking at the reddit thread r/StacherIO and see if any other users mentioned the same issue as you do. Perhaps someone might have the solution.
Otherwise, I would just try to reinstall the software and see if the problem persists. If all else fails, try to get older installation version, if that is possible.

diabangical

@worf

YT-DLP is solid and my current secondary downloader. You may need to do some fancy command work if/when YT puts up blocks/limits/restrictions.

VideoDownloadHelper went with the "limited downloads per hour" route, so I don't use it for YT anymore and that was the reason why I switched to:

Internet Download Manager as my primary will fetch nearly all YT videos (and nearly all videos from almost everywhere), but sometimes gets a lower quality on yt specifically; or it will download audio and video separately (you'll have to combine them with ffmpeg or an A/V combiner of your choice). I use IDM to just not fiddle with command line because i'm lazy and usually don't have to. It's not free... like WinRare isn't free. But it's so good you'll get the license because it still feels like you're stealing it with how much it can do.

I still use YT-DLP as the "surefure" thing if for some reason IDM won't catch it, or when it splits audio/video.

worf

@diabangical said:

@worf

YT-DLP is solid and my current secondary downloader. You may need to do some fancy command work if/when YT puts up blocks/limits/restrictions.

VideoDownloadHelper went with the "limited downloads per hour" route, so I don't use it for YT anymore and that was the reason why I switched to:

Internet Download Manager as my primary will fetch nearly all YT videos (and nearly all videos from almost everywhere), but sometimes gets a lower quality on yt specifically; or it will download audio and video separately (you'll have to combine them with ffmpeg or an A/V combiner of your choice). I use IDM to just not fiddle with command line because i'm lazy and usually don't have to. It's not free... like WinRare isn't free. But it's so good you'll get the license because it still feels like you're stealing it with how much it can do.

I still use YT-DLP as the "surefure" thing if for some reason IDM won't catch it, or when it splits audio/video.

@diabangical

I haven't tried this one yet, but since the OP @amelia asked for "free" software recommendations, I didn't think this app would enter the conversation, although there is a 30-day free trial & apparently a relatively generous affiliate program with this company