YouTube has declared war on downloading videos from its site. Most downloading programs and extensions no longer work. There is one that still works but only in Firefox. It’s a bit of a pain to set up.
Installing The Add-On
Just go to this address in Firefox and click on the big blue button + Add to Firefox – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/?src=search
The extension icon looks like three balls joined together, gray in colour until it’s ready to use. A number will appear on top of it depending on how many videos are available to download.
Click on it and then click on the gear symbol in the lower right corner to go to its settings.
In the settings window, click on the section labeled Companion App not installed. You will have to download and install this program for it to work. Once installed, click on the Recheck button to make sure it’s being detected properly by the browser.
The only other thing I usually change is the default download directory, otherwise, it uses the C:\Users(account)\dwhelper folder. Then click on the Save button in the lower right corner.
Downloading The Videos
So now that everything is set up, go to your YouTube video. In this case, I’m going to try to download Dave’s Computer Tips – How To edit Your TikTok Profile Page.
Go to the YouTube video page. Click on the Download Helper icon. In the drop-down menu, select your resolution.
A warning here: If you pick a video with the ADP before it, you’ll get a high-resolution video but there will be a big watermarked QR code embedded in the top left corner of the video. They want you to pay for the extension to remove the watermark.
The lower resolution ones (480 x 360) are not watermarked. If you download the ADP version, you’ll get a message explaining why there is a QR code watermark. Just check the box towards the bottom labeled Do not see that message again.
You will get a little pop-up notification when the video is finished.
If anybody is using any other program or extension that still works, please let us know in the comments.
(Ed note: This extension wants a lot of permissions before it will work. Choose wisely.)
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Nosy little piece of software, isn’t is? I decided I didn’t want/need it that badly after all.
When I wrote this and a previous, all my downloaders stopped working. A search online indicated that Youtube changed its site to close a loophole that made downloading impossible. So I added two plus two and got 5. 🙂 But my downloaders are working again. My first choice is still 4K. https://davescomputertips.com/download-youtube-videos-with-4k-video-downloader/
Far to many permissions to be acceptable. Buy a computer’s lifetime if Internet Download Manager instead.
I’ve tried a bunch of different You Tube download extensions and none of them have worked every time. What has worked for me every time so far is a program called 4K Video Downloader.