How to Download YouTube Videos on a Mac

This wikiHow teaches you different ways to save YouTube videos to your Mac so you can watch them offline. If you don't mind standing by while the video plays, you can record it using QuickTime's screen-recording tools. If you're in a hurry...

Method 1 of 3:

Using QuickTime

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Open the video you want to record on YouTube. Don't play the video just yet—just bring it up on the screen so it's ready.
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Open QuickTime on your Mac. It's the gray-and-blue "Q" icon on the Launchpad and in the Applications folder.
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Click the File menu. It's at the top-left corner of the screen in the menu bar.
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Click New Screen Recording on the menu. This opens the Screen Recording window.
1. Depending on the version of macOS you're using, you may see a toolbar with several icons on it instead.
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Select Internal Microphone from the menu. The menu is the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the red circle at the center of the window. This ensures that the app captures the video's sound.^[1]
1. If you don't see such a menu, click Options instead.
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Click the red circle button. You'll see some quick instructions about selecting an area of the screen to record.
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Drag the crosshairs over to select the video. This tells QuickTime to only capture the video rather than the entire screen.
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Click Record and start playing the video. If the sound isn't on, be sure to turn it on now.
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Click the Stop Recording icon when the video is finished. It's on the menu at the top of the screen and looks like a black circle with a white square inside.^[2] QuickTime will stop recording the screen and display the finished recording, which is also saved to your Movies folder.
1. If you want to trim the beginning and/or end from the recording, click the Edit menu and select Trim. You can then drag the yellow trimming bar to select the part of the video you want to keep and click Trim to save your changes.

Method 2 of 3:

Using VLC Media Player

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Install VLC Media Player on your Mac. If you don't already have this popular media player installed, you can download it now from https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html. To download the file:^[3]
1. Click the Download VLC button and save the DMG file to your Mac.
2. Double-click the downloaded DMG file in your Downloads folder.
3. Drag the VLC icon (the orange-and-white cone) to the Applications folder.
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Copy the address of the YouTube video you want to download. If you haven't already done so, bring up the video in your favorite web browser now. To copy the URL, click the address bar to highlight it, and then press ⌘ Command+C to copy.
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Open VLC Player. You'll find it in the Applications folder once it's installed.
1. You may have to provide permission for the app to run for the first time.
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Click the File menu. It's at the top-left corner of the screen in the menu bar.
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Click Open Network. This opens the "Open Source" window.^[4]
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Click the "URL" box and press ⌘ Command+V. This pastes the YouTube URL into the box.
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Click the Open button. It's at the bottom-right corner of the window. This adds the video to your VLC playlist.
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Right-click the video on the playlist and select Media Information. If the video starts playing, just right-click the video and select Media Information there instead.
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Highlight the "Location" URL and press ⌘ Command+C. It's the URL at the bottom of the window. This copies the URL to your clipboard.
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Paste the copied URL into your browser and press ⏎ Return. To paste the URL, return to your web browser, click the address bar, press ⌘ Command+V, and then press ⏎ Return. The video will begin to play on your browser.
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Right-click the video and select Save Video as to save. You can name the video anything you wish. Once you've saved the video, it will begin to download from YouTube. The downloaded video will then be playing on your Mac whether you are on or offline.

Method 3 of 3:

Using ClipGrab

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Go to https://clipgrab.org and click Free Download. ClipGrab is a free Mac app that lets you save YouTube videos to your computer.^[5] ClipGrab is a good alternative to QuickTime because you won't have to sit through the video while it records—you'll just enter the URL and the app does the work.
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Open the ClipGrab installer. You should be able to click its name at the bottom of your browser. If you don't see it, double-click the installer in your Downloads folder.
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Drag the ClipGrab icon to the Applications folder to install.
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Open ClipGrab once the installation is finished. It'll be in the Applications folder.
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Click the Downloads tab in ClipGrab. It's near the top of the window.
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Copy the address of the YouTube video you want to download. If you haven't already done so, bring up the video in your favorite web browser now. To copy the URL, click the address bar to highlight it, and then press ⌘ Command+C to copy.
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Paste the copied URL into ClipGrab. To do this, click back over to ClipGrab, click the typing area, and then press ⌘ Command+V to paste.
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Select MPEG4 from the "Format" menu. If you have a different video file preference, choose that instead.
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Click Grab this clip. It's below the URL you pasted into the blank. ClipGrab will download the YouTube video to your computer's default Downloads folder.

click video url menu

Kareem Winters

Update 04 March 2020

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