The easiest way to Download YouTube videos on Mac

Using QuickTime

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Open the video you want to record on YouTube. Don't rush to play the video - you just need to open the video page to be able to play the video at any time.

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Open QuickTime on Mac. It's the gray and blue "Q" icon on Launchpad and in the Applications folder.

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Click the File menu . This is the option in the upper 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.

Depending on the version of macOS you are using, you will see a toolbar with many icons on it.

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Select Internal Microphone in the menu. This is a menu with a downward arrow displayed to the right of the red circle in the center of the window. This ensures that the app captures the video's audio as well.

If you don't see this menu, click Options.

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Click the red circle button. You'll see a quick guide on selecting the area of ​​the screen to record.

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Drag the cross icon to select the video. This tells QuickTime to only record video instead of full screen.

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Click Record and start playing the video. If the video doesn't have sound yet, remember to turn on the sound now.

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Click the Stop Recording icon when the video is complete. It's the menu button at the top of the screen and looks like a black circle with a white square inside. QuickTime will stop recording the screen and display the finished movie clip saved to the Movies folder.

If you want to trim the beginning and/or end of the clip, click the Edit menu and choose Trim. You can drag the yellow crop bar to select the part of the video you want to keep and click Trim to save the changes.

Using VLC Media Player

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Install VLC Media Player on Mac. If this popular media program is not installed on your computer, you can download it from https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html. The steps to download the file are as follows:

Click the Download VLC button (Download VLC) and save the DMG file to Mac.

Double-click the downloaded DMG file in the Downloads folder.

Drag the VLC icon (orange and white traffic pile) to the Applications folder.

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Copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to download. If you haven't done this already, open the video in your favorite browser. To copy the path, simply click in the address bar to highlight it, and press ⌘ Command+C to copy.

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Open VLC Player. You will find the program in the Applications folder after installing it on your computer.

You may have to give the app permission to work the first time you use it.

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Click the File menu . It's the option in the upper left corner of the menu bar displayed on the screen.

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Click Open Network . The screen immediately shows the "Open Source" window.

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Click the "URL" (Path) box and press ⌘ Command+V. This is the action of pasting the YouTube link into the box.

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Click the Open button displayed in the lower right corner of the window. The video will be added to VLC's playlist after this.

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Right-click the video on the playlist and select Media Information . When the video starts playing, you will right-click on the video and select Media Information here.

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Highlight the URL in the "Location" field and press ⌘ Command+C. It's the path at the bottom of the window. The instant path is copied to the clipboard.

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Paste the copied path into the browser and press ⏎ Return. To paste the link, you need to return to your browser, click the address bar, press ⌘ Command+V, and press ⏎ Return. The video will start playing in the browser.

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Right-click the video and select Save Video as to save it. You can give the video any name. After you perform the save operation, the video will be downloaded from YouTube. You can watch downloaded videos on your Mac whether online or offline.

Using ClipGrab

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Go to https://clipgrab.org and click Free Download . ClipGrab is a free Mac application that allows you to save videos to your computer. This is a good alternative to QuickTime because you don't have to wait while recording a video - you just enter the link and the app does the rest.

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Open the ClipGrab installer. You can click the program's name below the browser. If you don't see it, double-click the installer in the Downloads folder.

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Drag the ClipGrab icon to the Applications folder to proceed with the installation.

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Open ClipGrab when the installation is complete. The program will display in the Applications folder.

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Click the Downloads tab in ClipGrab. This is the option near the top of the window.

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Copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to download. If you haven't done this already, open the video in your favorite browser. To copy the path, simply click in the address bar to highlight it and press ⌘ Command+C to copy.

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Paste the copied path into ClipGrab. To do this, you need to return to ClipGrab, click in the input field, and press ⌘ Command+V to paste the path.

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Select MPEG4 in the "Format" menu. If you prefer another video file format, choose according to your liking.

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Click Grab this clip (Get this video). This is the selection below the path that you pasted into the empty field. ClipGrab will download YouTube videos to your computer's default Downloads folder.

Jessica Tanner

Update 24 February 2022