How to download YouTube videos using Google Chrome

One of the main drawbacks of YouTube is the inability to download videos as a separate file for offline viewing. Fortunately, third-party developers have created many extensions and services that allow you to download videos from YouTube. Sometimes they cannot download HD videos, or they require a paid subscription. However, downloading videos from YouTube through Google Chrome is not a problem these days. To do this, there are reliable methods that make it easy to download content. We are going to cover the most simple and effective of these methods in this article.

Is it possible to download YouTube videos in Google Chrome

By default, Google Chrome does not give the tools to download YT videos with one click. As much as YouTube developers wanted to leave all uploaded content available only when a user logs into the service, this turned out to be impossible – users made extensions and separate sites for downloading. Until recently, there was a way to bypass the restriction through the browser’s developer tools, but it has ceased to be relevant.

It is important to remember that downloading videos from YouTube may violate the terms of use. That is why developers in every possible way impede the actions of users, creating more and more new obstacles in their path. Distributing downloaded videos may violate copyright, this is also worth remembering.

Downloading options

Both audio and high-quality video downloads are available with the right tools. Also, the following methods will help you download videos not only from YouTube, but also from other sites, like Vimeo or Streamable that position themselves as an alternative to Google’s service.

Using developer tools

Back in 2019, users could download YouTube videos directly through the developer tools. The meaning of the method was to filter browser requests in order to find a file among others, upload its link to a separate folder, and then download it.

At the moment, this has become impossible – the YouTube player splits the video into many small files, the opening of which leads to nothing.

Now to download a video, you have to use third-party services, there are simply no other working methods left.

Using special sites and extensions

Unfortunately, when you try to add some downloader extension to Chrome, you’ll most likely see something like this:

How to download YouTube videos using Google Chrome

or this

How to download YouTube videos using Google Chrome

or that

How to download YouTube videos using Google Chrome

So Chrome itself doesn’t allow its extensions to download from YouTube, because it’s against the company’s policy.

Luckily, there are several sites that can help you out:

How to download YouTube videos using Google Chrome

Most of those sites follow the same pattern:

  • you paste the video’s URL,
  • then hit the button (Start, Download, Submit, whatever),
  • choose quality,
  • hit another Download button,
  • choose where to save the file.

But some sites may work in a slightly different way. After they’ve processed the video, they open it in a new tab, and you need to:

  • either click on three dots in the lower right corner, and select Download,

How to download YouTube videos using Google Chrome

How to download YouTube videos using Google Chrome

  • or right-click anywhere on the video, and select “Save video as…”

How to download YouTube videos using Google Chrome

The sites may also differ in options they offer, in download speed etc.

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Mike Lombardi/ author of the article

QA engineer, head of automated software testing department. Knowledge of Java, C/C++, JSP, HTML, XML, JavaScript, SQL and Oracle PL/SQL. Journalist and columnist in the IT field. Website creator and administrator.

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