How To Download YouTube Videos On Mobile, Desktop And Tablets

By Getrude Mathayo / Published January 28, 2022 | 1:25 pm

KEY POINTS

YouTube downloads were officially limited to mobile users, the streaming platform recently added a feature for offline mode on Desktop too.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

While YouTube Premium membership allows for downloading content for offline viewing, there are a few videos that users can download outside of the paid membership as well. These videos will be available offline for up to 48 hours only.

YouTube is the second most visited site on the internet after Google with around 23 billion visitors per month. Most of them watch videos on the website or via one of the many YouTube apps.

YouTube downloads were officially limited to mobile users, the streaming platform recently added a feature for offline mode on Desktop too. The only catch is that this feature is limited to Premium users.

However not all videos can be downloaded, ones that are set to private viewing are not downloadable and there is also an option for offline viewing that can be disabled by content creators.

It’s possible and easy to download videos on a Windows laptop or PC, and on Android phones. It’s not as easy on an iPhone unless you pay for YouTube Premium

How to download YouTube videos on mobile

After that, you’ll need to reconnect your device to a mobile or Wi-Fi network every 48 hours. Reconnecting will allow the app to check for changes to the video or its availability. There are only a few locations in the world where downloading videos is available.

Open the YouTube app and go to the video you wish to download.
Click on the three-dot icon placed below the video. Click on Download Video.
Once the download is completed, users can find it in Library > Downloads.
If you want to change the download quality, head to Settings by clicking on the profile tab and then click on Downloads. Tap on Download Quality and choose from the available options. While Premium users get the ability to download in higher resolutions, free users can download till 720p quality.

How to download YouTube videos on desktop

YouTube has introduced the ability to let desktop browser users download videos for offline viewing. The Google-owned platform says the feature will only be supported in computers with the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, or Opera browsers. Unlike mobile, this feature is only available to Premium users on desktop

Open YouTube on your browser. Ensure that your browser is updated to the latest version.
Go to the video that you wish to view offline, click on the three dots menu at the bottom of the video. Click on Download.
Once the video is downloaded, you can find it in the hamburger menu on the left, in the Downloads section.
To choose download quality, head to Settings > Downloads. YouTube Premium users can download up full-HD (1080p) quality.

How To Download videos using YouTube Premium

If you’re a YouTube Premium subscriber then downloading videos is easy. There is one big caveat though: you can only do it using the official YouTube or YouTube Gaming apps, which means you can’t use Premium to download videos to your computer – only to a phone or tablet.

To download simply open the app and head to the video you want to download. Underneath the player, you should see a ‘Download’ icon – tap that, pick what video quality you want to download, and that’s it.

Once the video has downloaded the icon below it will change to a blue tick – tap this if you want to remove the download. You’ll be able to find all your downloaded videos in the Library or Account tabs.