If the thought of a long car journey or bedtime without a connexion to the internet leaves you trembling with fright, there's a solution. You lot tin download those YouTube videos your kids (or you) love to watch to play dorsum offline. Here'south how to save YouTube videos on your Mac, so they can exist watched without an internet connection.

Before we start, we have to point out that you should be aware of copyright issues. Firstly, you shouldn't download someone else's video and then, for example, upload it to your own YouTube channel or use it to promote your business organization. You should too note that downloading YouTube videos goes against YouTube's terms of service. The company specifies that "You shall not download any Content unless y'all meet a 'download' or similar link displayed by YouTube."

Of course if it's for your own individual employ it'southward unlikely that YouTube will ever know.

Beneath nosotros will wait at some solutions for downloading YouTube video to your Mac. Join us every bit we seek the best YouTube downloader for Mac.

How to download YouTube videos on a Mac: Record YouTube

YouTube Premium

  • $eleven.99/£eleven.99 a month, one-month free trial
  • Go it here

It's worth mentioning hither that YouTube offers its own YouTube Premium service that allows you to download YouTube videos. That service costs $eleven.99/£11.99 per month and along with being able to download video you tin can besides avoid ads, listen to YouTube Music Premium (and Google Play Music). And you become to watch YouTube Originals, which include movies and series that are only available on the subscription service.

Even so, if you were hoping that you lot'd be able to download the video to your Mac you lot volition be disappointed. YouTube Premium only lets subscribers download video and music on to mobile devices, and information technology volition simply be available to sentry offline for 30 days.

This would exist the virtually legitimate way to download YouTube video. But if you don't want to pay £143.88/$143.88 a yr for the privilege, there are thankfully other solutions.

Best Free YouTube downloader for Mac

There are loads of tools that advertise their ability to save YouTube videos to your Mac. Some of these options are free and some are paid for. In our feel the free apps are commonly more problem than they are worth and potentially dangerous. (If you meet a alert that y'all demand to install Flash, for example, it really could be a scam, or at worse malware!)

Luckily there are a couple of ways that you tin can download YouTube video for costless with software that comes with your Mac. You don't need to download an app at all.

MacOS Mojave: Command + Shift + v

  • Free
  • Go macOS Mojave hither

macOS Mojave has its own in-built screen recording feature and since it'southward office of the macOS it's free to utilise.

This could be a solution for y'all if you don't need the sound because it won't tape the sound.

  1. Press Control + Shift + v.
  2. Click on Tape selected portion.
  3. Elevate the crosshairs to select the video. Record YouTube
  4. Click Record.
  5. At present beginning playing the video.
  6. Expect for it to finish so stop the video.
  7. Stop the screen recording (you'll observe a stop button in the card at the superlative of the screen or in the box every bit seen in the prototype beneath.)

Screen recording

QuickTime Player

  • Free with macOS

Before Apple merged the tools for screen recording with the screen catch tools in macOS Mojave Mac users could use QuickTime to record the screen on their Mac.

QuickTime can nonetheless be used in this way - at least for at present. Hither's how.

  1. Open QuickTIme Actor (press Command + Space and start typing QuickTime).
  2. Go to the menu at the top of the screen and choose File > New Screen Recording.
  3. A Screen Recording pop-up window will appear. Before you motion to the next pace click on the down arrow beside the red push and make sure that Internal Microphone is selected. QuickTime record YouTube
  4. Click on the cherry button.
  5. Now yous volition encounter instructions indicating you tin click to record the total screen, or drag to record function of the screen. Drag the cross-hairs over the video. QuickTime recording Mac
  6. Now click on Record.
  7. Start the YouTube video playing (make sure the sound is on).
  8. Once the YouTube video has played you lot can click on the stop button in the carte at the meridian of the screen.
  9. The video will open so you can check it earlier saving it.

This is without a incertitude the best style to record from YouTube on a Mac. However, a short video can take up a lot of space on your Mac, and plain it is necessary to wait while the whole video plays through.

How to download YouTube video

In that location are also some solutions on offer that volition download the YouTube video for you, rather than you lot have to record the screen of your Mac while playing the video. This might exist a preferred choice if you don't have the time to sit and await for an 60 minutes of Peppa Grunter to play.

As we said above, nosotros don't recommend the free solutions specially every bit at that place is already a gratis solution on the Mac, and we're not sure how much nosotros trust them.

iTubeDownloader

How to download YouTube videos to Mac: iTubeDownloader

  • $8.99 (nigh £7)
  • Get it hither

iTubeDownloader charges a fee - it's $viii.99 for the activation code, and students can get 35% off - simply at that place'southward a free trial that may be sufficient for your needs.

It looks like a browser, but it automatically directs y'all to YouTube's home page. You so scan the site every bit normal, except that there's at present a big Download button next to the URL bar. Tap this at any point to grab the video you're currently viewing (or the video whose URL you lot've pasted into the address bar).

Nosotros establish it easy to use iTubeDownloader and the resultant download was of a good quality. (Yous go a choice of download quality settings, in fact.) The but downside, really, is that it isn't complimentary beyond the terms of the trial.

Parallels ToolBox

  • £15.99/$nineteen.99 a year, vii-day trial
  • Download it here

On the basis that going with a well-known visitor ways you are more likely not to end up with at best bad software, at worse malware on your Mac, we'll expect at Parallels ToolBox.

Parallels (the people behind the software that makes it easy to run Windows on your Mac) have come up upward with xxx tools that can be used to simplify a number of tasks on your Mac. ToolBox is the result of their experience manning a aid desk for their customers running Parallels on a Mac. So many customers phoned up asking how to do various things that Parallels idea some easy to use tools might be a good solution. Then Parallels Toolbox was built-in.

Parallels Tool Box record YouTube

  1. Once you accept download and installed Parallels Toolbox you'll meet a toolbox icon in the menu at the top of your screen. Click on that.
  2. You lot'll see a number of tools including Aeroplane Mode, Free Retention, Practice Not Disturb, Make Gif, and Download Video. Click on Download Video.
  3. Toolbox will instruct you that y'all need to enable a Safari extension in social club to download video. Click Enable.
  4. At present a Download Video box volition open up on your screen. Just copy and paste the URL from the YouTube video and paste it into the box, or drag and drib it in. An arrow will indicate that the video is downloading and a box volition pop up with the details, e.g. Downloading "Peppa Pig.mp4" and you can sentry as the download happens. Ours took nigh ten minutes to download 88MB - but note that speed volition be determined by your connection. Downloading YouTube video Mac
  5. Once the download has finished yous will notice the video file in your Downloads binder (which might not be immediately obvious).

The file volition exist saved as an MPEG-4 movie. It will open and play in QuickTime on your Mac.

If y'all are looking for an piece of cake way to get the video onto an iPad or iPhone one solution would exist to copy the video onto iCloud so y'all can access it from the Files app. Yous tin can and then download it from there and play information technology whenever yous want. We have more details about saving a YouTube video to an iPhone or iPad.