The first thing that you will need to record audio from YouTube is a reliable YouTube audio recorder for Mac. You may find several audio recorder tools from the internet to extract audio from YouTube. With this professional video downloader for Mac, users can download YouTube single videos as well the whole collections from YouTube users' channel, personal playlist, movies category, YouTube charts, artists' channel and music category. Within just one click, you can grab all videos in specified channle/list with 3X faster speed brought.
After reading this article, you will know five easy and fast ways to download YouTube videos on Mac. Apply one of them to save YouTube videos to your Mac and then you can watch offline without an Internet connection.
How to download videos on your Mac with VideoDuke. Download and then install VideoDuke, video downloader for Mac.; Run the application and select from YouTube, Vimeo or Dailymotion in the main window. Method 1: Use QuickTime to Screen-Record YouTube Videos on Mac. QuickTime is a Mac built-in extensible multimedia framework. You can use it to do a lot of things like video conversion, video editing, screen-recording, live streaming, etc.
As the biggest video site in the world, YouTube has a wide range of users who search, view and upload videos every day. However, unlike you can freely view and upload videos on YouTube, you can't download YouTube videos directly on the site. That's why so many users are looking for a way to download YouTube videos to iPhone/iPad, save videos from YouTube to PC, download YouTube videos on Mac, and more.
Given that, here we provide five proven ways to download videos from YouTube to Mac, including using desktop software, online service, and other workable ways. Read on to learn how to download YouTube videos on Mac in different ways and carry out the one best suited to your needs.
- Download YouTube videos to Mac for Free
- Save a Video from YouTube to Mac Online
- Download Videos from YouTube to Mac with Chrome/Firefox
- Get YouTube Videos on Mac with VLC Media Player
- Save YouTube Videos to Mac via Screen Recording
How to Download YouTube Videos on Mac in 5 Ways
Some of the ways below need you to download and install the desktop software, while others may not. Learn them in detail and you will know which one is the best YouTube downloader for you.
Method 1. How to Download YouTube Videos on Mac for Free
100% free, no ads, and no plugins, EaseUS MobiMover is a YouTube downloader that you can use at no cost and without any worries about bothering ads or add-ons. With it, you can download videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Twitter and other sites to your computer (PC/Mac) or mobiles devices (iPhone/iPad).
To download YouTube Videos on Mac for Free:
Step 1.Run EaseUS MobiMover > Go to choose the 'Video Downloader' option on the left side > Choose a location to house the videos you download.
Step 2. Copy the URL/link of the YouTube video you wish to download, paste it into the download bar of EaseUS MobiMover, then tap 'Download.'
Step 3. Wait for MobiMover to download YouTube videos to your Mac. When it has finished, you can go to your selected location to check the downloaded item.
In addition to video download, MobiMover also has other features that will help you transfer files between two iOS devices or between an iOS device and computer, which will do a great help if you are an iPhone or iPad user. It's a versatile tool that can work as an iOS content manager and free YouTube downloader at the same time. Don't miss it and make it your good helper.
Method 2. How to Save YouTube Videos on Mac Online
Don't want to install any software? If so, you may prefer online YouTube video downloaders compared with desktop software. Honestly speaking, although much convenient, an online YouTube downloader may cause more troubles than a desktop program. According to my own experience, there are some issues that may occur while using an online tool to save YouTube videos on a computer, including:
- Ads keep popping up
- The users are redirected to another shopping site
- The tool can't find the video according to the link
And more. Luckily, not all the online YouTube downloaders are that troubling. Here is Keepvid that works well to get videos from YouTube onto your Mac.
Keepvid is one of the most popular online video downloader that allows you to download YouTube videos on a computer by inserting the video link into the address bar. Convert mac contacts to csv. You will like it if downloading YouTube videos in different formats and quality is what you need. Besides, it also serves the function of an audio converter that will extract music or other audio files from a YouTube video for you.
To download a YouTube video on Mac with Keepvid:
Step 1. Go to YouTube and copy the URL of the video you want to download.
Step 2. Visit https://keepv.id/ on your Mac and click the 'Download' button.
Step 3. After an analyzing process, you will see the download options available, including videos in different quality and audio in varying formats. Choose the format and click 'Download' to start downloading YouTube videos to your Mac.
Method 3. Download YouTube Videos for Mac with Chrome/Firefox
Want to download a YouTube video with the browser? If that's exactly what you want, you can't miss the helpful browser extensions shown below, which allow you to save YouTube videos on Mac using Chrome or Firefox for free.
To download videos from YouTube with Chrome:
Step 1. Go to visit YouTube Video and MP3 Downloader.
Step 2. The webpage will detect your browser automatically. Confirm your browser and click 'INSTALL VIA CROSSPILOT'.
Step 3. Download and install the extension. Afterward, restart the browser.
Step 4. Go to YouTube and play the video you want to download.
Step 5. Now you should see there is a Download button under the video. Click the Download button to save the YouTube video to your laptop directly or click the three dots next to it to choose other qualities available. (If you don't see the download button, click the icon of the YouTube Video and MP3 Downloader from the menu bar of the browser to download the video.)
To save a YouTube video on Mac with Firefox:
Step 1. Go to add the extension - Easy Youtube Video Downloader Express to Firefox.
Step 2. Restart Firefox.
Step 3. Go to YouTube and play the video you intend to download.
Step 4. Under the video, click the 'Download' button and choose one of the versions (MP4 360p, MP4 720p, MP4 1080p, MP3..) to download.
Of course, there are video download tools for Safari. You can search on the Internet and choose the one you like.
Method 4. Save YouTube Videos to Mac with VLC Media Player
How can you download YouTube videos on your Mac for free? One of the answers is to use the VLC media player. VLC is known as a free and open-source portable cross-platform media player software and streaming media. It also enables you to download a YouTube video on your computer, be it Mac, PC, or laptop.
Step 1. Download and install VLC media player on your Mac and launch the program.
Step 2. Go to YouTube and copy the link of the video you attempt to download.
Step 3. In VLC, choose 'File' > 'Open Network'. In the 'Open Source' window, paste the video URL in the address bar and click 'Open'.
Step 4. Right-click the video and select 'Media Information'.
Step 5. Copy the content in the 'Location' bar and paste the copied URL into the address bar. Then press 'return' to begin to play on your browser.
Step 7. Right-click the video and select 'Save Video as.' to start downloading videos from YouTube to your Mac.
Method 5. Grab Videos from YouTube to Mac with Screen Recording Features
Other than downloading videos from YouTube, you can choose to record the video and save it on your Mac. This method works best when you can't download a YouTube video due to copyright issues or other problems.
To capture the screen, you can either use the built-in screen recording feature in macOS or QuickTime Player.
- To use the built-in screen recording feature: Press Command + Shift + 5.
- To use QuickTime: Choose 'File' in QuickTime and select 'New Screen Recording'.
Common Issues Related to YouTube Video Download
There are some frequently asked questions from users about YouTube video download:
'How do I download YouTube videos to my Mac for free?'
If you have read this article, you know now that all the five methods detailed in this guide enable you to save YouTube videos to Mac for free.
'Can I download a video from YouTube with YouTube Premium?'
The YouTube Premium subscription allows you to download videos from YouTube, but only to mobile devices like phones and tablets. Thus, if you attempt to save a YouTube video to Mac, it won't help.
'Why can't I download YouTube videos?'
If you are going to download a private video or a video containing music, you may fail since these videos may give rise to copyright issues.
The Bottom Line
Among all the video download apps, which is the best YouTube downloader for you? Choose the one that fits your needs best to apply.
If you are a Windows user, choosing a YouTube video downloader is easy, but it is a different story for Mac users. And therefore, we will present 15 best YouTube video downloader for Mac that are compatible with all Mac platforms, such as Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, EI Capitan & Yosemite etc., and there are more than 15 of them in the market.
Here is the list of 15 best YouTube video downloaderthat work on all Mac platforms in 2020.
- 1. Gihosoft TubeGet for Mac
- 2. MacX YouTube Downloader
- 3. Airy
- 4. ClipGrab
- 5. MediaHuman YouTube Downloader
- 6. 5KPlayer
- 7. Apowersoft
- 8. Wondershare AllMyTube
- 9. iTube Studio for Mac
- 10. Total Video Downloader
- 11. YTD
- 12. Downie
- 13. SConverter.com
- 14. Softorino YouTube Converter 2
- 15. 4K Video Downloader for Mac
1. Gihosoft TubeGet for Mac
If you are looking the best way to download YouTube videos on a MacBook, then you can resort to Gihosoft TubeGet, a YouTube video downloader for Mac & Windows. It allows users to download multiple videos or a whole playlist from YouTube at once even if the clips are lengthy. The tool has no trouble saving HD & UHD quality videos and it doesn’t hog much system resources.
Gihosoft TubeGet also offers the capability to download 48/60fps videos from YouTube, which is a boon for the game and sports lover. Well, to the language learner, Gihosoft TubeGet develops the feature to grab the closed caption, local subtitle, auto-generated subtitle & auto-translated subtitle are all supported.
2. MacX YouTube Downloader
If you are a Mac user, no matter MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac mini, no matter Mac OS X, OS X, macOS 10.12, 10.13, 10.14, 10.15, and have a strong desire to download YouTube videos, MacX YouTube downloader for Mac is a nice choice. MacX helps to save videos from Facebook, Dailymotion, Vevo, Vimeo and multiple popular video hosting websites.
MacX YouTube downloader free full version supports to download YouTube videos in whatever resolution that YouTube provides, such as 720P, 1080P, 2K, 4K & 8K etc., and keep them in MP4 or WebM format. Integrated with an easy-to-use interface and advanced technology, MacX YouTube Downloader makes it the ultimate choice for you to download popular videos & musics at a fast speed with minimal quality loss.
3. Airy
Unlike other video downloader that listed in this article, Airy only works with YouTube, perhaps the developers know that concentration is the key to success. Airy offers the feature to download full HD 1080P, 4K & 8K Ultra HD videos from YouTube conveniently. You also get options on video formats, e.g. MP4, WebM, FLV, OGG & 3GP etc. If you want to save soundtracks in MP3 format, and not keep the whole music video, Airy can perfectly finish this work, and it can even download the album art for you.
Airy also has the capability to save the entire playlist or channel from YouTube. Another big advantage about Airy is that it even lets you pause a download, and resume download the YouTube video right from where you suspended it, which is a perfect design if you are not on your computer all the time.
4. ClipGrab
Another Mac version YouTube video downloader added to this list is ClipGrab. ClipGrab is a completely free software which makes a living by donations, free as it’s, its video downloading feature doesn’t lose out to any competitor. ClipGrab allows you to search your videos directly through the address bar by keywords without opening YouTube, that’s quite time-saving.
When it comes to downloading YouTube videos, ClipGrab provides a super easy way to do that. Just copy and paste the link into the address box, it will show all the possible resolutions. You just click the “Grab this clip!” button, it will save the videos offline on the desktop of your MacBook or iMac.
5. MediaHuman YouTube Downloader
This Mac software can help you download videos from YouTube and many other similar video sharing websites like VKontakte, SoundCloud & Vevo etc. What we love about this YouTube download app for Mac desktop is that it has so many practical features, such as simultaneous download, downloading HD & UHD videos such as 1080P, 2K, 4K & 8K, and the ability to download entire YouTube playlist & channel at a time.
Just like other YouTube downloader for Mac, MediaHuman also gives you options if you want to download the video or extract the audio track alone. This is a boon for people who enjoy music, it also can provide the original audio without quality loss. MediaHuman has many advanced features, you can find it in the preference setting, such as preventing from sleep while downloading, ignoring 30+ fps videos, using format priority list etc.
6. 5KPlayer
How can we download YouTube videos on MacBook in resolution up to 1080P, 2K, 4K or even 8K? Well, desktop packages can help you with that. Although these desktop software are not cross-platform, but they are more powerful in functions than online downloader on Safari. Downloading HD & UDH videos for those tools is just easy as pie. The best part of these software is that they can batch download all the videos on a playlist at one time, and grab the subtitles as well.
For YouTube download software on Mac, 5KPlayer is one of the best. This app works flawlessly on Mac system to download videos and movies in MP4, WebM, MKV, 3GP depending on your preferences. It also supports video resolutions from 360P, 720P, 1080P to 4K & 8K, which means it will allow you to download really high-resolution videos. This is perfect for those who want to download clear long videos, such as full feature films and documentaries.
7. Apowersoft
Perhaps what is great about this app is that it lets you convert videos to other file formats suitable for devices like iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, PSP, Kindle Fire, and other mobile devices. This Mac video downloader understands that some of us do not just watch videos on our computers, but also on other portable devices. But not just that, it also helps you download high-resolution videos outside of YouTube. You can also use this app to download videos from Twitter, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Facebook.
As a bonus feature, this easy-to-use app will even allow you to download YouTube playlist to your Mac. Not satisfied with the only downloading function, Apowersoft also integrates itself with screen record and video conversion section, now it becomes an one-stop tool. With Apowersoft in hand, one can easily download online videos from YouTube, record game videos, and convert videos taken by camera to more popular formats so that users can easily edit and upload them to YouTube.
8. Wondershare AllMyTube
Wondershare AllMyTube is a pretty popular app, probably one of the most used YouTube video downloader for Mac. Supporting many popular sites, AllMyTube can also convert videos to other formats or to music files, grab whole playlists and handle batch downloads all at once. It’s a shareware so you get limited functions, the free version can only allow users to download 2 videos, and there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The design of AllMyTube is very intuitive, it has 4 parts: downloading, downloaded, converted & WiFi transfer. When you finish downloading your YouTube videos, you can convert them to other formats and send them to your phones directly by scanning the QR code. As a senior specialist for YouTube, AllMyTube supports download age-restricted YouTube videos, just input the login password, you can unblock the restriction.
9.iTube Studio for Mac
To save videos from YouTube on your Mac devices (MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac or Mac mini), we have another alternative for you – iTube Studio for Mac.
The best thing about this app is that it’s integrated with many useful functions, such as video downloading, recording, converting & transferring, totally an all-in-one tool. Equipped with a private mode, now you can use it to download videos in secret. As a professional video recorder, iTube allows you to record videos from Netflix, Hulu, iTunes & BBC iPlayer etc. So if a video site is prohibited from downloading, you can just record them, nice design.
10. Total Video Downloader
There are multiple applications which you can utilize to save YouTube videos on your MacBook Air or Pro successfully, and Total Video Downloader is one of the best and fastest. This app is designed to download any video uploaded on the Internet, and it works exactly well for what it’s designed for.
This app offers an interface that looks like a web browser, so users can have easy access to many hot videos on YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo and Lynda. However, if this app is in running for one of the top apps to use when downloading videos, it will fall behind when it comes to format conversion. But that’s not a big deal, you can use other apps to convert videos instead. However, when it comes to downloading videos, this app is highly recommended.
11. YTD
Although we have talked about many desktop software that work smoothly on MacBook, I’d like to add another one to this list – YTD. YTD is also a popular app which we hear a lot. Users can easily navigate through this app and get on with their download without the challenge of getting familiar with the interface.
YTD lets you download videos just like other YouTube downloaders, but with an added bonus feature of allowing you to convert videos to different formats & cut the videos to your preferred length. What we love about this downloader is that it’s one of the most handy apps. It is very simple, and thus very easy to use.
12. Downie
Downie is video downloader for YouTube & many other video sites that works only on Mac operating system, and it requires macOS 10.11+, including Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, EI Capitan. Like many other competitors, Downie supports many video hosting sites, including YouTube, Youku, Bilibili, Vimeo & SoundCloud etc., and the number is rapidly growing. It can grab HD videos up to 4K, and convert videos into MP4 or MP3 so you can play them on your iTunes.
Downie is multilingual, and it updates about once a week with new features, bug fixes, and new sites supported. What it attracts me is that the software can group the video file by site and playlist, so that all the downloads can be sorted into folders based on where you downloaded them from or from which playlist they are.
13. SConverter.com
When the topic of downloading YouTube videos on a MacBook comes up, usually there are 2 ways to do this. One is to install a full version program, just like the software I have mentioned above, or you can use an online video downloader, and SConverter.com is a good recommendation.
To make downloading YouTube videos as simple as possible, SConverter.com requires you to do nothing more than paste a link and hit ‘Download’ button. The downside of these sites is that they can only download videos from YouTube with the resolution up to 720P, while can’t do anything for the 1080P & higher resolution videos, such as 2K, 4K & 8K, let alone 60fps videos. But if you just want to download a single clip & save time, then an online YouTube downloader is ideal.
14. Softorino YouTube Converter 2
YouTube itself has no passage in downloading videos directly, on both desktop and mobile. However, sometimes you have your reasons to do this, especially when you are on trains, subways, buses, or trips to places without reliable 4G or WiFi. That being said, with a right YouTube video downloader in hand, grabbing videos from YouTube is a surprisingly easy thing, and it doesn’t require a high configuration laptop.
Softorino YouTube Converter 2 is a fast video download for Mac which can fully satisfy your needs without any complications. This tool allows you to download video from YouTube, SoundCloud, Vimeo, BandCamp, VK, LiveLeak, and many more. Apart from that, you can also download the content as video, audio, or even create them as ringtone. Integrated with an automatic Wi-Fi feature, now you can transfer downloaded media to other devices such as iPhone, iPod or iTunes at a fast speed without USB cable.
15. 4K Video Downloader for Mac
For those who want to download & keep videos from YouTube on their Apple computer, 4K Video Downloader for Mac has always been a good and reliable option. This desktop app for Mac covers many popular sites, such as YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Metacafe, and it doesn’t have any snag in saving videos offline.
The developers of this tool pay great attention to simplicity and usability, you can download your favorite videos in the precise format or resolution you need, and has no hassle in downloading multiple videos in batch simultaneously. All in all, 4K Video Downloader for Mac is a good video downloading solution and it does what is promises without any complications.
How To Download Videos From Youtube For Mac
In Conclusion
When you finish reading this article, you will have clear thought about how to download YouTube videos on a Mac computer. And now I’d like to hear from you: What’s your #1 YouTube video downloader for MacBook? If you have personally been using any app that is powerful, don’t be shy and type in your recommendations in the comments section below.