YouTube Video Downloader

How to download

1. 1

   Copy the video link

   On desktop, copy the URL from the address bar. On mobile, tap Share and then Copy link. Both forms work, including the shortened youtu.be version.

2. 2

   Paste it above

   Drop the link into the box on this page and press Download. Nothing is saved to an account — there isn't one.

3. 3

   The file downloads

   The MP4 arrives named after the video and its uploader, so a folder full of downloads stays readable months later.

Link formats that work

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
• https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
• https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID

Quality you can expect

Videos come back at their source resolution up to a 1080p ceiling, encoded as H.264 in an MP4 container. A video uploaded at 240p is still 240p — nothing upscales it. Filenames carry the resolution and codec, for example “Me at the zoo - jawed (240p, h264).mp4”.

What doesn't work

Stated plainly, because finding out after three failed attempts is worse.

• Age-restricted videos fail — they require a signed-in account, and this tool has none.
• Private and unlisted-with-no-link videos cannot be fetched.
• Playlists and channels are not supported. One video per download, by design.
• Live streams still in progress are not supported; wait until the stream has ended and been published.

Why the file is named the way it is

The filename is built from the video title, the uploader, and the resolution and codec that were actually delivered. That last part matters more than it sounds: two downloads of the same video at different times can differ if YouTube changes which formats it offers, and a name like “(1080p, h264)” tells you which one you got without opening the file.

Titles keep their original punctuation and spacing wherever the filesystem allows it. Characters that would break a path — slashes, quotes, control characters — are replaced with underscores, and nothing else is stripped.

What happens to the video after it downloads

It goes wherever your browser puts downloads, which on most phones means a shared Downloads folder that other apps, backup services, and anyone holding the device can read. That is fine for a trailer and less fine for anything you would rather not explain.

This is the gap Arca closes on iPhone: the same paste-a-link step, except the video lands inside an encrypted vault instead of a downloads folder, and never passes through the Camera Roll on the way in.