Regardless of whether you dream of earning that coveted YouTube Play Button or just upload the occasional video for fun, at some point you may want to download your own YouTube videos.
Perhaps you’re concerned about YouTube constantly tweaking its rules and regulations and want to back up your content. Alternatively, you may plan to boost your views by posting your content to other platforms. You may even be planning to delete your YouTube channel entirely but don’t necessarily want to lose all of your content.
It’s easy to upload videos to YouTube, but it isn’t always obvious how to download those videos. We’re here to help! In this post, we share two easy ways to download your YouTube videos. This includes how to download your entire YouTube catalogue as a single .zip file.
Also read: 9 of the Best YouTube Downloaders to Watch Videos Offline
Download specific videos with YouTube Studio
If you only want to download a small number of videos, then YouTube Studio is a great option. This method typically isn’t appropriate for downloading a large number of videos, but it’s a quick and easy way to grab one or two of your favorite videos:
1. Head over to YouTube and log in to your account.
2. In the upper-right corner, click your profile icon, then select “YouTube Studio.”
3. In the menu on the left, select “Videos.”
4. You should now see a list of all the videos you’ve uploaded to your YouTube channel. To download any of these videos, hover over the video in question and select the three-dot icon.
5. Select “Download.”
YouTube Studio will now download this video. Rinse and repeat for every video you want to download.
Also read: YouTube TV vs. YouTube Premium: What You Need to Know
Back up your entire YouTube channel with Google Takeout
While you can download multiple videos via YouTube Studio, this can be a time-consuming process if you’ve created hundreds, or even thousands, of videos.
If you have a long list of files that you want to download, then it may be easier to use Google Takeout. Google Takeout allows users to download all their Google data, including the entire contents of your Google Drive, Google Photos – and your YouTube channel.
To request a copy of all your YouTube videos, head over to the Google Takeout page. You should now see a list of all the Google products and services.
Since we’re only interested in YouTube videos, scroll to the “YouTube and YouTube Music” section.
To download only your YouTube videos, select “All YouTube data included.” You can then deselect every checkbox, apart from “Videos.”
Select “OK -> Next Step.” Since we only want to download the videos once, select “Export once.” You can then choose between .zip and .tgz format and click “Create Export.”
Google will now create your export. According to Google, this process can take hours or possibly even days. However, in my experience, if you’re downloading only a few YouTube videos, this process is usually fairly quick. I used Takeout to download a handful of YouTube videos, and my export was created within seconds.
Once the export is complete, you’ll receive an email with instructions on how to download your data. Simply follow the instructions, and you’ll have access to a folder containing all the videos you’ve ever uploaded to your YouTube channel.
Do you have any alternative methods that we didn’t cover? If you need to download your data from other tech giants, like Apple, Facebook, Twitter, etc., follow this link to learn how to do it.
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