How to Download YouTube Videos on Your Mac Computer?

How to Download a YouTube Video on Mac?

YouTube is a world-famous video-sharing platform. When you watch videos on YouTube, you need to make sure that your network connection is enabled and works normally. If your network is not very good, the YouTube video will not be played smoothly or it may be stuck when playing. At times, the internet connection is broken and you will be unable to watch videos on YouTube.

A good method to avoid these issues is to download YouTube videos on your computer. Then, you can watch them anytime and anywhere without thinking about network problems.

If you are a Windows user, you can just try MiniTool Video Converter. As one of the best YouTube video downloaders, you can use it to download your needed YouTube video to MP3, MP4, WAV, and WebM. This software supports downloading 8K, 5K, 4K, 1080P, 720P videos from YouTube. You can even use this software to download YouTube subtitles if available.

MiniTool Video ConverterClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

If you are a Mac user, you may want to know: how do I download YouTube videos to my Mac for free? You can look for a free YouTube downloader for Mac and then use it to download a YouTube video on your Mac computer.

Of course, there are some other available methods. For example, you can use QuickTime to screen record a YouTube video. You can also download a YouTube video via Safari Activity.

We will introduce the methods we know in this post. You can just select the one you want to use to download YouTube videos on your Mac computer.

How to Download YouTube Videos on Mac?

1. Use QuickTime
2. Use Safari Activity
3. Use VLC media player
4. Use an online YouTube video downloader

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. Instead of downloading a YouTube video, you can use it to screen-record the YouTube video you are watching. After that, you can re-watch that video even when the network connection is disabled.

You can follow this guide to use QuickTime to screen-record a YouTube video:

1. Go to YouTube to find the YouTube video you want to record.

2. Select that YouTube video to access it but not play it.

3. Open QuickTime on your Mac and then go to File > New Screen Recording.

4. You will see the screen recording toolbar with several icons in it. Usually, it is on the bottom side of the screen.

The first five icons on this toolbar mean (from left to right):

• Capture the entire screen
• Capture a window
• Capture a portion of the screen
• Record the entire screen
• Record a portion of the screen

If you want to record a full screen, you need to click the Record the entire screen icon from the toolbar. If you want to record a portion, you need to click the Record a partition of the screen icon to continue.

5. Click Options and select the features you want to enable. For example, you can set a timed delay for the screen-recording. You can also specify a location to save the video.

6. Open the YouTube video you want to record and play it.

7. Click the Record button on the toolbar to start YouTube video screen-recording.

8. When the video is over or you want to stop recording, you need to click the Stop Recording button in the menu bar.

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Method 2: Use Safari Activity to Download YouTube Videos on Mac

If you only want to download a YouTube video on your Mac and you don’t want to use third-party software, you can try Safari Activity. You can do this job via your Safari browser.

Here is a guide on how to download videos from YouTube on Mac using Safari.

1. Search for the video you want to download on YouTube and play it.
2. Press Command-Option-A on your keyboard to open Safari Activity.
3. Go to Safari > Preferences….
4. Go to Advanced > Show Develop in the menu bar to enable the develop menu.
5. You can see the video resource in the new pop-out window. Then, you need to find the name of the video that is followed by the word YouTube. It is a link. If you can’t find it, you need to reload that page.
6. Double-click the video resource link to open it.
7. Focus on the location bar and then press Option-Enter to start downloading the video. The video will be downloaded as an FLV file. You need to use a third-party FLV media player to play it.

Method 3: Use VLC Media Player to Download YouTube Videos on Mac

You can also use third-party software to download YouTube videos on Mac. You can try VLC media player.

1. Go to the official site of the VLC media player to download and install it on your Mac computer.
2. Search for and open the YouTube video you want to download.
3. Copy the address of that YouTube video.
4. Open the VLC media player on your Mac.
5. Go to File > Open Network….
6. Paste the address of the YouTube video to the URL
7. Click the Open button that is on the bottom right corner. This can add the video to the playlist of the VLC media player.
8. If the video starts playing, you can right-click on the video and then select Media Information. While, if it is not playing, you can right-click the video on the playlist and then select Media Information.
9. On the new pop-up window, you need to highlight the content in the Location box and then copy it.
10. Return to your web browser and paste the URL to the search box. Press the Return key and the video will begin to play.
11. Right-click on the video and then select Save Video As….
12. Follow the on-screen guide to download that YouTube video on your Mac.

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You can also use a third-party professional YouTube downloader for Mac to help you download YouTube videos on Mac. With a professional Mac YouTube video downloader, you are allowed to select the video format and resolution you want to use. This is an attractive feature.

Dedicated YouTube Downloaders for Mac

1. Wondershare UniConverter for Mac
2. YTD Video Downloader
3. Airy YouTube downloader
4. iSkysoft iTube Studio
5. MacX YouTube Downloader
6. PullTube
7. 4K Video Downloader
8. ClipGrab

These YouTube video downloaders for Mac are worth trying. But some of them are not free for use. Perhaps, you can just use them to download part of a YouTube video with the free edition.

For example, you can just download the 1/3 length of a YouTube video using the trial edition of Wondershare UniConverter for Mac. Some tools allow you to use them free for one month, then you need to pay for it.

You can just select one according to your situation.

Method 4: Use an Online YouTube Video Downloader

Is there any available online YouTube video downloader for Mac? Of course, yes. You can find many online tools on the internet like viddown, KeepVid, Apowersoft Online Video Downloader, ymp4, ClipConverter, and more.

It is also very easy to use an online YouTube video downloader to download your needed videos. You need to copy and paste the URL of the target YouTube video to the search box of the online YouTube video downloader, click the download button or other related button, and select your needed video format and resolution to download.

Bonus: How to Use MiniTool Video Converter

In the first part of this post, we mention MiniTool Video Converter, a professional YouTube video downloader for Windows. If you are looking for a Windows YouTube video downloader, you can try this software.

You can use this software to search for the YouTube video you want to download. You can even sign in to your YouTube in this software and then select the video from your subscription, view history, etc.

In this part, we will simply introduce how to use this software to download YouTube videos on Windows.

1. Download and install this software on your computer.

MiniTool Video ConverterClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

2. Open the software.

3. Search for the YouTube video you want to download and select the target video from the search results.

4. Click the Download button to continue.

5. Select the video format and resolution you want to download from the pop-out window.

6. Select the YouTube subtitle if available.

7. Click the DOWNLOAD button to start the downloading process.

8. The software will go back to its main interface and you can see the download process at the right History When the downloading process ends, you can click the Navigate to file button to open the storage folder to use the video. You can also click the Play button to play this video.

Bottom Line

Reading here, you should know how to download YouTube videos on Mac using different desktop and online tools. You can select your preferred method to download your needed YouTube videos. Should you have any related issues, you can let us know in the comment or contact us via [email protected]. We will reply to you as soon as possible.

How to Download YouTube Videos on Mac FAQ