YouTube is a wonderful platform to watch music videos. But you have to access a data connection or Wi-Fi, in which case being able to watch or listen to music videos offline on iTunes, iPhone, Android, etc. Becomes very useful. Stage 1 – Import downloaded YouTube source files. On the top left side, hit the 'Add File' button, in the pop-up window, browse to your local YouTube videos, select them and click the 'Open' to load onto program's window. Alternatively, you can simply drag and drop in the window any (YouTube) videos that you want to rip into WAV sound track.
You may hate funny cat videos or game reviews, but the chances are you still use YouTube. A mammoth of video content, YouTube is a go-to spot for many. In fact, the platform has over 1 billion users which is one-third of all internet users. Huge.
Or, maybe your daily companions are Vimeo and Twitch. One way or another, video content is a part of your digital life. The question is how to make the best use of it.
In this article, we compare top YouTube downloaders for Mac and explain how you can legally download video from YouTube (or any other video platform) to watch it anytime and anywhere.
Best YouTube downloaders
Get a huge set of top tools to download videos from Youtube. Most helpful utilities in one pack, give it a go!
Let us warn you in advance, all YouTube download tools reviewed in this article are worth a try. To help you narrow down the choice, here are the nice-to-have:
For sure, these are not one-size-fits-alls. Maybe batch downloading playlists is totally useless for you. We made sure the reviewed tools satisfy the key needs — like security and integration with video streaming platforms. The rest is up to you.
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It’s not easy to step into the jungle of video downloaders and instantly pick the right fit. Impossible if you’re new to Mac. There’s help, though.
Whether to capture a few movies for an upcoming flight or save favorite clips to rewatch, many Mac owners want to know how to download a YouTube video. The problem is that it’s complicated to find an efficient free YouTube downloader. Not to mention they could be used for copyright infringement.
To legally save content from YouTube and video streaming services to Mac, as well as download music from videos, you can use third-party apps. As long as you’re not earning money from downloads or breaching any copyright agreements, they are safe to use.
YouTube used to allow direct video downloads. But well..no more. That’s because there’s now a native tool for the job. If you ask YouTube for the best YouTube downloader, it will probably suggest you use YouTube Premium, a native paid subscription service that allows you to save content for offline watching. For the monthly cost of $11.99, you can keep YouTube videos on iPhone and Android devices. Here’s how it works: Film thailand buppah rahtree subtitle indonesia.
The app will automatically save YouTube videos you download to the Library or Account tab. Note that a YouTube Premium subscription allows you to save videos only to mobile devices. Thus, if you want to download a YouTube video to Mac, it won't help.
If you want to download video from YouTube on your iOS device, there’s a way to do it with Shortcuts, a native utility that helps solve tasks faster with your iOS apps (by the way, Shortcuts are coming to macOS Monterey! This means shortcuts for video download on Mac could become available in the future). For now, let’s focus on iOS:
Unfortunately, many people have been reporting errors with this shortcut method recently. If you, too, can’t get it to work, here’s a workaround: download video on your Mac and then transfer it to iPhone or iPad with AnyTrans. Sounds like an overkill, but AnyTrans actually makes the whole process really smooth.
AnyTrans for iOS is a file transfer and backup app that lets you manage your content across devices. And guess what, it also has a YouTube download feature! So you can literally do it all in one app: 1) download video from YouTube; 2) connect your iPhone or iPad; 3) move the video from Mac to iOS in one click. Works like magic.
One option is to use YouTube Go, an alternative version of YouTube for Android that wastes less network data but also, naturally, works much slower. If you’re ok with spending more time than usual waiting for your download to finish, you can try it out:
If you have a Mac, we recommend AnyDroid, an app that downloads and sends your videos directly to your Android phone. It’s faster and requires minimum effort:
So that’s how to save YouTube videos on Mac without software that needs installing (for AnyTrans and AnyDroid, you’ll need a Setapp membership). Now let’s talk about third-party tools that not only answer the question of how to download a YouTube video, they are packed with extra perks like trimming, converting, and sharing your videos flexibly.
If you download media files often, you don’t want any extra fuss. Ideally, you want to just grab the video from YouTube in one click. With browser extensions, you can! Get an app that supports extensions and craft your ideal workflow. Here are our favorite options:
Whether it’s native YouTube Premium or a third-party application, most of the tools you use to download content from YouTube will by default save video files in mp4. There are different options to tweak the format:
Retrieve only audio from your video file — it’s possible with apps like Downie and Folx.
Use Downie + Permute to download and convert to different formats — from FLV to MKV to AVI. The two work well together and are both available with Setapp subscription.
If you use AnyTrans or AnyDroid to transfer downloaded videos to your phone, there’s an option to change the format in Media Downloader.
Streaming content is a huge chunk of your internet traffic. Think Vimeo, Twitch, YouTube, Dailymotion, and other platforms where you can watch live content. Relying on online streaming stymies your watching experience in many ways – from limited data usage to network issues. Plus Wi-Fi often fails you at the most crucial moments. Therefore, you need a reliable tool that helps you capture YouTube videos.
If you’re wondering how to watch favorite YouTube videos without downloading, try Elmedia Player — it disables ads in YouTube videos. Yes, it’s actually possible! Just open Elmedia > menu > Open Online Video > paste the link > Play.
If you want more than just removing ads from a streaming video — maybe you need to extract music from it, add/remove subtitles, trim the video, or just keep it on your Mac — a downloader like Pulltube will work better here. It works with over 1000 websites, including YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and so on. Its best feature, in our opinion, is the trimming tool. Instead of downloading the whole video, you can just extract a specific scene and save lots of space on your Mac. To start downloading, just drag or paste the video link in Pulltube.
Finally, if you need to capture a live stream that can’t be downloaded, use a screen recording tool like Capto. It lets you record the whole screen, a specific window, or area — save the recording on your Mac, and even edit it if you like.
Any questions left? Hopefully, we’ve covered them in this FAQ.
Got your ideal video downloader, but keep having issues? Well, maybe the downloader itself is not an issue. There are different factors, from your Mac’s performance to YouTube’s geo-restrictions, that might prevent you from downloading videos. Here are the ways to fix them.
Some videos may not be available in your location, but there are still ways to access them. Get a good VPN app that can unblock geo-restricted content.
The absolute best is ClearVPN with its shortcuts. Unlike traditional VPNs that just switch locations, ClearVPN has one-click options to unlock American Netflix, Australian HBO, or Norwegian YouTube — you name it. It’s all geared towards your needs.
You can also use ClearVPN to unlock games, toggle anonymous browsing, change your IP, and all the usual things you can expect from a high-end VPN.
If your video downloader suddenly freezes and shows the “download failed” error, the first thing to try is to simply quit and reopen the app. Doesn’t work? In this case, check whether there’s a copyright issue involved — make sure you have the copyright holder’s permission to download the video.
Here are a few things to try if you can’t play video in YouTube:
First of all, it should be said that if you download large files (like a high-resolution movie), it’s ok that it takes much time to download it. If you want to get the best speed possible, Folx to the rescue.
If you notice that your downloader works much slower than before, there could be a problem with your Mac performance. CleanMyMac X is a wonderful tool to diagnose such problems. Just run a Smart Scan to see whether there’s some kind of malware or performance issue that you can fix. Or, maybe your Mac is just very cluttered and needs a cleanup to free up storage space.
It’s ok if you have a hard time choosing your favorite. Some of the apps complement each other – like you could use Folx to capture large videos and transfer them with AnyTrans. With Setapp subscription, you can try every mentioned YouTube downloader (as well as other apps such as WiFi Explorer, ClearVPN, and CleanMyMac X) for free, and choose what suits your flow. Or, don’t choose. Your Mac deserves all of them.
Here is a list of 2021 top YouTube MP3 downloaders for macOS. Free download the best YouTube MP3 for macOS and save MP3 audio to local Mac easily.
YouTube is a site where you can find massive music, songs, TED talks, learning stuff, and other resources. Sometimes, we may want to free download MP3 from YouTube for free playback whenever and wherever we want. If you want to download YouTube MP3 music to a Mac, an awesome YouTube MP3 downloader for Mac is essential. In this post, we list 2021 best YouTube MP3 downloaders for Mac that is able to provide a smooth and stable downloading experience with fast speed and high audio quality.
Notice: MacXDVD Software doesn't advocate any reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast or sell any content for any other purposes without prior written permission of YouTube or the respective licensors of the content. Please refer to YouTube terms of service before doing so.
There are many options to get MP3 from YouTube site, yet seldom would be competent of downloading MP3 tracks easily in high quality and fast speed. Here just covers the best 5 Mac YouTube MP3 music downloaders.
MacX Video Converter Pro offers excellent performance on saving audio offline. It enables you easily to get YouTube MP3 download 100% ad-free and virus-free. Thus you don't have to worry about save any MP3 tracks attached with adware or malware to do harm to your computer. Moreover, if your Internet is well connected, you'll experience an incrediable fast speed with it for MP3 audio offline saving, with high quality maximum at 320kbps. For another, in case that you may be ungratified of YouTube to MP3 downloading, you're also able to save AAC, AC3, FLAC, and even MP4, MOV, FLV, 3GP etc. videos from Vevo, Vimeo, Soundcloud, Audiomack and other 1000+ sites for listening offline on iTunes, iPod, iPhone or iPad. Here comes more sites for downloading MP3 with MacX.
Besides the awesome audio and video downloading feature, MacX Video Converter Pro is far more powerful, allowing you to convert videos, music to all general-purpose formats, edit multimedia files easily, record video with webcam as well capture screen videos on desktop and iPhone.
Smooth downloading process with fast speed and high audio quality.
Available to download videos audios from 1000+ sites.
Convert YouTube to any formats including 4K UHD/HD videos.
Supports all Mac OS, including High Sierra and the latest Big Sur.
It's not free.
MediaHuman YouTube to MP3 Converter is another good option to help save YouTube music offline or download soundtrack of a video from YouTube. It allows you to free download the YouTube MP3 with original audio quality with fast downloading speed from YouTube, Vevo, Dailymotion etc. Unlike other tools, it brings simultaneous downloads which is very important. In addition, it brings a tag editor and playlist support as well. By the way, similar to other YouTube MP3 music downloaders, it owns an extreme easy-to-use interface for free download MP3 from YouTube.
Fast downloading speed and original audio quality reserved.
Won't work properly on some older Mac.
YTD Video Downloader for Mac allows you to download videos audios effortlessly on Mac OS X including Yosemite and El Capitan from YouTube, Facebook and other sites, taking YouTube MP3 downloading for granted. It is praiseworthy that YTD Video Downloader for Mac supports batch video and audio downloading, which is superior than other YouTube MP3 song downloaders for Mac. All in all, YTD for Mac is very easy to use, supports multiple sites, provides fast downloads, is simple and has a user friendly interface, performs on-the-go conversions to multiple devices without ads. You can just enter the video URL to start free downloading YouTube red to MP3.
Support batch audio video downloading.
Few customization capabilities. Sometimes fails on the latest MacOS
MP3Studio is a fast and free YouTube downloader for Mac that will download YouTube videos in MP3, AVI, MP4, and others. You can use it to download YouTube playlists and channels to MP3 on Mac hard drive. There is a built-in audio player that allows you to listen to the audio while downloading. It has a strong batch download capability that supports downloading up to 99 songs from YouTube at once. Besides YouTube, it'll also download MP3 from FB, Twitter, Instagram, and others.
Furthermore, several steps are enough to get YouTube MP3 music download. Just paste the YouTube link then choose the conversion output. After that you can press the 'Start Download' button and wait for the whole download process to finish.
Provides various conversion formats .
You're allowed to convert 3 songs to MP3 per day with the free version.
4K YouTube to MP3 works proficient in free downloading songs from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook etc. in MP3, M4A, OGG formats, including download 4K HD video to MP3 as well. Clean interface is designed for 4K YouTube to MP3 so that you can achieve the YouTube MP3 music downloading with one of the best YouTube MP3 downloaders for Mac. Similarly copy and paste the YouTube music URL for downloading and playing on portable devices like iPhone 6/6s/6 plus, iPad mini 3/Air 2, Samsung etc.
Easy to use and clean interface.
There are limits on the number of downloads, audio tracks per playlist/channel.
There are annoying ads with the free version.
Note: I'm on Mac OS X Yosemite of my 27' iMac, with 2.7GHz Intel Core i5, 8GB 1333 Mhz DDR3 storage, AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512MB graphic. The testing data would be various owing to different configurations of Mac computers.
Main Features | MacX Video Converter Pro | MediaHuman YouTube to MP3 Converter | YTD Video Downloader for Mac | MP3Studio | 4K YouTube to MP3 |
Download YouTube MP3 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Download YouTube to AAC, AC3 etc. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Convert YouTube to MP3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Supported sites | 1000+ sites | YouTube, Vimeo and many other sites | 50+ sites | YouTube, Instagram, Soundcloud, and more | YTB, FB, Soundcloud, Vimeo, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Twitch |
Good audio quality | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Fast speed | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
One-click download | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
Convert YouTube to formats and devices | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Batch download | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |