How To Download YouTube Videos On Your Windows PC And Android Device

Have you ever watched a great video on YouTube and then wanted to download it but didn’t know how?

Well, you are in for a treat here as I’ll show you several ways that you can download YouTube videos onto your PC quickly and easily. I’ll also show you a great app for your Android device.

If you use the search engines to look for ways to download YouTube videos you’ll see a lot of software applications and websites which you can use to download the videos. The truth is there are many ways that you can do it.

I’m going to show you my favorite ways to download YouTube videos. These are all methods I have personally used and they all work well. Let’s make a start by looking at how to download YouTube videos to your Windows PC first.

Downloading YouTube Videos to your PC

You have a lot of choices when it comes to downloading YouTube videos to your PC. We will take a look at three ways to do this which are:

1. Using an online downloading service
2. Downloading YouTube videos from your browser
3. Using software applications to download

Using an Online Downloading Service

The first thing to say here is there are lots of these. With most of them you copy the URL of the YouTube video that you want to download and then you enter it into the form field provided and the website will download it for you. Let’s take a look at 3 of the best services:

Y2Mate.com

This is an online YouTube download service that is really gaining in popularity. All you need to do is to copy the URL of the video you want to download and then paste it into the field at the top of the page.

The website will check the YouTube link to see if the video exists and will show you a thumbnail and the video title to make sure that it is the one that you want. To the right of the thumbnail image you’ll see some options for the format or video resolution, downloading the audio only as an MP3 file and other audio options.

Just make the choices that you want and then click on the green “Download” button. The website will make the necessary conversions and then download the video for you. This service is very quick and efficient. It’s my favorite online service at the moment. So all you do is:

1. Copy the YouTube video URL
2. Go to Y2Mate.com
3. Paste the YouTube URL into the field as directed and click Download
4. Choose your video or audio options
5. Click Download

QDownloader.Net

This is another good online service. I don’t like it quite as much as Y2Mate.com because you do get spurious pages opening with ads on them with QDownloader.net. It’s not a big deal because you can just close these pages.

Copy the YouTube video URL again and paste it into the field at the top of the page. Then click the “Download” button. You’ll see a thumbnail with the video title and the video duration on the left and some options on the right.

Sometimes you can choose between video formats. One thing with this service is that you can choose to download the video with sound or without it. I’m not sure why you would want to download a video without sound but at least you have the option.

You have to right click on the “Download” button and save it somewhere on your PC. You’ll need to change the title as well so that you recognize it later. If you just click the Download button it’ll just play the video in your browser.

1. Copy the YouTube video URL
2. Go to QDownloader.net
3. Paste the YouTube URL into the field as directed and click Download
4. Choose your video or audio options
5. Right click on the Download button and save the video on your PC

Youtubnow.com

This is another popular online YouTube video downloading website. Again you just need the URL of the YouTube video and then you just paste this into the field at the top of the page. You don’t even need to click a button here. As soon as you paste the YouTube URL the website starts looking for the video.

You’ll see a thumbnail and the title and then a drop down box with various video and audio options. Choose what you want and then you need to right click on the “Download” button and save the file where you want it on your PC. There are no instructions to tell you to right click. If you just click the button the video plays in a new browser tab.

1. Copy the YouTube video URL
2. Go to Youtubnow.com
3. Paste the YouTube URL into the field (the website automatically detects the video)
4. Choose your video or audio options
5. Right click on the Download button and save the video on your PC

Downloading YouTube Videos from your Browser

I’ll show you how to download YouTube videos using two of the most popular web browsers which are Firefox and Google Chrome.

Firefox

You’ll need to use an “add-on” for this. Click on the Settings icon in the top right of the Firefox browser and select “Add-ons”. When the Add-ons page displays use the search bar at the top and type in “download helper”.

Another page will open in a new tab and you’ll see the search results. Click on Video DownloadHelper (it has over 3 million users at the time of writing). You’ll see a redirect to a page about the Add-on. Click on the “Add to Firefox” button.

You’ll then see the Video DownloadHelper automatically added to your Firefox browser. Note: sometimes you’ll need to download additional software to make this work. This is fine. Just download it and follow the installation instructions.

Now all you need to do is to find the YouTube video you want to download and click on the Video DownloadHelper icon at the top right of your Firefox browser. You’ll see a number of options here. Choose the options you want and download.

Once you’ve installed the Video DownloadHelper Add-on to Firefox it’ll always be there for you. I’m not a great fan of this method as the downloading tends to take a while. But it’s very convenient. Here’s a recap:

1. Click on the settings menu in Firefox
2. Select Add-ons
3. Search for “Download Helper”
4. Select Video DownloadHelper
5. Add it to Firefox (install the additional software if prompted to do this)
6. Go to the YouTube video you want to download
7. Click on the Video DownloadHelper icon in the top right hand corner
8. Choose your options
9. Download your video

Google Chrome

To download YouTube videos directly from your Chrome browser you’ll need an extension. It’s trickier to add extensions to Chrome than it’s to Firefox so please pay special attention to the instructions.

Go to the page https://addoncrop.com/youtube_video_downloader/ and click on the “Download For Chrome” blue button on the right hand side. It is a quick download and you’ll have to extract the files to a location on your PC.

Once you’ve extracted the folder open the Chrome settings menu and select “More Tools” and then “Extensions”. In the top right of the page, you’ll be a “Developer mode” switch and you need to click on this so that the switch moves to the right.

Then click on “Load Unpacked” in the top left corner. Select the folder you extracted and then Chrome will add it in the extension list. Now all you need to do is to find the video that you want to download on YouTube. Open the video page and click on the YouTube video downloader icon in the top right hand corner.

Just choose your preferred options and download to your PC. Although it is a little tricky to add this extension it does work well, and once installed you’ll always have it. Downloads are quick.  Here are the steps again:

1. Go to https://addoncrop.com/youtube_video_downloader/
2. Click “Download For Chrome”
3. Extract to your PC
4. Click on the Chrome settings menu
5. Select “More Tools” and then “Extensions”
6. Click on the “Developer mode” switch until you see the “Load Unpacked” button
7. Click “Load Unpacked” and then find the extracted folder on your computer
8. Go to the page of your YouTube video
9. Click on the video download icon in the top right corner
10. Select your preferred options and download

Using Software Applications to Download YouTube videos

Here are a couple of software applications that you can use to download YouTube videos:

VLC Media Player

If you don’t already have the free VLC media player on your PC then you are seriously missing out! It’ll play all types of media and has a lot of great features. If you don’t already have it then you can download it here and install it.

Open VLC Media Player and click on the “Media” menu and then “Open Network Stream”. Enter the URL of the YouTube video you want to download in the field. Now click “Play”. Now go to the “Tools” menu and select “Media Information” and you’ll see a window open.

At the bottom of the media window you’ll see “Location”. Right click in the field and the “select all” and then “copy”. Open your Chrome browser (Chrome is best for this) copy the location into the address bar. The video will open and start playing. You can then right click on the video and select “Save Video As”.

Just choose a location on your PC and then the video will download. This is fast and easy. Here are the steps again:

1. Download VLC Media Player from here if you don’t already have it
2. Open VLC Media Player and click on the Media menu
3. Select “Open Network Stream”
4. Go to the “Tools” menu and select “Media Information”
5. In the window copy the address from the “Location” field
6. Open your Chrome browser and paste in the location in the address field
7. Right click on the video and “Save Video As”

Any Video Converter Free

This is a neat and free application for downloading your YouTube videos. You can download it from here. It’s around 60 MB so it’ll take a minute or two depending on the speed of your Internet connection. Follow the instructions to install the software.

Now open the application. You’ll need to copy the URL of the YouTube video that you want to download. Click on the “Add URL’s” button and then click on the “+” icon and paste your YouTube URL into the field. At the bottom, you need to click on the “Start Download!” button. That’s all there is to it!

Steps recap:

1. Download Any Video Converter Free here
2. Install the program and open it
3. Copy the YouTube video URL
4. Click on the “Add URL’s” button
5. Click the “+” icon and paste the YouTube URL
6. Click the “Start Download” button

Downloading YouTube videos to your Android Device

The best way to download YouTube videos for free on your Android smartphone or tablet is to use the free Tube Mate app in my opinion. There are other apps but Tube Mate is very reliable and relatively simple to setup.

Go to https://tubemate-2.en.softonic.com/android to download the latest version of Tube Mate. You’ll not find this app in the Google Play Store. The reason is unclear but I think that I know why.

You can subscribe to YouTube Premium for your Android device which will cost you at least $11.99 a month. As part of that subscription, you’ll be able to download as many YouTube videos as you want. Google owns YouTube so why would it want a free YouTube video downloader in the Play Store?

After downloading the Tube Mate APK file you will need to install it on your Android device. Once installed launch the app and you can then search for the YouTube video that you want to download. You can also use the app for Daily Motion and Vimeo videos as well. Pretty cool eh?

When you find the video you want to download tap on the “Download” button. You’ll then see some options relating to video quality. Make your choice and the video will download. The steps again are:

1. Download the Tube Mate APK file from here
2. Install the APK file on your Android device
3. Open the Tube Mate app and find the video you want to download
4. Make your choice of video quality
5. Tap the “Download” button

Go and Download your favorite YouTube Videos

I’ve provided you with the best ways to download YouTube videos to your PC and Android device. All of the methods are free. Downloading from a browser is best if you plan on downloading a lot of videos and the extension for Chrome is a lot better than the Firefox alternative.

If you only plan to download YouTube videos now and again then the Y2Mate.com online service is quick and easy. A lot of PC users already have the VLC Media Player installed and this is another quick and easy method for downloading YouTube Videos.

For Android devices, the Tube Mate app is the best option. Don’t go for YouTube Premium and have to pay a monthly subscription. All of the methods in this article work well at the time of writing. If you know any other methods to download Youtube videos not mentioned here, let me know in the comment section below. Happy YouTube video downloading!