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If you have a reliable internet connection, don’t think about it How You watch YouTube on your iPhone. It just works. However, there are often times when you either need to go offline or give your data plan a break. In such situations, it’s pretty easy to download YouTube videos to your iPhone to watch offline or without using data – but not all methods are exactly the same.
Is downloading YouTube videos legal?
This is a bit complicated. Downloading videos to your iPhone via the YouTube service (more on that below) is 100% on the rise. However, the platform does not allow downloading videos from its servers outside of this capacity. That’s actually it against YouTube’s terms of use for app developers to create YouTube downloaders and offer them in app stores.
However, the company will not do anything about it if you download videos from third-party solutions. Where it will If you take action, upload these videos, especially copyrighted videos, back online. So play it safe: download these videos for your personal use only.
How to download videos using YouTube Premium
YouTube’s preferred method for downloading videos to your iPhone is, of course, paying for the service. With YouTube PremiumYou’ll find a convenient Download button next to most videos on the platform, so you can quickly save your favorite videos and watch them offline at any time. Sometimes the button is hidden, but if you swipe on the options row under the channel name you will find it.
The first time you tap Download, YouTube will offer you quality options for your download: Low (144p), Medium (360p), High (720p), or Full HD (1080p). If you choose “Save my settings,” YouTube won’t ask you about it next time and will default to the quality setting you selected here. Unless storage space is an issue, I would suggest that YouTube asks you about it every time, as you can see the total download size of each quality selection in this menu.
You can find your videos under your profile tab at the bottom right Downloads Section. From here, you can view your videos and delete any videos that you no longer want stored on your iPhone. Your downloads will last as long as your iPhone connects to the Internet at least once every 30 days. This is a bit annoying, but if you’re not off the grid for more than a month you should be fine.
Photo credit: Jake Peterson
YouTube Premium also offers other benefits including avoiding ads before videos, etc high-quality “1080p Premium” bitrate, for $13.99 per month. It’s an expensive way to download your YouTube videos, but YouTube is okay with it.
Use a YouTube downloader site (but be careful)
Mobile surfing on the iPhone has arrived long Away. In many ways, it’s just as powerful as browsing on a Mac or PC. For example, you can use a YouTube downloader in Safari and download a YouTube video just like you would on desktop.
However, this type of downloader is far from a perfect option. The online YouTube downloaders can be spammy, bombard you with questionable advertisements, and leave an overall malicious impression. Still, they work, so it’s a notable option.
About shortcuts
In the past, I’ve usually opted for Apple’s Shortcuts, a treasure trove of powerful programs – some of which happened to be YouTube downloaders.
The problem is that these shortcuts tend to break quickly. It’s not exactly clear why, but it’s possible that YouTube frequently changes things on its site and prevents these shortcuts from working. This wouldn’t be so bad if the developers stuck with it and fixed the problems as they arise, but unfortunately these shortcuts are often abandoned. So if something goes wrong, the shortcut is useless.
Previous versions of this article recommended JAYD (Just Another YouTube Downloader) and Sur. Unfortunately, both seem to have met the same fate as other YouTube downloaders, so I can no longer recommend them. Most of the other YouTube downloader shortcuts I can find are also old and abandoned.
At this point, you really have two options for downloading YouTube videos to your iPhone: paying YouTube for the privilege or using a free download site.
