Ever since Youtube boomed on the internet, the one thing that everyone has wanted, at least once in their lives, is a way to download and save Youtube content on their device. Since there was no official way to do it, third party developers cashed in, and that gave rise to many not so legal websites, that allowed you to download Youtube videos and save them on your system as MP4 files.
When Youtube saw this trend going up, they immediately brought the hammer down, and while they openly declared that downloading videos unofficially was going against their terms of service, they followed it up with the launch of the Youtube Premium service for iOS and Android.
If you subscribe to the Youtube Premium membership, you can now download videos from Youtube and keep them saved for offline viewing. However, keep in mind that these videos will only show up in the app.
But, what if you want to download youtube videos on your Mac?
Currently, there is no official way of doing it on the Mac, and we don’t want to encourage the usage of third party websites that can lead to your youtube account getting banned.
However, if you really need to save a portion of a Youtube video no your system for personal viewing, this is something you can try.
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Open the web browser on your Mac.
In the URL bar, enter www.youtube.com.
Head to the video you want to save.
On the keyboard, press the combination – Command + Shift + 5.
Drag the window around the video and then click on the ‘Record Selected Portion’ option.
Now, play the video and once you are done, click on the ‘Stop‘ button.
Your recording will now be saved on your system in an MP4 format. But, please keep in mind that using this content in your videos or for any other public display goes against the terms of use and your account will be at risk. Be responsible on the internet, and make sure you don’t do something that puts your account at risk.
