Space, click, or arrow keys Yt-dlp is a command line tool used to safely download audio and video from youtube for free. I don't know how to use it on other operating systems, but it shouldn't be too different. If it ever stops working the way you're used to, delete the old yt-dlp file, download it again from github, and put it back in the yt-dlp folder. It should work again.
I did not create, develop, or in any way own yt-dlp or work for the people who make yt-dlp. I just use it a lot. Is it legal? Probably. Here's the transcript (plus clarification) in case my handwriting sucks which it does: 1. Search "yt-dlp github" and click on the first result. It should take you to https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp 2. Click on the latest release in the bottom right. 3. Click on yt-dlp.exe to automatically download. 4. There's usually a banner in the top right of your screen showing that you downloaded it. 5. Open your file manager and navigate to Desktop on This PC. Make sure it's not Desktop on OneDrive; it'll still work if you put it there, you just have to enter cd OneDrive before cd Desktop later on (you'll see what I mean) 6. Create a new folder 7. Name the folder yt-dlp. 8. Navigate to your Downloads folder 9. Open it 10. Click yt-dlp, then Move To 11. Select Choose Location... 12. Hit the drop down arrow next to Desktop under This PC, not the Desktop at the very top. 13. Select the yt-dlp folder, then Move. 14. Copy the URL of the video you're downloading. 15. Open Command Prompt. If you plan on using yt-dlp frequently and Command Prompt isn't already pinned to your task bar (the bit at the bottom where your file manager and Chrome and all that other stuff is), you should do that. 16. In the command line, type "cd desktop" (without quotation marks) and hit enter. This changes the directory/folder that command prompt is looking at. If you have the yt-dlp folder in desktop on OneDrive, or if it says "path not specified" or something, type "cd OneDrive" first, then "cd Desktop" again. It's not case sensitive. 17. Type "cd yt-dlp" and hit enter. 18. Type "yt-dlp (pasted link) --list-formats" and hit enter. Don't put parentheses around the pasted link, I just put that there for clarity. 19. It will start to download the video, and will list the formats in which you can download it. It's confusing to look at, but what you need to focus on are the first column with the numbers (that's the number format you'll enter in the next step), the second column with the file type (like webm, mp4, m4a, etc.), and the parts in gray text after the second blue vertical line that say "audio only" or "video only." When downloading audio, you can use any format that says "audio only." When downloading video, use any format that does NOT say "video only." I think 18 might be the only one that is available for most every video. File size, the first column after the first blue vertical line, might also be important if it's a long video and you have limited space on your computer. 20. Once you've decided which format to use, type "yt-dlp (pasted link) -f X" (replacing X with the number of the format you want to download) and hit enter. Wait a bit, since longer videos can take a pretty long time to download depending on internet speed and how good your computer is. Most short videos only take a second or two. 21. Find the file in your yt-dlp folder in your file manager. Just a note on format 140, this downloads in a .m4a file format. You can send this to your iphone (and maybe other phones too but I doubt it) or other apple device and play it just fine since .m4a is an Apple-specific file type, but to use it on other devices go to cloudconvert.com and convert it to an .mp3 file. That converted file will be in your Downloads folder, not the yt-dlp folder. You can move it there if you want, but I find this makes for clutter. You can also rename the downloaded video/audio to whatever once you've downloaded it. Feel free to ask questions!
