Unfortunately, although this the simplest way – you’ll see a download option below the video you’re watching – it’s locked behind a subscription in many countries. If you’re lucky and can use it in your country, then you already have your answer. For everyone else, including in the US, UK, Canada and other Western countries, you can either pay the money for a YouTube Premium subscription and download videos the easy way. Or you can read on for the free way. We’ll get to the specifics in a second, but the process relies on finding a website that can download YouTube videos. Over the years we’ve lost count of the number of downloader websites that have been taken down for breaching YouTube’s Ts & Cs – and copyright in general. And that’s the biggest problem: YouTube doesn’t want you downloading videos outside of the official app because it makes money from YouTube Premium. At the time of writing in early 2023, we were able to successfully download videos using the steps below. But if you find the website we mention has been taken down, you’ll need to search around for an alternative. If you care, you can read about whether it is legal to download YouTube videos. One of the real benefits of using the Documents app is that you can swipe down after you start a video playing, and it will continue to play. This will display a web browser where you should see a YouTube shortcut. Tap it. If you don’t see it, just search for YouTube in the search bar. You can turn your iPhone off (not completely off – just in standby) and the audio from the video will carry on playing so you can listen to music or podcasts downloaded from YouTube in the background.
Download via PC or Mac
If you can’t use the method above because you can’t track down a working website for downloading YouTube videos, there is an alternative if you have a PC (or a Mac). Head to the YouTube Converter website and download the version you want – Windows or Mac. The downside is that this app isn’t free – it costs $19.95. Now only will it download videos from YouTube, it also supports many other sources and can transfer what you download to your iPhone or iPad over Wi-Fi. Yet another alternative is to use ByClick Downloader which is a bit cheaper. This won’t transfer videos directly to your iPhone or iPad, so you’ll have to do that via iTunes or other software. To download a video using YouTube Converter 2 or YouTubeByClick, head to a web browser and copy the URL of a YouTube video you want to download. The video will automatically appear in the app and you can copy more URLs and build up a list of videos to download. You then need to choose the quality for the videos. Although you can select 4K, it’s more sensible to choose 720p or 1080p as no iPhone or iPad yet has a 4K screen, and your chosen video may not even be 4K. In YouTube Converter 2, click the Convert and Transfer to iPhone button and the videos will be downloaded and transferred to your iPhone’s Videos app. It can take a while, so do this well in advance of needing the videos. If you download with YouTubeByClick you’ll need to use iTunes or another app that can sync video to your iPhone or iPad. Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.
