Sooner or later, in the vast expanses of YouTube, you will find a cool music video, a cool game clip, or just a video from a user that you want to save on your device. Considering how often publishers and copyright holders like to delete videos from the service, it is better to save them somewhere on your hard drive right away. In this guide, we will introduce you to the easiest ways to download videos from YouTube, and also tell you how to download only the audio from a video.

All the listed methods have been tested for years and we have used them ourselves many times. If one method for some reason did not work for you, you can always use another. Despite everything, you will always have the opportunity to download the video you like from YouTube. To do this, you will not need complex manipulations and deep knowledge of programs, it is enough to know only the link to the video.

How to download YouTube video using link

There are many websites like https://getof.net/ on the Internet that offer to download videos for you. They all work in the same way. You just need to copy the video link from YouTube, go to a specialized website and paste the link there. Then you will be asked to choose the quality of the downloaded video and the location to save it. The download will take place through your active browser and will not require any other actions.

Go to Savefrom.net, Presaver.com or y2mate.com. Next, you need to do the following simple steps:

1. Copy the video link. You can do this via the address bar in your browser or simply right-click on the video and select "Copy video URL";
2. Go to the sites listed above;
3. In the special field (shown in the screenshot above), paste the link and click the "Download" button;
4. Select the video quality and click the download button again to confirm the download;
5. All you have to do is select a folder on your hard drive to save it and wait for the video to download completely.

You can also quickly go to Savefrom.net using a quick combination. Right on the video page in the browser, you can add the combination "ss" (after www./) to the address bar. This will take you straight to the download site.

How to download video via browser extensions

In addition to websites, you can download your favorite video from YouTube using an extension for your browser. This method will require additional manipulation of the browser, but may be more convenient for frequent use. There are a large number of extensions, each of them provides you with its own set of features. As a rule, they allow you to easily download any video from YouTube while being directly on the video page. Some of them embed a button directly into the site interface, others offer to go to the extension's own menu.

Let's consider downloading via a browser extension using savefrom as an example. It supports such popular browsers as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Yandex.Browser, Microsoft Edge and others.

1. Go to SaveFrom.net and select the "Install" section
2. At the very top, click the "Download" button to install the extensions for your browser.
3. Select a location to save the file, then run it after downloading.
4. In some cases with different browsers, a security warning may appear. The extension has been verified, you can confirm its installation and click "Yes".
5. Next, follow the instructions of the automatic installer, carefully reading all installation points.
6. The browser can open other pages and install additional extensions if necessary.
7. After installation is complete, a special "Download" button with a choice of quality will appear on all YouTube videos.

The plugin for can be a universal solution when you want to download videos or music from YouTube. However, it still has problems with limited quality when downloading. In addition, the extension can load your browser, which can be noticeable on a weak PC.

Downloading videos using programs

A more complex, but definitely reliable way to download a video from YouTube will be to use third-party programs. There are also enough various utilities from enthusiasts. There are both paid and free programs with different capabilities. Some representatives are rightfully considered 4K Video Downloader and Ummy Video Downloader. 

Despite the number of available programs, the principle of their use will be as follows:

1. Go to the official website of the program
2. Click the "Download" button, save the file and perform a simple installation.
3. Open the program via shortcut
4. There you can familiarize yourself with the program interface, make additional settings and download videos.
5. To download a video, simply copy the link to the video and paste it into the appropriate program window
6. Next, you just need to select the quality of the video and the location to save it.

Installing the program will require you to do a lot of manipulation when downloading videos, but it has virtually no limitations. Using the programs, you can save videos from YouTube in 4K quality and split tracks.