How To Download YouTube Videos (Revisited)

Here are the instructions on how to download a YouTube video to your Mac using Safari.

Step 1: Open the video you want to download in Safari.

Step 2: Add "&fmt=18" to the end of the URL and hit return. This will make the downloaded file be a ".mp4" file instead of a ".flv" file.



Step 3: Open the Activity window with Cmd-Option-A. (Or go the Window > Activity



Step 4: Find the section associated with the YouTube page. (It will have the same title as the YouTube Page.)



Step 5: Once you've found the page, look for the video file. The URL will usually have the word "cache" in it. In addition, if it's a reasonably long movie, it will also be the largest file.



Step 6: Hold down the option key and double-click on the video file's URL in the Activity window. This will start the download at which point you can close the YouTube video page.






(While I am aware of the countless applications and websites designed to download YouTube videos, I am pretty sure this is the most reliable way to download them. While I'm sure your favored application/website works great for you, chances are that it does not work for everybody else.)