Summary
There is no a direct way to save YouTube videos to Mac or Windows computer. This article will show you 5 easy ways to download YouTube videos on Mac for free, so that you can offline watch YouTube videos on your Mac anytime, or transfer them to your portable devices!

“How can I download YouTube videos on my Macbook, I want to use the video to make my videos on iMovie for my girlfriend. Please help!!!”

“I joined the YouTube Premium plan, but I can’t download videos from YouTube to my Mac computer. How do I download and save a YouTube video to my Mac?”

YouTube only allows users to online watch videos on its website or official application. To download videos from YouTube, you need to subscribe to YouTube Premium. However, users can only download YouTube videos to mobile device. There is no an option for users to download YouTube videos on Mac or Windows. Disappointed? We guided you how to download YouTube videos to PC before. Today, we will focus on how to download YouTube videos on Mac for free. After that, you can save YouTube videos to your Mac and view them in QuickTime Player at any time, or copy them to any device!

Benefits of Downloading YouTube videos on Mac:

  • Save high-quality YouTube videos on Mac forever.
  • Play YouTube videos via QuickTime Player on Mac.
  • Add YouTube videos to iMovie without restrictions.
  • Edit YouTube videos to make your own story.
  • Extract background music from YouTube videos.
  • Save YouTube videos to USB drive or SD card.
  • Transfer YouTube videos from Mac to any device.
  • Watch YouTube videos offline on portable device.

Please note that all downloaded YouTube videos are for personal viewing only. Do not upload to social platforms or use them for commercial purposes, otherwise you will face penalties.

In short, there are many benefits of saving YouTube videos to a Mac computer. But how to download YouTube videos on Mac for free? Please keep reading this tutorial to get 5 easy ways to free download YouTube videos on MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac, or iMac Pro, etc. (including Mac Big Sur) Let’s go on!

Way 1. Download YouTube Videos on Mac via 4kFinder YouTube Downloader (Best)

What is the best YouTube Downloader for Mac? When you want to download YouTube videos on a Mac for free, the best tool is 4kFinder. 4kFinder YouTube Downloader is a free Online YouTube Downloader for Mac and PC. This excellent tool helps you download videos and audios from YouTube and 1000+ websites on Mac and PC for free. With its support, you can easily download YouTube videos to MP4 in HD 1080P, 4K or even 8K quality. That is to say, you can use 4kFinder to download 8k video from YouTube on Mac without quality loss!

Also, it lets you download YouTube entire playlist, channels to Mac at once! Better yet, it even supports to extract audio from YouTube videos to MP3 format in 320kbps for your music devices and players. In this way, you can enjoy high-quality YouTube videos on your Mac without internet connection, or edit the video, or even move them from Mac computer to your iPhone, Android, iPods, Apple TV, HD TV, PSP, USD drive and more device for enjoying!

4kFinder YouTube Downloader can Do for You:

  • Download videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and 1000+ websites.
  • Easily download YouTube videos, movies, tutorials, podcasts to Mac/ PC.
  • Download YouTube entire playlist, channels, subtitles to Mac with ease.
  • Download HD/ 4K/ 8K YouTube videos to MP4 format in high quality.
  • Extract audio from YouTube videos as MP3 without sound quality loss.
  • Supports batch download; lossless download; 6X faster download speed.
  • Watch YouTube videos on Mac or other devices without internet connection.
  • Transfer YouTube videos and audios from Mac to MP3 player, iPods, iPhone, etc.

Tutorial: How to Download YouTube Videos on Mac for free with 4kFinder

4kFinder YouTube Downloader lets you save YouTube videos to Mac or Windows computer with ease. Here we will take Mac version as example to guide you how to download videos from YouTube on Mac computer. Follow the detailed steps below.

Step 1. Get the 4kFinder YouTube Downloader on Mac
Download the 4kFinder YouTube Downloader here and launch it after installation. 4kFinder allows you to free download 5 HD or UHD full videos to Mac in 15 days. To enable the full features, you can purchase the software full version.

launch 4kfinder program

Step 2. Copy & Paste the YouTube Video URL to 4kFinder
Head to YouTube’s official page and find the video you want to download. Copy the link of YouTube video, then paste the URL to 4kFinder’s main page, and click “Analyze” to get the video source.

paste youtube video link to the program

Step 3. Choose MP4 Format and Resolution
Then it will pop a window, and the interface will contain 2 different format: MP4 video format and MP3 audio format. To record videos from YouTube, please select MP4 format, and you can select the resolution as 3240p, 1620p, 1080p HD, 810p, 720p, 480p, etc.

select output format

Note: The resolution depends on the video source. Some videos are displayed as 1080p, but they are not in HD quality. Therefore, it is best to set the resolution on the original video playback page before recording.

Step 4. Start to Download YouTube Videos on Mac
If everything is correct, hit on the “Download” button, the program will immediately download YouTube video as MP4 files to your Mac. During the process, this program allows you to press on “Pause” or “Pause All” at will.

start to convert youtube video to mp4

Step 5. Successfully Save YouTube Videos on Mac
When the process completes, the downloaded YouTube video files will be saved on your Mac computer forever. Go to “Finished” option, tap on “Open Folder” to check the well downloaded videos.

convert youtube video to mp4 completed

Way 2. Save YouTube Videos to Mac via Screen Recorder

In addition using YouTube Video Downloader, you can also capture YouTube videos using the Screen Recorder. UkeySoft Screen Recorder is a multifunctional tool that can help you record anything you want from your computer screen and edit the recorded video as you like. It works on both PC and Mac and supports popular MP4, FLV, AVI, WMV, MP3, M4A, etc. formats. With it, you can easily record any YouTube video, movies, game videos with high quality on your Mac or PC. What’s more, you can also use it to record Zoom meeting, record streaming music like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music, Tidal, etc.

How to Record YouTube Videos on Mac?

Step 1. Download, install and launch the UkeySoft Screen Recorder on Mac. Select “Screen Recorder” feature.

screen recorder

Step 2. To get videos from YouTube to Mac, please select “Computer sounds” in the “Audio:” option, and select “Full Screen” in “Target:” option.

audio settings

Step 3. Click “Video” option, and set the Format, Quality, Resolution, Folder as required.

select output format

Step 4. If ready, hit on “Record” to capture a YouTube video to Mac. Once done, you can use the “Video Toolbox” to edit the video!

Way 3. Free Download YouTube Video on Mac with Safari

To save YouTube videos on your Mac, you can also use the Safari browser. Its built-in tool can help you capture YouTube videos and save them as Flash files. In this way, you can play Flash files through a third-party program. This method is a bit complicated. You can refer to the following guidelines:

Step 1. Navigate to YouTube.com, and play the video you want to save.

Step 2. Press Command-Option-A to open Safari Activity window. You need to enable the develop menu first, please choose “Preference” > “Advanced”, and tick the “Show Develop menu in menu bar”.

download youtube video to mac via Safari

Step 3. Next, check the video resources in the window, which will display the name of the video followed by the word YouTube. If it does not appear, please reload the page.

download youtube video on mac via Safari

Step 4. Find the resource link that is loading in the list of links below.

Step 5. then Option-double-click on it, and ti will start to download the YouTube video to your Mac as an flv file. When finished, you can open the flv file via a third-party tool.

We need to point out that you can’t use the Safari browser to save YouTube videos to your Mac as MP4 files. It only offers FLV output format. To download YouTube video to MP4 or other popular formats, you’d use 4kFinder Video Downloader.

Way 4. Download YouTube Videos on Mac with VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is not only an excellent video & audio player, but also a helpful video downloader which enables you to download YouTube videos on your Mac for free! Follow the steps below to save YouTube videos to Mac with VLC Media Player. By the way, you can also use it to download YouTube video on your PC, or laptop.

Step 1. Download and install the latest version of VLC Media Player on your Mac computer, then launch the program.

Step 2. Go to YouTube website on browser, and copy the URL of YouTube video.

Step 3. Turn back to VLC interface, and click “File” > “Open Network…”. In the “Open Source” window, paste the video URL into the search bar and tap “Open”.

download youtube videos on mac via vlc

Step 4. Right-click the YouTube video and choose “Media Information”.

Step 5. Then copy the content in the “Location” bar, and paste the copied URL into the address bar.

Step 6. Then press “Return” to start playing the videos on your browser.

Step 7. Right-click the video again and choose “Save Video as..”. Then VLC will immediately start downloading videos from YouTube to your Mac.

Way 5. Download Video from YouTube to Mac Online

If you don’t want to install any software on your Mac, you can also download a YouTube video on Mac via online service. TubeOffline allows you to download video from YouTube to Mac in MP4, AVI, WMV, and other formats. Besides, it also can help you convert YouTube videos to MP3 at 320kbps for your music players. But the annoying thing is that it has a lot of ads, and when you download a YouTube video, it will also take you to another ad page. Here are the simple steps:

Step 1. Visit TubeOffline website on Google.

Step 2. Copy a video URL from YouTube website. Then paste the video URL into the search box of TubeOffline page.

Step 3. Pick the desired format and quality, and click “Get Video”.

download youtube videos on mac online

Step 4. It will turn to a new page, click “Download MP4”, and it will take a few minutes to load the YouTube Video.

Step 5. When it get the video source, click “Download Now”. Then it will show a new page about ads, close the page, and it will start downloading YouTube video to Mac.

save youtube videos to mac online

Note: Some YouTube videos with copyright protection cannot be downloaded.

Final Words

If you are looking for the best solution to save YouTube videos to your computer, then 4kFinder YouTube Downloader is an awesome tool for you to free download any YouTube videos on your Mac or PC. In addition, the 4kFinder program also allows you to download videos with up to 8K resolution to get a more interesting viewing experience on your device. Batch download, 6 times download speed, multi-task download are also supplements to this utility software. Why not have a try?

Download YouTube Videos on Mac