2024

Downloading Videos Using Your YouTube Premium Account

or the VLC MEDIA PLAYER

So many good Bible videos past and present are now on YouTube for free that YouTube has essentially become the new DVD player in today's classrooms. The issue, of course, is that many of "today's" classrooms have slow or no internet connection. The ultimate solution to that is to GET your classroom connected (wired or wireless is a cheap add), but there are still times and places where it's really convenient to have a digital copy of the video on your equipment that doesn't require an internet connection.

This article gives you two ways to legally get that digital copy from YouTube:

(1) Via YouTube Premium (requires subscription)

(2) Downloading the video using the VLC Media Player (free)

(1) YOUTUBE PREMIUM

You may already have a YouTube premium subscription, or a volunteer might. Premium allows you to download any and all video content for playback off-line ON THAT DEVICE where you downloaded the video. Just open your YouTube app and go to your downloads option. The graphic on the right shows you where your "downloads" folder is in the YouTube app when you sign in and go to your account.

Please note: The file that YouTube Premium downloads to your computer is proprietary. It cannot be copied from your computer to a flash drive or be shared with another computer. It cannot be edited. You can only playback the YT Premium downloaded video on the computer/smartphone where you downloaded it. (In the future, perhaps they'll allow cross-device syncing.)

(2) VLC MEDIA PLAYER

If you want to download videos for teaching purposes and then move that video file to another computer/device/flashdrive, you'll need to use a media player that can download the video from YouTube as an MP4 file.

I recommend the free VLC Media Player for downloading YouTube videos so you can use them for teaching purpose (protected usage!) and edit them if you need to, then COPY them to any device or USB flashdrive so you can move it to your classroom.

Please note: I no longer recommend using websites that purport to download videos from YouTube. Too many have gone defunct or turned into scams to get you to download their unnecessary and potentially dangerous browser apps.

VLC, the free and trusted media player, has a "convert and save" option that allows you to plug in the URL of a YouTube video and then download it as an MP4 (which can take several minutes). Download VLC from its website and use its convert/save option. The only other thing you'll need is the URL of the YouTube video you want to download.  VLC has been around a long time and is a trusted app that is managed by a non-profit.

Is it Legal? Yes!

If you have a YouTube Premium account, then downloading and viewing offline is a FEATURE!

And yes, it is still legal to use a downloading app like VLC Media Player to grab a YouTube video for later viewing and/or editing for personal or educational purposes. Why? Because U.S. Copyright Laws and principles protect the "fair use" of copyrighted material for the purposes of non-profit teaching. They also allow users to change the format of a downloaded file if it is necessary to allow you to view the file for personal use or for teaching within a classroom that cannot otherwise teach with the media in its original format or enjoy it for your personal use. YouTube won't tell you that, but it is settled law.