Google Chrome: Use Bookmarklets to Download YouTube Videos

Contributor Icon Contributed by Rob Rogers  
Tag Icon Tagged: Google  

By using a couple of bookmarklets, you can easily download any YouTube video to your computer without the use of any other software. Once you have the video downloaded, you simply rename the file and it’s set to go.

Note: the credit for the great javascript behind the bookmarklets goes to Lawrence Albert at Unlock for This

1. Open Chrome.

2. Right-click the Bookmarks bar and select Add Page.

3. In the Name textbox, input the word Download FLV.

4. In the URL textbox, input the following:
javascript:window.location.href = 'http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id=' + swfArgs['video_id'] + "&l=" + swfArgs['l'] + "&sk=" + swfArgs['sk'] + '&fmt_map' + swfArgs['fmt_map'] + '&t=' + swfArgs['t'];

5. Make sure that the Bookmarks bar folder is selected and click OK.

6. Right-click the Bookmarks bar and select Add Page.

7. In the Name textbox, input the word Download MP4.

8. In the URL textbox, input the following:
javascript:window.location.href='http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id='+swfArgs['video_id']+"&fmt=18"+"&l="+swfArgs['l']+"&sk="+swfArgs['sk']+'&fmt_map'+swfArgs['fmt_map']+'&t='+swfArgs['t'];

9. Make sure that the Bookmarks bar folder is selected and click OK.

Rename the downloaded file to a appropriate name. You will also need to add the .flv extension to the downloaded FLV file.

OR just drag these links to your Bookmarks bar:

Download FLV

Download MP4

To fix the icons for your newly created bookmarklets, follow the instructions here.

 

31 Comments -


  1. Youtube Fan said on October 7, 2008

    nice tip, thank

  2. Jerome said on October 8, 2008

    wonderful, thanks

  3. darkgohst said on October 8, 2008

    google chrome don’t work whit my vista ultimate 64 bit correct !!!!!!!!!!!!

  4. LawrenceAlbert said on October 9, 2008

    hello, kindly put the source of the article.
    Thanks in Advance!
    http://unlockforus.blogspot.com/2008/09/directly-download-youtube-videos-in.html

  5. Rob Rogers said on October 9, 2008

    Lawrence – consider it done! I ran across your great javascript in a newsgroup article and couldn’t identify the source. Great job on it, works like a dream! Thanks for letting me know about this, it’s important to me to give proper credit where it is due.

  6. Ira Pautova said on October 9, 2008

    I use VideoGet. It downloads from YouTube, GoogleVideo, MetaCafe, MySpase, Photobucket and other 600+ video websites.
    Full List of supported videos websites:
    http://nuclear-coffee.com/php/supported_services.php?id=VideoGet

    VideoGet also providing you with ability to convert each video in most popular formats for more comfortable video playback. VideoGet supports AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMV, FLV, MP4, 3GP, MP3 file formats, so you will be able not only to view it, but also put it into your iPod, mobile phone or any other portable device. One-click-download-convert. Plugins for Internet Explorer and Mozilla FireFox browser

    http://nuclear-coffee.com/VideoGet

  7. David Miles said on October 12, 2008

    Is there a way to get this to pull the file name as well? Otherwise I just end up with a load of video.mp4 files and I’ve no idea what each one is about

  8. Rob Rogers said on October 12, 2008

    Unfortunately, there is no way (that I have found) to pull the file name. You need to rename them as each download has completed.

  9. Charome said on October 24, 2008

    Is there any possibility to make it downloading videos instantly from cashe memory like real player does? Im using real player 11 for very fast downloading in IE, but its not working in chrome

  10. Saga said on November 8, 2008

    its really good… how to download swf files in google chrome

  11. Jacopo Belbo said on November 9, 2008

    Very Nicely done. Thanks!

  12. Hunter said on December 7, 2008

    Incredible tip! Thank you!

  13. gaucho~suave said on December 17, 2008

    Sweet tip! It worked inOpera too…

  14. Saurabh Samir said on December 21, 2008

    Fabulous idea !
    Works fantastically well.
    Thank you very much sir for your kind aid.

  15. alejandro torres said on January 3, 2009

    thaks my friends, desde Quito – Ecuador, your help is nice.

  16. Subliminal said on January 16, 2009

    It works quite nice most of the time, but I found a video where it didn’t. Here’s the link:
    http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=NYVQB9TZnH0
    Tried switchng to high quality and then pressing on the bookmark again but I get an error message saying something about incorrect parameters, in red. If it didn’t work there, I’m guessing the same would apply to other videos.
    Please fix the links to bookmark in order to download videos like that one.

  17. Subliminal said on January 16, 2009

    I mean, I even tried switching to high quality on youtube and then pressing on the bookmark again, but it didn’t work either.

  18. dessea said on February 3, 2009

    really helpful thanks a lot!

  19. eduardo said on May 28, 2009

    no manches eres super te lo agradesco deberas chido eres lo maxmo

  20. kumar said on May 30, 2009

    It works like a charm

  21. JP said on June 10, 2009

    work’s thank yhou

  22. Kasper said on June 11, 2009

    thank you

  23. Anonymous said on December 7, 2009

    how would you use it???
    i mean i have done what you have said and then…
    how to use it???

  24. Anonymous said on December 12, 2009

    It does’nt work for me,why?
    thx.

  25. alex said on December 12, 2009

    not working at all.
    me: using chrome in ubuntu

  26. Mr-Nobody said on December 13, 2009

    Thanks for giving useful tips but this is broken

  27. giph said on January 13, 2010

    I love this tweak! This used to work so well, but now it never does. Anyone know why?

  28. Carlos said on August 2, 2010

    um i dragged the Download FLV and MP4 on to by bookmarks bar but when i click them the tab comes up and says untitled?? help thanks

  29. Some Guy said on September 7, 2010

    This did not work. Using Windows 7 64-bit. I click on the Download FLV bookmark on the bookmark bar and nothing happens. Tried it manually and using the drag-and-drop link from the article.

  30. derp said on October 31, 2010

    this is way easier to do in safari by using the activity window and double clicking on the filename

  31. Sonesu said on November 10, 2010

    not working on chrome 7, macos snow leopard

 

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment -