Please recommend a YouTube downloader

[Buffy]

I've been using JDownloader2 for a long time on both Windows and Linux, and I think it's great. It's extra nice in that it lets me also choose whether to get the thumbnail and/or the text description. Oh, and any subtitle files. Another nice feature is that you can chose just the audio portion. And for both audio and video, you can select from a bunch of different scales and formats based on what pre-processing YouTube has already done.

And it works with a whole lot of other sites, too.

[Chriske]

Hi,

Clipgrab is very good, no issuses.

No more, whatever I do now it always end up with error code : 'connection closed error code 0'
Installed the last version and it wont even start up.

I use it to download, but not only that. Clipgrab converts MP4 to MP3, until now....dam...
Is there a similar tool.

Thanks.

[DAMIEN1307]

nstalled the last version and it wont even start up.

You do know that Clipgrab install though terminal etc. is no longer viable???

They have been offering only as an appimage now.

rather than updating as before, you have to check periodically for newest appimage version of it and download after deleting the former appimage.

Hers is the link for the appimage, and yes, it runs perfectly for me...DAMIEN

https://clipgrab.de/update/en

[Chriske]

I know Damien, that is the one I just tested.
Set it as executable, but it wont start at all...

[Chriske]

Not working for me:

- ClipGrab (does not boot) It did a while ago.
- Video Downloadhelper(addon) error messages
- 4k Video downloader (does not boot) even reinstalling old version does not boot anymore
- Xtreme Download Manager (errors)
+2 more addons video downloader (errors)

I'm running Mint 18.3 + all updates
All other software I'm using work perfect. Even VM + W7 + a very demanding 3D-cam-cad software.
Pc is a superfast machine.
I did not install the 'level '4'' updates this year. Could that be the reason..?

Whatsappen....????

[DAMIEN1307]

I did not install the 'level '4'' updates this year. Could that be the reason..?

That very well could be the reason as LM no longer uses the "level" system of updates since the introduction of LM 19...It is now excepted and expected practice to install ALL updates offered thru Ubuntu and Mint updating...DAMIEN

Ps...LM 18.XX versions will be EOL in just another few months.

[Chriske]

Not one single video downloader does run, even after installing all Mint updates.
The only one that does work is a very simple and basic tool 'Video Downloader' (out Linux software manager) BUT it saves all movies as a 'webm' file instead of MP4.

[DAMIEN1307]

I have to assume that you did reboot your system after the level 4 downloads, you never did mention level 5s and what is in there to download...DAMIEN

[mintefrsh]

It's a little easier to do some things using the GUI youtube-dlg - but if you don't change a lot of things each time, like D/L destination; whether you're using a proxy, etc., the command line version is just as, if not easier than the GUI helper, once you learn - or make a cheat sheet for a few, common commands you actually use.

You can also see if it's actually updating ytdl, using the CLI. The yt-dlg GUI says it "successfully updated youtube-dl" each time, even if there's no new version. YOu also get a better sense of what may be the problem - right away, using the CLI version.
Yes, the GUI helper saves logs (from the CLI ytdl). It's kind of a pain to open the logs each time you need to see why a D/L failed.

[bob466]

I'm using Free Download Manager
It can download a single video or a full playlist from youtube
it can also work as a torrent client
it's free with plugins available for firefox and chrome

https://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

This is the one I'm using at the moment...works well.

[opjose]

This works for me.

https://github.com/hyeonsangjeon/youtube-dl-nas

[Chriske]

I'm using Free Download Manager
It can download a single video or a full playlist from youtube
it can also work as a torrent client
it's free with plugins available for firefox and chrome

https://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

This is the one I'm using at the moment...works well.

Freedownloadmanager installed, software starts up, trying to download I get instantly 'network error'. Pushing 'OK' I get 'querying' and no download at all.
I also installed the Firefox extension...

[Chriske]

To be clear on the matter I have a perfect working system, very fast PC. HP-ProBook
I have cable internet very fast --> Fiber.
Core i5 - 16Mb RAM
Linux Mint 18.3 all updates installed + reboot
VM + W7 <---> Was not running during while testing FDM.

The only software that refuses to work on my system are video downloaders.
Resulting in different error messages or not booting at all.
To be clear '2' I installed all kind of software in the past, never did I encounter this silly situation.

What's odd : in the past I did use a few of these video downloaders and they all worked very good.
I used '4K video Downloader', until out of the blue, it refused to boot. Contacting the developers I got a reply : update to a newer Linux version please.
Then I used ClipGrab, worked very good very fast, and a few weeks ago I got messages. When pasting YouTube URL I get a message : 'Could not retrieve video link' and then program ends by itself.

[Chriske]

About ClipGrab, back then I installed it from the Linux software manager. Then it stopt working.
The last time I've downloaded a 'ClipGrab-3.8.14-x86_64.AppImage' file. Should run instantly, after changing to 'Allow this file to run this as a program'. It doesn't even boot..!!

[Buffy]

Just use JDownloader 2, it works nice and I use it all the time. Never any problems with it.

[bob466]

I'm using Free Download Manager
It can download a single video or a full playlist from youtube
it can also work as a torrent client
it's free with plugins available for firefox and chrome

https://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

This is the one I'm using at the moment...works well.

Freedownloadmanager installed, software starts up, trying to download I get instantly 'network error'. Pushing 'OK' I get 'querying' and no download at all.
I also installed the Firefox extension...

It works for most but as we all know the trouble we have downloading from youtube have you tried..YD-Youtube and Audio Downloader...a Friefox add-on...it's working at the moment.

[Chriske]

Going to add some screenshots of all the downloaders and it's problems I do encounter.

[Chriske]

Oops they're in reversed order, sorry, one more to go..

[Chriske]

I've downloaded ClipGrab's latest version.
It doesn’t even start.

[Chriske]

Next A very basic tool : Video Downloader

But it saves all files as 'webm'....!!!
So not usable at all.