How to download YouTube videos on iPhone

Since YouTube uses so much data, saving YouTube videos to your iPhone is a good idea. But watching YouTube offline is a tricky business.

If you don't mind paying, you can subscribe to YouTube Premium to watch ad-free and download videos for offline viewing. But this still requires you to watch the videos in the YouTube app.

What if you want to save YouTube videos and watch them in your iPhone's camera roll? We'll show you how, and it doesn't require the.

How to download YouTube videos to iPhone camera roll

Thankfully, downloading YouTube videos to your iPhone is still quite easy. It only requires a small workaround using a browser.

First, install the free app. It is a file manager with a built-in web browser, which makes it useful for the purpose of downloading YouTube videos and transferring them to the Camera Roll folder.

Then, search for the YouTube video you want to download. You can use the official YouTube app to do this; just open the video, tap Share , then choose Copy link .

After copying the link, go to the Documents app. You'll likely need to go through a quick introduction the first time you use it and can skip the offer to upgrade to the premium version of the app.

Once in Documents, tap on the icon Safari in the lower right corner to open the app's built-in browser. Then go to a website that can download YouTube videos, for example. These sites can come and go, so search Google to find a similar one if this page stops working.

Save the YouTube video to your iPhone

On the download site, tap inside the field Search or paste the YouTube link here , then choose Paste to add the link to your YouTube video. Tap the button Converted to start.

After a moment, the site will generate download links for your video. Tap the drop-down menu of MP4 video to review the available options and their sizes. In our example, the video 1080p it's about 95 MB , While the version 480p he is alone 20 MB . You will also see a header MP3 if you want to download audio only.

Toccata Get link when you are satisfied, then press Download once it is ready. A Documents window with saving preferences will appear.

If you wish, change the Your name in something shorter or more descriptive. The default save location of I my files / Downloads that's fine, unless you want to move it somewhere else. And you can deselect the slider Ask me every time if you want to automatically save future downloads in the same folder.

Toccata end to download YouTube video to your iPhone. If you want to check its progress, tap the button Download in the bottom toolbar of the Documents app.

Move the YouTube video to your camera roll

Now you just need to move the downloaded video to the Camera Roll folder. The Docs app simplifies this too.

Tap the icon Folder in the lower left corner of the app to exit the web browser and return to the file manager. Then, open the folder Download , which should appear under the main heading I my files .

Press the icon with i ellipsis under the file you just downloaded, then choose Move . On the page Move to , you should see a folder Gallery in I my files . Touch Gallery to check it. Due to the privacy features in modern versions of iOS, you'll be prompted to allow Docs to access your photos. Touch Allow access to all photos to make it work properly.

When done, press the button Move at the top right to complete the process.

You have successfully downloaded a YouTube video to your camera roll now. To see it, open the app Gallery on the phone. Your new video will appear in the folder Recent in the tab Album , as well as the option Video under Types of media down. It will also be the most recent item in Library> All Photos .

If you like, you can also open the video in the Docs app for some additional options.

Other ways to save YouTube videos to your iPhone

We covered the Camera Roll method above because many people want to save YouTube videos directly to that folder. But this is not the only way to download YouTube videos to your iPhone or iPad.

As mentioned above, it has several advantages. One of the greatest is that you can download offline videos to watch them whenever you want. If you regularly watch offline videos on your iPhone, the monthly cost is worth it for the convenience. Also, this is an official method, so you don't risk any rule breaking activity.

With YouTube Premium, you just have to tap Download on any video in the app. It will save all your downloaded videos in one place for easy viewing. However, you can't export them to watch outside of the YouTube app, and they will expire if you cancel YouTube Premium.