Watching YouTube on the Go

Imagine you’re trying to watch a long YouTube video, and all of a sudden, you lose WiFi. While it’s an irritating scenario, there’s no reason you can’t use a little trick to download videos and watch them even if you don’t happen to have a connection later on.

In a vast majority of cases, you’re going to want to start by opening Safari and heading over to your favorite search engine. Search for links that allow you to download videos from YouTube instantly.

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to just provide an easy link here. Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company, has a conniption fit every time they find a site that just barely violates their terms of service and shuts them down. Considering how they push Android, it’s easy to believe they just want to make it hard for Apple users to watch videos on the go.

Naturally, some of these sites might be unsafe. You might want to install an extra security extension to Safari, which will alert you whenever you’ve crossed into potentially dangerous territory.

Once you’ve found a site that’s active, it’s easy to convert videos even if you’re on an iOS device.

Converting Videos to a Portable Format

Generally, you’ll be presented with an empty box by any of these various online tools. Simply head over to the YouTube video you want to watch on the go and copy the URL. On a Macintosh, that simply involves a three-step process:

Highlight the URL for a particular YouTube video with your mouse
Push Cmd+C
Click on the box in the conversion site and push Cmd+V

Everything else is done automatically. Safari will put all the video files in your ~/Downloads directory, so you can watch them there even if you travel without a connection. In fact, you can plug an iPhone or iPad into a MacBook via your thunderbolt cord and sync them like any other videos through iTunes.

If you find yourself stuck without a Macintosh, then you can do this just from your phone. Open Safari and key in the URL for your preferred YouTube downloader. Visit a YouTube video you’d like to watch at a later date, then:

Tap and hold down on the address bar until given the option to copy it
Hit the tab for your downloader site
Push the address box on the downloader and select paste

As soon as its done downloading, you’ll find the video in your folder just as if you had done so on a desktop Mac. You can then watch it at your leisure, even if you leave cellular or WiFi range. Since the addresses used by this trick have a tendency to change over time, you might want to check some technology news sites for an updated list.