There is no doubt that YouTube is one of the most popular video sharing and social media platforms. More than 2 billion YouTube users upload local videos and share them with the world every day. Nowadays, there are around 800 million of videos on the platform, including tutorials, movies, music videos, sports videos, short films, and a lot more.
Besides, YouTube also allows its users to upload private videos, which can only be viewed by those who are invited. As these YouTube private videos will not appear in any video recommendations or search results, it seems there is no way to access to them if you are not invited. Actually, it is not as hard as it likes if you download private YouTube videos and watch them offline by using YouTube video downloader and other powerful tools. Read on and get the best solutions on how to download private YouTube videos without access.
Table of Contents
Part 1: What Is a YouTube Private Video?
Considered as one of the most secure types of videos on YouTube, a private video can only be watched for those you invited. Only a few individuals, usually a maximum of 50 people, can be given access to YouTube private videos by the uploader. If you have created your private video library and only shared them with a few friends, they can’t share your video without your permission. Additionally, there is no annoying ads popping out when you watch a private YouTube video online. It is also amazing that your private videos can’t be viewed in video tab, search results, and video recommendations sections, which keeps your privacy to a large extent. Under such circumstances, it is a good idea to allow you to create YouTube private video.
Part 2: Can You Download Private YouTube Videos?
After figuring out what is a private YouTube video, the question comes up—Can you download private YouTube videos? The answer is definitely Yes. There are feasible methods to download private YouTube videos. On the one hand, you can simply find and download private YouTube videos in your personal account. On the other hand, if you would like to download other people’s private YouTube videos, there are powerful third-party video downloaders and tools that could help. Keep on reading and you can find your way to download private YouTube videos of your own and others.
Part 3: How to Download Your Own Private YouTube Videos?
There are steps below you can follow to download private YouTube videos of your own.
Steps:
- Enter the YouTube homepage, sign in and click your profile image at the top-right corner of the screen. Then, click the “YouTube Studio” option.
- Tap on “Content” > “Videos” from the sidebar on the left. All your uploaded videos on YouTube will be listed on the right section
- Hover over the specific video you want to download and click the three-dot icon. Then you can directly click Download option to start downloading the video immediately.
It is obvious that this is the easiest way to download a single video or two from your own YouTube account. But if you have a library of hundreds, perhaps thousands of uploaded videos, or you want to download private YouTube videos of others, you’d better resort to powerful third-party tools.
Part 4: How to Download Private YouTube Videos of Others Without Access?
There are four proven methods available for you to download private YouTube videos of others without access. Keep reading and you can find your way to download private YouTube videos without access.
1. Download Private YouTube Videos with Developer Tools
If you are using Firefox, you can download private YouTube videos with Network Developer Tools. Before you decide to download private YouTube videos, make sure you have got access to the video from the owner or uploader first. After that, you can proceed with the following steps to download private YouTube videos with Developer Tools.
Step 1: Enter the watching page of the private YouTube video first. Now you can right-click and choose “Inspect Element.”
Step 2: Click on “Network” in the Developer Tool, and then select “Media”. Find the “HTTP” requests that are made to media files (video or audio files). If no requests are found, try to reload the page.
Step 3: Click on each link to see the content type. Select one with a “video/mp4” content type to download the video.
Step 4: Copy and paste the URL in the address bar, delete the range parameter and tap “Enter” to load the video. After loading the video, right-click and select “Save as” to download private YouTube video.
Step 1. Download and Install CleverGet YouTube Downloader
Click the download link below to download the right version of CleverGet YouTube Downloader compatible with your computer for free, then install it in seconds.
– Download videos up to 8K resolution
– Support 1000+ sites
– Support live video M3U8 link downloading
– Multi-task and playlist download
– Built-in browser and player
– Advanced hardware acceleration
– Easy-to-use interface
Step 2. Change Default Settings If Necessary
Launch CleverGet YouTube Downloader. You can change the default settings to meet your own specific needs. To make it, click on the horizontal three-dots and choose “Settings” in the drop-down menu. On the Settings panel, you can also change the Language, Appearance, Max download tasks, output files’ location and more.
Step 3. Open Target YouTube Video
Once all settings are done, you can copy and paste the link of the private YouTube video to the address bar, press “Enter”. The video will be played, and CleverGet will automatically detect the downloadable sources right away.
Step 4. Download Private YouTube Video
While the video is playing, it instantly pops up the download panel to list all the download options available. The options are in different formats, sizes and resolutions. You can select one or more options you like and then click “Download” button to start the downloading process.
Step 5. Check Downloading Process and Downloaded Video
When the downloading process begins, you will be direct to the library where you can check out the video you are currently downloading in the downloading tab, stop or end the task if you want. Once the process is complete, you can check and play the downloaded files in video tab.
Fair Use Policy
CleverGet allows video downloading for personal needs only. Sharing content downloaded by CleverGet with any third party or for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.
3. Download Private YouTube Videos with Browser Extension
There is also another effective method to download private YouTube videos, that is using a browser extension or add-on.
For FireFox:
For Firefox, you can use Video Downloader Professional Firefox Add-on to download private YouTube videos. It adds YouTube, Vimeo and other videos easily to your video list for download, and downloads up to 4k videos. To download private YouTube videos with Firefox add-on, all you need to do is to follow the steps below.
Steps:
- Go to your YouTube page and play the YouTube video you want to download.
- Tap on the add-on icon, and then you can find different downloadable options with video quality on the drop-down list.
- Choose the option you prefer and download the video. Note that you can only download 720P YouTube videos through this Firefox add-on.
For Chrome:
For Chrome, you can use Internet Download Manager (IDM), a widely used web browser add-on for downloading YouTube videos. Once the IDM is installed, restart your browser and enable access to the IDM add-on. Then you can follow the steps to download private YouTube videos.
Steps:
- Go to YouTube and play the private video you prefer to download.
- When a “Download This Video” button with the IDM logo appears in the top-right corner of the video player.
- Click on the download button and choose the file format and video resolution.
- Set the output directory to save the downloaded video. Click the “Start Download” button, and the private YouTube video will be downloaded.
4. Download Private YouTube Videos on iOS & Android
The solutions mentioned above can help you download private YouTube videos on your computer. If you are going to download private YouTube videos on Android and iOS, there are also feasible ways. If you are using Android device, you can follow these simple steps to download private YouTube video with Termux:
Step 1: Go to Google Play Store and Install Termux for Android.
Step 2: Launch Termux, and then run the following commands one by one:
Step 3: Once you have entered all the commands individually, run this single command below to download private YouTube video you wish to.
youtube-dl [YouTube URL] -u [your account] -p [your password]
Step 4: After entering in the commands, the private YouTube videos you selected should be visible in the Downloaded section of the app.
If you are iOS users, you can download an application known as A-Shell and follow the same steps mentioned above but replace the commands with “pip install youtube-dl” to access and download the private YouTube videos