Downloading a video

Once a video is in Found on this page (see Finding videos), downloading it is one button.

Download

Where: Mac, Android, Chrome, and Safari · Plan: Free and Pro

1. In the video's card choose the Quality and, if there are several, the Audio.
2. Press Download.
3. The button turns into In downloads. Pressing it opens Downloads on this download — it doesn't download the video a second time. Progress, pause and errors are in Downloads.

The video and the chosen audio track are saved together in one .mp4 file.

On Free, one video downloads at a time and the rest wait in the queue; Pro downloads several at once — see Plans.

Sites behind a login and protected streams

The app downloads the video the same way the site's player requested it — with the same page address and the same browser cookies. So if the player on the page plays the video, the download works too, also on sites where you are signed in. Cookies are sent only to the site they belong to. How logins work on each device — Sites behind a login.

• Encrypted HLS (the usual protection of streaming sites) downloads and plays as normal.
• DASH (separate video and audio streams) is downloaded piece by piece and joined into one mp4 without re-encoding.
• Live streams and DASH the app can't read (for example, WebM pieces) are downloaded with yt-dlp by the Mac app and the Android app. In the browser extensions the card explains why this video can't be downloaded there.
• DRM-protected video can't be downloaded at all — see DRM.

“The link may have expired”

Streaming sites give the player temporary links. If you start the download much later, or the site closes access, the download stops with an error like The server returned 403 … — the link may have expired or access is denied; open the page again.

What to do: reload the page, start the video in the player again and press Download once more. Network errors and overloaded servers are retried automatically; an expired link is not retried — it won't come back by itself.

File name

Where: Mac, Android, Chrome, and Safari · Plan: Free and Pro

The name is built from the File name template in the settings. By default it is {title} [{quality}], for example Episode 1 [720p].mp4.

• Empty [brackets] disappear: if there's no audio track, {title} [{quality}, {audio}] gives Title [720p].mp4.
• Characters that a file name can't contain are replaced with _: A/B: C? becomes A_B_ C_ [720p].mp4.
• If a file with this name already exists, a number is added: A_B_ C_ [720p] (2).mp4.

The settings show an example of the name as you type the template — see Settings.

Where the file goes

• Mac: the Downloads folder from the settings, by default Downloads › Video Tracker (~/Downloads/Video Tracker). You can choose another folder; Use the default folder brings back the default. The Open the folder when a download finishes option opens it in Finder.

• Android: by default Download › Video Tracker on the phone; another folder can be chosen in the settings.

• Chrome: the extension hands the finished file to the browser's downloads, into the Subfolder in Downloads (by default Video Tracker). Leave the field empty to save straight into the browser's download folder; the folder itself is set in Chrome's settings.

• Safari: files are saved to the Downloads folder (~/Downloads) — the Video Tracker app for Mac writes them there. Safari doesn't let an extension choose another folder. If the app doesn't answer, open it once and press Retry — what was downloaded is kept.

Default quality and preferred audio

Where: Mac, Android, Chrome, and Safari · Plan: Free and Pro

You don't have to pick the quality every time:

• Default quality: Best, Up to 2160p (4K), Up to 1080p (default), Up to 720p, Up to 480p or Audio only (m4a). The card preselects the best quality not above it; if there is none, the nearest one above.
• Preferred audio: Original (default), Russian or English. If a video has a track in this language, it is preselected.

Both are in Settings. You can always change the choice in the card before pressing Download.