Youtube Premium

[sholio]

I signed up for a free trial of Youtube Premium because I wanted to check out how well their new-ish download option works. Turned out it doesn't actually download - it saves the file to your personal account, where I presume it can still be deleted or region-locked at Youtube's whims. That's not downloading, Youtube!

So far, so useless. However, I now have this month-long trial of Premium. Is there anything interesting I should check out before cancelling?

Comments

[sallymn]

Thanks for the warning! I have a downloader that does youtube (dailymotion, bilibili and others), don't know if it would work on Premium though. In a way I can understand why they don't want to let people have a physical copy (I did say understand, NOT approve of) because then they might not get rewatches... but still, I think that was a dodgy move.

It's probably possible to really download, I know people can do it with Disney+ but the instructions I once saw left me kerflummoxed.

[sholio]

I think I explained badly ... Youtube Premium (supposedly) allows you to download any video from Youtube using a button under the video. It just doesn't do what a downloader does; it puts a copy in your account instead, where Youtube can still get at it.

A desktop downloader does the same thing; it's just that I've been trying for years and years to avoid having to install one, due to general paranoia. But all the online download helper sites have gone the way of malware, and I've finally given up and installed a downloader since it seems to be the only way to keep a copy these days.