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Is Youtube blocking video downloads?

  • 11 replies
  • 36 have this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by dwdraw2

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Seems that my Video Download Helper as well as Download Flash and Video add-ons on my PC have suddenly stopped working this past week (Jan 2014). Did Youtube suddenly block downloading of *ALL* their videos? I knew they stopped VEVO vids from downloading a while back, but the regular FLV and MP4 videos just all of a sudden stopped appearing in VDH's and DF&V's menus about a week ago. The icons for each of them up in my toolbar also stopped lighting up when the videos play on screen, like neither program can detect the videos anymore to download them. I looked thru the topics listed here on this help site as well as Google Search and there's nothing about Youtube/Google blocking the downloads, only some mention that Youtube might be about to institute a system where you have to start paying to save their videos a year ago. Does anyone know for sure? I'm using FF 26 with the latest versions of both downloading programs (installed back in November). Videos were downloading fine until about a week ago. Thanks.

Seems that my Video Download Helper as well as Download Flash and Video add-ons on my PC have suddenly stopped working this past week (Jan 2014). Did Youtube suddenly block downloading of *ALL* their videos? I knew they stopped VEVO vids from downloading a while back, but the regular FLV and MP4 videos just all of a sudden stopped appearing in VDH's and DF&V's menus about a week ago. The icons for each of them up in my toolbar also stopped lighting up when the videos play on screen, like neither program can detect the videos anymore to download them. I looked thru the topics listed here on this help site as well as Google Search and there's nothing about Youtube/Google blocking the downloads, only some mention that Youtube might be about to institute a system where you have to start paying to save their videos a year ago. Does anyone know for sure? I'm using FF 26 with the latest versions of both downloading programs (installed back in November). Videos were downloading fine until about a week ago. Thanks.

All Replies (11)

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Test video (second most viewed result for VEVO):

The following add-on works:

Video DownloadHelper 4.9.21 doesn't work for me either. It's happened before that after site changes, various YouTube download add-ons stop working until they're updated.

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Thank you for the link to that other downloader. I may give it a try so I can get VEVO vids. Been wanting some of Pink's videos but I couldn't get them since they're all VEVO. ;-)

Believe it or not, my 14 year old nephew showed me a fix for my problem about an hour after I posted this. He was viewing some videos and he refreshed the page when one video stopped playing halfway through. He called to me and said the icons for VDH and DF&V had lit up and when he clicked them, it started showing the download options menu once again (MP4, FLV, GP3). I guess I'll just have to refresh the page each time I want to download from Youtube. I wonder why both add-ons suddenly started acting up like that, though?


Oh, thought I would add this while I'm here. Want to make some MP3s? Download the free version of "AoA Audio Extractor" basic (not platinum).

http://www.aoamedia.com/audioextractor.htm

It pulls the audio track from Youtube's FLVs and/or MP4s you download to your computer and makes good MP3 music out of them. The free basic version only lets you do 3 files at a time, but my Ipod is full of music using it.

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I wouldn't be surprised if Google did something to block the downloading of videos by those extensions, as it violates their terms of service.

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I have gone through this several times. My fav is Video Download Helper. ...seems like a separate ftp like for a PDF causes a temporary constant yield of 0 bytes download. My only remedy has been keep trying other venders and try again to install a day or two later. It seems to always come back.

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Video download helper wouldn't even APPEAR on my FF. I went to you tube to check out one of the videos I uploaded, and could not even get the VDH icon to show up anywhere..

THEN I typed in a search in the search window, did a few things, and used the back button to return to you tube. Guess what I found? The Video download helper icon was not only there it was active.

so I went to the window where my video was, and using the VDH icon on my Fire fox tool bar, I was able to download it in mp4 format. IF I used the one on the comments section, all I got was WEB format..

Then I went to another one, and dang, while the VDH icon was there, it still had the previous file name in it.. Again I hit the search window in my taskbar, and then hit the back button to return to that video and then I was able to download the video.

I did this process several times and found out it was the only way to get video download helper to work properly.. I use firefox 26.0 32 bit, for doing downloads.

I also use firefox nightly, 64 bit, but even though the VDH icon appears, VDH does not work with the 64 bit version of fire fox.

And this is what I did on March 23, 2014 at 12:15AM.

Modified by Mac Wildstar

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Hi Macwildstar, you might also try reloading the page (Ctrl+r) to see whether that saves you the trip forward and back.

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You can reload the page with F5 (i.e. a normal reload) to update the VDH list.

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All major ISPs and the major commercial website operators may soon be facing massive class action charges for colluding to fix prices by forcing users to constantly use bandwidth that ISPs now charge premium prices to provide.

The commercial insanity of the Internet is at a breaking point, and either will send the world back into the communications dark ages, or right of access will kill-off Google and banksters who own and run Google, YouTube and all big muscle Internet properties. It's getting very ugly.

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I was using IDM CC to download a video for instructions, but I suddenly got a window warning that said I needed permission to download. So, the question is: is it legal to download anything from Youtube?

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Legality has to do with codes of a society, not laws per se. Permission might be a protocol hoop-jump or your own particular relationship or lack of it with the author/artist. Fair use codes traditionally make room for purposes of Education, Commentary, and Criticism. Those functions as arguments are often more acceptable in usage when you repackage the material only with clear interspersing of your own media, disclaimers and context.

Downloading from public view, with easily employed technology is a current standard of operation. Are you making money on the deal~?

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No, I only download for self learning. It's nearly impossible for me to watch a YouTube video because of the stopping and loading of the video during playback. Sometimes the video doesn't finish loading to finish watching?

It might take me 20min to watch a 9min video. It's just much faster to download the video and watch it on the computer-then delete it later.

I was in the process of downloading a tutorial on "ThoughtOffice Muse" when at about halfway, a window popped up saying that I needed permission to download the video. I acknowledged the window and left the scene.

That's what made me wonder if this downloading on YouTube was illegal. I downloaded a few instructional videos in the past without this problem? So, I'm not sure what to make of it? Could it be just for that one video?

Thanks for your time.

dwdraw2

Modified by dwdraw2