As of yesterday Aug. 11th I can no longer download youtube vids

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

Anyone know what's going on? I have downloader helper and for the last couple of years it's worked fine with youtube and its mp4 format. Suddenly I'm not even seeing the spinning counterclockwise balls and downward pointing arrow to tell me I can click to download. I'm not having trouble with any other websites other than youtube. Has youtube suddenly gone to a no download policy or have they changed their software in some way to block Google's downloader helper? I've never posted here before in my 12 years at DU and I hope I'm in the right spot.

[Egnever]

1. Youtube has pretty much always been a no download site.

unless the owner of the content specifically allows it.

There have however been browser extensions to make it possible. I would look for an update for the extension you use or look for a new one.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. I am using this, it works

http://www.yourvideofile.org/

It is for Firefox.

Once you install it, you find a green button on the lower left hand corner of whatever youtube vid you are watching.
click on it to download.

[Mnpaul]

3. Youtube is trying to prevent this

but I just found a workaround. Put "ss" in front of youtube in the link.

change http://youtube.com to http://ssyoutube.com

I tried it on two and it worked for both

[PoliticAverse]

4. Do you have the latest version of your browser/helper? n/t

[hobbit709]

5. Mozilla Easiest Youtube Downloader plugin works for me.

works in both SeaMonkey and Firefox

[gvstn]

6. Lots of good suggestions above.

I use FF Nightly and lots of extensions stop working randomly. Especially Download Helper.

The Youtube fix that I use is GreaseMonkey. It is an extension for Firefox that you download and then you have to download the Youtube script but it seems to work everytime. https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/1317-download-youtube-videos-as-mp4

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

7. Thanks for the suggestion - and thanks for every response

My problem is complicated by the fact that I have Ubuntu, a Linux derivation. Apparently, Firefox has not extended its browser updates for Ubuntu. There is updated software for download helper that works with Ubuntu, but it won't work with older versions of Firefox. I believe that is the case but I can't get any responses by either Ubuntu help blogs or download helper help blogs. I will try Greasemonkey. Thanks

[gvstn]

8. I just wanted to add.

That the FF plugin NetVideoHunter is a very good alternative to VideoDownloadHelper. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/netvideohunter-video-downloade/

But try just downloading the extension listed in my above post that should install GreaseMonkey and the needed script to see if that gives you the extra button on YouTube that allows you to download videos. If it doesn't work an extension is easy to uninstall.

[a2liberal]

11. You could download it straight from Firefox

It won't integrate nicely into your distribution, but you just untar it into a folder and run from there

[Pastiche423]

12. I have Ubuntu 14.04, Firefox 40.0.3

and use YouTube Video and Audio Downloader.

I've had no problems.

[bananas]

9. Try this one, it's an open-source project and works great.

I use this instead of videodownloadhelper for youtube.
It only works on youtube.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-video-and-audio-dow/?src=api

YouTube Video and Audio Downloader 0.4.5 No Restart
by InBasic, Alopepeo

<snip>

YouTube Video and Audio Downloader is an open-source project, downloading Youtube videos (using Firefox download manager or a custom external download manager) in all available formats (FLV, MP4, WebM, and 3GP) with video quality of your choice. It also contains a pure JavaScript library to extract the original audio file embedded in video files. MP3 conversion is also possible if FFmpeg is installed. It is also shipped with an offline tool to extract audio files out of FLV videos.

<snip>

[Oilwellian]

10. I've used this little gem for 10 years

http://www.apowersoft.com/streaming-video-recorder.html

They offer a free trial. I think it costs about $30 if you choose to buy it once the trial offer is up. You can download any video online with it, or record those streaming videos that don't allow you to download. I found it very useful when I wanted to record a clip from a news source that doesn't allow you to download. It also converts.