How To Retrieve Backup Copies Of Your YouTube Videos

If you post videos to YouTube, you most likely keep local copies of your videos and back them up somewhere. However there are times when the videos you keep locally may be lost for some reason. Fortunately you can download backup copies of the videos you posted to YouTube, if you know where to find it.

For whatever reason, YouTube hides the download option for your videos. How it used to be was that you logged into your YouTube/Google account, go to "My Videos" and each video had a simple "Download MP4" link so you could grab a copy of whatever video you uploaded previously. Well, it’s still there, but now it’s hidden in a drop-down menu.

How to download copies of your videos

Step 1.

Step 2.

Click the drop-down menu at the far top right (where your username is), then click Videos:

(Alternatively you can go to the direct link http://www.youtube.com/my_videos)

Step 3.

For each video you have posted, there will be a down-arrow, which on click is a drop-down menu, and the "Download MP4" link is then revealed:

Click the Download link and you’ll retrieve a copy of your video.

Final notes

"Why is the video in MP4 format when I uploaded an AVI, WMV or MOV originally?"

YouTube converts all videos uploaded to FLV and MP4 on upload.

"Does that mean the copy I get is the original?"

No. It means you’re getting YouTube’s converted copy. Currently there isn’t any way that I’m aware of to get the actual raw file you uploaded originally. This is OK however as you shouldn’t notice any significant drop in video or audio quality.

"Will a browser add-on help with downloading my videos?"

No. There are some browser add-ons that help with downloading YouTube videos, but for your videos, the copies would be the same MP4 you download direct from your YouTube account.

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