Is youtube dl safe
Author: H | 2025-04-24
Direct Answer: No, YouTube-DL is not completely safe. YouTube-dl is a software used to download YouTube videos in various formats. While it may seem harmless, there are
Is YouTube dl safe? - GB Times
Dl-plusA youtube-dl extension with pluggable extractorsDescriptiondl-plus is an extension and a drop-in replacement of youtube-dl (or any compatible fork, e.g., yt-dlp). The main goal of the project is to add an easy-to-use extractor plugin system to youtube-dl while maintaining full backward compatibility.dl-plus is not a fork of youtube-dl and does not contain code from youtube-dl, it is a pure dynamic wrapper (thanks to Python dynamic nature) hacking some youtube-dl internals.InstallationInstall dl-plus:using pipx:using pip:(*nix) Alternatively, you can download a single file binary (zipapp) and put it somewhere in your PATH:curl -L -o dl-pluschmod a+x dl-plusInstall a backend — youtube-dl or any compatible package (fork), e.g., yt-dlp:using dl-plus itself:dl-plus --cmd backend install yt-dlpusing pipx:pipx inject dl-plus yt-dlpusing pip:(optional) Install some extractor plugins:using dl-plus itself:dl-plus --cmd extractor install un1def/goodgamePyPI package names are supported too:dl-plus --cmd extractor install dl-plus-extractor-un1def-goodgameusing pipx:pipx inject dl-plus dl-plus-extractor-un1def-goodgameusing pip:pip install dl-plus-extractor-un1def-goodgame(optional) Create dl-plus → youtube-dl symlink (for apps relying on youtube-dl executable in PATH, e.g., mpv):*nix:&1) && ln -s "$dlp" "$(dirname "$dlp")/youtube-dl"">dlp=$(command -v dl-plus 2>&1) && ln -s "$dlp" "$(dirname "$dlp")/youtube-dl"Use ln -sf instead of ln -s to overwrite an existing youtube-dl executable.Windows (PowerShell, requires administrative privileges):$dlp = (Get-Command -ErrorAction:Stop dl-plus).Path; New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path ((Get-Item $dlp).Directory.FullName + "\youtube-dl.exe") -Target $dlpExtractor Plugin Authoring GuideSee docs/extractor-plugin-authoring-guide.md.Available Extractor PluginsSee docs/available-extractor-plugins.md.LicenseThe MIT License. Direct Answer: No, YouTube-DL is not completely safe. YouTube-dl is a software used to download YouTube videos in various formats. While it may seem harmless, there are When it comes to security, there is no substitute for quality. A good antivirus you trust and strong passwords on websites are today a recognized need. We surf the Net often, save this and that, and need to be sure that nothing has damaged our PC’s health. Downloading films and music from the Internet is more and more common nowadays, as having them on the go is very convenient. You don’t need to care if you have a proper Wi-Fi connection or data plan on your device. But is it possible to save video and audio safely? And what is the safest video downloader and converter? That’s exactly what we're going to cover below in-depth Where to download videos & music safely When you search for a piece of media for download, firstly check the reputable sources. For example, you can buy songs, films, and podcasts on iTunes, Play Store or Amazon, and great movies on Google Play. These resources are among the ones people trust, but you need to purchase the tunes and films there. Millions of people upload and download movies to and from file-sharing platforms, and it won’t cost you a penny. Unfortunately, the saved media can contain malicious files, and you can’t know if it is so, until you open and check it. You can solve this by running antivirus software each time you download. YouTube and Vimeo are also free to use and well-recognized. What’s more, you can watch videos from the beginning till the end before you decide if you want to save them to your device or not. But you need a proper tool for downloading their content. Are there safe video & music downloaders There are lots of downloaders on the Internet, some of them are totally free, some are not. Online YouTube downloaders and desktop free apps usually contain embedded redirects and animated banner ads, as this is the way they earn money. The software itself may be free and safe, but the advertised third-party apps can be bundled with viruses. Such apps usually make users at a loss as they don’t know where to click to avoid installing unwanted software. Safe YouTube downloader and converter Youtube-dl is one of the good alternatives. It is a free open-source tool that can grab media files from YouTube as well as from other websites. It doesn’t contain ads and thus can’t harm your device. We wrote a short guide on how to run youtube-dl effectively . Still, if you're not used to the command line, you’ll find it pretty hard to use. If you prefer apps with a graphical user interface, Free YouTube Download developed by DVDVideoSoft is the one you should try. This app is very easy and reliable, thoroughly checked with antivirus software. Neither the website nor the app contains redirects to third-party apps. This app proved to be a safe way to download videos and MP3 from YouTube. Below, you can look at the test results obtained by VirusTotal afterComments
Dl-plusA youtube-dl extension with pluggable extractorsDescriptiondl-plus is an extension and a drop-in replacement of youtube-dl (or any compatible fork, e.g., yt-dlp). The main goal of the project is to add an easy-to-use extractor plugin system to youtube-dl while maintaining full backward compatibility.dl-plus is not a fork of youtube-dl and does not contain code from youtube-dl, it is a pure dynamic wrapper (thanks to Python dynamic nature) hacking some youtube-dl internals.InstallationInstall dl-plus:using pipx:using pip:(*nix) Alternatively, you can download a single file binary (zipapp) and put it somewhere in your PATH:curl -L -o dl-pluschmod a+x dl-plusInstall a backend — youtube-dl or any compatible package (fork), e.g., yt-dlp:using dl-plus itself:dl-plus --cmd backend install yt-dlpusing pipx:pipx inject dl-plus yt-dlpusing pip:(optional) Install some extractor plugins:using dl-plus itself:dl-plus --cmd extractor install un1def/goodgamePyPI package names are supported too:dl-plus --cmd extractor install dl-plus-extractor-un1def-goodgameusing pipx:pipx inject dl-plus dl-plus-extractor-un1def-goodgameusing pip:pip install dl-plus-extractor-un1def-goodgame(optional) Create dl-plus → youtube-dl symlink (for apps relying on youtube-dl executable in PATH, e.g., mpv):*nix:&1) && ln -s "$dlp" "$(dirname "$dlp")/youtube-dl"">dlp=$(command -v dl-plus 2>&1) && ln -s "$dlp" "$(dirname "$dlp")/youtube-dl"Use ln -sf instead of ln -s to overwrite an existing youtube-dl executable.Windows (PowerShell, requires administrative privileges):$dlp = (Get-Command -ErrorAction:Stop dl-plus).Path; New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path ((Get-Item $dlp).Directory.FullName + "\youtube-dl.exe") -Target $dlpExtractor Plugin Authoring GuideSee docs/extractor-plugin-authoring-guide.md.Available Extractor PluginsSee docs/available-extractor-plugins.md.LicenseThe MIT License.
2025-03-27When it comes to security, there is no substitute for quality. A good antivirus you trust and strong passwords on websites are today a recognized need. We surf the Net often, save this and that, and need to be sure that nothing has damaged our PC’s health. Downloading films and music from the Internet is more and more common nowadays, as having them on the go is very convenient. You don’t need to care if you have a proper Wi-Fi connection or data plan on your device. But is it possible to save video and audio safely? And what is the safest video downloader and converter? That’s exactly what we're going to cover below in-depth Where to download videos & music safely When you search for a piece of media for download, firstly check the reputable sources. For example, you can buy songs, films, and podcasts on iTunes, Play Store or Amazon, and great movies on Google Play. These resources are among the ones people trust, but you need to purchase the tunes and films there. Millions of people upload and download movies to and from file-sharing platforms, and it won’t cost you a penny. Unfortunately, the saved media can contain malicious files, and you can’t know if it is so, until you open and check it. You can solve this by running antivirus software each time you download. YouTube and Vimeo are also free to use and well-recognized. What’s more, you can watch videos from the beginning till the end before you decide if you want to save them to your device or not. But you need a proper tool for downloading their content. Are there safe video & music downloaders There are lots of downloaders on the Internet, some of them are totally free, some are not. Online YouTube downloaders and desktop free apps usually contain embedded redirects and animated banner ads, as this is the way they earn money. The software itself may be free and safe, but the advertised third-party apps can be bundled with viruses. Such apps usually make users at a loss as they don’t know where to click to avoid installing unwanted software. Safe YouTube downloader and converter Youtube-dl is one of the good alternatives. It is a free open-source tool that can grab media files from YouTube as well as from other websites. It doesn’t contain ads and thus can’t harm your device. We wrote a short guide on how to run youtube-dl effectively . Still, if you're not used to the command line, you’ll find it pretty hard to use. If you prefer apps with a graphical user interface, Free YouTube Download developed by DVDVideoSoft is the one you should try. This app is very easy and reliable, thoroughly checked with antivirus software. Neither the website nor the app contains redirects to third-party apps. This app proved to be a safe way to download videos and MP3 from YouTube. Below, you can look at the test results obtained by VirusTotal after
2025-04-11How do I download private videos and playlists?To download private videos youtube-dl-gui needs to login to your account, otherwise it cannot access your private videos. Don't worry, youtube-dl-gui will not touch anything, it will only download the video. Youtube-dl-gui uses cookies to authenticate with YouTube, in order to provide the cookies you can use an extension called 'cookies.txt'. This will create a file of the required YouTube cookies.This tutorial works for playlists too!Install cookies.txt for chrome, or install it for firefox.Navigate to youtube.com.Log in to the YouTube account where te private video is on, if you haven't already.Open cookies.txt through the extensions bar or via the extensions menu.Click on 'To download cookies for this tab click here'.Save the file to a convenient location.Enter the link to the private video into youtube-dl-gui.When youtube-dl-gui shows that this is a private video, click on 'add cookies.txt'.Click on 'browse' and select the downloaded cookies.txt file.Press add to add your cookies.txt file to youtube-dl-gui.If everything worked you should now see the video info, and some green text telling you youtube-dl-gui has succesfully authenticated with youtube!Proceed with downloading the video as you normally would. Youtube-dl-gui will remember the cookie untill you close the program.Still can't figure it out? Don't worry, open up an issue and I will help you out.
2025-04-20##YouTube DL Chrome ExtensionThis is a Chrome Extension and Flask Server to open up YouTube DL (which BTW is a terminal YouTube Video downloading utlity). Usage is very simple, just click on the Browser action in Chrome (load the youtube-dl-chrome folder as an extension first and run the Flask Script) and the Terminal should pop open running YouTube DL.##InstallationFirstly, download YouTube-DL from here.Download all the files first. You need Flask installed on your Python distribution. Both Python 2.x and 3.x are supported. To install Flask do pip install flask and then cd to the directory. Run the server by doing python localserver.py run. This will start the server.Now, load the extension by going to chrome://extensions, tick "Developer Mode" and click Load Unpacked Extension. Select the "youtube-dl-chrome-client" folder and the extension should be loaded.To test, click on any YouTube Video link and click the extension. A Terminal/Command Prompt/ConEmu should open with youtube-dl running in it.What's New?We've updated the project quite a lot and here are some main changes:Playlist support addedSingle Config.py file for configurationsSupport for ConEmu console emulator (which is a million times better than CMD) in Windows##ConfigurationPresently 2 configuration options are available (a quality option will be available soon). You can change them by editing the www/config.py file.Directory- Location of the directory where you want to save the videos.WindowsConEmu- Set it to True if you want to use ConEmu in place of the Command Prompt on Windows like me.##To-Do:Add Quality Options to ExtensionModify DOM of the YouTube page to display a Download button (with options)##AboutCreated By Pradipta (geekpradd) and Aritra (thekindlyone) using HTML5, Javascript, Chrome APIs, Python, Flask and YouTube-DL.
2025-03-25