How to Download YouTube Videos on iPhone (and Get Them Into Photos)
Good news first: your iPhone can already do this. Safari has had a download manager since iOS 13, and the Photos app will happily take a YouTube video, sound included, as long as the file is the right kind of MP4. Here's the whole process, plus the three things that usually go wrong.
The short version
If you just want the steps, here they are. Copy the link from the YouTube app (Share › Copy link). Open ytmp4.store in Safari, paste it, and hit Convert. Tap the quality you want, usually 1080p, and say yes when Safari asks to download. Then go to Files › Downloads, open the video and choose Share › Save Video. Done; it’s in Photos.
Most people get stuck somewhere in the middle, though. The rest of this guide is about why.
Why YouTube downloads go wrong on iPhone
We’ve watched a lot of people try to save YouTube videos on their phones, and the failures nearly always come down to one of three things.
YouTube keeps HD picture and sound apart
YouTube switched to adaptive streaming (DASH) around 2013. When you watch in 1080p, your phone is really pulling two streams, one with the picture and one with the sound, and lining them up as it plays. The only quality YouTube still keeps as a single file with both is 360p.
So a basic downloader hands you one of two disappointments: a fuzzy 360p clip that has audio, or a crisp 1080p clip that’s silent. We take the 1080p picture (or 720p, 480p, whatever you pick) plus the AAC audio track and join them into one MP4 on our server. Nothing gets re-encoded, which keeps it fast and keeps the quality exactly as YouTube had it.
The Photos app is fussy about codecs
Photos is happy with MP4 files in H.264 or HEVC (H.265). YouTube’s sharper versions, though, are VP9 or AV1, and Photos doesn’t want them. You’ll notice it when “Save Video” simply isn’t in the Share menu, or the clip saves and then plays as a black rectangle.
| YouTube quality | Codecs YouTube offers | Can it go into Photos? |
|---|---|---|
| 144p – 1080p | H.264 (also VP9/AV1) | Yes, the H.264 copy |
| 1440p (2K) | VP9 / AV1 only | Usually not |
| 2160p (4K) | VP9 / AV1 only | Usually not |
That’s a deliberate choice on our side: YTMP4 always picks the H.264 copy, so our list stops at 1080p. An iPhone 8 and a brand-new Pro will both save it without complaint.
Safari wants a file, not a video player
Plenty of “download” buttons on the web just open the video in a new tab. On an iPhone that plays the video and saves nothing. Safari only shows its download prompt when the server sends the file as an attachment, so that’s how every button on YTMP4 is set up.
Saving a YouTube video in Safari, step by step
1. Grab the link
Under the video in the YouTube app there’s a Share button; tap it, then Copy link. If you’re in a browser instead, the address bar works just as well. Regular youtube.com/watch?v=… links, short youtu.be/… links and Shorts links all go through.
2. Paste it into YTMP4
Open ytmp4.store in Safari and tap the box. iOS pops up a little Paste bubble. Tap that, then Convert, and within a second or two you’ll see the title, the thumbnail and the list of qualities.
3. Choose a quality
What you’ll do with the video decides this more than anything:
- 1080p if you’re watching on the phone itself, AirPlaying to a TV, or cutting it up in iMovie or CapCut.
- 720p when storage is tight. On a phone screen it’s hard to tell from 1080p, at roughly half the size.
- 480p or 360p for lectures, podcasts and anything you mostly listen to.
- MP3 or M4A for audio only. Our YouTube to MP3 page is set up for music and podcasts.
To give you an idea of space, here’s roughly what a 10-minute video weighs:
| Quality | Typical size |
|---|---|
| 1080p | 120–250 MB |
| 720p | 60–120 MB |
| 480p | 30–60 MB |
| 360p | 20–40 MB |
| MP3 (192 kbps) | about 14 MB |
Sports and gaming land near the top of each range. Someone talking to a webcam lands near the bottom.
4. Download
Tap the quality. Safari asks “Do you want to download…?”, you say Download, and a small blue arrow shows up next to the address bar. Tapping it shows how far along you are.
Leave Safari open until that arrow is done. If you wander off to another app for a long time, iOS sometimes pauses the download.
5. Get it into Photos
Tap the blue arrow, then the little magnifying glass beside your file. (Opening the Files app and going to Downloads gets you to the same place.) Open the video, tap Share, pick Save Video, and it’ll show up in Photos › Recents and sync to iCloud Photos like anything you filmed yourself.
Once it’s in Photos you can delete the Files copy to get the space back.
What about YouTube Shorts?
Same routine. Copy the Short’s link and paste it into our YouTube Shorts downloader instead. Shorts are vertical, so when YouTube has a 1080p version you’ll get 1080 × 1920, which fills an iPhone screen perfectly and is just what you need if you’re cross-posting your own Shorts to Reels or TikTok.
Saving to the phone instead of iCloud
Out of the box, Safari puts downloads in iCloud Drive › Downloads. That eats into your iCloud storage and needs a connection to upload. If you’d rather keep big videos on the phone itself:
- Go to Settings › Apps › Safari (on iOS 17 or older it’s just Settings › Safari).
- Tap Downloads.
- Choose On My iPhone and pick a folder, or make a new one.
When something goes wrong
There’s no “Save Video” option. Usually this means the file is VP9/AV1 from some other site, or it’s an audio file. Grab it again from YTMP4 at 1080p or lower.
The video has no sound. Whatever downloader made it only saved the picture stream. Every video button on YTMP4 includes the AAC audio.
“YouTube is busy right now”. At peak hours YouTube sometimes slows requests down. Give it a minute or two and press Convert again.
The download dies after a few MB. Either the connection dropped or iOS paused Safari while it was in the background. Tap the same quality again; the link keeps working for a while after you convert.
Private, members-only or age-restricted videos. You’d need to be signed in to YouTube to watch these, and we never ask for your login, so we can’t fetch them. Live streams are the same story until the broadcast has ended.
YouTube Premium or an MP4?
Premium’s offline downloads are the official way, and they’re great on a plane. The catch is that they live inside the YouTube app, vanish if you stay offline for about 30 days, and can’t be trimmed, edited or sent to anyone. An MP4 in Photos is just a video. You can trim it right in Photos, throw it into iMovie, AirDrop it to your Mac, or keep it for as long as you like.
A word on copyright
Please download responsibly. YouTube’s terms only allow saving through its own features unless you have permission. Your own uploads, Creative Commons videos and anything a creator has said you can keep are fair game. Re-uploading someone else’s video as yours isn’t, anywhere.
When you’re ready, the YouTube to MP4 converter is one tap away.
Frequently asked questions
Can I download YouTube videos on iPhone without an app?
Yes, and it's honestly the easier route. Safari got its own download manager back in iOS 13. A site like YTMP4 hands it a plain MP4, Safari drops that into Files, and Share › Save Video puts it in Photos. Nothing from the App Store.
Why does the video save without sound?
Because YouTube streams HD picture and audio separately, and a lot of downloaders only grab the picture. We stitch the two together on our server first, so every MP4 you get from YTMP4 has its sound.
Why can't I save 4K YouTube videos to Photos?
YouTube only offers 1440p and 4K in VP9 or AV1. Photos won't reliably import either, so you'd end up with a file stuck in the Files app. That's the reason our list tops out at 1080p H.264: it's the best quality every iPhone can actually save.
Where do downloaded videos go on iPhone?
Into Files › Downloads, which lives in iCloud Drive unless you've changed it. Open the video there and use Share › Save Video to copy it across to Photos.
Does this work in Chrome on iPhone?
It does. Chrome just tucks its downloads into a Chrome folder inside the Files app, which is a bit harder to find. We'd stick with Safari.
Is it legal to download YouTube videos?
YouTube's terms only allow downloads through its own features unless you have permission. Your own uploads, Creative Commons clips and videos a creator lets you keep are fine. Re-uploading someone else's work isn't.