Using A Mac Shortcut to Download Youtube Videos

This article explains how to create a shortcut on a Mac that will download a video from Youtube.

Some work in the Terminal application is required to install the software that does the actual downloading, but once that is done you only need to run the shortcut. Follow the steps below.

Step 1: Install homebrew.

Homebrew is a utility program that allows you to easily download, build and install other programs on your Mac. The instructions for installing homebrew can be found here:

https://brew.sh

Additional instructions will appear in the Terminal window during the installation process.

Step 2: Install the Xcode command line tools.

Homebrew needs the Xcode command line tools to build the programs that you download. Instructions for downloading these tools can be found here:

https://mac.install.guide/commandlinetools/index.html

Step 3: Use homebrew to install the program “youtube-dl”.

The youtube-dl program does the downloading and necessary processing of the video files. Type this command in a Terminal window:

brew install youtube-dl

This will download, build and install the youtube-dl program and all of the other programs it depends on. The program has many options which are described here:

youtube-dl/README.md at master · ytdl-org/youtube-dl

I’ve found that the defaults work fine for me so I have no need to specify any of the options when the program is run.

Step 4: Create the shortcut.

Create the following shortcut in the Shortcuts application:

Drag the shortcut to the menu folder in the main Shortcuts window:

You can now run the shortcut from the Shortcuts menu in the menu bar:

Using the shortcut.

To use the shortcut load the Youtube page containing the video you want to download in your browser, and copy the URL in the address bar to the clipboard:

Now select the shortcut from the Shortcuts menu. It should start downloading the video. Be patient, the downloads tend to take a while. The video will be stored in your home directory.