How to Download YouTube Videos with UniGrab
A practical guide to downloading YouTube videos with UniGrab, including browser extension and quality selection tips.
UniGrab lets you send supported YouTube pages directly from your browser to the desktop download queue. This guide covers the basic workflow.
Install UniGrab
Install the UniGrab desktop client and its browser extension. The Windows service connects the extension to the client when you start a download.
Start a download
- Open the YouTube video you want to save.
- Select the UniGrab extension in your browser toolbar.
- Review the detected title and available media.
- Send the video to UniGrab and choose the preferred quality in the client.
The extension passes the current page information and browser session cookies only when they are needed for the request. This helps with videos that require an authenticated YouTube session.
Choose a format
YouTube commonly provides separate video and audio streams for higher resolutions. UniGrab uses yt-dlp and FFmpeg to download and merge compatible streams automatically.
| Option | Best for |
|---|---|
| MP4 | Broad device compatibility |
| WebM | Efficient modern playback |
| Audio only | Music, podcasts and lectures |
Troubleshooting
If YouTube asks you to sign in, reload the UniGrab extension, refresh the video page and submit the download again. UniGrab reads a fresh cookie snapshot for each request instead of reusing an older login state.