12/20/07

Save videos from sites like Youtube without the use of any addons.

Update: This trick no longer works with youtube as youtube videos are now stored in the system temp folder and not the browsers cache, copying a file from the temp folder is not possible. It Still works for other video sites.

How to save videos from sites like Youtube,Google video,Metacafe,Dailymotion,Yahoo videos and Sharkle without any additional addon's to your browser or through online services?

The best way to save embeded video's without using any online service or browser extension(addons) is to extract them from your browser cache (the temporary storage of your browser) where they are stored when you access them through your browser ,this method works for most browsers and embedded content not just the videos, flash content like games can also be saved by this method.

Looking at the Post you may think that the procedure is very lengthy but I assure you once you know the steps it's just a few clicks.

1. The first step you need to take is to find where the browsers cache is located on your computer,it would placed deep down in your systems folder tree structure, for Instance here is the path for the location of the browsers cache on my computer C:\Documents and Settings\*your username*\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\0jevq2wn.default\Cache make sure that you have the show hidden folders option enabled because the folder would normally be hidden, the best way to get to it is to type "local settings" in Run without the quotes, click on OK and follow the rest of the path as shwon in the above example, you will be not able to see the application data folder if you don't have the show hidden folders option enabled.

Here is a Screen capture of my Firefox Browsers Cache



2. As you can see in the above snap shot of my cache there are no recognizable file extensions to the files present in the cache,You need to look for a recent file which is of several mb's as most videos would be, save it to a different location on your computer and rename it with a file extension of .flv at the end of the file name, you can now enjoy the saved video in any player which supports flv(flash video) like the FLV Player or VLC Player.

**Do not close the browser window until you have saved the video because as soon as you close the window the file would be wiped off from the browsers cache in most cases.**

For Opera users the browsers cache should be located in a location similar to the one shown here C:\Documents and Settings\*your user name*\Application Data\Opera\opera\profile\cache4

For Internet Explorer users the browsers cache should be located in a location similar to the one shown here :C:\Documents and Settings\*your user name*\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files

Note: These files are normally hidden, you need to enable the Option of show hidden files and folders to be able to see them.

HAPPY BROWSING.Like what you see, Subscribe to my feed in a reader.
Don't know what a feed reader is then check out this Excellent Video.

7 comments:

fastfastlane said...

Great tip Ashwin!

I'll try to follow your instructions since I use a lot of videos on my blog. I'm horribly techy challenged :)

Ashwin CS said...

fastfastlane feel free to contact me on any tech issues that you have, I will be glad to help you out.

Anonymous said...

Oi, achei teu blog pelo google tá bem interessante gostei desse post. Quando der dá uma passada pelo meu blog, é sobre camisetas personalizadas, mostra passo a passo como criar uma camiseta personalizada bem maneira. Até mais.

Anonymous said...

dude! thanks so much for this.. i cannot thank you enough.. thanks yeah :)

awesome blog btw

Ashwin CS said...

Thanks dude, glad my post was of help to you, keep visiting often.

Abhishek said...

Thanks so much dude, this helps a lot. Anotherway of downloading these videos is by getting the latest version of real player. Thanks for the tip anyway. Abhishek www.dibugs.com

Ashwin CS said...

Hello abhishek thanks for your useful comment, keep coming back often for more Intresting tips.

Tech-Sesnei Recent Posts