Dec. 31, 2012 Note - Thanks so much for clicking on this post. It's a couple of years old now, so I feel I owe it to you - and hundreds of others who view it every day - to tell you there's a much faster and cleaner way to download video directly to your iPad. The trick is a wonderful browser app called iCab Mobile. Use that browser to go to YouTube and search for the video you want. Once you find it, click play, let it run for a few seconds, then press and hold your finger on the video itself. You'll see a download button pop up. Hit that and your download starts automatically. When it finishes it will be much higher resolution that you'll ever get from the Dropbox method I describe below. You also have a choice to let that video reside within iCab Mobile or download it to your Camera Roll. If you need a few more instructions please see the reference to this browser in my post Cool stuff I learned over the summer on social media.
You can download video directly to your iPad over wi-fi or 3G without using iTunes. The trick is to first upload video to your Dropbox account on your desktop or laptop, then favorite it in the free Dropbox for iPad app.
The simple act of favouriting in Dropbox for iPad begins a download process you barely notice. Somehow your vid is saved directly to the iPad in no time flat.
So if you want to pull a YouTube video down to your iPad:
- Go to Keepvid on your desktop and save your video as an mp4.
- Upload to your Dropbox account.
- Download the free Dropbox for iPad app.
- Find your video on the iPad app and favorite it.
The Thanksgiving video above was the first one I download with this method. It took five minutes to upload to Dropbox on my laptop over wi-fi, but almost nothing to download to my iPad after clicking star in Dropbox for iPad.
Still scratching my head over how fast this works.
Great hint, thanks!
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought it was pretty cool. I love Apple products, but iTunes syncs are so slow and painful. This way I can store vids in Dropbox and pull them down to the iPad over the air. Handy.
ReplyDeleteI needed this one today!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Cheers
Vidar
Thanks, Vidar. Check out my review of Roadshow for iPad that I'll be posting later today. That process is even simpler.
ReplyDeleteSo simple. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely great - big help
ReplyDeleteso where do I find the video after I favorite it?
ReplyDeleteShould be right there in your Dropbox app.
DeleteAgonised over trying to figure it out, thank you thank you thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt's not available offline though is it gadget geeks?
ReplyDeleteICab Mobile is a much better option - and higher res. too. Check it out in the app store.
ReplyDeleteCurrent reviews of the iCab app are saying that the latest update has removed the YouTube download feature. Is this true?
DeleteThat was a great help. Yes it is very effortless.
ReplyDeleteThanks Raman for the Icab Mobile link. it is the best Browser i have seen on the Ipad so far.
But I guess the format of the video before you put it into dropbox has to be mp4. You still can't stream avi on the ipad?
ReplyDeleteI would suggest adding this step.
ReplyDelete5. After vid is in favorites, go to " share " icon and save to photo library.
Great tip!
Step nr 5 would be great, but the share icon is not active. I would like to get some videos from dropbox to my movie folder on the iPad to be able to use them in Movie Maker. Any tips?
Deleteyou need to let it stay for some time to actually having downloaded the whole video. Then the share icon will become active.
DeleteWas sweating over this myself, but with some patience it works!
I was looking for a way to do this online and I run into your site and I see an LDS video! Uplifting and the download is working! thank you!!! I am thankful for the gospel!
ReplyDeleteHey, thank you so much for the reply! Since this post has more than any other of my posts, the video has probably been seen thousands of times. Hey, here's a hit that I'm passing on to everyone. Don't bother with the dropbox method in this post. If you simply download iCab Mobile to either your iPad or iPhone, it will work brilliantly for you. You can pull down YouTube videos and many other files beautifully. If you run into any snags, just get in touch with me.
DeleteNow, with iCloud, you can skip the iTunes part. I simply ripped the DVD with Handbrake, then dragged the resulting video file into Dropbox, in the Finder. Then I went to the iPad and opened the Dropbox app. You should see the file there, once it actually gets completely copied there, from the computer. Then, click on the movie file and it will start streaming. Here's the catch. If you want the movie to play even when you're not online, you have to "favorite" the file. This tells Dropbox to download it into the iPad for offline viewing. Now, get on a plane or whatever, and watch your movies. You favorite it by clicking the star icon up at the top of your iPad screen, WHILE THE VIDEO IS PLAYING via streaming. THat means you start playing the video from Dropbox (it will stream for a couple of minutes, if you're online, but will eventually stop after 5 minutes or so), during which time you have to Favorite it. Once you do, Dropbox downloads it to the iPad. When you are ready to play the movie, open the Dropbox app on the iPad (or other iDevice), and click on the movie. It should already have a little white star on it, indicating it's a 'favorite'.
ReplyDeleteThanks, sounds like you really know what you're doing. Here's a simpler way, though. Just download iCab Mobile to your iPad or iPhone. It allows you to download YouTube video quickly and with far less hassle than the method I describe in this now dated post. If you have any questions, let me know.
DeleteDoes this still work? We can't seem to find the video on the iPad. Where is it? We are using iOS5+ but not 6.
ReplyDeleteHey, Karen. As I've been telling the others who've commented here, the best thing you can do is download iCab Mobile to your iPad. It would so beautifully you'll wonder how you did without it. Simple, quick, video downloads. If you run into any snags, let me know!
DeleteThe reason yor dropbox download happened so fast was probably because you we're on your home network. Once a file is uploaded from your laptop, and you select it on your ipad, the video will download across the LAN and not from the web. Assuming your laptop is still switched on and connected :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you're absolutely right. Didn't realize it at the time, but that's probably what happened!
DeleteStarted reading and came to something called iCab mobile...then something Keepvid and as sal when dealing with the iPad I was totally lost.
ReplyDeleteIcab is awesome. I also used something called FTP Manager on my ipad. It allows me to access a internet accessible hard drive I have form anywhere. It is similar to Filezilla. Find a video on the hard drive, open it in ICab and save it to Photo Album.I use it to open PowerPoints in Keynote and reinstall the videos.
ReplyDeletethank you, i will try this one.
ReplyDeleteI would love some help. What I need is a way to circumvent the ban on YouTube and use the iPad to download videos. So I followed above advice downloading free app Icab. I didn't see the download option for YouTube (not possible?) but I did go to Watchknowlearn.org and tried to download. It took ages for it to load and then Icab was stuck showing app trailers with no sign of Dropbox tutorial (I think that's what it was -- irrelevant) I downloaded from watchknowlearn.org. Help, please.
ReplyDeleteHi, Martha. Read my note of March 28, 2013. Forget iCab. Go with iBolt Downloader and Manager. Let me know how it goes.
DeleteThanks for the video guide! I finally know how to download YouTube videos to iPad.
ReplyDelete