3 Ways to Run youtube-dl on iOS [GUI App]

Previously, I have published a post about running youtube-dl on Android. In this post, I will show you how to install and run youtube-dl on iOS. In case you don’t know, youtube-dl is an open-source program that allows you to download videos and music from thousands of websites including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Udemy, SoundCloud, etc. 

Since youtube-dl is a command line based tool, most people run it with Windows Command Prompt or macOS Terminal. With a free terminal app A- on iOS, you can also run youtube-dl commands. If you don’t like the command experience, I will show 2 other workarounds to use youtube-dl to download media on your iPhone or iPad. 

Run Youtube-dl with A-Shell

A-Shell is a terminal emulator app for iOS that allows you to run Unix commands. It has Python installed by default, so you can install youtube-dl directly. Youtube-dl itself lets you download YouTube videos in 720P when possible. If you want to download YouTube videos in 1080p with audio, you should also install ffmpeg. 

To install youtube-dl, you just need to run the following command after installing A-Shell app. 

pip install youtube-dl

If you also want to download high quality videos 1080p or above, run the following commands in order:

pip install youtube-dl
pip install gallery-dl
mkdir bin
cd bin
curl -L https://github.com/holzschu/a-Shell-commands/releases/download/0.1/ffmpeg.wasm -o ffmpeg.wasm

When all the process is complete, you can run the command to download video and music with a simple command.

youtube-dl [url]

Be sure to replace the url with the url of the video that you want to download. You can open the Files app and locate the downloaded files in On my iPhone > A-Shell folder. For more options, like downloading private YouTube videos, you can check youtube-dl Github page. 

Ease the Process with a Shortcut

For some people, it is a little complicated to run commands to download videos or audio with A-Shell. Especially, when you want to download private videos or extract audio from video, because you need to remember some other parameters. 

Fortunately, there is a custom shortcut, SW-DLT, to help you run youtube-dl to download videos easily. It creates beautiful menus for you to use most, if not all, of the youtube-dl features. With this shortcut, you can easily select video quality and framerate, extract audio from video, download playlists, download GIFs or images from a single item or entire profile. 

You don’t even need to type commands introduced in method 1 to install youtube-dl. When you run this shortcut for the first time, it will automatically configure everything. What you do need to prepare is install A-Shell Terminal app or A-Shell Mini Terminal. 

By default, the shortcut will try to access A-Shell Mini. If you want to use A-Shell Terminal, you should open this shortcut, change the dictionary value for “isMini” to “False”, which is the first action in the shortcut. 

With that configured, you can copy a URL of the video that you want to download and run this shortcut. You can also run this shortcut from share sheet. 

Youtube-dl Similar GUI App for iOS

Loader is like the GUI version of youtube-dl for iOS, but with even more features. As you may have noticed that many downloader apps have been removed from the AppStore. Not many people know about Loader app. That’s why it is still available, I guess. 

Loader enables you to download video or audio from thousands of websites including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, etc. 

You can free download and install the Loader app from appstore. Then you can paste the video link and tab the Search icon to get started. The app will load the video and offer the option to select video quality and format. 

You can also input the url of a  YouTube playlist or channel, Loader will load all the videos and allows you to choose some of them or all to download. To my surprise, it can even download music from Deezer for free with this app. 

In addition, you can also toggle on the Private Mode option to download private videos or any video that requires your login info to watch. For example, you can use it to download private Facebook videos. You will need to enter your Facebook account and password though. 

Loader is free to use with ads and you can pay $0.99 monthly to remove ads.

Conclusion

All 3 methods have been tested working in 2021. Personally, I love to use the shortcut method to run youtube-dl on iOS. It will bring you the video for quick preview when the download is complete and you can press the Share button to save it to your Camera Roll. 

For those who are not familiar with Shortcuts, I recommend the Loader app. It is convenient and fast. Be sure to use it while it is available.