On This Page
The Interface at a Glance
The whole program lives in a single window. There are no menus to hunt through and no settings buried in tabs — everything you need is right in front of you.
The main window, showing the URL bar, controls, format list, save options, and theme picker.
From top to bottom you have a place to paste your link, a row of buttons and toggles, a large list where available formats appear, a row of save options, the two main action buttons, a log area that tells you what's happening, and a theme picker at the very bottom.
Quick Start — Your First Download
Downloading a video takes four steps:
- 1Paste the URL. Copy the link to the video from your browser and paste it into the Paste URL box at the top.
- 2Click "Fetch Formats." The program asks the site what versions are available and fills the big list with them — different resolutions, from small and quick to full quality.
- 3Pick a format. Click the line you want in the list. Higher resolution means a bigger, sharper file; lower means a smaller, faster download.
- 4Click "Download Selected." That's it. The file lands in whichever folder you chose under Save To.
What Every Button and Option Does
Here is a plain-English rundown of everything in the window.
Fetch Formats
Asks the site what qualities are available for the link you pasted and lists them. Always your first click after pasting a URL.
Reset
Clears the URL box and the format list so you can start fresh with a new link.
Download Selected
Downloads the format you highlighted in the list, merging in the best audio automatically. Stays greyed out until you've selected something.
Update yt-dlp
Updates the underlying download engine. Sites like YouTube change often, so an occasional update keeps things working. (See the note about first-run updates below.)
Docs
Opens this help guide in your web browser — a quick reference whenever you need a reminder of what a control does.
YouTube / Other
Tells the program what kind of link you're using. Leave it on YouTube for YouTube links; switch to Other for most other sites.
Chrome Mode
Makes the downloader behave more like a real Chrome browser. Some sites are picky and only cooperate this way — if a normal fetch fails, try turning this on.
Smart Filter
Hides clutter from the format list — things like audio-only entries and odd duplicate lines — so you see a cleaner set of choices. On by default.
Simple wget
A bare-bones download mode for direct media links (a plain file on a web page) rather than a streaming site. Most people will rarely need this.
Best Quality
A handy fail-safe. When ticked, it skips the format list entirely and simply grabs the best available video and audio, merged together for you. Reach for it if a specific format won't download or you get a "permission denied" message — it often succeeds where a single listed format fails. It's also the easiest option when you just want a good copy without picking through the list. (To keep files a sensible size, it caps very large downloads.)
Save To: Videos / Downloads / Desktop / Browse…
Chooses where the finished file goes. Pick one of the common folders, or click Browse… to choose any folder you like.
English If Available
When a video offers audio in several languages, this prefers the English track. If there's only one audio track, it simply uses that.
Fix Long Filenames
Some sites (Facebook especially) generate enormously long titles that the system refuses to save. Tick this to use a short, safe filename instead. If a download fails with a "file name too long" message, turn this on and try again.
Allow Playlists
Off by default as a safety net — a playlist link can contain 100+ videos. Tick this only when you actually intend to download a whole playlist.
Limit To
When downloading a playlist, caps how many items to grab. Leave it on the infinity symbol (∞) for no limit, or set a number.
Theme
Purely cosmetic. Choose the look you like best — Light, Dark, Flowers, Lunar Dunes, or Astral. It has no effect on downloads.
The Log Area
The white box near the bottom shows what the program is doing in real time — progress, completion, and any error messages. Handy if something doesn't go as expected.
Handy Tips
Limitations & Caveats (Please Read)
This program is deliberately simple
That simplicity is the whole point, and it's worth understanding what it does and doesn't set out to do. This is a tool for people who want an easy, no-nonsense way to save a video or a piece of audio — not a control panel for every advanced setting under the sun.
Built for ease of use
- Audio and video are handled for you. Pick a video quality and the program automatically fetches the best matching audio and merges them into a single finished file. There's no need to select an audio stream and a video stream separately, the way some tools require.
- Sensible defaults do the thinking. Filenames, merging, and format handling are all taken care of behind the scenes.
- One window, no menus. Everything is visible at once. There's nothing to configure before you can start.
Geared toward English speakers
- The interface, labels, and this guide are all in English.
- The English If Available option prefers English audio when a video offers several languages. The program can still download videos in any language — it simply isn't built around multi-language selection the way some larger tools are.
Not a replacement for the command line
Under the hood this program uses yt-dlp, a powerful command-line downloader with
hundreds of options. This front end intentionally exposes only a small, useful handful
of them.
yt-dlp directly from a terminal. This tool covers the
common cases beautifully; it does not try to cover every case.
The occasional hiccup
If Something Goes Wrong
| What you see | What to try |
|---|---|
| "Permission denied" / "403: Forbidden" | Simply click Download Selected again — a retry almost always works. If a particular format keeps refusing, tick Best Quality and download again; it's a fail-safe that usually gets through. This is a temporary site-side hiccup, not a fault. |
| Download fails with "file name too long" | Tick Fix Long Filenames and download again. Common with Facebook videos. |
| No formats appear / a site won't cooperate | Turn on Chrome Mode and click Fetch Formats again. |
| Errors that mention being out of date | Click Update yt-dlp, wait for it to finish, then try again. |
| A freshly installed copy behaves oddly | Run Update yt-dlp once. A brand-new install starts with a snapshot of the engine that may already be a little out of date; updating brings it current. |