GrabletWhy Grablet does not work on YouTube
Every media downloader gets asked this first. The short answer: Grablet refuses YouTube in its code, on purpose, and that is not going to change. Here is the long answer.
The rule that decides it
The Chrome Web Store’s developer policies do not allow an extension that downloads video from YouTube. Extensions that offer it are removed, and the developer account with them. Microsoft applies the same policy to Edge Add-ons, and YouTube’s own terms of service prohibit downloading except through the features YouTube provides. Grablet is a store extension for people who want a tool that keeps working, so the store’s rule is Grablet’s rule.
This is not a setting, a hidden mode, or something a different build unlocks. The domains youtube.com, youtu.be, music.youtube.com and youtube-nocookie.com are on a block list inside the extension. On those pages Grablet does not run at all. A copy loaded outside the store behaves the same way.
The other refusal: DRM
Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Spotify and the other subscription services protect their streams with DRM, a system called Widevine or PlayReady in the browser. Getting around it is illegal in most countries, including under India’s Copyright Act and the US DMCA, and no amount of engineering makes that a feature worth having. Grablet never touches a DRM stream. If a video plays under DRM, Grablet lists nothing for it.
What you can do instead
- YouTube Premium includes offline downloads in the YouTube app, which is the way YouTube intends it.
- Your own videos can be downloaded from YouTube Studio, in the original quality you uploaded, under Content, then the video’s menu.
- Creative Commons videos are marked as such under the video’s description, and the creator has already allowed reuse; YouTube’s own editor can pull them into a new video.
What Grablet does instead
Grablet saves what a page has already handed your browser, from the post you are looking at: videos, photos, audio and documents on X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Telegram Web, WhatsApp Web, Reddit, Threads and Pinterest, and on any other site you switch it on for. It runs entirely in your browser, with no server of ours in between, no account and no tracking. The home page lists the sites, and the privacy policy says what it does not do, which is most things.
Please only save content you have the right to keep, and respect the people who made it.
Questions
Will you add YouTube later, or as a paid feature?
No. The store policy is the reason, and it is not a pricing matter. Nothing in the Pro tier touches YouTube either.
Does it work on YouTube Music, Shorts or embedded YouTube players?
No. YouTube Music and Shorts are YouTube. An embedded player on another site loads from YouTube’s domains, which are on the block list, so Grablet ignores it there too.
What if I load the extension myself, outside the store?
The block list is in the code, not in the store listing, so an unpacked copy refuses YouTube the same way.
Why do other extensions claim to do it?
Some do, until they are removed. Grablet’s users should not have to reinstall a tool every few months, so it stays inside the rules.