Copy a link, paste it, download the video

Where Copy link sits in the share sheet

Almost every app puts the video's address behind a share button, drawn as an arrow, three dots, or three connected circles. Tapping it opens a share sheet, and the item you want is the one that says Copy link. It is text, not a button with a colourful app icon, so it is easy to scroll past.

Three layouts cover most apps. In the first, a panel slides up with a row of app icons across the top and plain text actions underneath, and Copy link sits in that list near Save or Report. In the second, Copy link is its own icon, drawn as two overlapping rectangles or a chain. In the third, the app copies the address the moment you tap share and flashes a confirmation such as Link copied.

Tap the video itself before you tap share. Sharing from a grid of thumbnails, a profile header, or a story tray hands you the address of the collection rather than the address of the clip.

Pasting into the box on this page

Switch to your browser, open this page, and put the address in the box at the top. The gesture differs between the two phone systems.

On an iPhone

Tap once inside the box. A small black bar comes up above your finger with Paste on it. Tap Paste and the address drops in. If the bar closes first, tap and hold in the box until it returns. When you copied in another app moments ago, iOS asks permission with a prompt naming that app. Allow it and the text arrives.

On Android

Touch inside the box and hold until the Paste chip shows, then tap it. Many keyboards also put the address on the suggestion strip above the letters for a short while after you copy it, and tapping that strip inserts the same text.

When the paste brings a title along with the address

Some apps copy a whole sentence rather than a bare address, so the box ends up holding a video title, an at-name, a hashtag, and then the link. Vidzilla reads the address out of that text, so a tidy paste is not required for the download to work.

Tidy it anyway when the paste holds two addresses, because the second one is often a profile or a music track and the wrong one wins. Delete everything except the address of the clip.

When nothing pastes at all

An empty box after tapping Paste means the clipboard has nothing in it. The copy did not happen, or something replaced it in between.

• The share sheet closed before Copy link registered. Reopen it and watch for the confirmation message.
• You copied inside a private or incognito tab, and the clipboard was cleared when the tab closed.
• You copied something else afterwards, such as a phone number or a word from a message. The clipboard holds one item.
• The iOS paste permission prompt was dismissed. Tap the box and choose Paste again, then allow it.
• The app has no Copy link option. Open the video in the app's built-in browser or in Safari or Chrome, and copy the address out of the address bar.

Making sure you copied a video and not a profile

The commonest wasted attempt is a link to a person rather than to a clip. Read what you pasted before pressing Analyze. An address for one video carries a section such as video, watch, reel, post, clip, or status in the middle, followed by a string of digits or letters that identifies that upload.

An address for an account ends at the name, with nothing identifying a single item. Pasting it returns nothing, because a profile page holds many videos and no one file. Go back, open the clip so it fills the screen, and share from there.

The two-second check before you press Analyze

Look at the start of what is in the box. It begins with http, and the rest of the line reads as one continuous address with no spaces in it. That is the whole check.

If the box shows a fragment ending mid-word, the paste picked up less than the whole address. Fix that first. Then press Analyze, read the list of files with their resolutions and sizes, and press Download file on the row you want. Keep this tab open while the file transfers to your phone.

Related pages

• Paste any video address and see the files
• Which kinds of links produce a file
• An online downloader with no app to install
• Saving several videos one after another
• What happens after you press Analyze