The same link on two devices

One link, two different results

You send yourself a video link from your phone, open it on your computer, and get an error page, a sign-in form, or a page with no video on it. The link did not change on the way. What changed is the software that opened it and the account that software was signed into.

This matters here because Vidzilla reads the address from our servers with no app installed and nobody signed in. That is close to what a computer in a fresh browser window sees, and further from what your phone app sees. When a link works on your phone alone, the address needs work before it produces a file.

An app link and a web address are not the same thing

Tapping Share inside an app sometimes produces an address written for that app to open. Your phone hands it straight back to the app, so the video plays and nothing looks wrong. A desktop browser has no app to hand it to, so it loads a promotional page, or an interstitial asking you to continue in the app, and never reaches the video.

The repair is to get the ordinary web address for the same video. In the app's share menu, take the option that copies a link rather than the one that opens another app. On the computer, load that address, and once the video is playing, copy the address out of the browser bar and paste that here.

Signed in on the phone, signed out on the computer

Your phone app holds a session that has been logged in for months. Your desktop browser often does not. A video restricted to followers, to members, to purchasers, or to people over an age gate plays on the phone because the session satisfies the restriction, and stops at a wall on the computer because nothing there satisfies it.

Vidzilla is in the same position as the signed-out computer. It has no account of yours, so a video that needs one returns an empty result. That is the accurate answer about the address rather than a fault, and no version of the link changes it.

Region and network differences

Two devices in the same room reach a site over different routes. A phone on mobile data leaves through your carrier. A computer on the same desk leaves through your home connection, and sometimes through a work network or a company profile that filters video hosts.

When a video is published in some regions and withheld in others, or when the network in front of the computer blocks the host, the address is fine and the route is the problem. Pasting the address here removes your route from the question, because the page is read from our servers. If the video is public somewhere, the rows come back.

Telling the link apart from the account

One test separates the two causes in under a minute, and it decides whether the address is worth pasting at all.

Open a private or incognito window on the computer and paste the link there. A private window carries none of your logins, which puts it in roughly the position Vidzilla is in.

• The video plays in the private window: the address is public and usable. Paste it here and Analyze returns rows.
• A sign-in form or a members-only notice appears: the video depends on an account. There is nothing to download from outside that account.
• An install-the-app page or a marketing page appears: the link was written for the app. Get the web address for the same video instead.
• A regional notice appears: the video is withheld on that route. Paste the address here anyway, since the page is read from our servers.
• A page of thumbnails appears: the link points at a profile or a feed rather than one video. Open the video itself and copy that address.

Where the file arrives on each device

Once Analyze returns rows, the download works identically from either device, because the page is read on our side and only the finished file travels to you. Press Download file on the row you want and keep the tab open until the transfer ends.

On a computer the file lands in your Downloads folder. On a phone it lands in device storage or the Files app, depending on the browser. Free use has a file size ceiling, so a high-resolution row can exceed it on either device; take a smaller row from the same list, or raise the ceiling with Pro.

Related pages

• Copying a video link on iOS and Android
• How downloads behave inside your browser
• Downloading without installing anything
• Working through several videos in a row
• Sites Vidzilla can read