Saving several videos in one session

Three files a day, and how to spend them

On free use you have three downloads to spend before the day is out. The count is spent per file rather than per address, so a video and its separate audio row are two of the three.

Because the number is small, the order you work in decides what you end up with. Put the video you actually need at the front of the session. A run that starts with whatever was at the top of your list can spend all three on the ones that mattered least.

Midnight UTC, and what hour that is where you sit

The count returns to three at midnight UTC, and that instant is the same moment everywhere. Your local clock decides where it lands in your day.

Work out the offset once and you can plan around it. A visitor several hours ahead of UTC gets a fresh three in the middle of their morning. A visitor several hours behind gets it during the afternoon or evening. Pro removes the daily count altogether, along with the size ceiling and the advertising.

One address in the box at a time

The box reads a single address. A column of addresses pasted together is read as one long piece of text and matches nothing.

So the session is a loop: paste, Analyze, choose a row, Download file, wait for the file to land, then clear the box and paste the next one. Let each transfer finish before you start the next, because the tab has to stay open until the bytes are written and moving on early costs you the file rather than saving time.

Keeping the list of addresses somewhere you can edit

Collect the addresses before you start rather than hunting for each one between downloads. A plain text note is enough, one address per line.

Delete each line as its file lands. When the session is interrupted, what is left in the note is exactly what still needs doing, and you are not re-checking a folder to work out where you stopped.

Files that arrive with names you cannot tell apart

The name on a saved file comes from the source, and sources are not tidy. Several videos from one site frequently arrive as a string of digits, as the same generic word, or as the site name with a number added by the browser.

After a run of five, a folder of those names tells you nothing. Opening each one to find out which is which undoes the time the session saved, and it gets harder the longer you leave it.

Renaming as you go rather than at the end

Rename each file in the moment it arrives, while you still know which address produced it. Two or three words describing the content is enough, and adding the date in year-month-day order keeps a folder sorted sensibly.

Leave the extension exactly as it is. The characters after the final full stop tell your player what kind of file it is opening, and changing them does not convert anything.

When the count runs out before the list does

You have two honest options at that point. Note the addresses you did not reach and come back after the reset, or take Pro and finish the list in one sitting.

There is a third thing worth doing either way: check the sizes before you spend the last download. A run through a series of long recordings hits the 150 MB ceiling on free use sooner than a run through short clips, and knowing which of your remaining addresses are large tells you which ones need Pro rather than another day.

Related pages

• Working through a long list of links
• The daily count and the size ceiling in detail
• Where each saved file lands and how to move it
• A single address from paste to saved file