Copy the right video link before you download

Copying from a desktop browser

Start the video first. Many sites rewrite the address in the bar the moment playback begins, so the address you take before pressing play belongs to the previous page. Once the video is running, click once in the address bar to select the whole address, copy it, and paste it here.

Clicking a share icon on the page itself gives you the same address in most cases and a shorter one in some. Either is fine. What you want to avoid is copying a link out of the sidebar of suggested videos, which is a common slip on a page where several thumbnails sit next to the player.

Copying from an app on a phone

Phone apps rarely show an address bar, so the share sheet is the way in. Tap the share icon under or beside the video and choose Copy link. The sheet then puts a plain web address on your clipboard, which is the same address the video has on the site's website.

That is why the share sheet is the right tool rather than a workaround. It hands over the canonical address of one video, already pointing at the item you were watching. Open Safari or Chrome on the phone, come to this page, hold the box, and press Paste.

• Choose Copy link, not Share to another app. Sending it onward adds a wrapper in some apps.
• If the sheet offers Copy link at current position, take the plain option instead. A timestamp does not shorten the file, and the plain address is cleaner to reuse.
• A sheet showing only Save and Send is displaying sharing targets. Scroll that row sideways until Copy link appears.

Right-clicking the player itself

Right-clicking a video gives you a menu from the player, not from the browser, and the wording differs between players. Copy video URL is the one you want when it is there. It hands you the address of the media file rather than of the page, and that address is read here directly.

Copy video address, Copy media link, and Copy embed URL do the same job under different names. Copy link address on a surrounding thumbnail does not: that gives you whatever the thumbnail points at. This route matters most on a page where the player was embedded from another service, because it names the service the video actually comes from.

Links that arrived in a message

A link somebody sent you works when it survived the trip intact. Tap or click it to open the page, let the video load, and copy the address from there. Copying the text of the message instead is where the trouble starts, because chat apps break long addresses across lines and add an ellipsis in the middle when the address is too long to display.

Check the end of what you pasted. An address that stops mid-word, ends in a stray comma or bracket picked up from the sentence around it, or carries a line break in the middle is half an address and reaches nothing. Reopen the message, follow the link, and copy the address the browser lands on.

Links that came from a search result

Copying a link out of a results page gives you a redirect belonging to the search engine, wrapped around the real destination. Redirects are followed here, so those addresses often work, and they fail when an interstitial sits in the way.

Open the result instead of copying it, then copy the address in the bar once the video starts. One extra click removes a whole class of failure.

Telling a video link from a page link

Two clues separate them, and both take a second to read.

The first is the shape of the address. A single video usually has a long path with an identifier in it, or a query parameter carrying a string of letters and numbers. A listing address is short and ends in a word such as videos, channel, profile, trending, or a search term you typed.

The second is what the address does in a fresh tab: one video with a player, or a wall of thumbnails. If it is the wall, click the video you want and copy the address you arrive at.

Related pages

• Finding the Copy link button in an app
• Paste a link you have already copied
• Working from the browser you are in
• Starting from a raw address instead
• What happens after you press Analyze