YouTube is the largest video hosting service in the world. Millions of users around the world use it every day. And it’s free; you can watch videos and upload them to the service. But one of the most significant disadvantages of YouTube is that you can’t download videos from the video hosting service. According to YouTube’s licensing agreement, videos are the property of YouTube and can only be saved through a particular application and will only be available offline there. Officially, you can’t and don’t have the right to download videos as a regular video files. However, users have long found a way to fix this – using programs like YouTube-DL.
Recently, however, more and more users have complained that YouTube-DL doesn’t work well. Videos are too slow to load, and it can take a long time to download a small video. This is usually due to problems on users’ devices. You may have slow or interrupted internet connections, or your device may have many temporary files that create conflicts and interfere with your YouTube DL experience. Either way, there are some quick and easy fixes to help you solve these problems. Let’s take a closer look at how it works and what you’ll need to do.
What is YouTube-DL, and why might it be slow?
Let’s first understand what YouTube-DL is and how it works. That will help you understand why you might have problems with it and whether you need this tool. If you’re not interested in detailed information about YouTube-DL and want instructions on how to speed up uploading, you can skip to the next section of this article.
YouTube-DL was created back in 2006 by developer Ricardo Garcia. It’s a free video and audio download manager for YouTube and many other sites (YouTube DL can work with over 1000 other open-source video hosting sites, according to the developers). YouTube-DL requires a Python interpreter, version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and is available on all major platforms, such as Windows, Linux, and Mac.
In the beginning, the tool only supported YouTube video hosting. But as the program evolved, it also began to support other video-sharing sites. It is currently one of the most popular projects on the GitHub service. It has over 100,000 stars on GitHub, and many other packages and repositories depend on it.
The main problem with YouTube-DL is that it has problems with video upload speed. Of course, not all users of the service experience long delays, but there are still many reports from users that they can’t download videos from YouTube or another site quickly. This is usually due to problems on the users’ own devices. For example, system errors or problems with the Internet. The program itself works without connecting to any of its servers, so the problem from YouTube-DL’s side is unlikely to occur. Let’s take a closer look at possible fixes for this.
How to fix YouTube-DL too slow?
Several universal fixes won’t take much effort and will probably help you download videos from YouTube or any other service. Let’s break down each of them. I recommend you try each of them to find a way to help you solve your YouTube-DL slow download problems. To do this, you will need the following:
Check your Internet connection
The first thing you should do is check your Internet connection. Very often, the problem is just that users have connection problems, such as their internet connection being too slow or their signal being interrupted. Try other services and websites and see how fast they are. I also advise you to check the connection quality via Speedtest. You should contact your internet service provider if you have internet problems.
Restart your computer
Some users have also noticed that the speed problems with YouTube-DL disappear after you restart your PC. This solution is most suitable for Linux users. However, if you have Windows or Mac, you should also try this fix, which may help you solve your problem.
Install yt-dlp
You can install yt-dlp. It’s a fork of YouTube-DL, based on the now-defunct youtube-DLC. In this project, the developers focused on fixing bugs and problems with the YouTube-DL service. Many users have noted that it works like an improved YouTube DL.
Cleanup your browser caches
Also, clearing your browser’s cache can help. That’s because YouTube DL works with your browser, and clearing your cache can speed up your downloads and make YouTube DL work much faster.
Use a VPN
Many people have also noticed that using a VPN from another locale can speed up your downloads. You can use a free VPN extension or the free VPN built into the Opera browser. This should solve the problem.
Try another YouTube downloader.
If it did not go well with previous fixes, you should try using a different YouTube downloader. The recommendation I have most often found is to use CleverGet. It is an easy-to-use and effective service with even more tools than YouTube-DL.
