Recently, I wanted to download a YouTube playlist. It has more than 100 free courses, each about half an hour long. Can I download full playlist from YouTube at once and keep the resolution at 1080p or better? Absolutely yes. Here are methods I've verified to support even if the playlist includes thousands of videos.
Cisdem Video Converter
Free Download macOS 13 or later 
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
The best way to download entire YouTube playlists on Mac and Windows is to use an app called Cisdem Video Converter. It’s incredibly effective and user-friendly for YouTube downloads, making it a great app for anyone to download all videos from a playlist. You can use it to:
Free Download macOS 10.13 or later Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
1. Copy YouTube playlist URL
Go to the YouTube website, find the playlist you want to download, and copy the URL to it. The URL usually takes one of two forms:
2. Open Cisdem Video Converter app. Click on the third icon from the top to switch to the “download” module.
3. Paste the copied playlist URL into the empty text box at the bottom.
4. Press enter or click the white "+" icon on the right to load all videos in the playlist.
5. Choose output options.
Select the output format based on the encoder, resolution, and bitrate.
If subtitles are available, select the language and format of the subtitles.
To remove a video in the playlist that you don't want, uncheck the box in the top left of the video thumbnail.
6. Click “Start” to download whole YouTube playlist to computer in one go.
Your personal Liked and Watch Later YouTube playlists are in "Private" status and cannot be made public. To download these two playlists, you need to:
1. Log in to your YouTube account in the browser.
2. Close the browser to ensure Cisdem Video Converter successfully reads your cookies from the browser's storage.
3. Then paste the URL for parsing.
When downloading individual private YouTube videos, Cisdem Video Converter will show you pop-up prompts after parsing the link.
But for private YouTube playlists such as “Liked Videos” and “Watch Later” playlists, it just tell you “Fail to load”.
Note: Sometimes, Chrome or Chromuim-based browsers may fail to access cookies due to policy reasons, so I recommend you use other browsers such as Firefox to log in to your YouTube account.
YouTube Music is an independent music streaming service launched by YouTube. They will sync playlists with each other. You can listen to the same playlist on YouTube or YouTube Music.
To download a full playlist from YouTube Music with Cisdem Video Converter, you can use the URL:
Note: Private playlists in YouTube Music also need to obtain the website's cookies to be successfully downloaded.
To convert YouTube Music playlist to MP3, read https://www.cisdem.com/resource/youtube-playlist-to-mp3.html.
When you enter a keyword in the YouTube search bar, a whole bunch of videos related to it will appear. Cisdem Video Converter can download all videos from a YouTube search query with the URL - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=[keyword]. But it only supports video downloads from search results and will automatically skip if a playlist is detected.
yt-dlp is a favorite among Reddit users for its powerful and practical download features. If you are a loyal user of yt-dlp, execute following command lines to download the full YouTube playlist in Terminal (Mac) or Prompt Commands/PowerShell (Windows).
If you are new to yt-dlp, go to https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp to learn and install it. Honestly, it's not easy to start.
Download whole YouTube playlist in the usual way
yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=[playlist ID]. Paste the YouTube playlist link after yt-dlp and press Enter to download all videos in a public playlist at once.
Sequentially number videos in a YouTube playlist while keeping original titles
yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" [playlist URL]. Videos will be named as 1-[video title], 2-[video title].
yt-dlp -cio '%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s' [playlist URL]. Videos will be labeled 00001 [video title], 00002 [video title].
Note: Saving YouTube playlists using above two command lines can be very slow.
Download part of a playlist from YouTube
yt-dlp --playlist-start 10 --playlist-end 50 [playlist URL]. Download videos #10 through #50 from the playlist.
yt-dlp --playlist-items 6,11,30,40-42 [playlist URL]. Download videos #6, #11, #30, #40, #41, and #42.
Download private YouTube playlist
yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=WL". Sign in to your YouTube account in Firefox and close the browser. Download the Watch Later playlist with this command. You can replace the browser and private link. Cisdem Video Converter works in the same way.
Locoloader is a website that ensures you download full YouTube playlists or individual videos online. Free accounts can extract 2 videos from a playlist every 6 hours. Videos are up to 360p MP4 with audio or 1080p MP4 without audio. Also, free version allows you to save YouTube playlist as an audio in WebM format.
To remove the limitations on the number of downloads, resolution or to convert the YouTube audio playlist to MP3, subscribe for $15 per month or $60 per year. But I don't think this price is cheap.
Here are steps to use Locoloader:
1. Visit https://www.locoloader.com/youtube-video-downloader/ in your browser.
2. Copy the playlist URL, paste it to the text field, then Locoloade will automatically analyze the link.
Note: If you input the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=[video ID]&list=[playlist ID], Locoloader will only load the corresponding video in the playlist based on [video ID]. To load a whole YouTube playlist, it’s recommended to use the link - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=[playlist ID].
3. Select all videos or parts of the playlist.
4. Click “Extract”.
5. Click “Download All”.
In addition to the online version, Locoloader also offers extension versions for Chrome and Firefox. I tested the YouTube playlist downloader extension on Chrome and Firefox, and it doesn't work at all.
For those who are new to YouTube playlist download field, choosing Cisdem Video Converter is absolutely fine. Although the online service doesn't require installation, it's not superior in terms of features, price, and security. If you're already an experienced user of yt-dlp, I think it's good enough for your needs. Beginners are not recommended to use yt-dlp because it's hard for you to control the output format, quality and other elements.
If you have purchased YouTube Music Premium, you can download an entire YouTube playlist or an artist's entire album on iPhone or Android for offline listening. However, all songs in the playlists are DRM encrypted, and they are only stored as cache in the app data folder, not as MP3, M4A or other digital music files.
It's a hot topic so I put IDM (Internet Download Manager) to the test. The program is compatible with Windows systems and can be installed as a desktop version and Chrome extension. After my test, both versions fail to download YouTube playlists directly. People need to generate new links with an online website like YoutubePlaylist.cc and Youtube Multi Downloader, then use IDM to download the entire playlist with all new links.
If you just want to download your full playlists from YouTube and then transfer them to Apple Music, TIDAL, Spotify, Deezer, SoundCloud, Audiomack, etc., you can sync your playlists directly through TuneMyMusic or Soundiiz. Check the website for specific fees.
Emily is a girl who loves to review various multimedia software. She enjoys exploring cutting edge technology and writing how-to guides. Hopefully her articles will help you solve your audio, video, DVD and Blu-ray issues.
