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The YouTube frontend downloads the video file (the .mp4) from googlevideo.com/videoplayback and adds it to a locally playable playlist. However, the implementa
by rvnx 3y ago
The YouTube frontend downloads the video file (the .mp4) from googlevideo.com/videoplayback and adds it to a locally playable playlist.
However, the implementation is really wacky.
If you are online and you go to watch a video that you have previously downloaded, then instead of serving you the locally cached version through the service worker, instead the frontend redownloads the whole video.
Again, and again, every time you watch it.
So if your goal is to save mobile data, or if your goal is to save a video that might possibly be deleted in the future, it is not working.
- TRiG_Ireland 3y agoDoes the YouTube app really download the video again each time you play it? I have noticed that downloaded videos always play in full quality. (In fact, that's the main reason I use downloads: play a short, stop it, go to history, download the short, then play it again. Because shorts have no quality control option, and also no download option except from the watch history. Shorts have a very weird and annoying UI. It's also impossible to add them to a playlist.)