How To: Download Your Uploaded Videos From Google Video

Two days ago we wrote about Google Video basically going offline for hosted videos. On April 29, you will no longer be able to watch videos hosted on Google Video and on May 13, you will no longer be able to download the videos you have uploaded to Google Video over the last few years. Thanks to Jason Kincaid and Nimish Sawant for their links.

I like Francine Hardaway’s comment – she wonders why Google didn’t create a simple one-click “transfer this video to YouTube” option. Assuming Google doesn’t create a transfer to YouTube option, here are three ways to download your videos from Google Video. No matter which option you use, if you have a lot of videos on GV, it will take some time to grab all of them. I’ve listed the options in order from easiest to more complicated.

Option #1 – Use Download Button

In my research it seems about 50% of Google Video users have a “Download” button appearing next to their videos. I am not one of those people – no button shows up on my Google Video page. Click the download button and then after you download the video, it will change to “downloaded” to let you know that you have downloaded that video.

Here’s what the download option looks like:

Option #2 – Modify the URL

If you don’t have the download option listed above, you can modify the URL to get the download option to work. Just hover over the link “Edit Video Info” and copy the CID from the URL into the following link: