The acquisition of video content from YouTube for offline viewing on macOS-based computers, at no cost, is a common user objective. This process involves employing software or web-based services designed to extract video files from the YouTube platform and save them to a local drive. As an example, a user might want to archive a lecture for later study without requiring an internet connection.
The motivation behind this practice stems from various needs. These include preserving content that might be removed from YouTube, enabling viewing in areas with limited or absent internet access, and facilitating educational or archival purposes. Historically, this capability has been sought after since the early days of online video platforms, evolving from command-line tools to user-friendly graphical interfaces.