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How does the YouTube offline functionality work? What format are the videos saved in?

I know that people can download/convert videos from YouTube site and apps like Tubemate, but is it possible to convert those offline files to .mp4 or any other video files?

If I am a content creator and I am OK with people watching my videos offline but not with people sharing the video file, should I be turning the offline feature on?

Andrew T.
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Drilldoge
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  • Related to your first-half: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/97399/where-does-youtubes-offline-feature-store-video-files – Andrew T. May 14 '16 at 12:59
  • By "not ok with people sharing it", do you mean sharing by link or as video file? If the latter, then Alex.S' answer does answer your question. – Andrew T. May 14 '16 at 13:03
  • If you read my question, it is very that clear I am talking about the video files in YouTube apps offline functionality. How does Alex. S answer my question? He skipped the 70% of the question. What kind of ignorant community does stack exchange have? I would have had better luck with yahoo answers. Jesus!! I am disappointed. – Drilldoge May 14 '16 at 15:30
  • I read your question, thrice. Read the link I posted. While it might be impossible to convert YouTube offline video, people can download it from YouTube video downloader sites. Conclusion: you can't prevent them to get the playable video file. Did I answer your questions? – Andrew T. May 14 '16 at 15:39
  • @AndrewT. Forgive me if I have acted rude. I think everyone knows that people can download videos from YouTube site and apps like Tubemate. What I wanted to know is that can it be done through the YouTube's new offline functionality? Content creators can actually turn on/off this feature on their channel. I think I got my answer. I was hoping to get a more detailed look into how it works and if there are ways people could implement something similar in their apps but the latter I was saving for another question. I think it is a very useful feature that can be used by several apps. – Drilldoge May 14 '16 at 15:53
  • I tried to clarify the question based on the comment, hopefully I didn't change any meaning (otherwise, you can [edit] to improve it). However... YouTube offline is not available in my country (it's only available on few countries with limited internet, such as India, Indonesia, etc), so I can't experiment with it. – Andrew T. May 14 '16 at 16:23

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YouTube has an amazing feature that lets you watch your favorite YouTube videos without an internet connection on your mobile using 'YouTube offline' feature. You have asked how does it work?

Here is answer according to my understanding. First of, The offline feature only works on the YouTube app. Now when you add a video to offline the video is downloaded onto your device, then later you can playback that video as many times as you want in the YouTube app without having active internet connection for up to 48 hours, after that the video becomes inaccessible and becomes available again after you connect the device to the internet.

Please note that not all videos are available to add to offline, as the uploader can decide whether his/her video should be made available offline or not.

So where is the video file saved?

Well, I tried every possible way to find the file but the whereever it is stored it can only be accessed by the YouTube app and you can not playback the video on another video player on your device.

Now for YouTube publishers, it might work like this, let's say someone watched your video playing ads offline but YouTube app will refresh view counts once the device is reconnected to the internet so this way no views and ad revenue is wasted and is win win situation for both content creator and users.

So that’s how YouTube's offline feature works hope you've learned something new and found my answer helpful.

Imran Aftab
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