I have problems using IDM with YouTube. What should I do?
First of all please update IDM to the latest version and restart your computer.
This is absolutely necessary because YouTube often changes its logic and old versions of IDM do not work properly.
Here are common problems with YouTube and solutions for them:
1. IDM downloads a web page instead of a video.
This happens because you try to download YouTube link with IDM directly. It is impossible. You need to open this link in your browser and start playing a video in a web player. Then IDM will show its video download panel near top right corner of the web player. Click on it to start your download.
2. IDM shows "An error occurred while creating security connection" message.
This usually happens when you use Windows XP system (read how to fix it).
3. IDM does not show video download panel at all.
3.1. Maybe something is wrong with IDM integration into your browser (read how to fix it).
3.2. Some YouTube videos use protocols that are not supported by IDM. It can be a protocol that we do not support for legal reasons (read details) or a protocol that we may support in the future.
3.3. Please also check that YouTube does not exist in your exceptions list. Open "Options→General" IDM dialog and press "Edit" near "Customize IDM Download panels in browsers". Then press "Exceptions" and then delete "YouTube.com" if it exists in the list:
3.4. It can be caused by a conflict with some other extensions for Chrome. For example we have confirmation of conflict with "Disable YouTube HTML5 Player" extension. Please try to disable all other extensions but IDM, restart Chrome and look if problem persists.
4. IDM downloads only audio or video without audio part of a file.
5. IDM shows some error while rebuilding temporary files at the end of a download.
6. When I try to open a downloaded video file, IDM tells that the file is not found.
This means that you use an old version of IDM. Please update IDM to the latest version and restart your computer. Please also check IDM integration into your browser.
7. When I press on download panel, IDM shows error message "403 Forbidden" or tells that it impossible to resolve IP address of a host.
This can happen if your browser and IDM use different IP addresses. For example you may use proxy in your browser and do not use in IDM. In such case YouTube does not let IDM to use temporary download link that is created for video. Make sure that you use the same IP address/VPN connection etc. in your browser and in IDM.
It can be also caused by some conflict with other internet applications browser extensions. For example we received reports about Frigate browser extension causing this.
8. IDM does not show all video type and quality options on its video download panel.
If you already have the latest version of IDM and it still does not show all video quality download options, you need to select a desired option in a web player and IDM will add the download option for it on its video download panel.
Also we have confirmed that this problem can be caused by CCleaner and similar applications that clean registry keys and temporary internet files. In CCleaner to avoid this problem you needto select only "Temporary Internet Files and Cookies" option in "Windows" tab and in the "Applications" tab under your browser to select "Internet Cache and Cookies - then analyze and remove" option.
9. I do not see FLV format download options for 360p and 480p video quality.
Currently YouTube offers FLV format option only for 240p video quality. It is not IDM problem.