Skip to content

The Mac YouTube downloader that just works.

Paste a link, get your file. Fast, native, and free forever.

Install with HomebrewRecommended

brew install --cask eliorpom-cmd/tap/to-be-downloaded && xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/TBD - To be downloaded.app"

The second half clears the flag macOS puts on apps it cannot trace to a paid Apple account. It touches this app and nothing else. Read the source on GitHub.

Never opened Terminal? It takes two minutes.

Terminal is an app already on your Mac, and Homebrew is the tool most Mac software outside the App Store is installed with. You need both once, then never again.

  1. 1. Open Terminal

    Press Command and Space together, type Terminal, and press return. A window with a blinking cursor opens. Nothing you paste here does anything until you press return.

  2. 2. Install Homebrew, if you don't have it

    Copy the line below, paste it in that window and press return. It asks for your Mac password, which is normal for an install, and takes a few minutes. Skip this step if you already use Homebrew.

    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

  3. 3. Install the app

    Copy the command at the top of this section, paste it the same way, and press return. It installs the app and then clears the flag macOS puts on downloads. When it finishes, the app is in your Applications folder and opens like any other.

Homebrew is not mine and not specific to this app. It comes from brew.sh, and the line above is the one published there.

Download the .dmg instead — 39 MB

macOS will ask first

The app is not signed by Apple, so the first launch is refused. Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, and click Open Anyway. Asked once.

Download
A link is pasted into To be downloaded and the download fills the row until the file is saved.

A native Mac app.

It opens instantly, sits in the menu bar, follows your system theme, and a finished file can be dragged straight into your editor. It's written in Swift, not a web page in a wrapper.

The TBD menu bar item open on macOS, showing a download in progress above the desktop.

Nothing leaves your Mac.

The app downloads straight from YouTube to your disk. There is no account and no server in between: the settings window below is the whole of it, and there is nothing in it to sign in to.

The settings window of To be downloaded, with the download folder and the engine section, and no account of any kind.

A few more things...

Download from your phone

Scan the QR code to open {name} on your phone, over your own local network. Paste a link there and the file downloads on your phone, over your Mac.

Download a whole playlist

Select the videos you want from a playlist. The queue downloads them one at a time, in the background, while you work.

Resumes where it stopped

Closing the app mid-download or losing the connection doesn't restart the file. It continues from the same byte.

Plays anywhere, no conversion

MP4 (H.264 + AAC) by default, so files open in QuickTime and import into any editor. No conversion step, no codec to install.

Everything in one library

Every file you've saved, in a single list. Drag one into your editor, or click it to open directly in Finder.

A keyboard shortcut, from any app

Option-Command-V downloads whatever link is on your clipboard, without bringing the window forward.

Keeps working as YouTube changes

YouTube keeps changing how it serves video, and that's what breaks downloaders. The yt-dlp engine updates itself inside the app, so a link that worked last month still downloads today.

TBD vs. online downloaders

TBD compared with a website that downloads on your behalf
An online downloaderTBD
Where it runsSomeone else's serverYour Mac
What it costsAds or a subscriptionFree forever
Quality you getWhatever they'll give youEvery format YouTube offers
Download speedTheir bandwidth, sharedYour own connection

Free, forever.

The download runs on your Mac, so there are no servers to pay for. No account, no trial, and no paid tier planned.

The source code is on GitHub, so you can check for yourself what the app does with your links.

Elior, who writes To be downloaded.

I built it for myself.

I edit video, and most weeks I need something from YouTube: a sound effect, some music, a clip... And I like to have a few things to watch on a plane.

Download websites made me sit through an ad and a countdown, then handed me whatever quality they wanted to give me. Rarely the one I asked for.

yt-dlp does all of it properly, but it's a command line tool. Every download meant opening a terminal and remembering the flags.

So I built TBD.

Elior

To be downloaded, on your Mac.

One command, and the app is in your Applications folder.

Install with HomebrewRecommended

brew install --cask eliorpom-cmd/tap/to-be-downloaded && xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/TBD - To be downloaded.app"

The second half clears the flag macOS puts on apps it cannot trace to a paid Apple account. It touches this app and nothing else. Read the source on GitHub.

Never opened Terminal? It takes two minutes.

Terminal is an app already on your Mac, and Homebrew is the tool most Mac software outside the App Store is installed with. You need both once, then never again.

  1. 1. Open Terminal

    Press Command and Space together, type Terminal, and press return. A window with a blinking cursor opens. Nothing you paste here does anything until you press return.

  2. 2. Install Homebrew, if you don't have it

    Copy the line below, paste it in that window and press return. It asks for your Mac password, which is normal for an install, and takes a few minutes. Skip this step if you already use Homebrew.

    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

  3. 3. Install the app

    Copy the command at the top of this section, paste it the same way, and press return. It installs the app and then clears the flag macOS puts on downloads. When it finishes, the app is in your Applications folder and opens like any other.

Homebrew is not mine and not specific to this app. It comes from brew.sh, and the line above is the one published there.

Download the .dmg instead — 39 MB

macOS will ask first

The app is not signed by Apple, so the first launch is refused. Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, and click Open Anyway. Asked once.

Download

Common questions.

Is it safe to install?

The app is free and has no $99 a year Apple Developer account behind it, so macOS cannot check who signed it and blocks it the first time. That is what the second install command is for: it lifts that flag on this app alone. The app asks for no admin rights, touches no system files, and the source is public, so you can read exactly what it does before running it.

How much does it cost?

Nothing, and that won't change. There's a Ko-fi link in the app if it saves you time and you want to support me.

Which Macs can run it?

macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple Silicon. It isn't on the App Store, so it installs with one Homebrew command, or from a .dmg if you would rather not use Terminal.

Does it work with anything other than YouTube?

Currently focused purely on YouTube to ensure maximum reliability. Support for other platforms is planned.

Do I need to install anything first?

No. yt-dlp ships inside the app, and FFmpeg is fetched once on first launch, around 56 MB, with the app telling you while it happens. Nothing to set up in a terminal, nothing to keep updated by hand.

So it's a front end for yt-dlp?

It checks for its own updates and for download engine updates, then installs them in the background. Both can be turned off in settings, and updating through Homebrew works too.

How does it update?

It checks for its own updates and for download engine updates, then installs them in the background. Both can be turned off in settings.

Is anything collected about me?

Not by the app: no account, no telemetry, no analytics, and nothing sent anywhere. Your library and your settings stay in your own Application Support folder. This website is the one place with any measurement at all, a cookieless page count that identifies nobody.

Anything else, ask on Instagram.

Supporters

12 months, all paid.

Apple wants 99$ a year to let me sign my apps, so I split the bill.

Each month was 9$, and all twelve are taken. The names are here and in the readme.

The account is covered for the year. Nothing left to lock, and nothing to buy on this page.

  1. September 2026

    @madscientist_ch

  2. October 2026

    @minimejer05

  3. November 2026

    @_sleepypanther

  4. December 2026

    @minimejer05

  5. January 2027

    @_sleepypanther

  6. February 2027

    @_sleepypanther

  7. March 2027

    @_sleepypanther

  8. April 2027

    @_sleepypanther

  9. May 2027

    @_sleepypanther

  10. June 2027

    @ljyjeffrey

  11. July 2027

    @ljyjeffrey

  12. August 2027

    @_sleepypanther
Buy me a coffee

All 12 months are taken. The year is paid.

Less than 9$ works too, it just doesnt take a month. Your name goes in the credits.

12 x 9 is 108 and not 99, the extra pays the payment fees.