Videodropper: Download YouTube Videos Directly to Dropbox

written by Sue Frantz | October 11, 2011

UPDATED 5/17/2014
Videodropper is now Orchard, which is nothing like Videodropper.  If you’re looking for a video downloader, check out KeepVid.  This blog post explains how it works.

UPDATED 6/24/2012
A visit to the videodropper.ep.io website shows that the service is no longer available.  It has been replaced with a mysterious message. “We’re working on something new. Want to be the first to hear?” with a place to enter an email address to get updates.  

UPDATED 10/13/2011.
My sincerest thanks to the developer for posting his comment below.  I tried the service again this morning, and it worked perfectly.  Dropbox even downloaded it to my computer within a few minutes.  The videos download as flv files.  If you’d like to convert the videos to a different file format, go to Zamzar.com, upload the file and choose the you’d like to convert it to.  This is going to be a great service!

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I have written before on how to download YouTube videos using ZamZar. For Dropbox users, downloading videos may get a whole lot easier. The key word is “may”. This product has a lot of potential, but it’s not ready for primetime.

Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) posted on his blog about a new service called Videodropper. (Word of warning. This Videodropper is at videodropper.ep.io. Videodropper.com is a porn site.)

When you visit the non-porn Videodropper, you’ll be asked to connect your Dropbox account to this service. (You can probably imagine what your options are when you visit the porn Videodropper. Let’s just say that that’s beyond the scope of this blog.) Following the link takes you to your Dropbox account where Dropbox asks if you’re okay letting the non-porn Videodropper add stuff to your Dropbox. Once you have granted permission you get bounced back to Videodropper.

Go to YouTube and choose the video you’d like to download. Copy the URL . Go back to to Videodropper and paste the URL into the box, and click “Send to Dropbox.” (Don’t use the link you get using the YouTube “Share” button. At this writing, Videodropper didn’t recognize the youtu.be URL.)

Videodropper will acknowledge your request with this message.

“Test Your Awareness: Whodunnit?” is the name of the video I want downloaded. That link is clickable on the Videodropper page.

The video will be put in your main Dropbox folder. Once there, you can move it wherever you’d like. For me, the video was available in my account at Dropbox.com, but it didn’t sync with my computer so it never appeared in my computer’s Dropbox folder. I had to download it from my Dropbox.com account, then move it from my downloads folder into Dropbox, where, weirdly, it automatically earned the Dropbox green checkmark, acting like it was there all along. I then uploaded an image file to Dropbox.com, just to see if I was having Dropbox issues, but that file synced into my computer’s Dropbox folder without incident.

Then I thought I’d try it again to see if it was a one-time issue. I went back to Videodropper, entered another YouTube URL and clicked “Send to Dropbox”. I was returned to the opening Videodropper page. Where I’m invited to log into Dropbox. So I click that again, and it takes me to where I just was, the screen that tells me my previous file was successfully added to my Dropbox account. I entered the URL again, and zing, back to the opening page I go. I was using Chrome to do this, so I thought maybe it’s a Chrome issue. Now I try Firefox, where I have the exact same experience.

One more browser: Internet Explorer.

I get some new options on the screen. Check out the “Download” and “Play Now” buttons. I’m hopeful.

I enter the new YouTube URL, cross my fingers, and click the partially-obscured “Send to Dropbox” button. And… back to the main Videodropper page I go.

In short, Videodropper only let me download a YouTube video to my Dropbox account once. Choose the video wisely. If you get it to work more than once, please let me know!