Frequently asked questions

YDM (YouTube Download Manager) is a desktop application for Windows that downloads YouTube videos and playlists. Developed by QANEN, it puts a fast, resumable download engine and a modern interface in one self-contained executable — with a multi-job queue, clipboard link detection, and real-time progress metrics.

YDM by QANEN is the full product name: YDM is the YouTube Download Manager application, and QANEN is the company that develops and publishes it. The website ydm.qanen.site is the official product site, and qanen.site is the company site.

Yes. YDM is free and open source software licensed under the GNU General Public License v3. There is no paid tier, no ads, and no account system.

Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit). YDM ships as a self-contained Windows executable with the download engine and the interface embedded — no runtime prerequisites. If the dedicated desktop window can't start on an unusual system, the interface opens in your default browser automatically.

Video from 144p up to 2160p (4K), plus best-quality profiles, in MP4, MKV, or WebM containers. Audio-only downloads are supported as best-audio or MP3. Video and audio streams are merged by stream copy, so there is no re-encoding quality loss except for the optional MP3 conversion.

Paste the playlist link into YDM and click Analyze. Every entry is listed with its title and duration — select videos individually with checkboxes or use index expressions such as 1-10 or 3,6,8, then choose quality and numbering and click Download. The job runs in the queue with per-video progress.

Yes — resuming is a core feature. Interrupted or paused downloads continue from their .part files, even across app restarts and Windows reboots. A disk-space guard checks free space before and during downloads, and gentle retry backoff handles network hiccups and throttling.

When clipboard watching is enabled, copying a supported YouTube link (watch, playlist, Shorts, live, or youtu.be) triggers a compact action popup offering Add to Queue or Open & Select — or a native toast if you prefer. Detection runs from the system tray even while the main window is closed, and it can be paused anytime.

Yes. YDM has a multi-job queue that runs up to 8 jobs in parallel (3 by default), and within each job it uses adaptive fragment concurrency (2–12 workers) that tunes itself to your connection. You can also set a speed limit per session.

YDM talks to YouTube only. It has no telemetry, no auto-updater, no accounts, and no third-party servers. Your settings, history, and sessions are stored locally in %APPDATA%\YDM. Its local interface server is reachable only from your own machine and is hardened with host validation and per-run tokens.

No. YDM is an independent open source project by QANEN and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to YouTube or Google LLC. Downloading videos may violate YouTube's Terms of Service; only download content you have the right to save.

That depends on the content and your jurisdiction. Downloading your own uploads, Creative Commons-licensed material, or content where the rights holder permits saving is generally fine. Downloading copyrighted content without permission may violate YouTube's Terms of Service and local law. YDM is a tool — you are responsible for using it lawfully.

Run YDM-Setup.exe for a per-user install (no admin rights; adds Desktop and Start Menu shortcuts), or use the portable YDM.exe with no installation at all. Uninstalling via Settings → Apps removes everything the installer created but deliberately keeps your downloaded media and unfinished .part files.

Each YDM release embeds an up-to-date extraction layer so YouTube parsing keeps working as YouTube evolves. New YDM releases are published on this site — download the latest installer or portable executable and replace your copy. Settings and history carry over.

Because the build is new and independently distributed, Windows SmartScreen may warn on first run. Click More info, then Run anyway. The portable build never touches the registry; you can verify its behavior with any network monitor — it communicates only with YouTube.

Windows 10 or later (64-bit) with a few hundred MB of free disk space for the app plus room for your downloads. There are no runtime prerequisites: the download engine and the interface are embedded in the single executable.