Friday, August 24, 2007

How to download Photobucket videos

*updated 8/12/08 - thanks to your comments I'm simplifying this post w/ an easier method

Photobucket does not empower users to download videos hosted on their site. That sucks. In this post you will learn how to download a Photobucket video without ever having to leave Photobucket. All you need is the desired video's url and a little htmlery.

Example:
http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa105/blah/?action=view&current=MOV00037-1.flv

Remove:
?action=view&current=

Final url:
http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa105/blah/MOV00037-1.flv

Copy your final URL, paste it into your browser and hit enter.

A pop-up window should appear and give you the option to save it to your desktop.

Note: You'll need an flv player to view the SWFs stored on your computer.

Congratulations - you just downloaded a Photobucket video!


*Ups to chaos and Don P. for help with this post and those of you anonymously dropping knowledge in my comments :)

**This blog has moved

55 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah, that technique no longer works, as the link you provide (and the other sites using this technique) is defunct.

Joey Infortuno said...

this technique does still work. i updated the html practice area link and was able to do download photobucket videos once again

Anonymous said...

Hey! Stanko here.
It dose still work for I used it just then to get a video a girl took of me at school having a Dance off!

Thanks Joey.
Regards,
Stanko

Anonymous said...

Can we only up-load them as flv files?I want to use the video in Windows Movie Maker.Is it possible?

Joey Infortuno said...

Yes, I believe flv is the default but you can download a free flv to avi or mpg converter here:

http://www.download.com/Pazera-Free-FLV-to-AVI-Converter/3000-2194_4-10786669.html?tag=lst-1

I haven't worked with Movie Maker before but flv is a pretty common format... I would imagine you could edit flvs in Movie Maker but you might want to recheck that before converting. good luck!

Brandon Lee said...

big ups... this was real helpful... check me out at bsldesigns.blogspot.com

merci!

Anonymous said...

thank you so much

Anonymous said...

im confused i saved the target and i got a weird text file then i saved it again and saved it a second time but it seemed that the computer couldnt locate the file and needed to find the website provider..

Joey Infortuno said...

Hmmm, make sure you're formatting the link correctly... you want to delete everything after the "?" in the video's URL. Also, when you right-click and do a 'save file as'... was there another option aside from saving as a text file? Lastly, if your computer is having difficulties finding the file then that may be because you don't have an flv player... see my post to find out where you can download one for free. Hopefully that helps...

Anonymous said...

yo joe, found your page because of your instructions + jibjab on your page. i'm not using photobucket, but i did want to dl a jibjab video that i put all the faces in. ever heard of a way? (i've good good tools for youtube, etc.)

Joey Infortuno said...

Heyo 755club,

Thanks for dropping by! Hmmm, can't really speak on this because I've never tried to scrape a JibJab video. However, we're seeing this request more and more and to that end, our tech team is working to make JibJab videos available for download. I wish I could give you a time frame but to be honest I really don't know. I'll buzz a few heads internally, when the functionality is available we'll blog it and/or most likely include it in our newsletter.

Anonymous said...

You're great Joey! It was easy and worked great!

Mahalo!

Laeula

Anonymous said...

well a simplified version of this is to just do the first step and then press enter. download link pops up, voila much easier

Anonymous said...

Hey when you delete that stuff out of the code like this part ?action=view&current=

after you do that..all you have to do is press enter in yr browser and you'll skip all the steps.

Tommy said...

new Mac user here. Used to do this all the time w/Windows...doesn't seem to work with Mac? Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

It really works!Thanks

Anonymous said...

GODDD!!! THANK YOU
im so glad i uploaded the video. woulda lost a great memory.
well thanks again

Anonymous said...

heyyy. joey.
im so sorry to bother you.
but i read through what you said and all, and i did all what it told me to do. but im not really sure what happened.
because, i got to the part where you click save, so i chlicked save.
and it downloaded. but the only problem now is that i tried to open the video... but i have to choose a program on what to choose, and i dont no what im supposed to click... could ou please help me?? thanks a heap joey :)

Joey Infortuno said...

Hi. Sounds like your computer doesn't have a flash (flv) player. Check out my note towards the end of this post... you'll find a link to where you can download one for free.

Anonymous said...

thanks for the updated post, it works. and for those of you who can't view it because of a flv player, download a converter so you can download it to avi or whatever format you want.(i would suggest rad video tools).

Anonymous said...

Yay it works.
Is there acode liek this for FACEBOOk videoS?

Joey Infortuno said...

^hmm, not that I'm aware of but that doesn't mean it can't be done... I'll post if I find a way

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! Thanks!!! You should mention that there are several programs, most of them freeware that can convert FLV to most accessible video formats, like WMV or MPEG. I use "WMConverter" which is freeware and can be found at download.com

Anonymous said...

Amazingg!! Thanks soo much! Good clear directions.. and so easy and simple!! I have an account and I was going to delete it.. but I wanted my vids so I can keep them at least.. and had no idea of how to do it.. and this technique worked fast and easy! thanks a lot once again! :)

Anonymous said...

You can convert the flv file you downloaded into any format like mp4 or avis. Just download free video converter from koyote software.

Anonymous said...

Thank you all!! This really helped me out of a jam. =)

Joey Infortuno said...

:) glad it helped

Anonymous said...

if it isnt much trouble, i wanted the old link on how to download videos before you posted this new method...bc that way always worked awesome for me, it helped me download other videos from other sites as well. if you wouldnt mind..

Joey Infortuno said...

Hey Derrick,

Sure, the original method I posted is...

1) Follow the steps to get your "Final url" as described in this post.

2) Go to any html practice area. There is one here: practiceboard.com

3) In the practice area, paste your 'Final url' into this html: <a href="FINAL_URL_HERE">SCRAPE</a>

4) Click 'See HTML Button' and right click the "SCRAPE" link to save the video to your cpu

Also, you can try File2hd.com - this website is sometimes able to scrape video, audio, etc.

g'luck

Anonymous said...

thank you, man. i appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

thanks, it worked.

Anonymous said...

this helped me A LOT and i was able to download to my desktop, however when i try to upload the video onto facebook, it wouldn't play the entire video but it showed the entire time (length of the video). does that make sense?

do u know how i can fix this?

Joey Infortuno said...

Facebook support almost all video file types, including flv, so that shouldn't be an issue. Make sure your video is less than 1024 MB and under 20 minutes... if it already is, sorry, try Facebook Support/Help.

Unknown said...

I can't believe it's that simple *shakes head* haha, thank you! :)

Anonymous said...

Amazing! Thanks, dude. - Kimi Rai's bitch

Anonymous said...

Ho Ho Ho! Thanks! =)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info. I've been looking for how to get the videos off of photobucket for along time. I'm glad I found this blog.

Jess

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for the tip. It works like a charm.

Unknown said...

Kudos on the video download process. Now I'm looking to save a few slideshows that are in photobucket. I know I can save each individual photo but (1) there a ton of them and (2) I love the little quips that are on each photo within their respective slideshows. Any advice?

Carey Heart said...

Hey Joey!
I tried this method like 10 times and i googled other ways to download photobucket videos and can't figure it out. the comments on here are all so positive so im sure it works but im not good with computers so i was wondering if maybe, i could give you the link to the one video i want and you could send it to me through msn, instant messaging. if you can, you can email me at carey.heart@yahoo.com and then i will give you my msn email so you can send it to me there. the yahoo email is just if you can do it. and here is the video i want:

http://s398.photobucket.com/albums/pp68/caseycarlson/?action=view&current=anoop-desai-audition.flv

THANKS! i would really appreciate it!

Anonymous said...

holyshit thanks!!!! IT WORKED!! :D

Bex said...

hey this is great except im a mac user .. and it doesnt work ? Wondering if you could help me with this ... thanks :)

José Antonio Hernández said...

Hey...

Thanks a lot, I had lost two videos in my computer, but i saved it in photobucket, but i didn't know how to dowload it.

This is grat

zXTury said...

if u have..

http://i202.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid202.photobucket.com/albums/aa181/EXAMPLE.flv

just leave

http://vid202.photobucket.com/albums/aa181/viri_082/MOV04457.flv

and now.. download it using a download manager

bebe said...

you're a genius, by the way

Rosh said...

it still works. i just downloaded an flv from my pb account. thanks lots joey!

Unknown said...

thank you soooo much!!
it's really helping!
you're the best!

kunde said...

Thanks a lot!!! I was having a lot of trouble installling programs and stuff like that.

Anonymous said...

you rock! u just made a 25 hr train ride with a one year old possible! lol

JonasBrothersLover said...

I am trying to download my video and all of you guys have .flv but mine looks like this:

http://s480.photobucket.com/albums/rr168/iCarlyfan12/?action=view&current=d141fe27.pbr

If you know then please tell me why it has pbr please thank you.

Anonymous said...

yo this does NOT work duuuude

Usman Ghani Khattak said...

Thanks buddy, today my General Manager ask me to download some vids from the bucket, i try several times by doing several utilities. but no1 work.

thanks to you for your effort.

great work.

Unknown said...

OhMyGod!, it worked! thanksss so much! =)

Anonymous said...

Could I have some help...it automatically downloads the video to temporary files...which are as good as useless!!

Ally said...

This works, I used it just now to get videos from my old account