Key Points

  • Most technology companies that keep data allow the user to access and download their user data if they so desire. To download your YouTube data, visit the Google Takeout portal. Once in the Google Takeout portal, select the program data that you wish to download by following the instructions below.

YouTube is one of the most used platforms in the entire world and is generally regarded as the second largest search engine behind Google, despite its primary use as a video content platform. Funny enough, YouTube is actually owned by Google (via Alphabet, the parent company of Google), and shares a lot of similar account and settings information with its parent company. Today, we are going to be taking a look at how to download your YouTube data with our photo guide. Let’s get started!

YouTube Data vs Google Data: The Same Thing

One of the most important features that technology companies are implementing in their software platforms is the ability to access your own data. Every second spent on any social or content platform provides companies with valuable user data, which is then used for marketing tailored products to the users.

Essentially, platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Google don’t exist without collecting user data. In recent years, users have gained the ability to access that data by requesting a downloadable file. Google has a singular process that allows users to download all of the data across their ecosystem of products, YouTube included. The steps to download your Google data are the exact same as downloading your YouTube data, with one small checkbox selection near the end to differentiate.

An important note, however, is that this YouTube data is NOT channel analytics data. Instead, the actual data that Google collects about its users. Collecting channel analytics data is something that content producers using YouTube use to measure growth and demographics, but isn’t applicable to the average YouTube viewer.

Let’s get started.

3 Easy Steps to Download Your YouTube Data (with Photos!)

Step 1: Open Google Takeout

Google offers a streamlined platform that enables users to specifically download certain data sets without it being too overwhelming. The data platform which allows you to download your data from any/all of Google’s platforms is known as Google Takeout. You can access the portal by clicking the hyperlink here.

Once you’ve opened the link, you will need to sign in to the Google account that you are using to watch YouTube. Since many people aren’t quite sure which account they are using on YouTube specifically, it may be worth it to pause and check which Google account you are using on YouTube. To do this, open YouTube and look at the top right to see your profile icon.

Step 2: Select the Platform Data to Include

Once you’ve signed in to your Google account on the Takeout website, you can now select which platforms to pull your data from. There are a LOT of Google platforms that track you all over the internet. A lot of it isn’t super useful for the average user. Once you are at this point, you can choose to just select YouTube data. You can also get a larger report with other platforms included.

Selecting the platforms to pull your data from is as easy as making sure the checkboxes on the right-hand side of the page are checked. If it’s checked, Google will include that platform’s data in the report you are about to create. You can quickly see how many platforms are currently tracking your data by looking near the top and seeing “XX of XX selected.” The first number is the number of platforms you’ve selected to pull from. The second number will tell you the total number of Google platforms that are tracking your data. If just selecting YouTube, the first number should be 1.

Step 3: Export and Wait to Download Your Data

Once you’ve selected the platforms to pull from, scroll down and select the “Next Step” button. This will pull you to a page that allows you to select a few preferences as to how and when the data is sent to you.

Regarding the timing, you can select a single data pull or a recurring one. If you plan on regularly looking at your data, the recurring option speeds things along since the data can take a few days to be sent to you.

Regarding the file type, the best option for most people is going to be the .zip file. As the file size increases, Google may break it into multiple .zip files when it is sent to you. Although just pulling from YouTube isn’t likely to trigger this.

After you’ve selected the timing and file options that best suites you, go ahead and select “create the export.” This will trigger a request for Google to organize, package, and send the data from their servers to you. For most people, this is usually pretty fast. Google does say it can take up to a few days, especially in larger, multi-application data reports. If you are just pulling your YouTube data, however, it should be fast.

Once the data is ready, you’ll get an email with a link to download it. Enjoy!

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