How to download expired or deleted online videos?

How to download expired or deleted online videos

On the Internet, many interesting video resources may be deleted or expired for various reasons, which makes it difficult to watch these videos again. However, with some specific methods and tools, you still have a chance to download these expired or deleted videos. This article will introduce several effective methods to help you complete this task.

1. Use the web page snapshot function

If you know the original URL of the video, you can try using The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine service. The service captures and saves snapshots of web pages, including their video content. The specific steps are as follows:

1. Open the Wayback Machine website: https://archive.org/web/

2. Enter the link to the video page you want to retrieve in the search box.

3. Click the "Browse Archives" button and wait a few seconds. The system will display a list of snapshots of the page on different dates.

4. If there is a video on the page, you can try clicking on the corresponding snapshot date to see if the video can still be played. In some cases, the video may still be accessible.

5. If the found snapshot page contains a video link, just click the link to download the video file.

2. Utilize the API interface of the video hosting platform

For some large video hosting platforms, such as YouTube, although the videos have been deleted, they may still remain on the platform's servers, but are no longer publicly available. At this time, you can use the API interface provided by the platform to download.

1. First, you need to obtain the developer account of the platform and apply for the corresponding API permissions.

2. Use a programming language such as Python to write code to call the API interface and pass the video ID or other identification information through specific parameters.

3. After receiving the returned data, parse the actual address of the video file.

4. Use the wget or curl command to download the video file from this address to the local storage device.

3. Use third-party browser plug-ins

There are some browser plug-ins on the market specifically designed for downloading online videos, such as Video DownloadHelper. Such tools usually support a variety of mainstream video websites and are easy to operate. The following is the specific method of using the Video DownloadHelper plug-in:

1. Visit its official website: https://www.downloadhelper.net/, download and install the plug-in suitable for your current browser version.

2. Restart the browser after the installation is complete, and then open the web page containing the target video.

3. Refresh the page to make the plug-in take effect, and a download button will appear below the video player.

4. Click this button to select the appropriate format and resolution, and then start downloading after confirmation.

4. Turn to a professional data recovery company for help

If none of the above methods meet your needs, you can also consider seeking help from a professional data recovery service provider. They have more advanced technology and equipment and are able to dig deep into the bottom of the hard drive to find and recover deleted files. However, this approach is often more expensive and does not necessarily guarantee success.

In summary, although it is difficult to download expired or deleted online videos, there are still many ways we can try to achieve this goal. I hope the various techniques introduced above will be helpful to you!