Manual method
- Open Google Takeout, deselect other services and select YouTube and YouTube Music.
- Review the included YouTube categories and choose the correct account or Brand Account.
- Choose a one-time ZIP export and a manageable part size; request it.
- Download every part. Keep videos and the separate history, playlist and other metadata files together.
What you get: Google documents video exports in original format or MP4. Missing creator videos may belong to a Brand Account. Watch history is a record of viewing, not copies of other people’s videos. Provider instructions. Supporting reference 1.
Size and waiting time
Planning example: 50 GB; light/heavy scenarios: 1–1000 GB. These are estimates, not a measured population average or fixed limits. A creator with around 100 videos averaging 500 MB; a viewer-only history export could instead be below 0.1 GB.
Preparation: Google says preparation can take minutes to days; download before the expiry shown. The transfer of creator video files may take much longer than the history report.
Network transfer of 50 GB: about 15.9 hours at 10 Mbps, 3.2 hours at 50 Mbps, or 1.6 hours at 100 Mbps. This assumes 70% sustained throughput and excludes preparation, manual work and extraction. These are download estimates; online backup takes additional time at your upload speed. Transfer calculations and large-file examples.
Store and check your archive
An encrypted external SSD or hard drive is a good main archive for this collection. Allow roughly 150 GB of working space for the example, including an original, an extracted working copy and room to check it. Very compressed packages can need more. A USB key is useful for a spare copy, but should not be the only one. An encrypted online copy protects against losing the local devices.
Keep the original in youtube/YYYY-MM-DD/original/. Record the account alias, selected scope, date range and missing items. Open old and recent records and sample attachments offline, then compare file sizes or checksums after copying. Keep the source account until you have checked the result. Storage and recovery instructions.
Sources and review
Public documentation was reviewed on 27 October 2026. No signed-in export or restoration was performed. Account options and availability can change; follow the current provider instructions.