Google has just made it a hell of a lot easier to get all of your videos off of YouTube, should you choose to do so.
In the past, users have been able to download individual videos using the Video Manager, but now Google is letting you grab your whole collection at once with Google Takeout.
Google Takeout was launched in 2011 as an offering from Google’s Data Liberation Front. Basically, it allows you to grab your data out of multiple Google products, in case you want to switch to another service, or simply don’t want to use those products any longer.
Google will only let you take out your original videos from YouTube. Don’t expect to be able to do this with all of your favorites, playlists, etc.
“With Google Takeout, you can download all of the original videos that you have uploaded in a few simple clicks,” says YouTube engineer Brian Hawkins. “No transcoding or transformation — you’ll get exactly the same videos that you first uploaded. Your videos in. Your videos out.”