Download YouTube Shorts in their vertical frame
How to download a YouTube Short on your phone
Copy a Short's link in the YouTube app, paste it here and save it to your phone — 9:16, uncropped, with the sound.
Copying a Short's link
In the YouTube app on iPhone or Android, open the Short and tap Share in the column of buttons beside it, then Copy link. The link looks like youtube.com/shorts/… or youtu.be/….
On a computer, the address bar holds the same youtube.com/shorts/… link. If someone sent you the Short in a message, press and hold the link to copy it.
Shorts links and ordinary video links
A Short is a normal YouTube video published in a vertical format, so it also has a watch link: youtube.com/shorts/abc and youtube.com/watch?v=abc are the same video. Either one finds it, and you get the same vertical file.
Why the 9:16 frame matters
Shorts are 9:16 — typically 1080 × 1920 pixels. Some downloaders treat every video as widescreen and either crop the middle out or pad the sides with black bars. The file here keeps the frame the Short was published in, so it plays full-screen on a phone and drops straight into vertical editing apps without reframing.
Why there's rarely a 4K option
Most Shorts are filmed on phones and published at 1080 × 1920, so 1080p is usually the top of the list. No tool can produce a sharper version than the one YouTube stores. On a phone screen, 1080p vertical already shows everything the display can — how YouTube's qualities work explains why.
Getting it into your camera roll
On iPhone, Safari saves downloads to the Files app. Tap the downloads arrow in Safari, open the Short, tap Share, then Save Video — it's now in Photos. On Android, Chrome saves to Downloads, and most gallery apps show the video within a few seconds. Where downloads go on your phone covers other browsers.
When a Short doesn't behave as expected
Three things people run into:
- The link opens as a normal video page — that's fine; it's the same video and downloads the same way.
- It shows with black bars on a computer — that's the player fitting a vertical video into a wide window. The file itself is vertical.
- It's from a private or members-only channel — those can't be downloaded by anything.
Using other people's Shorts
Saving your own Shorts, or ones a creator has said you can use, is straightforward. Re-uploading someone else's Short to your own channel or to another app is where copyright trouble starts — what you may legally keep sets out where the lines are.
For regular-length videos, the YouTube video downloader lists every quality up to 4K.
YouTube Shorts questions
Will the Short stay vertical?
Yes. The file keeps the 9:16 frame it was published in — no cropping and no black bars.
Can I download a Short on iPhone without an app?
Yes. Open this page in Safari, paste the link and download, then save it from Files into Photos.
Why is there no 4K option?
Most Shorts are uploaded at 1080 × 1920. YouTube only stores what was uploaded, so there's nothing sharper to download.
Can I download just the sound from a Short?
Yes — the Audio tab lists the soundtrack on its own.
Is a watermark added to the Short?
No. Nothing is added by us; you get the video as YouTube stores it.