Digital marketer’s life is not easy; they constantly need new content ideas. Instagram videos can be great source of content ideas for your content marketing campaigns. Busy marketers may not be able to skim through all the videos at once and need these videos to be available offline, but not everyone know how to download Instagram videos to your PC.
Have you ever come across an Instagram video that you wanted to save? Is saving Instagram videos for offline viewing even possible? Can you download a video off of Instagram?
If it’s straight from the site, the answer is no. Despite having a billion users, the option remains unavailable. Like most people, you may find yourself disappointed at the lack of this kind of option.
Do you want to learn how to download Instagram videos on PC?
Don’t lose hope!
While Instagram withholds this useful feature, there are many different ways to save videos through external approaches.
I have compiled a few different methods that will make up for this missing option. Keep on reading to find the best option you can use to save any video you want from Instagram.
1- Downloading From the Source Code
Something you may not have known you can do is inspect a page’s source code. If you haven’t, you’re probably wondering what a source code even is. It’s basically the skeleton of any webpage that you visit.
But don’t worry, you don’t need any understanding of computer programming to do this method. All you need to do is find a link in the code that will allow you to download the video directly.
The first thing you have to do is open up Instagram on Chrome and go to the video that you want to download. Then, you can either right-click or open up the menu on the upper right side of your tab. Click on “view source code” or “inspect element”, both will result in a new tab opening with the written code.
From there you can click Ctrl+F to open up a “find” tab, type in “mp4”.
Copy the link next to an “src=” code that ends in “mp4” and open it up in a new tab. The video will begin playing and you can simply right-click on it and select “save video as”. Choose a destination for the file and you’re all set.
2- Using Online Downloaders
Another more common option is to use an Instagram video downloader online. These sites look for the video using a link and do all the work for you. With a simple click of a download button, the video will start downloading on your internet browser.
Start by searching for an Instagram video downloader. There should be several available for free online. Some trusted sites you can use are “Download Instagram Videos” and “Download Gram”.
These are easy to use as it takes only two simple steps. Step one is to open up the video that you want to download on Instagram (seeing a pattern yet?). Then copy the URL of the page and paste it on to the tab asking for a link.
After you’ve done all that, click on the download button that’s usually right next to the link tab. The site will start converting the video from the link that you gave and make an MP4 file that you can download.
The file will start downloading where you can find it in your “Downloads” folder. Once it’s in your computer files, you can go ahead and move it into any folder that you want.
3- Screen Recording Apps
While this method may not be downloading the video per se, it still allows you to save a copy on to your PC. Since it holds the same idea of having the video in your files, it still counts right?
For this method, you will have to download a screen recording app from the play store (for Windows), the app store (for Mac), or through your internet browser. Now, this is pretty straight-forward. There are many different apps that you can find online by searching “screen recorder”.
The steps you need to do to start your screen recording may vary from app to app. They should all lead to the same outcome. Once you’ve downloaded the screen recorder of your choice, start it up and follow the given guide.
Have the video that you want to save open and ready to play. From the app, start recording your PC’s screen and go to your Instagram video. Click to play the video and wait till it’s over to stop the recording.
Save it to our desired location and you’re done! You should have a recording of the video now saved on to your computer. This might require more steps but it still gets the job done just as well.
4- Chrome Extensions
The last method on this list is to add an extension to your chrome browser. Like that last method, this will require you to download and install something. However, instead of a separate app, this will readily be available when you open the Instagram site because it’s a plugin directly on your browser.
The steps for this will be very similar to the step we did for using screen recording apps. The first step is to look for a Chrome extension that will allow you to download Instagram videos right from the site. We recommend “Instag Downloader” because it’s easy to use and navigate.
Search for “Instag Downloader” and click on its main site. This will lead you to a page where you can select the “Add to Chrome” button. Once you’ve done that, the extension will start downloading on to your browser.
When installed, you can go ahead and download Instagram videos from the main site. If you open up and video from Instagram, the extension will have added three new buttons to the side of the video. On the upper right corner of the video playing, you will see “View”, “Share Link”, and “Download” options.
Click on the “Download” button and it will immediately start saving the video on to your PC.
Once again, you’ll be able to find the video in your “Downloads” file and move it wherever you wish. The extension gives the Instagram site it’s missing features and makes it so convenient and easy to save any video you like.
If you still want more information about saving videos from the site. You can learn even more about Instagram download tools here.
Now You Know How To Download Instagram Videos On PC
Hopefully, you’ve found this article helpful and you’ve learned how to download Instagram videos on PC. Now you can save all the videos you want and curate more engaging content for your followers.
