Lightning File Grabber puts a Download button on the videos you play in your browser. Click it, pick the quality, and the video is saved to your Mac. It even works on sites nobody wrote special support for.
For macOS 14 Sonoma or later. The first version is still being built.
Animation: a video starts playing, LFG’s Download button appears on it, and the visitor picks 1080p.
Most Mac video downloaders only work on sites someone has taught them about. If your site isn’t on the list, you’re out of luck. LFG doesn’t keep a list. Every video player, however unusual, has to load its video from somewhere, and LFG notices it while the page plays.
Some of the places it works:
Open any page with a video and start it. LFG finds the video as it loads.
A button appears on the video. Pick the quality, audio and format, or keep your defaults.
The file lands in Downloads › LFG, with its title, source page and cover art already filled in.
Prefer the keyboard? Press ⌥⇧D to download the video that’s playing. Or right-click a video and choose Download video. Have a link instead? Paste it into the Downloads window.
Quality, language, subtitles and format are one click away. The rest happens in the background.
Choose from the smallest file to the sharpest picture, with an estimated size for each. When a video has more than one audio language, pick one or keep them all. Keep subtitles inside the video or as a separate file.
Turn on Always compatible and every video plays in QuickTime, Photos, on your iPhone and in your editing apps.
Save as
Big files download over several connections at once, so they finish sooner. Pause and resume whenever you like. If your Mac sleeps, loses Wi-Fi or restarts, downloads pick up where they stopped.
If a video’s link expires halfway through, LFG gets a fresh one from the page and carries on. Your Mac stays awake while it works, and a speed limit keeps downloads from slowing everything else down.
Open a YouTube playlist or channel, tick the videos you want, and get them as a neatly numbered folder. Run it again later to get only the new ones.
Save the lessons from courses you’re enrolled in, with each module in its own folder and each lesson numbered in order. A report shows which lessons were saved, which were text only, and which need another try. Shared folders keep their folder structure too.
Some players hide their video so it can’t be saved directly. For those, LFG can capture the video while it plays, at up to 16× speed and muted, then save it as a normal file. Stop whenever you like and keep what’s been captured so far.
Capture never works on copy-protected video. See what LFG won’t do.
A small ⚡ in the menu bar shows what’s downloading at a glance. A notification tells you when a download finishes; click it to see the file. The Downloads window keeps your history, so you can search it, open a video’s original page or download it again.
Everything happens on your Mac. LFG doesn’t send your videos, your browsing history or your logins to any server. Sign-in details used to reach a video are deleted as soon as the download is done.
LFG only saves what you can already watch in your own browser, signed in as yourself. It’s for keeping your own offline copies for personal use.
Please respect the terms of the sites you use.
The extension isn’t in the Chrome Web Store, because the store doesn’t allow video downloaders. You add it from the app with Chrome’s developer mode, so Chrome may show a reminder about it. That’s expected.
Firefox and Safari support is planned for later.
Every feature is in both plans. Pay for a year, or pay once and keep it.
$19per Mac, for a year
LFG on one Mac for twelve months.
$49per Mac, once
LFG on one Mac for good. Nothing to renew.
LFG isn’t out yet. These are the prices it launches at. Prices in US dollars. Each license covers one Mac.
Not yet. LFG is still being built, and the download will be right here on this site when it’s ready.
$19 for one year or $49 once, for each Mac. Every feature is in both. See pricing.
Each license covers one Mac. To use LFG on two Macs, get a license for each.
Any site that plays video in your browser without copy protection, including ones no other downloader supports: course platforms, company video pages, news sites, small video hosts and embedded players. It also handles YouTube playlists and channels.
Press play first. Many players don’t load their video until you do. If the button still doesn’t show, click the LFG icon in your browser’s toolbar: videos it found are listed there.
Click the LFG toolbar icon and set Buttons on videos to On hover or Never, for every site or just the one you’re on.
Some services lock their videos with copy protection, common on Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and similar. LFG respects that and won’t download or record them.
No. LFG only saves what you can already watch in your own browser, signed in as yourself.
To Downloads › LFG, unless you choose another folder in Settings. Click a finished download in the app to show it in Finder.
The store doesn’t allow video downloaders. The extension comes inside the app, and the app shows you how to add it.
LFG checks for updates and installs them for you. When the extension needs an update too, the app tells you.
It’s Mac only. Firefox and Safari support is planned for later; for now, use Chrome or another Chromium browser.
For macOS 14 Sonoma or later. The first version is still being built.