Guides

How video formats actually work, what YouTube does to your uploads, and the supported ways to get your own videos back.

The supported routes for getting your own uploads back off YouTube — YouTube Studio, Google Takeout, and what to do when the original is gone.

Which container and codec to upload to YouTube, why MOV files are so much larger than MP4, and what survives YouTube's re-encode.

YouTube's published encoding recommendations — container, codec, resolution and bitrate by quality tier, plus what actually survives the re-encode.

The routes that actually work for getting a YouTube video as an MP4 file — what is supported, what is not, and how to convert once you have the file.

Getting audio out of a YouTube video as MP3 — the supported routes, the legal position, and how to extract audio from a file you already have.

The difference between a container and a codec, why a valid MP4 can refuse to play, and how to work out which one is actually causing your problem.

A careful answer for the US, EU and UK, including the February 2026 DMCA ruling.