The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/sbourwest on 2024-07-29 09:12:19.
I've been downloading images & video for decades now, and while my internet speed is faster than ever, downloading has never been more cumbersome and annoying. Every website seems to try to find a way to prevent users from saving the content they want.
I've used just about every trick in the book to circumvent this:
- Diving into source code for direct video URLs (not very feasible anymore)
- Using Firefox extensions to prevent shell menu changes
- Using Firefox extensions to download videos (predominantly Video DownloadHelper) and images (Download All Images)
- Using third-party web crawlers to rip from specific websites
- Using web-based apps to grab a video from a URL
Yet the war against downloading continues by these websites. For every work-around or how-to guide, they tend to become invalid within a year due to some change on the back-end of the website.
Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and pretty much any video streaming platform that attempts to generate revenue likes to f$&% with their back-end to make downloading harder and harder. There's no universal methods anymore, it feels like every website needs it's own special method to acquire content from. There's too many steps involved in what should be as simple as Right Click -> Download, it often involves either copying a URL into a web app, or ripping all the media files from a page, only to have to sort out all the crap you didn't want when you ripped it (really bad for trying to download albums).
Since these websites are leveling up their tactics, I think maybe it's best for data hoarders to level up as well. While not all of us are programmers capable or willing to create new methods of ripping, finding ways of identifying how websites manage to block you from downloading would be useful I think, if for nothing else to best identify the tools needed to get the job done. So as the title says, what are the typical and atypical ways that websites can use to prevent you from attempting to download their media, and what ways are there to circumvent it?