YouTube Music offline downloads are one of the primary reasons to subscribe to YouTube Music Premium. Once downloaded, music plays without any internet connection, making it ideal for flights, commutes in areas with poor signal, or trips abroad where you want to avoid roaming charges. Here is how to set it up and manage your downloads efficiently.

Requirements

• A YouTube Music Premium subscription (or YouTube Premium, which includes YouTube Music Premium).
• The YouTube Music app on iPhone or Android.
• Enough storage space on your device (a typical album at standard quality uses 50-100MB).

How to Download a Song, Album, or Playlist

Downloading a Song

1. Find the song in YouTube Music.
2. Tap the three-dot menu next to the song title.
3. Select Download. The song will download and a download indicator will appear next to it.

Downloading an Album or Playlist

1. Open the album or playlist.
2. Tap the Download button (downward arrow icon) at the top of the album or playlist page.
3. All available tracks will download automatically. Tracks not available for download (rare) will be skipped.

How to Find Your Downloaded Music

1. Tap the Library tab at the bottom of the YouTube Music app.
2. Tap Downloads at the top of the Library screen.

All downloaded content is listed here and available to play without an internet connection.

Setting Download Quality

You can control the quality of downloads to balance audio quality against storage usage.

1. Tap your profile picture in the YouTube Music app.
2. Select Settings.
3. Tap Library and offline.
4. Under Download quality, choose from Low (around 48kbps), Normal (around 128kbps), or High (around 256kbps).

High quality is recommended if storage is not a concern. At 256kbps, audio quality is excellent for any listening scenario.

Download Over Wi-Fi Only

By default, downloads can happen over mobile data. To save your data allowance:

1. Go to Settings in YouTube Music.
2. Tap Library and offline.
3. Toggle on Download over Wi-Fi only.

Managing Storage: Deleting Downloads

To delete an individual downloaded item:

1. Find the song, album, or playlist in your Downloads.
2. Tap the three-dot menu.
3. Select Remove download.

To clear all downloads at once, go to Settings, then Library and offline, then tap Remove all downloads.

Auto-Download for Recommendations

YouTube Music has a Smart Downloads feature that automatically downloads recommended music for offline listening. To enable it:

1. Go to Settings, then Library and offline.
2. Toggle on Smart downloads.
3. Set the number of songs you want auto-downloaded (from 25 to 500).

Smart Downloads refreshes automatically when connected to Wi-Fi, removing tracks you have not played in a while and replacing them with fresh recommendations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do downloads expire?

YouTube Music downloads require your app to connect to the internet at least every 30 days to validate your Premium subscription. If you go more than 30 days without any internet connection, downloaded tracks will temporarily become unplayable until you reconnect.

Can I download YouTube Music to an SD card?

On Android devices with SD card support, you can change the download storage location to an SD card. Go to Settings, then Library and offline, then Storage location, and select your SD card. This is not available on iPhone, which does not support external storage.

How many songs can I download?

YouTube Music does not impose a hard limit on the number of downloads, but your device’s available storage is the practical limit. At standard quality, most modern phones can store thousands of tracks.