Video Downloadhelper Companion App

[Faustina Bartsch]

Thevenerable Firefox Plugin "Video Download Helper" has been a mainstay of internet video downloading for years. However since I upgraded to Ubuntu 22.04 it can not ever find the "Companion App" it needs to work.

But then in the plugin does not work (tried restarting firefox, reinstalling plugin, etc.). If you go into the plugin configuration, there's a Recheck button in the "Verifying Companion App..." section, but clicking it does not seem to do anything.

For me, the installation of firefox beta version via snap was the solution ( -for-testing-native-messaging-support-in-the-firefox-snap/29759).

In this version, you get native massaging support inside the firefox snap package.

I found over the weekend that there is also a "Download with Web Browser" option that can work instead of using the companion app. Just proceed as normal, when the download begins, a dialogue window will popup prompting you to download the helper. But next to this is a button marked "Download with Web Browser" (or suchlike). Just click that.

Extract the tar ball file to desktopOpen the README.md file in text editor, contains link and help"Installer executables for the various platforms are availablefrom the releases page." Lists versions and avail files

I managed to get the VDH supplement app working. The path was simple: I followed the instructions provided by VDH on the page with the download of the supplementary app, however I didn't install the .deb version (I didn't know how to start it) but the tar.gz "version".

Basically I followed the download instructions on different linux distributions, the two command lines you find on the site do all the rest.The file was downloaded in the Download folder and then after the first command it is extracted in the Home and becomes executable when necessary, the second command I don't know but execute it.

Hi,

I want to download video from internet with video downloadhelper, after installed and click to download video, firefox shows up need to install Video DownloadHelper Companion. I need help to guild me how to do.

Vithos all that information is 2 years old. You should find it at the extension store for your browser. It's an addon. It's at version 7.40 @ the firefox addon store.

It's a sucky addon--works 50% of the time. For the other 50% it insists you download the "companion app" to this extension. I agree with algent: youtube-dl works*. When it doesn't work I activate this extension. Again, if it works.

*youtube-dl does not download if the filename is too long and I have no idea how to get around that.

I couldn't install just for user. In terminal, it stated it was ready but it was nor working nor showing up as installed when I looked at the extensions preferences. I could do a system-wide install, but I had to create a /usr/local director. It works, but I'd hoped it would have been user-wide instead.

Video DownloadHelper is an extension for the Firefox web browser and Chrome web browser. It allows the user to download videos from sites that stream videos through HTTP. The extension was developed by Michel Gutierrez.

As of December 2019[update], Video DownloadHelper is the third most popular extension for Firefox[4] (after Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin) and the second most popular Mozilla-recommended extension[5] with 2,848,968 users.

Firefox Quantum ceased support for extensions that use XUL or the Add-ons SDK[6] so the extension was rebased using WebExtensions APIs. As a result of Mozilla's changes, reliance upon the companion application increased. Firefox 57.0 and Video DownloadHelper 7.0.0 were released on the same day (14 November 2017). The most recent release (7.3.7, 26 Jun 2019) addresses problems that were caused by changes to YouTube.[7]

Where aggregation (ADP)[8] or conversion is required by the end user, or by a site from which download is required: if the companion app is unlicensed, the end result will include a watermark (a QR code). Since 2019 user reviews complain of slow conversion and unfinished downloads.[9]

Eric Griffith of PC Magazine named it one of the best Firefox extensions of 2012.[11] Erez Zukerman of PC World rated it 4/5 stars and called it "a valuable tool".[12] TechRadar rated it 5/5 stars and wrote, "Anyone who wants to watch videos, not only online, but also on the train, in the car or on the plane, is very well served with Video DownloadHelper."[13]

You access the converter thru the add on options. I myself haven't tried the converter out at all but have noticed it. Also please note this extension (I think) leaves a folder behind on host machine : (

Tools->addons->downloadhelper->configure/options

somewhere there is an option with a route selector which should point to "c:\documents and settings\%user%\dwhelper" which is the folder it create. search in this forum to a way of making a static drive letter(becouse there are a few posts) & make it point to, for example, the root of your drive.

what if we DONT WANT a differant addon...as i use downloadhelper and i LOVE IT TO DEATH...the BEST one i have EVER used... and i have used almost everything out there... if you use it, and explore its features then trust me youll most likely love it as well for its full feature and site compatability, supports most youtube and youtube like sites... and it even has the option to be compatable with picture galaries, and say your in a site that has a lot of html links to files, it supports downloading from the links as well...

but I just got downloadhelper and was trying it out. I too found out that the coverter couldn't be caried portably. But I did notice a "configure conversion rules..." button under "conversion" in the options window. I open it and it gives me a window to (i think) enter how the converter works. Does anyone know if there is a command which can make the addon use the converter off the drive.

you need to go to your PROGRAMS folder, and then find the file "converterhelper" and that is the folder that actually contains the video converting program, so please do me a favor and move that one, and see if portable ff can use that program from the flash drive... please and thank you...

Do you mean that I have to move the folder "converthelper" or the files inside it, I already tried to move the folder as I mention above your post into the b9db16a4-6edc-47ec-a1f4-b86292ed211d folder (the downloadhelper addon folder) and that didn't work.

...but no longer. UserScripts has scripts for Greasemonkey that will let you download video from just about any video site. Just get Greasemonkey and then Greasefire, and access scripts right from the status bar. Go to your favorite video site and check for scripts, most likely there will be a couple.

i too use greasemonkey and grease fire, but i still love converterhelper over greasemonkey as it is much more feature packed, and it doesnt matter what site you use it on...it works for most sites, where as the greasemonkey addon depends on how popular the site your visiting is with the greasemonkey community, so say you go to site A... you might have the proper scripts for that site to download the file in the format you like, but then you go to site B, well this site isnt very popular with greasemonkey fans, so you have like 2 scripts, and none of them do what you need... that is where i love downloadhelper over the many greasemonkey scripts... so if any of you could make this program portable i would be very happy, and like i posted earlier in a previous post, your conclusion that its not portable was a false one as you guys were moving the wrong folders and werent even moving the program...

Hi mmd123, I know I'm 10 years late, but I just wanted to share this in case anyone else might want it.

I've created a self extracting archive of the latest version (1.3.0) of the Companion App for DownloadHelper for your convenience. I've tested it on the latest portable FireFox v71 and Chrome 79.0.3945.88. The archive contains the Companion App and two batch scripts.

The script DownloadHelper-Enabler.bat installs two registry keys to let FireFox and Chrome know where the Companion App is located. The script DownloadHelper-Remover.bat batch file removes the two registry keys.

To use it:

1. Open the downloadhelper.coapp.exe file or use 7zip to extract the content to the root of your portable drive. For example: "Z:\"

2. Go into the newly created "net.downloadhelper.coapp" folder and run the DownloadHelper-Enabler.bat script

3. Now just run your portable Firefox or Chrome and download/enable the VideoDownloadHelper extension. If you go into the settings of your VideoDownloadHelper extension, it should show "Found companion app: VdhCoApp 1.3.0". If it doesn't please let me know.

4. Now you're done using it. To clean up, just run the DownloadHelper-Remover.bat batch file.

Hi elyndon, resuming this thread... I've done but when trying to launch the video download it tells me that I'm using the version 1.3.0 but the requested feature requires version 2.0.9. How can I solve? Thanks

Hello @explodingbee ! I am Acksel. I have tried experimenting with this as well. Looked into it, Google does not allow downloading of YouTube videos straight from extensions. But I did find a site that you could use to download them! Insert the link of your video in the search bar of this site. (I did test it and it is 100% safe. Once you insert the YouTube video link just hit download and do not click anything else if anything pops on the site. I hope this helped!

install the below and you can pretty much one or the other will grab and allow you to download your youtube video. both need their destop companion but both succeed where most others fail in chrome based browsers.

Ok. I tried the website you recommended and (after a little fiddling around) it did work to download a youtube video. So I am glad to have that option. But we are still in a situation wherein the Brave Browser cannot download youtube videos on its own. We are dependent upon a particular website to do that. It would be better if I could just do it on my own, with just me, youtube and the Brave browser being involved. The fact that we are dependent upon this other website means that the ability to download these videos can be taken away or altered at any time. So thanks for providing this option and I may be using it. But I hope to find a way to download youtube videos directly with the Brave Browser. This is basic functionality that Brave should have if it is really going to compete with Firefox and other browsers.

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