Help.

Some browsers mark downloads in a way that makes macOS say this instead of the usual question. The app is fine. Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities), paste this line and press Return:It removes the “downloaded from the internet” flag from GrabNConvert only, nothing else on your Mac. Then open the app as usual.

That is SmartScreen, which shows this for apps it has not seen often yet. Click More info, then Run anyway. Only the first time.

YouTube (videos, Shorts, playlists), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Vimeo, X, Reddit, SoundCloud and well over a thousand more. Paste the link; if the site is supported, the qualities it really offers are listed with sizes. Only download what you own or have permission to use, and respect each site's terms.

Yes, from version 1.0.10. Paste a share link from Dropbox, Google Drive (Docs, Sheets and Slides come as Word, Excel and PowerPoint files), OneDrive, MediaFire or pCloud, or a plain link to a file, and the app saves the file itself, any kind, under its own name. Dropbox Transfer, WeTransfer and MEGA only hand out files from their own page, so those open in a download window inside the app: press Download there and the files land in your folder, in the queue like any other download.

Yes. The browser button is a bookmark you drag to your bookmarks bar once; from then on one click on any video page sends the link to the app. No extension, nothing to install in the browser.

No, by design. The app never signs in, uses cookies or gets around DRM or paywalls. Public links only. If a site shows a video only in some countries, the app says so and names them; turn on a VPN app for the whole computer, connected to one of those countries, and press Try again.

Downloads to ~/Downloads/GrabNConvert and conversions to ~/Movies/GrabNConvert by default. Change either in Settings, or turn on "Ask where to save every time".

Drop the file on the app or on the notch and pick Send to phone, or open Files → Phone transfer and drop it there. The first time, scan the QR code with the phone's camera; after that the phone stays paired, and new files show up on it by themselves. On the phone, tap Save: on an iPhone, pictures and videos go into Photos. Both need the same Wi-Fi; nothing goes online.

Open Files → Phone transfer and scan the QR code. On the phone, tap Send photos, videos or files and pick them. They land in your downloads folder (change it under ⚙ on that page) and show up in the Transfers list, ready to convert or compress.

On macOS the system verifies the download engine's libraries the first time it runs after an install or update. Later checks take a few seconds.

Sites change often. Open Settings → Media engines → Check for updates and install the newer download engine; that fixes most cases within a day of a site changing.

Yes, by default. H.264 and HEVC go through VideoToolbox on a Mac and NVENC, Quick Sync or AMF on Windows, several times faster than software. The queue shows which encoder each job used. Switch to software in Settings when you want the smallest possible file.

Never. Conversions and compressions always write a new file next to the original or in the folder you chose.

Close, not exact: the bitrate is chosen from the file's length in one pass, so the result lands near the target, usually a little under.

Estimates for presets are rough ratios; the real size is known only when the job finishes. Very busy footage compresses less than talking heads.

No. FFmpeg has no mid-encode resume, so Retry starts over. Hardware encoding is the practical answer for long files.

The first 7 days are free with everything switched on. After that a lifetime licence is a single payment of $4.99: all future updates, on up to 2 computers. No subscription. Pricing has the details.

If the app does not work for you within the first 14 days, email us with the address you bought with and we refund it. Paddle's own buyer terms apply as well.

Give it a minute, then in the app open Settings → Account → Refresh. Still trial? Email us with the receipt and we fix it.

On the account page, remove the old computer. The new one signs in as usual and takes the seat.

Your email, your name and picture if you sign in with Google, and the computers you use the app on. Nothing about your files or links. The privacy policy has the full list.

GrabNConvert is not notarised by Apple yet, so macOS asks you to confirm once, in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. First open on a Mac has the four steps. It opens normally afterwards.

Click More info, then Run anyway. SmartScreen shows this for apps without a paid Microsoft certificate that it has not seen often yet; you see it only the first time.

Apple menu → About This Mac. "Apple M1/M2/M3/M4" is Apple Silicon; "Intel Core" is Intel. The wrong one will not open.

The app checks shortly after launch and every few hours. When a version is ready, Home shows a banner with Install and restart. You can also check from About.

YouTube sometimes answers a whole network this way (shared Wi-Fi, mobile data, VPN). The app retries with a fallback mode that usually works but can hide some qualities; the result says so. If it still fails, wait a few minutes or switch networks, and update the download engine in Settings.

A VPN that is a browser extension covers only that browser. GrabNConvert, like every other app, still goes out through your normal connection, so the site sees your real country. Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 (WARP) does not change your country either. Use a VPN app that lets you pick a country and turn it on for the whole computer. Connect it to a country where the video plays: the app names them, and for most videos the US works. Windscribe's free plan lets you pick the US; Proton VPN's free plan picks the country for you, so you may have to change server a few times. Then press Try again in the app.

Check that the phone and the computer are on the same Wi-Fi, not mobile data. Office, school and hotel Wi-Fi often keep devices apart; a home network or the phone's own hotspot works. On Windows, the first time, allow GrabNConvert when the firewall asks. If the page stopped, open Phone transfer again and scan the new code.

The app tests the hardware encoder before using it and falls back to software, so this should be rare. If it keeps happening, switch Settings → Processing → Hardware encoding off and email us the log.

The app sets the system certificate store for the engines; if a security tool has moved it, the section download cannot verify the site. Turn off the trim, download the whole file, then trim it in the Converter.

Delete it from Applications (or uninstall on Windows), download the current installer from the download page and install again. Your history, settings and sign-in are kept.

macOS: ~/Library/Logs/com.grabnconvert.app. Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\com.grabnconvert.app\logs. Settings → About → Open log folder gets you there. Easier: Settings → About → Report a problem (also in the Help menu, and next to a failed job) makes one ZIP on your Desktop with the logs and a short report; your home folder's name and any proxy password are left out. Email us that ZIP.