Soumya Prakash Pradhan

If you are a YouTube Premium user, you know that the video sharing platform offers many useful features to further enhance your experience.

One of these features is Smart downloads, which allows you to have videos downloaded in the background depending on what the algorithm predicts what you'll like to watch next.

If you're not aware that this feature is turned on by default, it can consume a considerable amount of space on your device.

So here is what Smart downloads is and how it works, and then provides a step-by-step guide on how to disable it if you prefer not to use it.

What is smart downloads in YouTube Premium?

The Smart downloads feature with YouTube Premium enables the app to download videos of varying lengths in the background on your device over Wi-Fi, based on the videos you have watched earlier.

This function is built to enhance the user experience, as it allows you to watch a series of videos whether or not you have an internet connection, without having to stream or download them all at once.

However, this feature can also use up more storage on your device for videos that you may not even wish to watch.

If you have limited storage on your device, you may want to disable this feature to save space.

How to disable smart downloads in YouTube Premium?

If you have decided to disable Smart downloads in YouTube Premium, follow the step-by-step guide below:

To disable Smart downloads in YouTube Premium, open the app, go to Library > Downloads, tap the three-dot menu button, select Settings, and turn off the toggle.

scrollToTop