Guide · updated July 2026
How to download videos from Skool
There are four ways to get a Skool lesson onto your computer. Three of them fail on the lesson type that matters most. Here is which is which, and how to tell before you waste an afternoon.
Step one
First, work out what kind of video it is
A Skool lesson does not have one kind of video in it. The course creator picks where the video lives, and that choice decides what any downloader can do. Open the lesson and look at the player.
- Skool native
Plain player, no third party branding, no Watch on link. This is Skool’s own hosted video and it is the case most tools cannot resolve without playback.
- Loom
Loom’s controls and its logo in the corner. Downloadable as video.
- Vimeo or Wistia
Vendor controls and a vendor logo. Downloadable as video.
- YouTube
A YouTube player with a Watch on YouTube link. Not downloadable through a Chrome extension, because store policy prohibits it. The lesson stays on YouTube, so you do not lose it when you lose Skool access.
Step two
The four methods, and when each fails
Right click and Save video as
Does not work
There is no single video file to save. Skool serves HLS: a playlist pointing at hundreds of small segments, with video and audio as separate tracks. The browser assembles them for playback and never writes a file.
Screen recording
Works, slowly
Reliable and it works on everything, including DRM-free lessons no tool can fetch. It also runs in real time, so a forty hour course costs you forty hours, and you get a recompressed picture with whatever your desktop did during the take.
A generic video downloader extension
Partly works
These watch for media requests, so you must open each lesson and press play before anything appears. That is fine for one video and unworkable for a hundred and thirty. Most of them also miss Skool native video entirely.
An extension that reads the course
Works in bulk
Skool sends the whole course tree to your browser when you open a course, and every lesson in it carries its video reference. Reading that directly means no lesson has to be opened and nothing has to be played. This is what Skool Backup does.
Step three
Step by step with the extension
The free tier covers 5 full lesson backups a week — video, lesson text, and attachments — so you can follow this through without paying anything.
- 01
Work out what kind of video the lesson uses
Open the lesson and look at the player. A YouTube lesson shows the YouTube logo and a Watch on YouTube link. A Loom, Vimeo or Wistia lesson shows that vendor’s controls. Anything else is Skool’s own player, which is the case that most tools cannot handle.
- 02
Install a downloader that reads the course, not the player
Add the Skool Backup extension to Chrome. It reads the course structure Skool already sends to your browser, so it does not need the lesson to be open or playing.
- 03
Open the course and choose what to save
Go to the course page. Choose a single lesson or one whole course, then set one quality preference for the run.
- 04
Choose a destination folder and start
Pick the folder on your disk once. Videos are written as MP4 into numbered module folders, with lesson text as Markdown beside them.
- Course
- The Offer Lab
- Found
- 5 lessons across 2 modules
- Quality
- Best available
- Destination
- ~/Backups/The Offer Lab
- Skipped
- 1 YouTube lesson, saved as a link instead
- Estimated
- 1.0 GB
Honest limits
What none of these can do
- Open a course you have not bought. Skool issues a playback token only for lessons your account may watch. No token means the video host refuses the request.
- Decrypt DRM protected video. There is no decryption in this extension and there will not be.
- Reach drip content before it drips. Content scheduled for later does not exist for your account yet.
- Pull YouTube lessons as video files. Chrome Web Store policy prohibits it, and it is enforced. Those lessons are recorded as links.
This tool only downloads content your account already has access to. It does not bypass permissions, paywalls, or DRM. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Skool.
Questions
Common questions
Can I download a Skool video without an extension?
For a YouTube backed lesson, yes: the lesson links out to YouTube and you can use any of the normal YouTube tools, outside the browser.
For Skool’s own player, not realistically. The video is served as a stream of hundreds of encrypted-transport segments with a short lived signed token, so there is no single file URL to right click. Screen recording is the only manual route, and it runs in real time.
Why does right click and Save video as not work?
Because there is no single video file to save. Skool serves an HLS stream: a playlist that points at hundreds of small segments, with video and audio in separate tracks. The browser assembles them for playback but never writes them to disk as one file.
Does the extension need me to press play?
No. It resolves the lesson’s video reference from the course data rather than waiting for a player to create a media request.
How long does a whole course take?
Reading the course structure takes seconds: about seven seconds for a fifty lesson course. Downloading is limited by your connection and the size of the videos, not by the length of the course, because nothing plays in real time.
Is downloading a course I paid for allowed?
The extension only retrieves content your own account can already open. What you may then do with it is governed by the terms you agreed to when you bought the course. Backing up your own purchase for personal offline use is the case this tool is built for; redistributing somebody else’s course is not.
What cannot be downloaded at all?
DRM protected video, lessons your account cannot open, courses you have not bought, and drip content that has not been released to you yet. None of these are worked around.