How to download all the lectures on a course page

When this works

Download all works on the videos that are on the page in front of you: a week's page with several lectures in it, or a course page where each lecture has its own player. It is for lectures you have the right to keep. If you only want one lecture, the shorter guide is how to download a lecture video.

The steps

1. Open the page and let the videos load

   Many players only fetch their video once it starts. Scroll through the page so the players appear, and press play on any that stay blank. Lecture files the page links to directly are listed as well, up to 150 of them.

2. Click the StreamSnag icon and press the button under the first lecture

   The first lecture on the page is in front, under “On this page”. Below it, the button says how many videos there are, for example “Download all (6)”. On a page with eight or more, a row of small squares shows each video, with a line such as “13 saved”, “21 to get” and “4 to check”, and the button reads “Download the 21 missing…”. Either way the line beside it says “You review the list first.” Nothing starts yet. It opens a sheet called Review before downloading.

3. Read the three groups

   Ready to download has the lectures, ticked, each with the exact file name it will get. Check these holds what you probably do not want, each with its reason, such as “Same as another one” or “Looks like a preview or ad”, and what to do: “Not ticked: tick it if you want it too.” They are “Left out unless you tick them.” Can't be downloaded lists the rest, with the reason.

4. Fix the names and the folder

   The pencil beside a name lets you change it. When several lectures have no number in their name, Options offers “Number them in page order (01, 02, …)”. The folder is shown at the top. If the page links to slides or handouts, tick “Also download 3 files (PDFs, slides)”, with your own count, to take them too.

5. Press Download

   The button says how many will be saved, for example “Download 8”, and the sheet says how much that comes to. Downloads run two at a time unless you change it, and carry on after the popup closes. The popup says how it is going, for example “Downloading 8 · 6 waiting their turn”, and Activity, at the bottom, shows each one with its speed and the time left.

Coming back later in the term

Open the same page again when new lectures have been posted. With the optional helper program installed, StreamSnag checks your folders and knows what you already have: on a long page their squares are filled in, the button counts only what is missing, and the review sheet says, for example, “13 already in your folders: skipped.” Without the helper it only remembers what it downloaded itself.

What can go wrong

• Only one lecture is listed. Some course pages load a single lecture at a time and swap it when you choose another. StreamSnag sees the one that is loaded. Open each lecture and save it from there.
• Nothing is listed. A page that only links to other lecture pages has no video for StreamSnag to find: follow the link to the lecture first. If you expected a video, press Scan again; if that finds nothing, Ask your AI to find it shows what it would send to your own AI account before it sends anything.
• The same lecture appears twice. A site may post one lecture twice. The second is tagged “Same as another one” and its row says: “A second copy of one listed here. "Download all" leaves it unticked: tick it there if you want it.”
• A trailer or a welcome clip is in the list. It is tagged “Looks like a preview or ad” or “Short clip”, and its row says: “Probably not a lecture.”
• A name is wrong. Names come from the page, and pages are inconsistent. Read the list and rename before you press Download. It is much easier than renaming twenty files afterwards.
• “The link may have expired.” Course sites often hand out links that last a few minutes. Reload the page, press play, and open the review sheet again.
• A video is protected. DRM-protected video is refused, with the reason: “Protected by the site, so it can't be saved.” StreamSnag does not try to get round it.

Questions