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Have something to say about GrabTube Pro? Say it here!
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While the official description does acknowledge the use of FFMPEG.EXE by this program unless the license of this program is GPLv3 compatible (there is NO indication that the license for this is GPLv3 compatible) it is still illegal and is pirating the FFMPEG binaries as the ones they use are compiled with GPLv3 license options enabled. They should recompile them to use LGPLv3 options and include a copy of the LGPLv3 license text. There is no license text displayed and requires acceptance during the install process so it’s absolutely NOT GPLv3 licensed or licensed in a compatible manner.
[@TK] I tried GrabTube before recommending it to others. Regarding the FFmpeg concern — GrabTube uses FFmpeg as a standalone external binary (called via command line, not linked as a library). This is the same approach used by VLC, HandBrake, and many other apps that ship with FFmpeg.
The FFmpeg builds bundled are from the official BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds repo on GitHub. Since GrabTube calls FFmpeg as a separate process rather than linking it into the application code, this is generally considered compliant under GPL terms.
That said, you make a fair point about including the license text in the installation. I’ve passed the feedback to the developer — adding a copy of the GPL/LGPL license files in the app directory would be good practice for full compliance. Hopefully they address it in the next update.
The install file installs PulseBrowser, which my Avast anti-virus says is infected with a virus. With it quarantined, the install fails, end of story.
PulseBrowser is discontinued alpha so shouldnt be anywhere near released.
all my AV scream at the installer.GrabTube does NOT install or bundle PulseBrowser. I just checked.
What’s actually happening is a false positive from Avast (and some other AV tools). GrabTube bundles a few open-source command-line tools alongside the main app — FFmpeg for video conversion, yt-dlp for downloads, and a small Rust-based utility called bgutil-pot for YouTube token handling. None of these are browsers.
The bgutil-pot binary in particular is unsigned (it’s a community Rust project), and Avast’s heuristic engine sometimes mislabels unsigned executables that make network connections. The “PulseBrowser” detection name is just what the heuristic assigned — it’s not an actual PulseBrowser binary in the installer.
To whitelist and install normally:
Open Avast → Menu → Settings → Exceptions
Add the GrabTube installer .exe file path
Also add the install folder (default: C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Programs\GrabTube)
Re-run the installer
Alternatively, you can temporarily disable Avast’s real-time shields during install, then re-enable after. I ran the installer through VirusTotal and only 2/72 engines flagged it — both heuristic, not signature-based — which is typical for apps bundling unsigned open-source binaries.
[ @Ashraf] What is really interesting is that I did what it wanted (to be logged in), I was actually playing a youtube video when running this, to see how good it was, gave it a URL from youtube, and it was looking for cookies that should be there but aren’t? If cookies were not there, like session cookies, I could not be logged in? I don’t usually unlock ones like this with the giveaway code, if they DON’T work at the “no key” level.
[@STUART] GrabTube actually has a built-in cookie setup wizard that runs on first launch. It detects your installed browsers, asks you to log in to YouTube, and verifies the cookies automatically with one click. If you skipped that step, you can trigger it again by trying to download any age-restricted or login-required video — a “Browser Login Required” popup will appear with 3 simple steps:
Open youtube.com in Chrome, Firefox, or Edge
Sign in to your Google account
Click “I’ve Logged In” in GrabTube
GrabTube reads cookies directly from your browser — no manual export needed. If Chrome isn’t working (Windows sometimes blocks cookie access due to encryption), try using Firefox instead — it works more reliably for cookie extraction.
Also make sure your browser is fully closed before clicking “I’ve Logged In,” as some browsers lock their cookie database while running.
[@Brad Rogers] To redistribute the binaries with or as part of your program they MUST compile the binaries with a compatible set of license switches, as their product is closed source for there to be a compatible license they MUST compile using the enable-lgpl switch not the enable-gpl switch. It is irrelevant how they execute the FFMPEG binaries whether by command line or by DLL API calls it is distribution of the GPLv3 code in a closed source product or in even worse cases the distribution of non-distributable editions with enable-non-free switch which some developers do breaking international laws.
VLC is open source so can include FFMPEG binaries under GPL or LGPLv3 or later license options. Handbrake is ALSO Open source and so has GPL and LGPL licensing of any FFMPEG code being included which may be static compiled into handbrakes binaries but are certainly not present as stand alone binaries distributed with the program.
Handbrake and VLC also both include a copy of “copying” file or “copying.txt” file. Are you claiming that grabtube is also Opensource published with a GPLv3 compatible license and I have made an error in deducing that it was a closed source product?
Please don’t assume you know the terms of GPL license because you’ve read something somewhere, read the license itself first and comprehend it… if it was OK to include GPL code in a closed source product there would be no need for LGPL!Grab tube pro shareware from today does not work does not allow any url pasting
[@TK] You make a very valid point — and it looks like the developer actually listened. I just checked the latest version (v1.0.55, released today) and they’ve switched the bundled FFmpeg builds from GPL to LGPL-compiled variants. The builds now come from BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds with the –enable-lgpl flag, and the installer includes both the full LGPLv3 license text and an updated THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.txt that documents the LGPL compliance.
So it seems like the issue you raised has been addressed — the closed-source distribution now ships with LGPL FFmpeg binaries, which is the correct approach for a proprietary product. Good catch on the original GPL issue though, that was a legitimate concern.
[@Pam] Hey Pam — sorry to hear about the paste issue. If you got v1.0.52 from the SharewareOnSale giveaway, I’d recommend downloading the latest version (v1.0.55) directly from grabtube.org — it has several improvements and fixes.
For pasting URLs, you can either use Ctrl+V directly in the URL input field, or click the clipboard icon next to the box. If the clipboard button doesn’t respond, it’s usually a Windows clipboard permission issue — just use Ctrl+V instead and it should work fine. Make sure you’re copying the full URL (right-click the video → Copy link address) rather than just the page title.
GrabTube doesn’t install bloatware but has some problems with cookies. It’s complicated to download a simple URL from YouTube. I try to download the same video with SnapDownloader’s 2-day trial, and it works like a charm. Simplest things are the best.
[@Brad Roger] Thanks for the update, it is good to hear:)
[@Veltman] I had the same cookie issue when I first tried it. The trick is to make sure the Setup Wizard runs on first launch — it auto-detects your browser and sets up cookie access so YouTube downloads work right away.
If you skipped that, go to Settings and check the Browser Cookies section. Make sure it shows a detected browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.). If nothing shows up, just open YouTube in your browser, make sure you’re logged in, then restart GrabTube. It picks up the cookies automatically.
There’s also a Cobalt API fallback toggle in Settings that works as a last resort if local cookies fail.
The download flow is just paste URL and click Grab. The “complicated” part is really YouTube being aggressive with blocking — every downloader has this problem now. Since v1.0.55 it automatically cycles through all your installed browsers if one fails, so worth updating if you’re on an older version.
