Do you want to download your favorite YouTube videos? Are you not sure how to download videos from YouTube? Using the wrong tool can land you in serious trouble with viruses and malware. Today we’ll be looking at Y2Mate, a popular YouTube downloader. However, is it safe, or does it have viruses that can screw up your desktop?
Y2Mate.com is used as a YouTube video and audio downloader and is very popular with people. It allows you to convert and download thousands of audio and video files from YouTube, Facebook, Dailymotion, and other websites. It supports downloading all video formats such as MP4, M4V, MP3, and WEBM, but the real question is whether it is safe to use?
Well, the short answer is No! The Y2Mate platform is filled to the brim with popups and annoying ads and can take you to some random website that can infect your desktop or laptop. However, just reading about it won’t do you good. So, let’s try it out and see if all of the concerns hold true or are just rumors that keep you from using the tool.
Table of Contents
Is Y2Mate safe?
Y2Mate is a highly unsafe website as it is filled with a lot of scam popups and browser push notifications that constantly annoy users. I tried using the website to download a royalty-free song from YouTube and was met with some concerning ads.
The downloading process is fast and straightforward. Hence its popularity among the users. You just go to the website, enter the link for the video you want to download, and select a resolution and format.
After clicking one of the Download buttons, you will be greeted with a popup that says “Preparing your Download”. This indicates that your file is being processed. However, once it is ready, it displays the final download button and when I clicked on it, the page redirected me to some other website that looked very malicious (screenshot below), while the file download started in the background.
I have to give credit where credit is due. As you can see, the download did, in fact, work. However, I was also sent off to a malicious page automatically blocked by my Ad Blocker as it flagged it as harmful.
The video played as usual, but the security errors of the website are concerning. If I didn’t have an ad blocker looking out for viruses and ads, I probably would have some virus on my PC. So, I wouldn’t recommend you download with Y2Mate as it is not safe for regular users.
In short; If you don’t want to be constantly bombarded with ads or notifications and don’t want any malware or virus, then I highly recommend you to stay away from Y2Mate. It is unsafe and can land you in serious trouble if you are not careful with your data.
If you really have no choice but to use their website, then make sure that you have an ad blocker extension and popup blocker extension installed on your browser. Moreover, always close any popups that appear and do not click on “Allow” when the website asks to send you notifications.
Does Y2Mate have viruses?
Although Y2Mate works great for downloading videos, it displays a lot of popups and malicious ads. Almost all the popup ads are sketchy and could potentially install viruses on your computer if you’re not careful enough.
Almost all online video downloaders are filled with similar ads as they tend to use shady ad networks. If you have no choice but to use Y2Mate, my best suggestion would be to use ad-block and popup blocker extensions.
How to remove Y2Mate Viruses?
Let’s assume that you did not know about the issues with Y2Mate, and you dived right in without any protection. Well, then you would have viruses and constant notifications buffing you. So, what should you do? How can you remove Y2Mate viruses and notifications?
Assuming that you too are having the same problems, then just follow the guide below, and you should be able to remove all the errors, viruses, and notifications from your desktop or laptop.
1. Open Windows Defender
To remove any viruses or malware, I recommend you use the stock Windows Defender tool.
It is great at scanning through your computer and is fast enough that you won’t have to run the scan for the entire day. If you have third-party anti-virus programs, then you can use them as well.
Search for and open Windows Defender.
2. Click on “Quick Scan”
Go to the Windows Security/Defender tool and click on the Quick Scan button to scan your entire computer. Once the scan is completed, check if any malicious files or threats were detected. If you do, then just remove those, and you should be good to go.
Note: If a file is affected by the virus, it will get deleted and will not recover if you don’t have a backup.
Secondly, if you have an anti-virus program installed, I’d recommend that you run a deep scan using it as well to make sure that all malicious files are removed and your computer is clean.
How to disable Y2Mate notifications?
When you visit Y2Mate, it displays a popup asking for permission to send you push notifications. If you allowed it, then you are most likely getting bombarded with weird notifications, and in most cases, adult ones too. Luckily, you can disable it by going to your browser’s Notification settings and blocking Y2Mate.
The steps below show how to disable Y2Mate notifications on Google Chrome. The process should be similar for other browsers as well.
1. Open the Google Chrome settings and search for notifications. From the results list, click on Site Settings.
2. Scroll down and click on Notifications.
3. From this list, find y2mate.com, click the three-dots icon next to it, and select Block.
Y2Mate FAQ
Is Y2Mate trusted?
No, Y2Mate cannot be trusted as it has worrying links to suspicious websites and may contain viruses. As we discussed earlier, the tool is not suitable for regular people, and everyone should use a decent YouTube downloader app.
How can I download YouTube videos without getting a virus?
You can download YouTube videos without getting a virus by using a decent third-party downloader tool. However, you can also use the standard YouTube downloader to save all your videos.
Is downloading YouTube videos legal?
Yes and No. Well, if you’re downloading YouTube videos for personal use, then it is legal and poses no issue. However, if you use the downloaded video for some other commercial tasks without taking permission from the original user, then downloading videos from youtube is illegal.
Verdict
While the Y2Mate tool had little to no complications for the downloading process of videos and audios, it still had aggressive ad popups, notifications, and viruses. If one infects your PC, you won’t be able to work through the apps, and scammers would constantly alert you of malware and viruses.
To prevent this issue, make sure that you close all popups from the website, install adblocker and popup blocker browser extensions before using the site, and disallow any popups that ask for your permission to send notifications.
