Downloading videos directly to a USB drive or external hard drive is useful in several situations: your laptop's internal SSD is nearly full, you're downloading large 4K files, or you want to share videos with someone else offline. Vid1080 makes this easy — just plug in your storage device, change your browser's download location to the external drive, and download as normal. Here's exactly how to set this up in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on both Windows and Mac.
Why Download Videos to External Storage?
Modern laptops — especially MacBook Air models and budget Windows laptops — often come with 256GB or 512GB of internal SSD storage. A collection of 4K videos can fill this space quickly: a single 4K movie can be 15–25GB, and a season of a documentary series might require 50–80GB. By downloading directly to an external USB drive or hard drive, you keep your system storage free for applications and work files while building an offline video library on removable media.
How to Download Videos to USB Drive — Step by Step
- 1Plug your USB drive or external hard drive into your Windows PC or Mac.
- 2Wait for the drive to appear in File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac).
- 3Open your browser and change the download location to your external drive (see browser-specific instructions below).
- 4Go to vid1080.com and paste the video URL you want to download.
- 5Click the Download button and wait for Vid1080 to process the video.
- 6Select your preferred quality (1080p, 4K, etc.).
- 7Click the download link — the file will save directly to your USB drive or external hard drive.
- 8Safely eject the drive after the download completes before unplugging (right-click drive > Eject on Mac; use the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon on Windows).
How to Change the Download Folder in Chrome (Windows and Mac)
In Google Chrome on both Windows and Mac, click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and go to Settings. Scroll to the Downloads section. Click the Change button next to the "Location" field. In the file picker that opens, navigate to your USB drive or external hard drive and click "Select Folder" (Windows) or "Open" (Mac). Now all downloads in Chrome will go directly to your external storage. Alternatively, enable "Ask where to save each file before downloading" to choose the destination each time.
How to Change the Download Folder in Edge (Windows)
In Microsoft Edge on Windows, click the three-dot menu and go to Settings. Select Downloads from the left sidebar. Click the Change button next to the download location. Navigate to your USB drive in the folder picker and select it. You can also toggle "Ask me what to do with each download" to be prompted for a save location with every download — useful when you alternate between saving to your internal drive and an external drive.
How to Change the Download Folder in Firefox (Windows and Mac)
In Firefox, click the hamburger menu (three lines) and go to Settings. Under the General tab, scroll to "Files and Applications." You'll see a "Downloads" section with two options: "Save files to" and "Always ask you where to save files." Click Browse next to "Save files to" and select your USB drive. Or choose "Always ask" to pick the destination each time. Firefox remembers recently used folders in the save dialog, making it easy to switch between internal and external storage.
How to Change the Download Folder in Safari (Mac)
In Safari on Mac, go to Safari menu > Settings (or Preferences on older macOS) and click the General tab. Find the "File download location" dropdown. By default it's set to "Downloads." Click the dropdown and select "Other..." to choose a custom location — navigate to your external USB drive or hard drive and click Select. You can also set it to "Ask for each download" to choose the save location manually every time.
- USB 3.0 flash drives — up to 100–200 MB/s write speed, good for 1080p files
- USB 3.0 external hard drives — typically 80–120 MB/s, reliable for 4K files
- External NVMe SSD via USB-C — 400–900 MB/s, fastest option for large 4K files
- Always safely eject external drives after downloading to prevent file corruption
- Format USB drives as exFAT to be readable on both Windows and Mac
- FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit — avoid it for large 4K video files