Converter status
NoTube not working? What its errors mean
NoTube is a French-run converter that is actively maintained and rated 4.4 out of 5 on Trustpilot, so a failure is usually one of its own rules rather than an outage: it refuses videos it identifies as copyright protected, its download links expire after 20 minutes, it does not handle live streams, and some visitors land on lookalike domains instead of notube.net.
Published September 16, 2026. Facts are dated and sourced below; individual user reviews are quoted as individual accounts, not as verified findings.
The copyright message is policy, not a bug
NoTube's FAQ states plainly that when you try to download content protected by copyright, the site does not allow it. In practice that means many popular music videos are refused. A Trustpilot reviewer in January 2026 complained that the site kept saying the content was protected by copyright; that is the site working as designed. If that is the message you see, no retry or setting will change it.
Other rules from the FAQ: standard MP3 at 192 kbps with a 320 kbps option, MP4 up to 1080p with 2K reserved for a paid tier, files up to 4 GB, no live streams, playlists up to 100 videos, and download links that expire 20 minutes after conversion. A July 2026 Trustpilot reviewer described waiting forever for a conversion, which matches the site's occasional long queues.
Lookalikes and old ad complaints
In January 2022 NoTube published a warning about a fake copy using a similar name with a different domain extension that distributed a trojan. Only notube.net and the alternate official domains listed in its own FAQ are legitimate; notube.site and notube.re are not. Ad-related removal guides for notube.net date from 2022 and describe notification and redirect ads; the site now presents itself as ad-free and the company replies to negative reviews, so treat those guides as historical.
In May 2025 a French AdGuard filter briefly blocked a Cloudflare script the site uses, which hid some of its images on mobile. That was fixed on the filter side, but it is an example of an ad blocker rather than the site causing the breakage.
Quick checks
- Check the address bar against the official domain list in NoTube's FAQ.
- If the message mentions copyright, the site is refusing the video by policy. Choose a video you own or have permission to download, or use a converter that leaves that judgement to you.
- If the download link is dead, it has probably passed the 20-minute expiry. Convert again and save immediately.
- Live streams are not supported; wait for the archived video.
An ad-free alternative: what AudioFetcher offers
AudioFetcher is the converter we build, so read this section as the developer's description rather than an independent review. The facts below are the ones a visitor can check on the site itself.
| Ads and pop-ups | None. The service is funded by Pro subscriptions and Supporter passes, not ad networks. |
|---|---|
| Installation | None. It runs in the browser on desktop and mobile; a Firefox extension is optional. |
| Free limit | Single videos up to 60 minutes, MP3 up to 320 kbps, FLAC, or the original Opus and M4A streams. One free MP4 per day up to 720p. |
| Paid tier | Pro at $6 a month or $59 a year: audio up to 12 hours, playlists, MP4 to 1080p, priority queue. |
| Extras | Chapter embedding and splitting, SponsorBlock removal, ID3 tags and cover art, subtitles, LRCLIB lyrics, ordered playlist ZIPs. |
| Verification | One Cloudflare Turnstile check before a free conversion. No account for free use. |
| Files | Temporary. Downloads expire after a short window and are deleted; nothing is kept as a library. |
| Content policy | Convert only videos you own or have permission to download. |
Common questions
Is NoTube safe?
Yes as far as public evidence goes: no legal action, an active blog, company replies on Trustpilot, and a 4.4 rating. The 2022 trojan incident involved a copycat domain, not notube.net.
Why does NoTube say my video is protected by copyright?
Because it identifies the video as protected and its policy is to refuse. This is stated in the FAQ.
Does NoTube still have ads?
The removal guides describing redirect ads are from 2022. The site now markets itself as ad-free. We did not observe ad behaviour ourselves, so we do not make a claim either way.
What does AudioFetcher do differently?
It does not pre-filter videos as copyright protected; the responsibility to convert only what you have rights to sits with you, and the site says so. There are no ads, links are temporary but not on a 20-minute clock, and free conversions cover single videos up to 60 minutes.
Other converter status pages
Sources
- NoTube FAQStates the copyright refusal, format limits, 20-minute link expiry, live stream exclusion and official domains.
- NoTube blog, January 2022Official warning about a copycat domain distributing a trojan.
- Trustpilot reviews of notube.net4.4 rating; January and July 2026 reviews about copyright refusals and long waits (individual accounts).
- AdGuard filters issue #206478, May 2025French filter blocking a Cloudflare script used by the site; resolved.
- PCRisk, January 2022Historical description of notification and redirect ads; classified as ads, not a virus.
Sources support factual statements about third-party services as of the dates shown. Service behaviour changes; check the source before relying on a detail.