Can't download youth lessons for Jul, Aug Sept 2013

in the past I have been able to download the youth lessons for a coming quarter. This quarter is about over so I want to download youth videos for Jul, Aug, Sept, or at least for July.

However, when I go the the youth sites, and select the red download button (top) the months Jul, Aug, Sept have a black font which, it appears, means they are not available.

Is there something I'm missing? Where and how and when will these videos be available? In our stake we download the videos to flash drives we keep in the library, which members can check out. We need to have access to them at least a week before the actual Sunday they are needed.

wsplawn wrote:Is there something I'm missing? Where and how and when will these videos be available?

From the experiences in the past, it's pretty clear that there is no announcement ahead of time as to when the videos will be available. Last time, the videos were available on March 19. We're more than a week later than that this time, but in any case it does seem that it is always quite late in the quarter. I don't know why that is, but we just have to be patient.

And if you're impatient, you can always download the videos one by one. If you choose that route, it's helpful to start with the Monthly Category page.

It sure would be helpful if they'd give us an estimated release date. If you or someone else on this forum becomes aware of a date will you please say so in this thread?

Thank you

Someone usually posts the news when they find that the files are available, so that others will be aware. This is a pretty helpful group, and all are in the same boat awaiting these resources.

I just checked, the link for July download is enabled.

The videos are, and have been available in Resources video section on lds.org but not sorted by PH,YW,SS.

Also, one of the links (Always in Our Sights) in the Come Follow Me, Sunday School page pointed to the wrong video. I reported this several days ago via feedback and it has been fixed. I mention this in case anyone has watched or downloaded the wron video from the links.

@ggllb

Thank you for responding.

Well, I do see that there are videos there but I am sort of at a loss to know what to download - when. That is, we have a system in our stake that is working quite well, It makes it unnecessary for for each teacher to jump through the hoops needed for their particular lesson. The system is simple: One person (me) downloads all the videos needed for a give time period, I put them on flash drives (five of them) and they are available for checkout in the Stake library each Sunday.

A couple of months ago the site gave the option of downloading all the needed videos for each organization for a given quarter. This works well for us. Every three months I just go in and download them all, put them in folders for YM, YW & Sunday School and the work is done.

The site is dynamic, however, and things have changed and it is not always easy now to know where to go to get what we need for the coming quarter - or month. Fortunately, I see the videos for the month of July have been uploaded. I don't know who has influence with the powers that be, but putting them up ahead of time, sorted by organization and for the upcoming quarter is really helpful to us.

Best Regards to All

P.S.

It's not clear to me what the differences are (if any) between the YM, YW, and SS videos for a given month. When you download them, they all seem to have the same Zip name and size.

Hate to download all three if they are all the same.

Anyone?

Also, with regard to the resources section, I see that videos are there, but how do I know if all of them are there that are needed for a given time period? Is there a way for the church to group them so you do know?

My guess is they are all the same and contain all the videos, but since I have already downloaded them individually and I have limited bandwidth here at home, I haven't tried the zip download. Does anyone know?

I do the same thing with the flash drives, but since I hwve limited bandwidth, I usually download them while at the church on Tuesdays. I'm out of town all next week, so I downloaded them last Tuesday before the zip was available. I then went through each section to decide which videos to put in each organiztion (tedious, but at the same time I watched all of them). That's how I discovered the broken link.

I'm sure there is a way the videos could be grouped, but so far the church has not chosen to do that.

Note: Some of the videos may overlap between YM and YW but not with SS.

Well, I downloaded the videos for Aug 2013 from each of the organizations and reviewed the files inside the zip files and they do indeed appear to all contain the same material. So apparently there is overlap from organization to organization.

This is good to know. I wish there were somewhere on the site where this is delineated. I think I understand what's happening for Aug 2013, but because the strategy seems to change I'm not sure what the situation will be next month.

Is there a way to ask the powers that be to delineate their strategy and give us a URL where it can be read?

I think videos are truly inspired and of great benefit to our youth. I am glad to be a small part in getting it to them.

One other point to make. The zip file I downloaded for the month of July contains 17 videos. When I go the the Resources page (mentioned earlier in this thread) for the month of July, there are only 7 listed. If I had downloaded only from this this URL I would have been 10 short.

Any clarification that can be offered by the Church people in charge of this will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you again to others for your help.

As our newly-called Ward Technology Specialist, I've taken it upon myself to manage these downloads for the whole ward (and the other two wards in our building that use the same library). I've been downloading the highest-resolution versions of these Come Follow Me videos because 1) we have enough room on our USB thumbs drives and 2) I want to take advantage of the full potential of our nice, new HD monitors. So I've decided not to use the "zipped" file download because those are usually just the lowest-resolution video files.

Because each month only uses between 8 and 15 videos, I've just been making one folder on the USB thumb drive for each month. Then I put all of the videos for a given month into the folder. I know that some are intended for just one organization while others might be used by all three organizations (Aaronic Priesthood, Young Women and Sunday School) but since there aren't that many videos per month it seems okay to put them all in the same place.

One thing I like to do to help the end-users: I change the name of the video file to something that's easier to recognize. For example, if the original file name was "2011-07-073-participating-in-councils-1080p-eng.mp4" I will go ahead and change the name to "Participating-in-councils.mp4." I think that way they can quickly find the video they want (in alphabetical order) among the dozen or so for that month. By now, I can probably delete the folder for, say, April if I want to add other content that will be useful in the near future.

wsplawn wrote:One other point to make. The zip file I downloaded for the month of July contains 17 videos. When I go the the Resources page (mentioned earlier in this thread) for the month of July, there are only 7 listed. If I had downloaded only from this this URL I would have been 10 short.

I'm not sure what the 17 are. There are 7 referenced in the "Come Follow Me" pages for July, unless they are including the leader training videos for the teacher/leader also referenced there, although many of them overlap between YM and YW. If you count each overlap as an additional video, there are 11 plus 6 referenced training videos makes it 17.

I am using a ROKU to play these and some of the users are low tech, so it's a bit more work for me to make it as user friendly as possible.

I have noticed that videos have been uploaded to each of the youth sites that include not only this quarter, but apparently for the rest of the year.

I'm just wondering if I should Download these and assume that content will remain static for the rest of the year, or is it likely that other items will be added?