Retrieval of Apple Card & Savings PDF Statements

I have accounts with both Apple Card and Apple Card Savings. At the end of each month, I receive an email for each account that tells me my statements are ready for viewing.

I prefer to download my statements so I can view them on my laptop or desktop computer. Apple Support provides guidance on how to view and download Apple Card statements and Apple Card Savings statements. There are lots of steps involved, and here’s what I have to do to retrieve my statements through the Wallet app on my iPhone.

Apple Card

1. Open the Wallet app
2. Tap Apple Card
3. Tap Card Balance
4. Under Statements, tap the monthly statement you want to view
5. Tap Download PDF Statement
6. When your PDF statement appears, tap the Share icon
7. Tap AirDrop
8. Tap the device that will receive the PDF file
9. Tap the X to close AirDrop
10. Tap anywhere other than the Share window to close the Share options
11. Tap the X to close the PDF statement
12. Tap the < to return to return to your statements
13. Tap the < to return to Apple Card

Apple Card Savings

1. Open the Wallet app
2. Tap Apple Card
3. Tap Savings Account
4. Tap the 3 dots
5. Tap Documents
6. Tap Statements
7. Under Statements, tap the monthly statement you want to view
8. Tap View PDF Statement
9. When your PDF statement appears, tap the Share icon
10. Tap AirDrop
11. Tap the device that will receive the PDF file
12. Tap the X to close AirDrop
13. Tap anywhere other than the Share window to close the Share options
14. Tap the X to close the PDF statement
15. Tap the < to return to return to your statements
16. Tap the < to return to return to your documents
17. Tap the < to return to return to Apple Savings
18. Tap the < to return to Apple Card

Note that Apple Card statements can also be downloaded via laptop or desktop:

1. Launch a web browser
2. Go to https://card.apple.com
3. Click Sign In
4. Authenticate (e.g., with Touch ID)
5. Click Statements
6. Click the download icon next to the monthly statement you want to view

Although there are fewer steps required to download the Apple Card statement on a browser, there is currently no option to download Apple Card Savings statements on a browser. Therefore, I prefer to download and AirDrop both statements from my iPhone. It would be nice if (1) there was a way to also download Savings statements from the Apple Card website and/or (2) the process for downloading statements through the iOS Wallet app required fewer steps. Are you aware of a more efficient process to retrieve your statements?

Deprecation of 4K Video Downloader

I watch a lot of videos on YouTube, and I often prefer to download them so that I can watch them using my favorite media player, VLC. I’ve previously written about how you can use 4K Video Downloader to download and convert YouTube videos.

Much to my dismay, 4K Video Downloader has reached end of life, as support has been discontinued as of February 1, 2025. The developers encourage 4K Video Downloader users to transition to 4K Video Downloader Plus which is a similar application by the same developer. The downside for me is that my license for 4K Video Downloader will not work on 4K Video Downloader Plus. Fortunately the free version appears to be full-featured, albeit with a daily download limit.

Sometimes developers release new versions of software that require new licenses, and they may do it so often that the licensure model starts to look more like a subscription model (cough cough, Parallels, cough). This is not one of those scenarios, but given that 4K Video Downloader Plus is pretty much the same application as 4K Video Downloader (plus a browser that I don’t plan to use), it doesn’t add any value for me. That being said, I can understand how the developer needs to invest resources to ensure compatibility with YouTube and other video repositories. For now, I’ll migrate to the free version of 4K Video Downloader Plus, and perhaps I will share more in-depth thoughts later on.

Download Someone Else’s Google Slides

In the past few years, my child’s school has hosted many meetings during which the presenters use Google Slides as a visual aid. When asked to share the slides, sometimes the presenters paste a Google Slides URL into the chat. Alternatively they may state that they will will post the slides on the school website or distribute the slides using other means—in my experience, the presenters don’t always follow up with their commitments. If you’re like me, when there is dense information on a slide deck, you might prefer to focus on the presentation instead of taking notes or screenshots of the slides. Therefore, having a copy of the slides can be very helpful. Here’s how to take matters into your own hands.

If you are provided with the Google Slides URL and if the owner has not restricted access, you can simply paste the URL into a browser to open the slide deck. From there, click File > Download and then select your desired file format (.pdf, .pptx, etc.) to initiate the download. Note that the slide deck owner may not have restricted editing privileges, but it would be common etiquette to not alter any of the contents.

What if you are not given access to the URL? One sneaky way to obtain a URL is to pay attention to the presenter as they prepare to put their Google Slides into presentation mode. Usually the presenter will begin screen sharing (e.g., via Zoom, Teams, or other conferencing application) before sharing their slides. When the presenter reveals the Google slides in their web browser, take a screenshot while the URL is present. If you have a modern macOS operating system, opening the screenshot in Preview will allow you to simply click the URL within the screenshot, because Preview tries to recognize URLs and make them clickable. Preview might have a hard time distinguishing between a capital “I” and a lowercase “L” so you might need to play around with the URL a little bit, but you should eventually be able to figure out the correct URL. The only downside here is that the presenter may have restricted access to the file, so even if you have the correct URL, you might not be able to open the file.

A second sneaky way to obtain a URL is when the Google Slides presentation is embedded into a web page. From your web browser, you can try to show the page source and skim the HTML for the URL. On Safari, you can also use the Web Inspector for this same purpose. Note that both of these functions in Safari requires that you enable the Developer tab from your Preferences settings.

A third sneaky way to obtain a URL is to visit https://docs.google.com/presentation/u/0/ where recently viewed presentations will be listed. This won’t work for presentations you’ve viewed via screen sharing, but if you’ve clicked on a Google Slides presentation while logged in to your Google account, it may be listed here. If so, you can open the Google Slide presentation and download away.

I’d also like to mention that once you obtain the URL of a Google Slides document, you can also construct a URL to directly download the file. The URL syntax of a Google Slides presentation is as follows:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/PRESENTATION_ID/edit

Once you have the PRESENTATION_ID, simply plug it into one of the following URLs to download the slides in .pdf or .pptx format:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/PRESENTATION_ID/export/pdf

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/PRESENTATION_ID/export/pptx

Visit this blog for more Google Drive URL tricks that pertain to not only Google Slides but also Google Docs and Google Sheets. 

Downloading YouTube Videos

I am often asked if it is possible to download videos from YouTube. The answer is yes, and there are several methods.

The first method is through web sites that provide this functionality. There are many free sites to choose from, and typically they simply involve you pasting the URL of the YouTube video into the site and then selecting the resolution of the video that you'd like to retrieve. The video is then downloaded to the default download directory that is specified in your web browser. Although I've used a couple of these kinds of sites, anecdotally I have heard rumors that some web sites that provide such services could be malicious, so generally I avoid them.

The second method is by installing one of several plugins or extensions to your browser. Some plugins work only for specific browsers, so again I defer to you to search for the proper solution. In my limited experience, some Safari and Firefox plugins did not work reliably, so I quickly abandoned this method.

The third method is to install one of several dedicated applications, and that is the focal point of this blog post. While I'm sure there are many high-quality applications that are inexpensive or free, I personally recommend 4K Video Downloader. This is what the Mac OS version looks like (there is a Windows version too):

Simply copy the URL from YouTube and paste it into the 4K Video Downloader app by pressing Command-V or pressing the "Paste Link" button. Depending on your settings, you may have to select a video resolution if you did not specify one by default.

I've used the Mac OS version of 4K Video Downloader for years, and I like it because...

• Frequent Updates. Sometimes YouTube undergoes changes that impact the ability for all 3 methods to download videos. Generally the developers are very quick to update the app to resolve download issues.
• Playlist Compatibility. YouTube videos can be grouped into playlists. Entering playlist URLs enable you to download the entire playlist. Entering the URL of a video within a playlist gives you the option to download that one video or the entire playlist. Pretty slick.
• Multiple Formats. In addition to YouTube this application also supports downloads from Facebook, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Flickr, and others.
• Trustworthy. I have not heard any issues about the application tracking usage or being used for any malicious reasons.
• Freeware. Yes, the price is right. There are some ads, but they are unobtrusive. There is an activation option to remove ads, but the app is full-featured even without activation.
• It Just Works. Enough said.

Hope this helps. Happy downloading!