Downloading Movies and Shows on MX Player

MX Player lets you save titles to watch without a connection, and the download button is easy to find once you know that two different apps now share the name.

Saving a show for offline viewing takes one tap, and the file lands in a downloads section under your profile.

The part that trips people up is the download button being missing entirely, which has two quite different causes.

Both are covered below, along with which of the two MX Players you are actually holding.

First, which MX Player is this?

This matters more than it used to, because the name now covers two separate things and only one of them has a catalogue to download from.

• The video player. The Android app that opens video files already on your phone, with gesture controls and subtitle support - MX Player in its original form.
• Amazon MX Player. The ad-supported streaming service Amazon acquired in 2024 and merged with its miniTV platform - this is the one with movies and shows to download.
• Both, in one app. On most phones the two live together, so the streaming catalogue and your own files sit behind the same icon.

If you came here wanting to play your own video files rather than save something from a catalogue, the offline download button is not what you need - skip to the last section.

Saving a single title

The pattern is the same as every other streaming app, and the icon is a downward arrow.

1. Open the title's page rather than starting playback.
2. Look for the download arrow beneath the title, alongside the play and add-to-list controls.
3. Tap it once and let it finish - the icon changes to show progress and then a completed state.

Nothing else is needed. The title is now stored on the device and will play with the connection off.

Saving a whole series

Series pages list their episodes below the description, usually with the current season shown first and a control to expand the full list.

Expand that list and you will find a download control that applies to the episodes shown rather than to one at a time. On phones this section is easier to reach with the screen held upright, because the episode list is what the layout gives most room to.

Downloading a full season takes a while and a fair amount of storage, so it is worth starting it on a connection you are not paying for by the gigabyte.

Where your downloads go

Saved titles do not appear in your phone's gallery or file manager as ordinary video files. They are stored inside the app in a protected form, which is a condition of the licensing rather than a design choice.

You reach them through the app itself, in a downloads section that sits under your profile in the navigation menu, often with a shortcut icon at the top of the screen.

That also means they cannot be copied to a computer or opened in another player, and they disappear if you uninstall the app. Anything you want to keep permanently needs to be something you own rather than something you streamed.

When there is no download button

This is the most common reason people end up searching, and there are two causes worth separating because only one of them has a fix.

The other cause is per-title. Studios license each show separately, and offline rights are negotiated on top of streaming rights, so some titles are watchable but not downloadable.

The tell is straightforward: if the download arrow is missing on one title but present on others, it is a rights limit on that title. If it is missing on everything, it is the first cause.

If you wanted to play your own files instead

Plenty of people arrive here having meant the video player rather than the streaming service, and that is a different job with a much better answer.

The player opens whatever is already on your phone, and it handles most formats on its own. Where it needs help is with less common codecs, which is what the MX Player Custom Codec packs are for - our guide on which custom codec you need covers picking the right one for your phone.

For older material there are format-specific answers too, including Xvid files on MX Player and, on the desktop side, how to play 3GP files.

If a file will not open and you would rather find out why than guess, our Codec Finder reads it in the browser and tells you what is inside.

Installing the app safely

Most people should install from their phone's app store, which handles updates and gets the right build automatically.

If you are sideloading an APK instead - on a TV box, a Fire tablet, or a phone without the Play Store - two of our browser tools answer the questions worth asking first.

• Is the file what it claims? Drop it into the APK Checker to read its package name, version and signature.
• Will it run without Google Play? The Play Store Check catches the licence checks that stop some apps launching on devices without Play services.

Quick questions

One tap saves a title, downloads live inside the app rather than on your storage, and a missing button is usually about where you are rather than what you clicked.

Download MX Player if you are setting it up for the first time, or tell us what you were trying to download and which device you are on.

More Android apps sit in the Android APK section, and desktop options in media players.