Dead Project / Alternatives?

[SinisterCrayon]

It's looking like this project is dead. No real activity in about a year and the author/owner doesn't appear to have done anything with it. There are also a number of bugs that aren't getting looked at, some of which are going to render the tool inoperable soon for most people because of YouTube's clamping down on automated download tools. If you haven't been hit by the "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot" problem then you will be... this is a problem that can be easily worked around with YT-DLP but at the moment there's no way to inject the appropriate extractor-args into this tool without changing the code (something I'm not familiar enough with the code to do).

Are there any alternatives or forks of this that might be workable and maybe fix some of the bugs?

[SickProdigy]

tubearchivist is pretty good. This project isn't dead, i just have issues with adding 1k+ video channels.
Tubearchivist is also pretty hefty compared. Also interested in other alts

[SinisterCrayon]

Thanks. I installed TubeArchivist and it seems to be a much better and more reliable alternative.

I do love this project and think it has great potential, but I disagree; I think it's dead. No commits or activity in a while despite a number of glaring bugs and issues.

[yllekz]

My problem with TubeArchivist is that it doesn't quite behave like youtubedl-material though. Theoretically it can do all the same things but it's kind of obtuse, at least the last time I tried it. I wish this project got some more love, because when it worked, it worked well.

[akibrhast]

a number of glaring bugs and issues. @SinisterCrayon
such as ?

[SinisterCrayon]

a number of glaring bugs and issues. @SinisterCrayon
such as ?

Well, you can start here and start working your way through all the posts tagged as BUG for a start.

Or you can go here and witness that despite a number of API changes on YouTube's part, this entire project hasn't had an update in over a year.

Or maybe the fact that the author hasn't posted anything here in a year either?

I mean all signs point to it being a dead project. I've moved on to TubeArchivist and it's already working much better than this. The only thing I keep YoutubeDL-Material around for now is my Favorites downloads which TA doesn't seem to be able to download... but that's fine.

[SickProdigy]

a number of glaring bugs and issues. @SinisterCrayon

such as ?

Well, you can start here and start working your way through all the posts tagged as BUG for a start.

Or you can go here and witness that despite a number of API changes on YouTube's part, this entire project hasn't had an update in over a year.

Or maybe the fact that the author hasn't posted anything here in a year either?

I mean all signs point to it being a dead project. I've moved on to TubeArchivist and it's already working much better than this. The only thing I keep YoutubeDL-Material around for now is my Favorites downloads which TA doesn't seem to be able to download... but that's fine.

Tubearchivist you can't choose how videos are saved. This project you can. Yeah there's plenty of issues but it still mostly works. I think he was asking what "glaring bugs" are bothering you? Not the whole list of issues lol.

It still grabs videos from YouTube. Why do you need to update the api if it's still using the same endpoints and variables?

Stop complaining and learn to code yourself. It's open source project. You have very much the same rights to update this project as anyone else does.. dead project means it doesn't work, this works, you just can't subscribe to large channels. Only issue I've had..

[yllekz]

For me one of the "glaring bugs" is the fact that the entire system doesn't work anymore. The downloads all fail and you can't add subscriptions. The project is in critical condition because it straight up doesn't function at basic levels.

Also please don't talk down to folks who simply want to raise the issue. Telling someone to "Stop complaining and learn to code yourself" is not the conduct we should be promoting here.

[martadinata666]

the entire system not working anymore, likely you or many other people, stay at stable release, it is recommended to move to nightly, that one very important thing that the nightly had yt-dlp by default, and update it if yt-dlp update is available. On stable version afaik need to setup yt-dlp by default, then set the schedule manually. cmiiw.

[SinisterCrayon]

the entire system not working anymore, likely you or many other people, stay at stable release, it is recommended to move to nightly, that one very important thing that the nightly had yt-dlp by default, and update it if yt-dlp update is available. On stable version afaik need to setup yt-dlp by default, then set the schedule manually. cmiiw.

Afraid not. I actually ran the nightly forever but the simple fact is the nightly hasn't had any updates because the code in this repo hasn't had any updates in over a year. I will note again that the author himself has had only very minor activity on Github this calendar year, and nothing at all since July. Even then this repo hasn't been touched.

Sorry, this absolutely meets the criteria for a dead project unless someone wants to fork it. I get it though; the author has a life outside of this and this was just a hobby and that's fine. The current nightly build does not work reliably for most people and there are still glaring issues with the current code that are going unfixed. Quite apart from the fact that you can completely overwhelm the download queue by adding a channel and attempting to download its history; try Kurzegesagt for example. The download queue will cause a memory overflow that's been present in this code since inception and still hasn't been resolved.

If you or someone else want to fork the code and continue development, please do! It's still a lovely interface and I do like it. I just don't have the bandwidth myself to maintain this code. I just started this thread because I wanted to see if it was still alive or not. The fact that the author himself hasn't replied is also pretty telling. I do hope he's doing OK though :)

[SickProdigy]

For me one of the "glaring bugs" is the fact that the entire system doesn't work anymore. The downloads all fail and you can't add subscriptions. The project is in critical condition because it straight up doesn't function at basic levels.

Also please don't talk down to folks who simply want to raise the issue. Telling someone to "Stop complaining and learn to code yourself" is not the conduct we should be promoting here.

You're doing something wrong. User error.
If you disable subscriptions all together less issues. Or fix the subscription issues. No one is talking down besides the user stating it's a dead project.

[SinisterCrayon]

You're doing something wrong. User error. If you disable subscriptions all together less issues. Or fix the subscription issues. No one is talking down besides the user stating it's a dead project.

I'm not talking down to anyone. I responded to a query and yes I can confirm that many of the bugs listed in this exact issues forum are ones I've hit. And yes, you can render the entire application completely unusable and unrecoverable without editing the database just by subscribing to a YouTube channel; precisely what this application is designed to do. This problem has existed as long as this app has existed and several people have raised the issue, but it remains unresolved. The workaround is to sub to channels and only download a certain timeframe and just keep increasing the timeframe until the entire channel is downloaded.

I know how to code. I write code for a living. Are you saying nobody should be here unless they're want to code? So there are no users of open source applications in your world? If anything, you're the one talking down to people telling them to disable subscriptions... you know; the exact thing this tool was designed to do? I am not getting involved with this project as a coder because I don't have the free time to fork this project, nor the desire when a perfectly serviceable alternative exists (TubeArchivist).

You want a specific example of a bug that makes this tool useless? How about this one that is specifically an issue with changes to the YouTube API since this tool was last updated and even has a workaround in YT-DLP. I can write a wrapper script for YT-DLP to fix the issue and did for a bit, but it was a horrible kludge and I'd rather have the tools I use not needing such nasty kludges to function.

[martadinata666]

Afraid not. I actually ran the nightly forever but the simple fact is the nightly hasn't had any updates because the code in this repo hasn't had any updates in over a year. I will note again that the author himself has had only very minor activity on Github this calendar year, and nothing at all since July. Even then this repo hasn't been touched.

You want a specific example of a bug that makes this tool useless? How about #1133 that is specifically an issue with changes to the YouTube API since this tool was last updated and even has a workaround in YT-DLP. I can write a wrapper script for YT-DLP to fix the issue and did for a bit, but it was a horrible kludge and I'd rather have the tools I use not needing such nasty kludges to function.

Oh, then it become fun, if you on nightly, can you confirm yt-dlp you are using? or docker image hash. Then talking about the #1133 checking if the issue exist at yt-dlp, and actually yt-dlp/yt-dlp#10128 it won't be fixed, some workaround use custom arguments to slow down download that can be placed on custom arguments, that tbf I never use or some other issue thread about PO token that need set every some hours, maybe I'm wrong tho. Personally I don't subscribe to playlists(overly large playlist also giving memory issue afaik), it not perfect and work pretty fine despite some hiccup. Metube also a good one,if you want alternative

Edit 1: only quote what I need

[mrudawski]

YoutubeDL-Material still works for me though. I just had to set cookies to avoid the error that was mentioned in the first comment.

Tutorial:

1. Install "cookies.txt" extension in your Firefox/Chrome browser
2. Open a new private window and login to YouTube
3. Export all cookies (from that private window) to a local file "cookies.txt"
4. Open YoutubeDL-Material -> Settings -> Advanced
5. Tick "Use Cookies" checkbox and upload cookies.txt file using "Set Cookies" button
6. Et voilà, now you should be able to download videos again!

P.S. You can also put that file into ./appdata/cookies.txt instead of uploading via Settings (but the checkbox must be ticked).

[SinisterCrayon]

I will note that I had already done all that a long time ago. I did try to replace my cookies.txt with an updated one just in case but it made no difference.