yt-dlp is great for downloading media you’ve already found (or at least, playlists or creator channels you’ve already found), but you can’t use it for discovering new media. You still need a browser or GUI app like FreeTube or Newpipe for that, and it works better when you’re actually signed in with your Google account so that the recommendation algorithm works and it can keep track of what you watched for you.
Don’t get me wrong; I would love to limit my interaction with Google to anonymously fetching video URLs. But none of the alternatives sync my watch history between devices or recommend new videos (beyond just new uploads from subscribed channels) to me.
I’ve been finding new stuff fine on YouTube without logging in. Though that probably only works well if you have other sources for inspiration, like recommendations from friends, bandcamp sites of small labels or music journalism. I use YouTube’s search function a lot.
Thanks for the suggestion, but that’s not quite it. It basically does the same thing wrapping yt-dlp with a shell script and a cron job would: it takes a Youtube channel or playlist as input, and then automatically downloads it.
You can tell by this screenshot:
I’m looking for something that handles the step before that, helping me discovering which channels and playlists I want.
It also doesn’t have anything to do with “syncing” in the way that I’m talking about, which is syncing account metadata between my devices, not syncing video data between Youtube and a local folder.
What I want is to be able to watch a video in Newpipe on my phone, and have it be automatically marked as watched in FreeTube on my desktop . And in my Google account, to the extent that I continue to use it while transitioning away. In fact, if I stop watching a video partway on one device, I want it to know the timestamp I stopped at so I can pick back up at the same point on another device.
Basically, I want the same experience I get if both devices are using the official Youtube website or app, but replacing the “report my habits to Google” part with a self-hosted solution.
Have you tried GrayJay with sync set up? It might suit your needs once set up properly. Yes, there’s a Linux desktop version, and an android mobile version. No idea on iOS
yt-dlpis great for downloading media you’ve already found (or at least, playlists or creator channels you’ve already found), but you can’t use it for discovering new media. You still need a browser or GUI app like FreeTube or Newpipe for that, and it works better when you’re actually signed in with your Google account so that the recommendation algorithm works and it can keep track of what you watched for you.Don’t get me wrong; I would love to limit my interaction with Google to anonymously fetching video URLs. But none of the alternatives sync my watch history between devices or recommend new videos (beyond just new uploads from subscribed channels) to me.
I’ve been finding new stuff fine on YouTube without logging in. Though that probably only works well if you have other sources for inspiration, like recommendations from friends, bandcamp sites of small labels or music journalism. I use YouTube’s search function a lot.
TubeSync might fit your needs for part of it.
Thanks for the suggestion, but that’s not quite it. It basically does the same thing wrapping
yt-dlpwith a shell script and a cron job would: it takes a Youtube channel or playlist as input, and then automatically downloads it.You can tell by this screenshot:
I’m looking for something that handles the step before that, helping me discovering which channels and playlists I want.
It also doesn’t have anything to do with “syncing” in the way that I’m talking about, which is syncing account metadata between my devices, not syncing video data between Youtube and a local folder.
What I want is to be able to watch a video in Newpipe on my phone, and have it be automatically marked as watched in FreeTube on my desktop . And in my Google account, to the extent that I continue to use it while transitioning away. In fact, if I stop watching a video partway on one device, I want it to know the timestamp I stopped at so I can pick back up at the same point on another device.
Basically, I want the same experience I get if both devices are using the official Youtube website or app, but replacing the “report my habits to Google” part with a self-hosted solution.
Have you tried GrayJay with sync set up? It might suit your needs once set up properly. Yes, there’s a Linux desktop version, and an android mobile version. No idea on iOS