Youtarr

Youtarr is a self-hosted application that automates the downloading and organization of YouTube channels and playlists. It manages the retrieval of videos, shorts, and streams, storing them locally with associated metadata to facilitate offline viewing and content archiving. The software allows users to preserve content before it is deleted or made private, ensuring a permanent local copy of selected media.

The software is deployed exclusively via Docker and provides a responsive web interface for management on both PC and mobile devices. It functions as a standalone downloader but includes specific integrations to sync content and playlists with various media server applications. Users can search YouTube directly from within the application to identify missing content and queue it for download.

Key features

• Automatic downloading of new content from subscribed channels and playlists
• Mirroring of YouTube playlists into media servers as native playlists
• Integration with SponsorBlock to remove sponsored segments
• Global and per-channel resolution settings ranging from 360p to 4K
• Generation of NFO files, poster images, and embedded MP4 metadata
• Cron-based scheduling for automatic downloads
• Age and space-based auto-cleanup of stored videos
• Built-in browser streaming for playback without a media server
• REST API with Swagger documentation for external automation

Youtarr uses yt-dlp for its core downloading functionality and MariaDB for database management. It supports multi-library organization by allowing users to group channels into custom subfolders, such as separate folders for news or music, to create distinct media server libraries. The system includes a filesystem rescan tool to reconcile the database if files are moved, renamed, or converted to different formats externally. For notifications, it supports Discord webhooks to alert users of new downloads. It also includes a content rating system that normalizes values to common media server standards like G, PG, and R.

This tool is designed for users who want to maintain a personal, ad-free archive of YouTube content integrated into a home media ecosystem.