ytptube/FAQ.md

The origin of the project.

The project first started as a fork meTube, since then it has been completely rewritten and redesigned. The original project was a great starting point, but it didn't align with my vision for the project and what i wanted to achieve with it.

Environment variables

Certain configuration values can be set via environment variables, using the -e parameter on the docker command line, or the environment: section in compose.yaml file.

Environment Variable	Description	Default
TZ	The timezone to use for the application	(not_set)
YTP_OUTPUT_TEMPLATE	The template for the filenames of the downloaded videos	%(title)s.%(ext)s
YTP_DEFAULT_PRESET	The default preset to use for the download	default
YTP_INSTANCE_TITLE	The title of the instance	empty string
YTP_FILE_LOGGING	Whether to log to file	false
YTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH	Path to where the downloads will be saved	/downloads
YTP_MAX_WORKERS	How many works to use for downloads	1
YTP_AUTH_USERNAME	Username for basic authentication	empty string
YTP_AUTH_PASSWORD	Password for basic authentication	empty string
YTP_CONSOLE_ENABLED	Whether to enable the console	false
YTP_REMOVE_FILES	Remove the actual file when clicking the remove button	false
YTP_CONFIG_PATH	Path to where the config files will be stored.	/config
YTP_TEMP_PATH	Path to where tmp files are stored.	/tmp
YTP_TEMP_KEEP	Whether to keep the Individual video temp directory or remove it	false
YTP_HOST	Which IP address to bind to	0.0.0.0
YTP_PORT	Which port to bind to	8081
YTP_LOG_LEVEL	Log level	info
YTP_STREAMER_VCODEC	The video encoding codec, default to GPU and fallback to software	""
YTP_STREAMER_ACODEC	The audio codec to use for in-browser streaming	aac
YTP_VAAPI_DEVICE	The VAAPI device to use for hardware acceleration.	/dev/dri/renderD128
YTP_ACCESS_LOG	Whether to log access to the web server	true
YTP_DEBUG	Whether to turn on debug mode	false
YTP_DEBUGPY_PORT	The port to use for the debugpy debugger	5678
YTP_EXTRACT_INFO_TIMEOUT	The timeout for extracting video information	70
YTP_UI_UPDATE_TITLE	Whether to update the title of the page with the current stats	true
YTP_PIP_PACKAGES	A space separated list of pip packages to install	empty string
YTP_PIP_IGNORE_UPDATES	Do not update the custom pip packages	false
YTP_PICTURES_BACKENDS	A comma separated list of pictures urls to use	empty string
YTP_BROWSER_CONTROL_ENABLED	Whether to enable the file browser actions	false
YTP_YTDLP_AUTO_UPDATE	Whether to enable the auto update for yt-dlp	true
YTP_YTDLP_DEBUG	Whether to turn debug logging for the internal yt-dlp package	false
YTP_YTDLP_VERSION	The version of yt-dlp to use. Defaults to latest version	empty string
YTP_BASE_PATH	Set this if you are serving YTPTube from sub-folder	/
YTP_PREVENT_LIVE_PREMIERE	Prevents the initial youtube premiere stream from being downloaded	false
YTP_TASKS_HANDLER_TIMER	The cron expression for the tasks handler timer	15 */1 * * *
YTP_PLAYLIST_ITEMS_CONCURRENCY	The number of playlist items be to processed at same time	1
YTP_TEMP_DISABLED	Disable temp files handling.	false
YTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH_DEPTH	How many subdirectories to show in auto complete.	1

Browser extensions & bookmarklets

Simple bookmarklet

javascript:(() => { const url = "https://ytptube.example.org"; const preset = "default"; const mUrl = new URL(url); mUrl.pathname = "/api/history"; fetch(mUrl, { method: "POST", headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" }, body: JSON.stringify({ url: document.location.href, preset: preset }) }).then(res => alert(res.ok ? "URL sent!" : "Failed to send URL.")); })()

Change the the variable url and preset variables to match your YTPTube instance and preset name.

Browser stores

• For Firefox via Firefox Store
• For Chrome/Chromium Browsers via Chrome Store

iOS Shortcuts

You can download Add To YTPTube shortcut and use it to send links to your YTPTube instance. You have to edit the shortcut and replace the following:

• https://ytp.example.org with your YTPTube instance.
• username:password replace this with your own username & password or leave it empty if you don't have authentication enabled.

This shortcut is powerful, as it's allow you to select your preset on the fly pulled directly from your instance. Combined with the new and powerful presets system, you could add presets for specific websites that need cookies, and use that preset to download directly from your iOS device.

Advanced iOS Shortcut

This shortcut YTPTube To Media is more advanced, as it's parses the yt-dlp output and attempt to download the media directly to your iOS device. It doesn't always work, but it's a good starting point for those who want to download media directly to their iOS device. We provide no support for this use case other than the shortcut itself. this shortcut missing support for parsing the http_headers, it's only parse the cookies.

Authentication

To enable basic authentication, set the YTP_AUTH_USERNAME and YTP_AUTH_PASSWORD environment variables. And restart the container. This will prompt the user to enter the username and password before accessing the web interface/API. As this is a simple basic authentication, if your browser doesn't show the prompt, you can use the following URL

http://username:password@your_ytptube_url:port

Basic mode

What does the basic mode do? it basically strips down the interface to the bare minimum, to make it easier for non-technical users to use it.

I cant download anything

If you are receiving errors like:

• "OSError: [Errno 5] I/O error"
• "OSError: [Errno 18] Cross-device link: '/tmp/random_id/name.webm' -> '/downloads/name.webm'
• "Operation not permitted: '/downloads/name.webm'

This indicates an error with your mounts and how they interact with the container. So, the basic solution is to do the following:

services:
  ytptube:
    user: "${UID:-1000}:${UID:-1000}" # change this to your user id and group id, for example: "1000:1000"
    image: ghcr.io/arabcoders/ytptube:latest
    container_name: ytptube
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - YTP_TEMP_PATH=/downloads/tmp
      - YTP_DOWNLOAD_PATH=/downloads/files
    ports:
      - "8081:8081"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config:rw
      - ./downloads:/downloads:rw

Then run the following command to create the necessary directories and start the container:

mkdir -p ./config && mkdir -p ./downloads/{tmp,files} && docker compose -f compose.yaml up -d

Reference: Issue #363

I want to use link with playlist but only download the video not all the videos in the playlist?

Simply create a preset, and in the Command options for yt-dlp field set --no-playlist. Then select the preset whenever the link includes a playlist id.

Note

You can also do the same via advanced options Command options for yt-dlp field, but presets are more convenient.

Install specific yt-dlp version?

You can force specific version of yt-dlp by setting the YTP_YTDLP_VERSION environment variable for example

YTP_YTDLP_VERSION=2025.07.21 or master or nightly

Then restart the container to apply the changes.

How to generate POT tokens?

You need a pot provider server we already have the extractor bgutil-ytdlp-pot-provider pre-installed in the container. You can simply do the following to enable the support for it.

services:
  ytptube:
    user: "${UID:-1000}:${UID:-1000}" # change this to your user id and group id, for example: "1000:1000"
    image: ghcr.io/arabcoders/ytptube:latest
    container_name: ytptube
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8081:8081"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config:rw
      - ./downloads:/downloads:rw
    tmpfs:
      - /tmp
    depends_on:
      - bgutil_provider
  bgutil_provider:
    init: true
    image: brainicism/bgutil-ytdlp-pot-provider:latest
    container_name: bgutil_provider
    restart: unless-stopped    

Then simply create a new preset, and in the Command options for yt-dlp field set the following:

--extractor-args "youtubepot-bgutilhttp:base_url=http://bgutil_provider:4416" 
--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=default,tv,mweb;formats=incomplete"

you and also enable the fallback by using the follow extractor args

--extractor-args "youtubepot-bgutilhttp:base_url=http://bgutil_provider:4416;disable_innertube=1"
--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=default,tv,mweb;formats=incomplete"

Use this alternative extractor args in case the extractor fails to get the pot tokens from the bgutil provider server. For more information please visit bgutil-ytdlp-pot-provider project.

Troubleshooting and submitting issues

Before asking a question or submitting an issue for YTPTube, please remember that YTPTube is only a thin wrapper for yt-dlp. Any issues you might be experiencing with authentication to video websites, postprocessing, permissions, other yt-dlp options configurations which seem not to work, or anything else that concerns the workings of the underlying yt-dlp library, need not be opened on the YTPTube project.

In order to debug and troubleshoot them, it's advised to try using the yt-dlp binary directly first, bypassing the UI, and once that is working, importing the options that worked for you into a new preset.

Via HTTP

If you have enabled the web terminal via YTP_CONSOLE_ENABLED environment variable, simply go to Other > Terminal use the yt-dlp command, the interface is jailed to the yt-dlp binary you can't access anything else.

Via CLI

Assuming your YTPTube container is called ytptube, run the following on your docker host to get a shell inside the container:

docker exec -ti ytptube bash
cd /downloads
yt-dlp ....

Once there, you can use the yt-dlp command freely.

Run behind reverse proxy.

It's advisable to run YTPTube behind a reverse proxy, if better authentication and/or HTTPS support are required.

Caddy http server

The following example Caddyfile gets a reverse proxy going behind caddy.

# If you are using sub-domain.
# make sure to change "ytptube:8081" to the actual name of your YTPTube container/port.
ytp.example.org {
  reverse_proxy ytptube:8081
}

# If you are using sub-folder, for example: https://example.org/ytptube/
# Also make sure to set the `YTP_BASE_PATH` environment variable to `/ytptube/`
# make sure to change "ytptube:8081" to the actual name of your YTPTube container/port.
example.org {
  redir /ytptube /ytptube/
  route /ytptube/* {
    reverse_proxy ytptube:8081
  }
}

How to autoload yt-dlp plugins?

Loading yt-dlp plugins in YTPTube is quite simple, we already have everything setup for you. simply, create a folder inside the /config directory named yt-dlp so, the path will be /config/yt-dlp. then follow yt-dlp plugins docs to know how to install the plugins.

Once you have installed the plugins, restart the container and the plugins will be auto-loaded on demand.

How to load random backgrounds from WatchState or any other source?

YTPTube can be configured to pull random background images from different sources, including WatchState which is another project of mine, simply change the YTP_PICTURES_BACKENDS environment variable to the following url

YTP_PICTURES_BACKENDS=https://watchstate.ip/v1/api/system/images/background?apikey=[api_key]

Where [api_key] is the api key you get from your WatchState instance.

How to use share folder or external storage as download target?

You can simply mount the share folder as target for /downloads path, but in some cases you might face issues with permissions or cross-device link errors. To avoid these issues, you can mount the share folder as a named volume, and then mount the named volume to /downloads/smb or /downloads/nfs.

services:
  ytptube:
    user: "${UID:-1000}:${UID:-1000}" # change this to your user id and group id, for example: "1000:1000"
    image: ghcr.io/arabcoders/ytptube:latest
    container_name: ytptube
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8081:8081"
    volumes:
      # Config must be mounted locally as read-write sqlite doesn't support network mounts.
      - ./config:/config:rw
      # Mount a local directory
      - ./downloads:/downloads/local:rw
      # Mount the NFS share
      - nfs-data:/downloads/nfs:rw
      # Mount the SMB share
      - smb-data:/downloads/smb:rw
    tmpfs:
      - /tmp

volumes:
  nfs-data:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=10.0.0.3,rw,nfsvers=4 # <--- Change server IP and options
      device: ":/exported/path" # <--- Remote NFS path
  
  smb-data:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: cifs
      o: username=my_username,password=my_password,vers=3.0,uid=1000,gid=1000,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777 # <--- Change options to fit your needs
      device: "//10.0.0.3/public" # <--- Remote SMB path

If you prefer, you can bypass YTPTube download_path and set it to / and completely manage your own mounts. However, please be aware that the file browser feature will expose whatever download_path is set to. So, if you set it to /, the file browser will expose the entire container filesystem.

How to use hardware acceleration for video transcoding?

As the container is rootless, we cannot do the necessary changes to the container to enable hardware acceleration. However, We do have the drivers and ffmpeg already installed and the CPU transcoding should work regardless. To enable hardware acceleration You need to alter your compose.yaml file to mount the necessary devices to the container. Here is an example of how to do it for debian based systems.

services:
 ytptube:
    ........ # see above for the rest of the configuration
    devices:
      # mount the dri devices to the container if you only have one gpu you can simply do the following
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri                       
      # Otherwise, selectively mount the devices you need.
      - /dev/dri/card0      # Intel GPU device
      - /dev/dri/renderD128 # Intel GPU render node
    group_add:
      # Add the necessary groups to the container to access the gpu devices.
      - 44   # it might be different on your system.                                 
      - 105  # it might be different on your system.

This setup should work for at VAAPI encoding in x86_64 containers.

Note

Your video, render group id might be different from mine, you can run the follow command in docker host server to get the group ids for both groups.

$ cat /etc/group | grep -E 'render|video'

video:x:44:your_docker_username
render:x:105:your_docker_username

In my docker host the group id for video is 44 and for render is 105. change what needed in the compose.yaml file to match your setup.

If for some reason the initial test for GPU encoding fails, YTPTube will fallback to software encoding. You can force software encoding by setting the YTP_STREAMER_VCODEC environment variable to libx264. If you want to force GPU encoding, set the YTP_STREAMER_VCODEC environment variable to one of the supported GPU codecs, for example h264_vaapi or h264_nvenc depending on your GPU. For more information about the supported codecs, please refer to the SegmentEncoders.py file.

If GPU encoding fails and software encoding is used, you will have to restart the container to try GPU encoding again. as we only test for GPU encoding once on first video stream.