yt-playlist-export

Utilities to export YouTube data using yt-dlp into formats you actually use:

• FreeTube playlists (append to playlists.db or standalone JSON)
• Piped import (JSON and CSV, optional chunk split)
• URL / ID lists
• NewPipe subscriptions JSON (from your /feed/channels)

Works with private playlists/channels via --cookies or --browser-cookies (programmatic cookiesfrombrowser).

Features

Exports

• FreeTube (append to DB) Append one or more playlists (or an ID list) into FreeTube’s line-delimited playlists.db.

• FreeTube (standalone JSON) Same structure as above, but written to a file for manual import/inspection.

• Piped (JSON) {"format":"Piped","version":1,"playlists":[{ name, type, visibility, videos: [urls] }]}

  • Split mode: chunk large playlists into many files with --split N.

• Piped (CSV) Minimal CSV: videoId,addedAt for quick bulk adds.

• NewPipe subscriptions Export your subscriptions as NewPipe JSON (newpipe-subscriptions-YYYY-MM-DD.json) using /feed/channels.

  • No HTML scraping, no OPML endpoint required.
  • Requires valid login cookies.

• URL / ID lists Flat text files (urls.txt, ids.txt) for pipelines or custom tooling.

Inputs

• Playlist URL(s) (public/private if cookies provided)
• ID file (--ids-file) with one YouTube video ID per line (tolerates lines like youtube <id>)

Auth / Cookies

• --cookies: Netscape cookie file path
• --browser-cookies: cookiesfrombrowser like "brave:Default", correctly passed to yt-dlp as a tuple
• --skip-authcheck: skip yt-dlp auth check for youtube:tab extractors when needed

Ergonomics

• --pretty JSON
• --sleep between requests to avoid rate-limits
• --verbose to see yt-dlp chatter
• Atomic-ish writes for crash-safe --out paths (when applicable in some flows)
• Clean, deterministic file naming and chunking

Install

python -m pip install yt-dlp colorama
# or uv/pipx/poetry as you prefer

Place the script anywhere on your PATH (e.g. yt-playlist-export.py) and make it executable.

Quick Start

1) Export NewPipe subscriptions (uses /feed/channels)

python yt-playlist-export.py \
  --browser-cookies "brave:Default" \
  -e newpipe-subs \
  -o newpipe-subscriptions-2025-11-10.json \
  --pretty

• Requires you’re logged into YouTube in the specified browser/profile.
• You can also use --cookies /path/to/cookies.txt instead.

2) Export a YouTube playlist → FreeTube DB

python yt-playlist-export.py \
  --browser-cookies "brave:Default" \
  -e freetube-db \
  "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" 

This appends to your OS-specific FreeTube playlists.db (auto-located). Override with --path /path/to/FreeTube/playlists.db or --path /dir/ to create if missing.

3) Export a YouTube playlist → FreeTube JSON

python yt-playlist-export.py \
  --cookies cookies.txt \
  -e freetube-json \
  -o my_playlist.freetube.json \
  "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

4) Export a YouTube playlist → Piped JSON (single file)

python yt-playlist-export.py \
  --browser-cookies "brave:Default" \
  -e piped-json \
  -o playlist-piped.json \
  "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  --pretty

5) Export a YouTube playlist → Piped JSON (split into chunks of 500)

python yt-playlist-export.py \
  --browser-cookies "brave:Default" \
  -e piped-json \
  --split 500 \
  -o my_piped.json \
  --split-dir ./chunks \
  "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Outputs: ./chunks/my_piped_<sanitized-name>_001.json, ..._002.json, etc.

6) Export IDs file → FreeTube / Piped / lists

Given ids.txt:

dQw4w9WgXcQ
youtube 1DxWY0nLEF0

• FreeTube JSON:

  python yt-playlist-export.py -f ids.txt -e freetube-json --name "Imported IDs" -o imported.freetube.json --pretty
  

• Piped CSV:

  python yt-playlist-export.py -f ids.txt -e piped-csv -o imported.csv
  

• URLs:

  python yt-playlist-export.py -f ids.txt -e urls -o urls.txt
  

CLI

usage: yt-playlist-export.py [-h] [-f IDS_FILE] [--name NAME] [--description DESCRIPTION]
                      [-c BROWSER_COOKIES] [--cookies COOKIES] [--skip-authcheck] [--sleep SLEEP]
                      [-e {freetube-db,freetube-json,piped-json,piped-csv,urls,ids,newpipe-subs}]
                      [-o OUTPUT] [--path PATH] [--split N] [--split-dir SPLIT_DIR] [--pretty]
                      [--newpipe-version NEWPIPE_VERSION] [--newpipe-version-int NEWPIPE_VERSION_INT]
                      [-q] [--verbose]
                      [playlist_url ...]

Inputs

• playlist_url ... One or more YouTube playlist URLs
• -f, --ids-file FILE Text file with video IDs (one per line; also accepts lines like youtube <id>)
• --name NAME Override/assign playlist name (single URL or IDs mode)
• --description TEXT Optional description

Auth / yt-dlp

• -c, --browser-cookies "brave:Default" Use logged-in browser cookies (programmatic tuple)
• --cookies PATH Netscape cookie file
• --skip-authcheck youtubetab:skip=authcheck for certain private listings
• --sleep SECS Sleep between requests

Exports

• -e, --export freetube-db | freetube-json | piped-json | piped-csv | urls | ids | newpipe-subs
• -o, --output Output file (not used for freetube-db)
• --path PATH Override FreeTube playlists.db (file OR directory)

Piped JSON

• --split N Chunk size (e.g. 500)
• --split-dir DIR Where to put the chunks (default chunks/<basename>)
• --pretty Pretty JSON

NewPipe

• --newpipe-version String, default 0.26.0
• --newpipe-version-int Int, default 1200

Misc

• -q, --quiet Reduce logging
• --verbose More yt-dlp logging

Output Formats

FreeTube playlist JSON (single object, used for DB and file export)

{
  "playlistName": "My Playlist",
  "protected": false,
  "description": "",
  "videos": [
    {
      "videoId": "1DxWY0nLEF0",
      "title": "10 Most Effective Pushup Variations You Really Need",
      "author": "CHRIS HERIA",
      "authorId": "@CHRISHERIA",
      "lengthSeconds": 724,
      "published": 0,
      "timeAdded": 1731048855213,
      "playlistItemId": "uuid-…",
      "type": "video"
    }
  ],
  "_id": "ft-playlist--uuid…",
  "createdAt": 1731048855213,
  "lastUpdatedAt": 1731048855213
}

Piped JSON

{
  "format": "Piped",
  "version": 1,
  "playlists": [
    {
      "name": "My Playlist",
      "type": "playlist",
      "visibility": "private",
      "videos": [
        "https://youtube.com/watch?v=1DxWY0nLEF0",
        "https://youtube.com/watch?v=WzFMnRUzYog"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

NewPipe subscriptions

{
  "app_version": "0.26.0",
  "app_version_int": 1200,
  "subscriptions": [
    {
      "service_id": 0,
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-0igYFlnYv1XCF7wk30BTg",
      "name": "Ace"
    }
  ]
}

Notes & Gotchas

• Cookies:

  • For --browser-cookies, use strings like "brave:Default", "firefox:default-release", "chromium:Default"
  • Internally, the script converts to the tuple format yt-dlp expects.
  • If you see “failed to load cookies”, confirm the profile name and that you’re logged in.

• Private / unlisted: Use cookies. Consider --skip-authcheck if yt-dlp complains for certain tabs.

• Rate limits: Use --sleep 0.5 (or similar) for large exports.

• FreeTube DB path: Auto-detected per OS. Override with --path /path/to/playlists.db or a directory to create one.

• yt-dlp version: Keep it current. Old versions can fail on /feed/channels or playlist tabs.

Examples

• Multiple playlists → FreeTube JSON directory:

  python yt-playlist-export.py \
    --browser-cookies "firefox:default-release" \
    -e freetube-json \
    -o ./ft_json \
    --pretty \
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1..." \
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2..."
  

• One playlist → Piped JSON (split, pretty):

  python yt-playlist-export.py \
    --cookies cookies.txt \
    -e piped-json \
    -o piped_export.json \
    --split 500 \
    --pretty \
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL..."
  

• IDs file → URL list:

  python yt-playlist-export.py -f ids.txt -e urls -o urls.txt
  

License

Unlicense - Public Domain

This software is released into the public domain. You can do whatever you want with it.

Changelog (high-level)

• Add NewPipe subscriptions export via /feed/channels (no OPML scraping)
• Robust cookiesfrombrowser parsing → correct programmatic tuple
• Piped JSON split + dir controls
• FreeTube DB append + standalone JSON
• IDs-file workflow; placeholder entries on partial failures
• Pretty JSON, sleep, verbose, quiet modes

Dependencies

yt-playlist-export is using yt-dlp under the hood.

Keywords

YouTube export playlist. YouTube export Watch later list. YouTube export liked videos. YouTube export playlist to CSV. YouTube export playlist to JSON. YouTube export private playlist.