YT Channel Downloader

YT Channel Downloader is a PyQt 6 desktop app for downloading YouTube channels, playlists, and individual media links supported by yt-dlp.

This README describes the current source checkout, including the 0.9.0 changes. Published packages and binaries can have different requirements and behavior; check their release notes.

Captured on Linux with version 0.9.0 using Blender's public YouTube channel. The 13-second animation omits waiting time.

Current screenshots (Linux, version 0.9.0)

Main window during a download

Video settings

Audio settings

Current screenshots and animation (Windows, version 0.9.0)

Captured on Windows using demonstration data. The eight-second GIF shows title filtering and download selection.

Main window

Settings

Current screenshots and animation (macOS, version 0.9.0)

Recorded on macOS using Blender's public YouTube channel. The 16-second animation shows fetching, filtering, selection, download progress, and completion, with waiting time omitted. The still screenshots below use demonstration data.

Main window

Video settings

Audio settings

Capture details and image credits.

---

• Change Log
• Binaries
• Features
• Installation
  • Requirements
  • Install from PyPI
  • Install the .deb (Debian/Ubuntu)
  • macOS or Linux (from source)
  • Windows
  • Updating
• How to Use
• Settings & Troubleshooting
• Contributing
• License
• Authors
• Donation

Change Log

0.9.0 (current source)

Release date: 2026-10-27

• Python 3.11+ and refreshed dependency minimums.
• Consistent format/quality settings, safer filenames and completion detection, and improved non-YouTube handling.
• Background size estimates and improved cancellation.

0.8.9 (published on PyPI)

• Raised the minimum yt-dlp dependency to 2026.03.17 to address YouTube HTTP 403 download failures.
• Documented that PyPI users should upgrade yt-dlp.

Full changelog.

Binaries

Browse available downloads on SourceForge and release notes on GitHub. Choose the build for your operating system and architecture.

Bundled builds include Python and the app's Python dependencies. The current NSIS setup builds check and install FFmpeg, ffprobe, and a supported JavaScript runtime when needed. Portable bundles, the plain cx_Freeze MSI, and earlier installers may require installing these tools separately as described under Requirements. Binary releases may lag behind the source checkout and PyPI releases.

Desktop release workflows produce Linux x86_64 AppImage, DEB, and RPM packages, plus separate Apple Silicon and Intel macOS DMGs. Linux builds target glibc 2.35 or newer; macOS builds target macOS 15 or newer. Manual runs provide Actions artifacts, and published GitHub releases receive packages after their checks pass. macOS DMGs marked unsigned lack Developer ID signing and notarization. AppImage and macOS builds require external FFmpeg/ffprobe and a supported JavaScript runtime; native Linux packages declare FFmpeg dependencies.

Features

• Fetch & Replace / Fetch & Add: Replace the current list or append newly fetched items to it.

• Search Within Fetched Items: Filter the current list by title with the built-in search field.

• Fetch Video Listings: Input a YouTube video, playlist, or channel URL and get a list of matching items.

• Selective Download: Choose exactly which videos you want to download, or select all at once.

• Quality Control: Set a maximum video resolution, choose an output container, or extract audio with an optional encoding bitrate.

• Completed-File Detection: Recognize matching media already present in your download directory.

• Size & Time Estimates: Estimate selected download sizes in the background. ETA becomes available when transfer-speed samples exist; calculations can be cancelled.

• Large-List Handling: Channels can be fetched in batches with Fetch Next, and playlists use configurable fetch limits to keep fetching responsive.

• Thumbnail Previews & Downloads: See thumbnails as soon as items are fetched, and save them with your downloads.

• YouTube Playlist and Channel Downloads: Fetch items within the configured limits and choose which to download.

• Single Video or Audio Downloads: Use individual media links supported by yt-dlp, including sites such as Vimeo and SoundCloud. Bulk channel and playlist fetching remains YouTube-only.

  For other sites, use a link to one media item. Pages containing multiple videos or playlist entries are rejected with a message requesting a direct item link, so separate items cannot share an output filename. Single-item embeds and direct HTTP(S) media links are supported. The original page URL is retained to let yt-dlp refresh expiring stream URLs and required request headers.

• Runtime Detection: Get a prompt when fetching YouTube media if a supported Deno or Node.js runtime is missing.

• Browser-Cookie Login for Restricted YouTube Content: Reuse a signed-in browser profile for content that your account can access.

Provider support follows yt-dlp and can depend on account access. The app's login dialog validates YouTube browser cookies; it does not provide fields for provider-specific usernames or passwords.

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3.11 or newer for the current source checkout. Install Python from python.org or your OS package manager. Bundled binaries include their own Python runtime.
• FFmpeg and ffprobe, available on the app's PATH, for merging streams, extracting audio, and converting formats.
• A supported JavaScript runtime for full YouTube support: Deno 2.3.0 or newer (recommended by yt-dlp), or Node.js 22.0.0 or newer. The app enables both runtime types automatically. See yt-dlp's runtime setup guide for details.

The Python dependencies in requirements.txt and pyproject.toml include yt-dlp[default] and its matching yt-dlp-ejs companion, plus SOCKS proxy support. They do not install FFmpeg or an external JavaScript runtime.

Install FFmpeg

On macOS with Homebrew:

brew install ffmpeg

On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg

On Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S ffmpeg

For Fedora/RHEL and other distributions, use the package sources linked from the FFmpeg download page.

On Windows, choose a Windows build linked from the FFmpeg download page, extract it, and add the directory containing both ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe to Path. For example, use C:\ffmpeg\bin if that is where you extracted the executables. Open a new terminal after changing Path.

Verify both executables:

ffmpeg -version
ffprobe -version

Install a JavaScript runtime

Follow the official installation instructions for Deno or Node.js, then check deno --version or node --version. Ensure the executable is on the app's PATH and meets the minimum version above. Distribution repositories can ship older Node.js versions, so check the result of a package-manager installation.

Install from PyPI

In an activated Python environment, install or upgrade the published app and yt-dlp together:

python -m pip install --upgrade yt-channel-downloader "yt-dlp[default]"
yt-channel-downloader

This installs the published release. To use the current 0.9.0 source, follow the source-install instructions below. Each published release declares its own Python requirements on PyPI.

Install the .deb (Debian/Ubuntu)

1. Choose a .deb matching your system architecture from the available downloads. If a suitable package is unavailable, use the source installation below.

2. Install FFmpeg and the JavaScript runtime as described under Requirements; the current .deb packaging does not install these dependencies automatically.

3. Install the downloaded file, replacing VERSION and ARCH with the actual filename:

   sudo apt install ./yt-channel-downloader_VERSION_ARCH.deb

4. Launch with yt-channel-downloader.

macOS or Linux (from source)

Install the requirements above, then clone the repository and create an environment with Python 3.11 or newer:

git clone https://github.com/hyperfield/yt-channel-downloader.git
cd yt-channel-downloader
python3 -m venv .venv

For bash/zsh, activate it with:

source .venv/bin/activate

For fish, use source .venv/bin/activate.fish. Check that python --version reports 3.11 or newer before installing the project.

Install the project in editable mode and launch it:

python -m pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt
yt-channel-downloader

Run deactivate when finished.

Windows

For a published package, install the requirements above, activate a Python environment, and follow Install from PyPI.

To run the current source checkout, install Python 3.11+, Git, FFmpeg, and a supported JavaScript runtime, then use PowerShell:

git clone https://github.com/hyperfield/yt-channel-downloader.git
cd yt-channel-downloader
py -3 -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
python -m pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt
yt-channel-downloader

In Command Prompt, use .venv\Scripts\activate.bat to activate the environment. Run deactivate when finished.

Updating

For a PyPI installation, rerun the installation command under Install from PyPI. Upgrading yt-dlp[default] also selects its matching companion dependencies.

For a source checkout, activate its Python 3.11+ environment and run from the repository root:

git pull
python -m pip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt

For a bundled binary or .deb, install a newer packaged build from the available downloads. Updating yt-dlp with pip does not change the copy bundled inside an executable.

How to Use

1. Open the application and enter a YouTube channel, playlist, or video URL, or an individual media URL from another supported site.
2. Open File -> Settings, choose your download directory, output format, quality, and fetch limits, then save. Enable Only the associated audio tracks for audio extraction.
3. Press Fetch & Replace to replace the current list, or Fetch & Add to append new items to the existing list.
4. Use the title search field and select the items you want to download. Show thumbnails controls previews; Calculate estimated sizes controls background size estimates. Saving thumbnails is a separate Download thumbnails option in Settings.
5. If you fetched a channel, use Fetch Next to load the next batch.
6. Hit the Download button.
7. Use Cancel downloads to stop active and queued jobs. Retrying the same source and output settings can reuse partial files when the source supports resuming.

Settings & Troubleshooting

• Fetch limits: File -> Settings controls the items retrieved per channel fetch (default 500) and per playlist fetch (default 50), from 1 to 50,000. Fetch Next appends another channel batch; it is not available for playlists or non-YouTube sources.
• Video format and quality: Maximum video quality caps the resolution of sources that report it; unknown resolutions remain downloadable. Video output format selects the output container. FFmpeg preserves codecs through remuxing when possible and converts them when necessary, which can take longer.
• Audio format and quality: In audio-only mode, Any extracts audio without forcing a target codec. flac and wav convert to the selected lossless format; converting lossy audio does not restore lost detail. These three choices disable the bitrate field. Numeric bitrates apply to lossy encoding, even when the source already uses the requested codec. Best available avoids a user-selected bitrate and uses the source codec or the app's encoding defaults as needed.
• Estimates: Size estimates describe the source transfer, so conversion can change the saved file size. Missing duration or bitrate data can leave the estimate unknown; ETA needs transfer-speed samples.
• Proxy support: The Settings dialog includes HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, and SOCKS5 options, including IPv6 server addresses. Selecting None restores the proxy environment that existed when the app started. Invalid server/port values are rejected when saving.
• Browser cookies: Use File -> Use Browser Cookies for Login to choose a signed-in browser profile for restricted YouTube downloads. Once configured, the menu item changes to Clear Login, which removes the app's saved selection without signing the browser out.
• Download filenames and completed items: New filenames include a short suffix identifying the source and requested quality, format, and audio/video mode. Different videos with the same title and requests with different output settings get separate files. Title changes still reuse matching completed or partial downloads. Older title-only files are kept, but cannot automatically mark a request complete because their source and settings are unknown; the first download under the new scheme creates a separate file.
• Earlier format rules: Files created under earlier selection rules are kept; a new download may be needed to satisfy the current settings. Downloads receive their final filename after conversion succeeds. Intermediate files can be reused on a retry where supported.
• YouTube 403 / missing formats: For HTTP Error 403, Requested format is not available, n challenge solving failed, or SABR warnings, follow Updating for your installation type and check the JavaScript runtime version. Older yt-dlp builds can fail after YouTube player changes. Format-unavailable and HTTP 403/404 errors trigger broader selectors, including a combined video/audio stream when available. Retries keep the selected maximum reported resolution, but may choose a lower resolution.
• Application logs: If something fails and you want to report it, check the app log in the config directory under logs/application.log. On Linux this is typically ~/.config/yt_chan_dl/logs/application.log.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for the contribution workflow, commit message conventions, and attribution guidelines. Issues and pull requests are welcome.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Authors

• hyperfield - Initial work and Documentation - hyperfield

See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.

Donation

If you like this application and want to support future development, I'll appreciate your donation via Ko-Fi or crypto. :)

Bitcoin: bc1pglp2m26kqatgm6z8vtuhk66jd74ghv948wtyhtgtj6wh30nzz6csjajv00

Ethereum: 0x9CEf6B928BF9fFd894ca83db1B822820917ca89a

Tron: TGq2z17jq8UruCNyyD5GU3weuyJSyM2zBp

Binance Smart Chain: 0x863F8f3fC38b7540110462884809621e2B9EE399