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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by douglasg14b@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

I've been using Tube Archivist to archive my YouTube playlists, but I've hit a portability snag. It stores all metadata in its internal database and saves video files with non-readable filenames. This makes the archive unreadable without the software and its database, which defeats the point of long-term archival storage.

Are there any tools that:

  • Archive playlists with human-readable filenames (or let you control the naming scheme)
  • Have an API for queuing archival jobs
  • Store metadata in portable formats (e.g., sidecar JSON or YAML)
  • Don’t require additional software to interpret the archive
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[-] tegbains@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 year ago

I changed over to PinchFlat instead for Tube Archivist for these reasons. It’s even easier to setup than TA. I have mine hooked up to store the files on an SMB share that JellyFin can read. https://github.com/kieraneglin/pinchflat

[-] Xariq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Were you able to migrate your existing tubearchivist videos and metadata? I would love to switch to pinchflat, but it wouldn't be feasible for me to redownload my entire library

[-] tegbains@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

No I had to start from scratch sort of. PinchFlat lets you choose a start date for downloading newer videos.

I decided to age out of my old TA library and keep the ones I wanted. Not perfect but it was an okay trade off to get away from TA’s naming system

[-] Xariq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Damn that's what I was afraid of. Might just keep TA offline but available for already downloaded stuff and use pinchflat for everything new. Thanks for the response!

this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
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