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Downloading Playlists

yt-dlp provides powerful features for downloading entire playlists, channels, and managing bulk video operations.

Basic Playlist Download​

Download Entire Playlist​

yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Download Only Specific Items​

Download items 1, 3, and 5-10

yt-dlp -I 1,3,5-10 "PLAYLIST_URL"

Download first 5 items

yt-dlp -I 1:5 "PLAYLIST_URL"

Download items starting from 10

yt-dlp -I 10: "PLAYLIST_URL"

Download last 5 items

yt-dlp -I -5: "PLAYLIST_URL"

Playlist vs Single Video​

Force Playlist Download​

When URL could be either playlist or single video

yt-dlp --yes-playlist "URL"

Download Only Single Video​

Skip playlist, download only the specific video

yt-dlp --no-playlist "URL"

Playlist Organization​

Output Templates for Playlists​

Organize by playlist name

yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Include playlist index

yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)02d - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Full organization template

yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)02d - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Advanced Playlist Options​

Playlist Behavior Control​

Reverse playlist order

yt-dlp --playlist-reverse "PLAYLIST_URL"

Random playlist order

yt-dlp --playlist-random "PLAYLIST_URL"

Start from specific item

yt-dlp --playlist-start NUMBER "PLAYLIST_URL"

End at specific item

yt-dlp --playlist-end NUMBER "PLAYLIST_URL"

Archive Management​

Use archive file to skip already downloaded videos

yt-dlp --download-archive downloaded.txt "PLAYLIST_URL"

Break on existing files

yt-dlp --break-on-existing "PLAYLIST_URL"

Skip playlist after N consecutive failures

yt-dlp --skip-playlist-after-errors 3 "PLAYLIST_URL"

Lazy Playlist Processing​

Process playlist entries as they're received (for large playlists)

yt-dlp --lazy-playlist "PLAYLIST_URL"

Flat playlist mode (extract URLs only, no metadata)

yt-dlp --flat-playlist "PLAYLIST_URL"

Channel Downloads​

Download All Channel Videos​

YouTube channel

yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/@channelname/videos"

Channel uploads

yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/c/channelname/videos"

User uploads

yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/user/username/videos"

Channel-Specific Options​

Download only recent uploads (last 30 days)

yt-dlp --dateafter "30 days ago" "CHANNEL_URL"

Download specific number of videos

yt-dlp --max-downloads 10 "CHANNEL_URL"

Download with view count filter

yt-dlp --match-filters "view_count > 1000" "CHANNEL_URL"

Playlist Filtering​

Date-Based Filtering​

Videos from specific date

yt-dlp --date "20240101" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Videos after specific date

yt-dlp --dateafter "2024-01-01" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Videos before specific date

yt-dlp --datebefore "2024-12-31" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Date range

yt-dlp --dateafter "2024-01-01" --datebefore "2024-12-31" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Content Filtering​

Filter by duration (videos longer than 10 minutes)

yt-dlp --match-filters "duration > 600" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Filter by view count

yt-dlp --match-filters "view_count > 10000" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Multiple filters

yt-dlp --match-filters "duration > 300 & view_count > 1000" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Exclude specific uploaders

yt-dlp --match-filters "uploader !*= 'BadUploader'" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Batch File Operations​

Using File with URLs​

Download from file containing URLs

yt-dlp --batch-file urls.txt

Batch file with different options per URL

yt-dlp --batch-file batch.txt

Example batch.txt:

# Lines starting with # are comments
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxx
--format mp4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxx
--extract-audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyyyy

Performance Optimization​

Concurrent Downloads​

Download multiple videos simultaneously

yt-dlp --concurrent-fragments 4 "PLAYLIST_URL"

External downloader for better performance

yt-dlp --external-downloader aria2c --external-downloader-args "-x 4 -s 4" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Rate Limiting​

Limit download rate to avoid being blocked

yt-dlp --limit-rate 1M "PLAYLIST_URL"

Add sleep between downloads

yt-dlp --sleep-interval 2 "PLAYLIST_URL"

Random sleep interval

yt-dlp --sleep-interval 1:5 "PLAYLIST_URL"

Error Handling​

Robust Playlist Downloads​

Continue on errors

yt-dlp --ignore-errors "PLAYLIST_URL"

Skip unavailable videos

yt-dlp --no-abort-on-error "PLAYLIST_URL"

Retry failed downloads

yt-dlp --retries 5 "PLAYLIST_URL"

Progress Tracking​

Show progress for each video

yt-dlp --progress "PLAYLIST_URL"

Verbose output for debugging

yt-dlp --verbose "PLAYLIST_URL"

Log to file

yt-dlp --verbose --log-file playlist.log "PLAYLIST_URL"

Platform-Specific Examples​

YouTube​

All videos from a channel

yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/@channelname/videos"

Channel playlists

yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/@channelname/playlists"

Specific playlist

yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxx"

User's liked videos (requires authentication)

yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=LL"

Other Platforms​

Twitch VODs

yt-dlp "https://www.twitch.tv/username/videos"

SoundCloud playlists

yt-dlp "https://soundcloud.com/user/sets/playlist-name"

Vimeo albums

yt-dlp "https://vimeo.com/album/123456"

Best Practices​

  1. Use Archive Files: Always use --download-archive for large playlists to avoid re-downloading
  2. Organize Output: Use meaningful output templates to organize downloaded content
  3. Filter Content: Use filters to download only relevant content
  4. Monitor Progress: Use verbose output for large downloads
  5. Handle Errors: Use error handling options for robust downloads
  6. Respect Rate Limits: Add delays between downloads to avoid being blocked
  7. Backup Metadata: Consider using --write-info-json for metadata preservation

Playlist handling in yt-dlp provides extensive flexibility for bulk downloads while maintaining control over content selection and organization.