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URLs#

This document describes how Tube Archivist identifies and treats links from YouTube.

Info

Application logic of Tube Archivist is tied only to the IDs, not the names.

Video#

A video ID is 11 characters long, e.g. 2tdiKTSdE9Y.

Urls can have several forms:

URL Type Example Description
Watch URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tdiKTSdE9Y Regular URLs you will see while browsing YouTube, with the path /watch and a v parameter
Share URL https://youtu.be/2tdiKTSdE9Y Link you will get when you click on share on a video
Shorts URL https://www.youtube.com/shorts/U80grnZJm_8 Video links for YouTube shorts

Channel#

A channel ID is 24 characters long, e.g. UCBa659QWEk1AI4Tg--mrJ2A.

Channel URLs can have these forms, all will get translated to the ID:

URL Type Example Description
ID URL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBa659QWEk1AI4Tg--mrJ2A With a channel path
Channel Handle @TomScottGo Starting with a @ this handle is personal and unique
Alias URL https://www.youtube.com/@TomScottGo Based off the channel handle

Channel subpages#

Tube Archivist can differentiate between the primary subpages:

  • Videos only: https://www.youtube.com/@IBRACORP/videos
  • Shorts only: https://www.youtube.com/@IBRACORP/shorts
  • Streams only: https://www.youtube.com/@IBRACORP/streams
  • Every other channel sub page will default to download all, for example https://www.youtube.com/@IBRACORP/featured will download videos and shorts and streams.

Playlist#

A playlist ID can be 34, 26 or 18 characters long, e.g. PL96C35uN7xGLLeET0dOWaKHkAlPsrkcha

URL Type Example Description
Playlist URL https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL96C35uN7xGLLeET0dOWaKHkAlPsrkcha Playlist URLs start with a playlist path and have a list parameter

Playlist vs Video URLs#

While browsing YouTube videos in Playlists, you might encounter URLs looking like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPZ0pIK_wsc&list=PL96C35uN7xGLLeET0dOWaKHkAlPsrkcha. As established above, based on the /watch path and the v parameter, Tube Archivist will treat this as a video with the ID QPZ0pIK_wsc and not as a playlist. If you mean the playlist, you can easily grab the correct ID from the URL, e.g. PL96C35uN7xGLLeET0dOWaKHkAlPsrkcha.