DESCRIPTION

A wrapper around youtube Apis:

• https://developers.google.com/resources/api-libraries/documentation/youtube/v3/python/latest/
• https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/

GOAL

I created this package to simplify some typical tasks related to the Youtube API. See the samples directory of the repository for examples.

INSTALL

pip install youtube3

This installs the library. The command-line scripts used below live in the samples folder of the repository and are not part of the package: to run them, clone it and install it from there:

git clone https://github.com/diegoami/youtube3.git
cd youtube3
pip install -e .

USAGE

Create an OAuth client of type "Desktop app" in the Google Cloud console, enable the YouTube Data API v3, and download its client secrets file. Then:

from youtube3 import YoutubeClient
youtube = YoutubeClient("path/to/client_secrets.json")

The first run opens the browser to log in (on WSL or a headless machine, open the printed URL yourself). The login is saved as token.json next to the client secrets, readable by you only (mode 0600 on Linux and macOS; on Windows an ACL that grants your account alone, not the folder's inherited permissions), and refreshed on later runs; pass token_file= to keep it elsewhere. Never commit either file.

The library logs what it changes through the youtube3 logger; call logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO) to see it.

The samples directory has one script per operation, for example:

python samples/show_files_in_playlist.py --playlistId <id>
python samples/move_videos_playlist.py --playlistSource <id> --playlistTarget <id> --start 0 --end 10 --apply

Each takes --client-secrets (default samples/client_secrets.json) and --token-file. The samples that change many things at once (moving, removing, publishing, unliking) only show what they would do unless given --apply.

SEVERAL CHANNELS

A login belongs to the one channel (or brand account) you pick on Google's consent screen, and the API cannot list the channels you manage. So each channel is logged in once and saved as a profile:

python samples/profiles.py adopt caramellalynx   # today's samples/token.json, without logging in again
python samples/profiles.py add diego             # the browser asks which account or brand
python samples/profiles.py list

Then give --profile NAME to any sample. It prints "Signed in as ()" before doing anything, checks that the saved login still belongs to that channel (1 quota unit) and refuses to run otherwise, and names its files after the profile: liked-diego.json, liked-diego.html.

• Each profile is one file, ~/.config/youtube3/profiles/NAME.json (on Windows %APPDATA%\youtube3\profiles\NAME.json), outside any repository and readable by you only. It holds the channel and its login together, and is only ever replaced whole, by a login whose channel checked out. A login that fails, is interrupted or runs at the same time as another leaves the old profile or the new one, never a mix.
• A profile's channel is recorded when its login is made (add, adopt) and never changed afterwards: a profile with no channel, or an unreadable file, is refused, not rebound to whatever login it has.
• profiles.py add NAME on an existing profile logs in again, and keeps the new login only if it is for the profile's channel. The same holds when a saved login has expired and the browser opens by itself. add also repairs a profile that is refused as unreadable or without a channel.
• All channels share one quota: 10,000 units a day for the Cloud project.

LIKES

youtube3.likes exports your liked videos and unlikes them in bulk, safely:

python samples/export_liked_videos.py --out liked.json
python samples/unlike_videos.py --from liked.json --channel "Some Channel" --liked-before 2020-01-01
python samples/unlike_videos.py --from liked.json --unavailable --apply   # clears deleted and private ones
python samples/relike_videos.py --from unliked-20260924-120000.json --apply

• The export lists every like, newest first: video id, title, channel, when you liked it, when it was published, a thumbnail, and whether it is still available (deleted and private videos stay in your likes). Each export reports what changed since the previous one.
• unlike_videos.py selects from an export by channel (id or title), date, ids or availability; the criteria combine. It shows what it would do and changes nothing without --apply.
• YouTube refuses to rate deleted or private videos, so those are removed from the Liked videos playlist instead. They cannot be liked again.
• An applied run writes unliked-<time>.json; relike_videos.py replays it to like the available ones again.
• Right after a run, the API can still list a removed like for a moment; the export is updated by the run itself.
• Quota: listing costs 1 unit per 50 likes; unliking costs 50 units per video (rating, or removing an unavailable one), out of 10,000 a day. A run rates at most --limit (150) videos and stops cleanly at the quota; run it again the next day for the rest.

These files are personal data; .gitignore keeps them out of git.

LANDING PAGE

youtube3.page turns an export into one web page of your likes:

python samples/build_liked_page.py --from liked.json --out liked.html

Open the file in any browser; it needs no server. It shows every like as a card (thumbnail, title, channel, when you liked it and when it was published), with a search over titles and channels that ignores case and accents, a channel filter with counts, five sorts, and a switch to show deleted and private videos. Everything is inside the one file except the thumbnails, which load from YouTube's image host (i.ytimg.com) and nowhere else. It is personal data too: liked*.html is ignored by git.

In Python: youtube3.page.build_page(export, path, title="Liked videos"), where export is a dict or the path of an export file.

PUBLISHING

Upload the video in YouTube Studio (videos uploaded through an unaudited API project are locked private), then set everything else in one command:

python samples/publish_video.py VIDEO_ID --title "My title" --thumbnail thumb.jpg --schedule 2026-10-01T18:00
python samples/publish_video.py VIDEO_ID --title "My title" --thumbnail thumb.jpg --schedule 2026-10-01T18:00 --apply

• Without --apply it only reads the video and shows each change (old -> new), the thumbnail check and the quota cost.
• --title, --description or --description-file, --tags a,b, --private/--unlisted/--public, and --schedule WHEN (ISO 8601; local time without an offset). A scheduled video stays private until then; an already public video cannot be scheduled.
• The thumbnail must be a PNG or JPEG of at most 2 MB and at least 640 px wide; 1280x720 is recommended. Custom thumbnails need a phone-verified channel (https://www.youtube.com/verify): the plan checks this first and refuses the thumbnail, sending nothing, until YouTube says so.
• YouTube resets every setting of a part it is sent without, so the changes are sent together with the video's current settings: nothing else (embeddable, license, made for kids, tags, category) changes.
• Quota: reading 1 unit, updating 50, setting the thumbnail 50.

The same in Python: youtube3.publish.plan_publish(client, video_id, ...) returns the plan, and youtube3.publish.apply_publish(client, plan) sends it.

WATCH HISTORY

Not supported. YouTube removed the watch history from the Data API in 2016, and the only other source is a Google export (Takeout or the Data Portability API), which takes hours and exports whichever account the browser has selected, not reliably the channel you meant. See it and delete from it on https://myactivity.google.com.

YOUTUBECLIENT

The methods of YoutubeClient:

• login: Log in with the client secrets and a saved token, and return the API service.
• list_channels: Retrieve information about YouTube channels using their IDs.
• like_video: Like a video by providing its ID.
• update_snippet: Update the snippet information of a video using its ID and the new snippet.
• update_status: Set a video's privacy to private, unlisted or public, keeping its other status settings.
• get_channel_snippet: Retrieve the snippet information of a channel using its ID.
• get_channel: Retrieve information about a channel using its ID.
• get_channel_name: Retrieve the title of a channel using its ID.
• get_video: Retrieve information about a video using its ID.
• get_video_content_details: Retrieve the content details of a video using its ID.
• upload_thumbnail: Set a video's custom thumbnail from a local PNG or JPEG file (max 2 MB; the channel must be verified); youtube3.publish.check_thumbnail(path) checks one first.
• get_video_snippet: Retrieve the snippet information of a video using its ID.
• get_channel_id: Retrieve the ID of a channel that a video belongs to using the video's ID.
• get_subscriptions_channel_ids: Retrieve one page of the IDs and titles of the channels you are subscribed to.
• get_channels: Retrieve your own channel's content details.
• iterate_subscriptions_in_channel: Iterate over all the channels you are subscribed to.
• liked_channel: Retrieve the ID of the playlist of your liked videos.
• iterate_liked_videos: Iterate over your liked videos as records (see LIKES), newest like first.
• playlist_snippet: Retrieve the snippet information of a playlist using its ID.
• playlist_name: Retrieve the title of a playlist using its ID.
• videos_in_playlist: Retrieve one page (up to 50) of the videos in a playlist.
• iterate_videos_in_playlist: Iterate over a playlist page by page, at most maxCount pages when given.
• delete_from_playlist: Remove the videos at positions start to end - 1 from a playlist; apply=False only lists them. Returns the video ids.
• copy_to_playlist: Copy the videos at positions start to end - 1 of a playlist to another; apply=False only lists them. Returns the video ids.
• subscribe_channel: Subscribe to a channel using its ID.
• verify_video: Say whether a video exists and can be watched in a country (default DE): not in its blocked list, and in its allowed list when it has one.

Upgrading from 1.x

Version 2.0.0 breaks the 1.x API:

• get_related_videos, iterate_related_videos and get_recommended are removed: YouTube no longer serves related videos or recommendations through the API.
• login returns the API service alone, not a (service, flags) tuple: replace service, flags = youtube.login(path) with service = youtube.login(path).
• YoutubeClient(client_json_file=None, debug=False, *, token_file=None, service=None): the client secrets file is read from the path given (1.x read client_secrets.json from that path's directory, whatever the file name); the login is saved in token.json next to it, not in youtube.dat, so the first 2.0 run logs in again; service= passes an already-built client instead of logging in.
• oauth2client is no longer a dependency.
• ChannelNotFoundException is an Exception, no longer a BaseException.
• verify_video returns False only for an API error (HttpError); other exceptions now propagate instead of being printed and swallowed.
• What the library changes is logged through the youtube3 logger instead of printed.
• copy_to_playlist and delete_from_playlist act on positions start to end - 1 for any start; in 1.x a start above 0 did nothing.

DEVELOPMENT

Python 3.11 or newer. BSD-3-Clause licensed (LICENSE).

pip install -e ".[dev]"
ruff check
pytest

The tests run offline: they build the client over canned responses (tests/conftest.py) and never touch a real account. The process for changes is in CLAUDE.md, the requests in ROADMAP.md.