TuxDev.

Usage Guide

Jun 20, 2026 • 4 min read
User Guide Presets Download Tutorial Scheduling Cache Cleanup

This guide walks through everything you can do in the app, from basic downloads to advanced automation.

📥 Downloading a Video

The Basic Way

  1. Go to the Dashboard (home page)
  2. Paste a URL in the input field (e.g., https://youtube.com/watch?v=...)
  3. Select a Preset (see below for what each does)
  4. Click Download

The job appears in the list below with a progress bar, speed, and ETA.

The Quick Way

Press Ctrl+K from anywhere in the app to open the download panel instantly. Same steps — paste URL, pick preset, download.

The Analyze Way

Not sure what’s behind a URL? Click Analyze instead of Download. The app fetches video metadata (title, thumbnail, duration) so you can preview before committing.

🎛️ Using Presets

Built-in Presets

Preset What it does Best for
General Video Best available quality, keeps original container Everyday downloads
Audio Only Extracts audio, converts to MP3 320kbps Music, podcasts
Jellyfin Remuxes to MKV with embedded metadata, thumbnails, subtitles Media server libraries
Plex MP4 container with metadata and subtitles Plex Media Server
Archive Downloads everything — all subs, descriptions, thumbnails, info JSON Complete preservation

Creating Custom Presets

  1. Go to Settings → Presets
  2. Click Add Preset
  3. Give it a name and description
  4. Configure yt-dlp options (format, quality, subtitles, etc.)
  5. Save

Your custom preset now appears in the download dropdown alongside the built-in ones.

Editing or Deleting Presets

  • Edit: Settings → Presets → click the preset → modify → Save
  • Delete: Settings → Presets → click the preset → Delete (built-in presets cannot be deleted)

📊 Monitoring Downloads

The Dashboard shows all active and recent jobs:

Status What it means
Parsing App is reading the URL
Queued Waiting for a download slot
Analyzing Fetching video metadata
Downloading Actively downloading
Post-processing Converting or merging files
Completed Done! File is ready
Failed Something went wrong

Actions

  • Cancel — Stop a running or queued download
  • Retry — Try a failed download again
  • Clear — Remove a completed/failed job from the list (files stay on disk)

⚠️ Cancel stops the download but keeps partial files. Use Clear after Cancel to clean up.

📜 Browsing History

The History page shows every download that’s ever run. You can filter by:

  • Domain — show only YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
  • Status — completed or failed
  • Preset — which preset was used

Each entry shows the URL, title, file size, format, and when it happened.

🕐 Scheduling Downloads

Want a download to start at a specific time?

Creating a Scheduled Job

  1. Paste your URL in the download panel
  2. Click Schedule instead of Download
  3. Pick a date and time
  4. Choose a preset
  5. Confirm

The job waits patiently until the scheduled time, then starts automatically. You can see scheduled jobs on the Dashboard with their scheduled time.

🔁 Playlist Monitoring

This feature watches a playlist and downloads new videos automatically.

Setting It Up

  1. Go to Monitoring page
  2. Click Add Playlist
  3. Enter:
    • Playlist URL — the playlist to watch
    • Name — a label to remember it by
    • Preset — which preset to use for new downloads
    • Check interval — how often to check (default: 60 minutes)
    • Output path — where to save files (optional)
  4. Toggle Auto-download ON
  5. Save

What Happens Next

Every N minutes, the app fetches the playlist’s first 50 entries, compares with previously downloaded videos, and auto-downloads any new ones.

You can also toggle Notify on new video to get a webhook alert when new content is found.

Managing Monitored Playlists

  • Pause — turn off monitoring without deleting
  • Edit — change preset, interval, or output path
  • Delete — remove the playlist from monitoring

🔔 Notifications

Setting Up Webhooks

  1. Go to Settings → Notifications
  2. Enter a Webhook URL (e.g., your Slack/Discord webhook)
  3. Choose what to be notified about:
    • Download complete
    • Download failed
  4. Save

Setting Up Email

  1. Configure SMTP settings in Settings → Notifications:
    • Mail server (e.g., smtp.gmail.com)
    • Port (e.g., 587)
    • Username and password
    • From address
  2. Enter your email address
  3. Choose notification preferences
  4. Save

💡 Note: Email requires the fastapi-mail package and valid SMTP credentials.

🔧 System Management

The System page provides:

yt-dlp Version

  • See what version of yt-dlp is currently installed
  • Click Check for Updates to see if a newer version is available
  • Click Update to upgrade with one click

Dependency Status

Shows whether required tools are installed:

Dependency Dashboard Indicator
ffmpeg ✅ Installed / ❌ Missing
ffprobe ✅ Installed / ❌ Missing
Python version ✅ Supported / ❌ Unsupported

🧹 Cache Cleanup

The app automatically cleans up yt-dlp’s temporary files behind the scenes:

  • Checks every: 60 seconds
  • Removes files older than: 10 minutes
  • Targets: .part, .ytdl, .temp, .info.json, .description

Your completed downloads are never touched. Only intermediate/cache files are removed.

🎨 Pro Tips

  • Organize your downloads — Enable “Organize by domain” in settings to group downloads into folders by site
  • Rate limiting — Set a rate limit to avoid saturating your internet connection
  • Download archive — Set the archive path to avoid re-downloading videos you already have
  • Cookies — Upload a cookies.txt file to access private videos or age-restricted content
  • Keyboard shortcuts — Ctrl+K opens the download panel instantly from any page