YT-DLP WebUI Usage Guide — Downloads, Presets, Playlists & Scheduling

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

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:

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:

🧹 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