Tartube is a GUI front-end for youtube-dl, partly based on youtube-dl-gui and written in Python 3 / Gtk 3.
It runs on MS Windows, Linux and BSD. It probably works on MacOS, but the authors have not been able to confirm this.
Tartube is beta software. Test it carefully before you allow it to use your 100TB hard drive, as it might not behave in the way you're expecting.
Problems can be reported at our GitHub page.
Latest version: v1.1.0 (18 Aug 2019)
- MS Windows (32-bit) installer from Sourceforge
- MS Windows (64-bit) installer from Sourceforge
- Source code from Sourceforge
- Source code and support from GitHub
- You can download individual videos, and even whole channels and playlists, from YouTube and hundreds of other sites (see here for a full list)
- You can fetch information about those videos, channels and playlists, without actually downloading anything
- Tartube will organise your videos into convenient folders
- Certain popular websites manipulate search results, repeatedly unsubscribe people from their favourite channels and/or deliberately conceal videos that they don't like. Tartube won't do any of those things
- Tartube can, in some circumstances, see videos that are region-blocked and/or age-restricted
MS Windows users should use the installer available at the Tartube website. The installer contains everything you need to run Tartube. You must be using Windows Vista or above; the installer will not work on Windows XP.
Some users report that Tartube will install but won't run. If you have problems, read this page.
Tartube should run on MacOS, but the authors don't have access a MacOS system. If you are a MacOS user, open an issue at our Github page, and we'll work out the installation procedure together.
Linux/BSD users can use any of the following installation methods.
- Python pip - keeping youtube-dl up to date is much simpler when pip is installed
- Python moviepy module
- Ffmpeg
- Type:
pip3 install tartube - Type:
tartube
- Download & extract the source
- Change directory into the Tartube directory
- Type:
python3 setup.py install - Type:
tartube
- Download & extract the source
- Change directory into the Tartube directory
- Type:
python3 tartube
When you first start Tartube, you will be asked to choose where Tartube should save its videos.
You can change the location later, if you need to.
- Click Edit > System preferences...
- Click the General tab
- Check the location of the Tartube data directory
- If you want to change it, click the Change button
Tartube uses youtube-dl to interact with websites like YouTube. You should check that youtube-dl is also installed and running correctly.
If you are using MS Windows, you will be prompted to install youtube-dl; you should click Yes.
youtube-dl is updated every week or so. All users can check that youtube-dl is installed and up to date:
- Click Operations > Update youtube-dl
If the update operation fails on MS Windows, you should ask the authors for help.
Users on all other systems can modify Tartube's settings. There are several locations on your filesystem where youtube-dl might have been installed.
- Click Edit > System preferences...
- Click the youtube-dl tab
- Try changing the setting 'Actual path to use during download/update/refresh operations'
- Try changing the setting 'Shell command for update operations'
- Try the update operation again
On the left side of the Tartube window is a list of folders. You can store videos, channels and playlists inside these folders. You can even store folders inside of other folders.
Tartube saves videos on your filesystem using exactly the same structure.
When you start Tartube, there are five folders already visible. You can't remove any of these folders (but you can hide them, if you want).
Videos saved to the Temporary Videos folder are deleted when Tartube shuts down.
You can add individual videos by clicking the 'Videos' button near the top of the window. A popup window will appear.
Copy and paste the video's URL into the popup window. You can copy and paste as many URLs as you like.
When you're finished, click the OK button.
Finally, click on the Unsorted Videos folder to see the videos you've added.
You can also add a whole channel by clicking the 'Channel' button or a whole playlist by clicking the 'Playlist' button.
Tartube will download all of the videos in the channel or playlist.
Copy and paste the channel's URL into the popup window. You should also give the channel a name. The channel's name is usually the name used on the website (but you can choose any name you like).
The left-hand side of the window will quickly still filling up. It's a good idea to create some folders, and to store your channels/playlists inside those folders.
Click the 'Folder' button near the top of the window, and create a folder called Comedy.
Then repeat that process to create a folder called Music. You can then drag-and-drop your channels and playlists into those folders.
Once you've finished adding videos, channels, playlists and folders, there are basically four things Tartube can do:
- 'Check' - Fetch information about videos, but don't download them
- 'Download' - Actually download the videos. If you have disabled downloads for a particular item, Tartube will just fetch information about it instead
- 'Update' - Updates youtube-dl, as described above
- 'Refresh' - Examines your filesystem. If you have manually copied any videos into Tartube's data directory, those videos are added to Tartube's database
To Check or Download videos, channels and playlists, use the buttons near the top of the window. To Refresh Tartube's database, use the menu.
Protip: Do an 'Update' operation before you do a 'Check' or 'Download' operation
Protip: Do a 'Check' operation before you do 'Refresh' operation
youtube-dl offers a large number of download options. This is how to set them.
- Click Edit > General download options...
A new window opens. Any changes you make in this window aren't actually applied until you click the 'Apply' or 'OK' buttons.
Those are the default download options. If you want to apply a different set of download options to a particular channel or particular playlist, you can do so.
At the moment, the general download options apply to all the videos, channels, playlists and folders you've added.
Now, suppose you want to apply some download options to the Music folder:
- Right-click the folder, and select Apply download options...
In the new window, click the 'OK' button. The options are applied to everything in the Music folder. A pen icon appears above the folder to remind you of this.
Now, suppose you want to add a different set of download options, but only for the Village People channel.
- Right-click the channel, and select Apply download options...
- In the new window, click the 'OK' button
The previous set of download options still applies to everything in the Music folder, except the Village People channel.
You can mark channels, playlists and even whole folders as favourites.
- Right-click the channel, playlist or folder, and select Mark videos > Favourite
When you do that, any videos you download will appear in the Favourite Videos folder (as well as in their normal location).
If you've downloaded a video, you can watch it by clicking the word Player.
If you haven't downloaded the video yet, you can watch it online by clicking the word YouTube or Website. (One or the other will be visible).
If it's a YouTube video that is restricted (not available in certain regions, or without confirming your age), it's often possible to watch the same video without restrictions on the HookTube website.
Q: I can't install Tartube / I can't run Tartube / Tartube doesn't work properly / Tartube keeps crashing!
A: Tartube is beta software. Please report any problems to the authors at our Github page
Q: After I downloaded some videos, Tartube crashed, and now all my videos are missing!
A: Tartube creates a backup copy of the database, before trying to save a new copy. In the unlikely event of a failure, you can replace the broken database file with the backup file.
To find Tartube's data directory (folder), click Edit > System preferences... > General.
- You can discard the broken tartube.db file
- Find the tartube_TEMP_BU.db file, and rename it tartube.db
- Restart Tartube
- Click the Check All button. Tartube will find all the last set of videos you downloaded, and add them to its database (without having to re-download them)
Tartube can make more frequent backups of your database file, if you want. See the options in Edit > System preferences... > Backups.
Note that Tartube does not create backup copies of the videos you've downloaded. That is your responsibility!
Q: I want to see all the videos on a single page, not spread over several pages!
A: At the bottom of the Tartube window, set the page size to zero, and press ENTER.
Q: I just want to check for new videos, but it takes so long!
A: By default, the underlying youtube-dl software checks an entire channel, even if it contains hundreds of videos.
You can drastically reduce the time this takes by telling Tartube to stop checking/downloading videos, if it receives (for example) notifications for three videos it has already checked/downloaded.
This works well on sites like YouTube, which send information about videos in the order they were uploaded, newest first. We can't guarantee it will work on every site.
- Click Edit > System preferences... > Performance
- Select the checkbox Stop checking/downloading a channel/playlist when it starts sending vidoes we already have
- In the Stop after this many videos (when checking) box, enter the value 3
- In the Stop after this many videos (when downloading) box, enter the value 3
- Click OK to close the window
Q: The toolbar is too small! There isn't enough room for all the buttons!
A: Click Edit > System preferences... > General > Don't show labels in the toolbar.
MS Windows users can already see a toolbar without labels.
- Fix the endless crashes DONE
- Support for multiple databases (so you can store videos on two external hard drives at the same time)
- Add download scheduling
- Add video archiving
- Allow selection of multiple videos in the catalogue, so the same action can be applied to all of them at the same time
- Tie channels and playlists together, so that they won't both download the same video
- Add tooltips for everything
- Add more youtube-dl options
- Tartube crashes continuously and often FIXED
- Alphabetic sorting of channels/playlists/folders doesn't always work as intended, due to an unresolved Gtk issue FIXED
- Channels/playlists/folder selection does not always work as intended, due to an unresolved Gtk issue FIXED
- Users can type in comboboxes, but this should not be possible FIXED
- Some MS Windows users report that Tartube will install, but not run
- Report a bug: Use the Github issues page
See the AUTHORS file.
Tartube is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
✨🍰✨