Can I make manual folders for specific playlists?

[POD-io]

Having trouble understanding how the subfolder settings work in Core settings.

What I'd like to do is have Youtarr look at specific folders that I specify, per playlist. They will all exist in the same parent folder, but I want custom names per playlist. Is this possible?

Also my understanding is I cannot remove the [ABC123XXX] alphanumeric block at the end of a video, or Youtarr will fail to recognize which video it is in Youtube?

Thanks!

[Charlie284]

Short answer: not as one physical folder per playlist.

The playlist's Subfolder setting is a routing default, not the name of a playlist folder. Videos are still stored under their uploader's channel folder:

• If you already subscribe to the video's channel, that channel's subfolder setting wins.
• If you do not, Youtarr creates a hidden source-channel record and seeds it with the playlist's subfolder setting.

So a playlist containing videos from several channels can span several channel folders. This is intentional so the same video can belong to multiple playlists without being downloaded more than once. The playlist grouping is provided by the generated __playlists__/<playlist name>.m3u file and, when configured, the native Plex/Jellyfin/Emby playlist. The design is described in issue #144.

For the trailing ID: yes, keep the [ABC123XXX...] part if you rename a file manually. Youtarr's Video Filename Template setting only changes the prefix; Youtarr always appends [%(id)s] itself, so you do not need to include it in the template. The filesystem rescan uses that bracketed YouTube ID to match a file back to its database record. If you remove it manually, Youtarr cannot rediscover the file after a move, rename, restore, or rescan.

[Charlie284]

The ID is created by YouTube, not by Youtarr. Youtarr only formats it as [<id>]. It is the 11-character value from the video's URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29X0.......
                                ^^^^^^^^^^^

Youtarr preserves several ways to recover it as long as you keep Youtarr's data:

• the Videos.youtubeId field in its database;
• jobs/info/<id>.info.json (the JSON also contains an id field);
• the generated .nfo next to the video, which contains both <uniqueid type="youtube">ID</uniqueid> and <youtubeid>ID</youtubeid>.

So you can remove the bracketed suffix for another copy of the library and restore it later by appending [ID] immediately before the extension, then running Settings → Maintenance & Rescan → Rescan files on disk. The rescan specifically looks for [...] at the end of the filename; it cannot use the NFO or title to match a renamed file automatically. Back up the database and jobs/info directory, and keep the NFOs. If the video later disappears from YouTube and all of those mappings are gone, title-only recovery is not reliable.

Before renaming everything, though, I would fix the media-server library type. The ID should not be interpreted as a season in the recommended setup:

• Plex: use Other Videos with the Personal Media agent, unless you deliberately chose Youtarr's separate TV-layout preset.
• Jellyfin: use Movies, not Mixed Movies and Shows.
• Emby: use Movies, not Mixed Content.

Youtarr's Jellyfin and Emby guides call out exactly this failure mode: the mixed-content scanners can mistake titles or numeric-looking folders for TV seasons. The Plex guide recommends Other Videos as the standard layout.

Also disable the media server's NFO saver where the Youtarr guide says to; otherwise it can overwrite Youtarr's NFO and remove one of your recovery sources.

[POD-io]

Thank you -- going to check out the guide. I did not really want to make a new library for just these videos, but it might be the best path forward.

I've likely experienced the NFO issues. I've had to delete some files with -temp.nfo in the name already as well.

Once I get these files into the proper library type, can I do something like the rescan files to help restore the proper nfo metadata files, or validate the best ones are in place?

[Charlie284]

The rescan is useful after the move, but it will not regenerate or validate NFO files. The documented rescan scans the supported media files, matches their bracketed YouTube IDs, and updates paths, sizes, missing flags, and resolution. NFO generation is a separate download post-processing step.

I would do this in order:

1. Disable the media server's Nfo saver and metadata downloaders for the new library, but leave its Nfo reader enabled. In Youtarr, keep Generate video .nfo files enabled.
2. Move the media together with any same-basename NFO files, keeping the bracketed ID in the media filename.
3. Run Youtarr's Rescan files on disk to reconcile the moved media paths.
4. Scan the new library in the media server. It should read the local NFO files during that scan.

Youtarr's NFO writer uses exactly the media basename with .nfo substituted, for example:

Title [YouTubeId].mp4
Title [YouTubeId].nfo

Its writer does not create a -temp.nfo final name, so those files are not the canonical Youtarr sidecars. A valid Youtarr NFO has a <movie> root and includes the same ID in <uniqueid type="youtube" default="true">…</uniqueid> and <youtubeid>…</youtubeid>. If xmllint is available, this will at least catch malformed XML:

find /path/to/library -type f -name '*.nfo' -exec xmllint --noout {} +

For NFOs that are already missing or overwritten, there is no bulk “regenerate NFOs” action in the rescan path today. Restore clean sidecars from backup, or regenerate them from Youtarr's saved jobs/info/<id>.info.json metadata. Keep that directory and the database backed up before cleaning anything. For a large library, a supported bulk-regeneration button would be a reasonable feature request; the saved info JSON already contains the source metadata the NFO writer needs.

[POD-io]

I'm struggling again on the main topic. I'm not sure if this is possible, but here is my goal:

Assume my output directory is D:\Root

Issue 1 is: I do not want subfolders created for every individual channel. I'd prefer loose video files in that root folder. All the channel names (or video names when using flat file structure) being created in the root folder is difficult to track.

Issue 2 is: For specific playlists, I'd like to configure different subfolders. Such as:

D:\Root\POD-io\Folder1
D:\Root\POD-io\Folder2
D:\Root\POD-io\Folder3

But it appears I may only be able to have a single depth subfolder? So if my Youtarr root was D:\Root above, I could only target a single subfolder, and I wouldn't be able to point to Folder1,2,3

[Charlie284]

Those are two separate layout limitations in the current version.

1. "Flat file structure" only removes the per-video folder. The output template still always includes the uploader's channel folder. With "No Subfolder" plus flat files, the closest layout is:

   D:\Root\<Channel>\<Video> [id].mp4
   

   There is no setting that places every channel's videos directly in D:\Root.

2. A Youtarr subfolder is exactly one path segment. / and \ are rejected in subfolder names, Youtarr adds the __ prefix, and the channel folder remains below it. Setting a playlist's subfolder to Folder1 therefore produces:

   D:\Root\__Folder1\<Channel>\<Video> [id].mp4
   

   It cannot produce D:\Root\POD-io\Folder1\... from a nested subfolder value.

The closest supported setup for your example is to make D:\Root\POD-io the YOUTUBE_OUTPUT_DIR (or the host side of the Docker bind mount), then use playlist subfolders Folder1, Folder2, and Folder3. The resulting paths will be D:\Root\POD-io\__Folder1\<Channel>\..., etc.

One important playlist caveat remains: that subfolder is a fallback for source channels Youtarr creates. If you already subscribe to a video's channel, that channel's own subfolder wins. A video appearing in multiple playlists is stored only once, so Youtarr cannot physically copy the same video into a separate folder for each playlist; the generated .m3u and media-server playlist provide that grouping.

So the exact loose-file/nested-playlist layout is not currently supported. It would require a new path-layout mode rather than a different combination of the existing "No Subfolder" and "Flat" settings.