Tube Archivist: Your Self-Hosted YouTube Media Server

Tube Archivist: Your Self-Hosted YouTube Media Server

Summary

Tube Archivist is a self-hosted YouTube media server designed to help users organize, search, and enjoy their archived YouTube video collections offline. It allows subscribing to channels, downloading videos using yt-dlp, indexing content with metadata, and playing videos through a convenient web interface. This solution is ideal for anyone looking to maintain a personal, searchable library of their favorite YouTube content.

Repository Info

Updated on March 7, 2026
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Tags

self-hostingyoutube-downloadermedia-servervideo-archivepythondockerelasticsearch

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Introduction

Tube Archivist is your comprehensive self-hosted YouTube media server, designed to bring order and accessibility to your personal YouTube video collection. As your archive grows, finding specific content can become a challenge. Tube Archivist solves this by indexing your videos with rich metadata from YouTube, allowing you to organize, search, and enjoy your archived content offline through a user-friendly web interface. Key functionalities include subscribing to channels, downloading videos using yt-dlp, making videos searchable, playing content, and tracking viewed status.

Installation

Tube Archivist is designed to run with Docker, making its setup straightforward for users familiar with containerization. A minimal setup requires around 2GB of RAM, with 4GB recommended for mid to large installations, along with a dual-core CPU.

To get started, ensure Docker is installed and running on your system. The project provides a docker-compose.yml example, which you'll need to configure with essential environment variables like TA_HOST, TA_USERNAME, TA_PASSWORD, ELASTIC_PASSWORD, REDIS_CON, and TZ.

For detailed, platform-specific instructions, including guides for Unraid, Synology, and Podman, please refer to the official documentation. All environment variables are thoroughly explained here.

Examples

Once Tube Archivist is up and running, getting started with your archive is simple:

  • Configure Settings: Navigate to the settings page and adjust options, particularly the Download Format, to your preferred video quality. For broader compatibility, especially with iOS or macOS, a format like bestvideo[vcodec*=avc1]+bestaudio[acodec*=mp4a]/mp4 is recommended.
  • Subscribe to Channels: On the channels page, subscribe to your favorite YouTube channels.
  • Add Videos to Queue: Go to the downloads page, click Rescan subscriptions to add videos from subscribed channels, or use Add to download queue to manually add video IDs, links, channels, or playlists.
  • Start Downloading: Click Start download and let Tube Archivist process your queue.
  • Enjoy: Access and enjoy your organized, archived video collection anytime.

Why Use It

Tube Archivist offers compelling reasons for anyone looking to take control of their YouTube content:

  • Offline Access: Enjoy your favorite videos without an internet connection, perfect for travel or unreliable networks.
  • Superior Organization and Search: Move beyond YouTube's interface with powerful indexing and search capabilities, allowing you to quickly find specific videos within a vast collection using metadata.
  • Self-Hosting Control: Own your content. Protect your valuable video library from potential platform changes, content removal, or censorship by hosting it yourself.
  • Rich Feature Set: Benefit from features like yt-dlp integration for robust downloading, tracking viewed/unviewed status, browser extensions for easy additions, and plugins for integration with popular media servers like Jellyfin and Plex.

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