[Feature Suggestion] Auto-sync YouTube Playlists & Keep Deleted Tracks

[Tanjohnson99]

Hey everyone,

I use YouTube Music as my main music source, and sometimes songs get removed from YouTube and disappear from my playlists. To avoid losing music, I wanted a way to automatically download new songs added to a playlist and keep the files even if they are later removed.

✅ Solution
Here’s a simple way to do it:
1️⃣ Monitor a YouTube playlist regularly (e.g., every 30 min).
2️⃣ Download new tracks automatically when added.
3️⃣ Use an archive file to prevent re-downloading the same songs.
4️⃣ Keep downloaded files even if YouTube removes them.

🔧 JSON Config for YTPTube
To set this up in YTPTube, use this config:

{ "format": "bestaudio", "extract-audio": true, "audio-format": "mp3", "audio-quality": "320K", "download-archive": "/volume3/yt-downloads/archive.txt", "postprocessors": [ { "key": "FFmpegExtractAudio", "preferredcodec": "mp3", "preferredquality": "320" } ] }

This makes sure MP3 files are saved and never deleted.

⏳ Automate with a Cron Job
For real-time sync, I use a cron job to check for new songs every 30 minutes:

*/30 * * * * docker exec ytptube yt-dlp -ciw --download-archive /volume3/yt-downloads/archive.txt -o "/volume3/yt-downloads/%(title)s.%(ext)s" --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 320K "PLAYLIST_URL"

✅ Keeps tracks even if YouTube removes them
✅ No duplicates thanks to --download-archive
✅ Works with multiple playlists

🔹 UI Suggestion
It would be amazing if YTPTube had an "Auto-Sync Playlist" tab where users could:

Add a playlist to monitor
Set a sync frequency (30 min, 1 hour, etc.)
Choose a download folder
Enable archive tracking
This would make it super easy to use without needing cron jobs.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this! 🚀🎶

[arabcoders]

Hi, ytptube already includes a task runner so you don't need to run cronjob externally and download archive also supported.

Basically everything you wanted can be accomplished using presets and tasks tab

[Tanjohnson99]

Hi, thanks for your reply! 😊

I really appreciate your work on YTPTube, it’s an amazing project! 🎵🚀

I understand that presets and the task runner can already accomplish what I want, but I think the UI could be improved to make it more intuitive.

It would be great to have a dedicated "Playlist Auto-Sync" tab where users could:
✅ Add a playlist to monitor (without manually setting up a task)
✅ Set a sync frequency (e.g., every 30 min, 1 hour, daily)
✅ Choose a download folder (per playlist)
✅ Enable archive tracking to prevent duplicate downloads
✅ Have a "Sync Now" button to manually trigger the download

This would make the feature easier to use for non-developers and improve the user experience.

I’m not a developer myself, but I really appreciate your work and just wanted to share this idea. Maybe this could be a great future improvement!

Thanks again for your time and effort! 😊🎶

[arabcoders]

I mean it doesn't get any easier then this really

you only need to add url and name for the playlist :-)

for sync now button it might be possible to add a button to trigger the task.