YouTubeDL Material in Docker on a Synology NAS

Last updated on 6 April 2025

Please note if you are using DSM7.2 or higher you should use the Container Manager version of this guide from the menu.

This guide has reached the end of its updates as most people are now on the latest DSM update - This guide is correct as of 08/12/2023 however no further updates will be added.

Update	Date
Removed docker compose section as rarely used	18/07/2023
changed image to nightly as this receives the most recent bug fixes and improvements	04/12/2023

What is YouTubeDL Material?

YouTubeDL Material is nice web front end for YoutubeDL, This is a tool that is used to download video from YouTube and many other sites. This is useful for if you want copies of videos to watch locally offline or if you like to hoard entire channels!

Let’s Begin

In this guide I am going to take you through the steps to get YoutubeDL Material up and running in Docker on your Synology NAS

In order for you to successfully use this guide please complete the two steps below first.

• Step 2: Setting up a restricted Docker user
• Step 3: Setting up a Docker Bridge Network

Downloading the Container

Open up Docker within DSM and navigate to the ‘Registry’ tab and search for ‘tzahi12345’ in the keyword box.

Within the results right click and download the top result ‘, When it asks which version number to download select ‘nightly‘ as this has the most recent updates for this container.

Setting up the container

Now we have downloaded the image and got hold of our user IDs we can move onto the next stage.

Go back into Docker and click on the ‘Image’ tab, in the list of your containers select the image, and click on ‘Launch’

The first screen will ask how you want to set up the Docker network, we are going to use the ‘bridge’ network allowing us to amend ports later.

General Settings

Next you will be greeted with the General Settings screen, this is where you can start specifying some of your preferences.

You can change the name of the container to anything you like, and you may want to enable Auto Restart as this will ensure the container starts automatically if you reboot your NAS.

You will also notice a Configure capabilities button — don’t change anything in here!

Next up we are going to click on the ‘Advanced Settings’ button, this will take you to a new window with a number of tabs which we are going to work through.

Environment

Next we are going to set up a couple of environment variables that docker will use to allow the container access to our files and folders.

Click the Add button, and fill in the following details as per the table/screenshot, you will need to do one at a time.

Variable	Value
UID	The UID you obtained in the user setup guide
GID	The GID you obtained in the user setup guide
USER	youtube
ytdl_use_local_db	true
write_ytdl_config	true
ytdl_port	9998

Links/Execution Commands

You do not need to set up anything on these tabs.

Press ‘Save’ to go back to the initial setup screen, then press ‘Next’

Port Settings

On this screen we are going to specify port 9998 to access YouTubeDL, this is in line with the Environment Variable set earlier. You will need to change BOTH the Local Port and the Container Port (we don’t normally do this)

Volume Settings

Where you store your downloaded videos can be changed based on your own preferences, I am basing this guide on the overall media setup and folder structure from our other guides.

Create a ‘youtube’ folder in /data/media and then add 4 subfolders

• audio
• subscriptions
• users
• video

We can now move onto the volume tab in which we will be specifying the directories where YoutubeDL will store its configuration files and where the video downloads will be stored.

Click on Add Folder, click on the ‘docker’ share and create a new sub-folder called ‘youtubedl’ click on this folder and click ‘select’

We now need to repeat this process adding the folders below one at a time. Your path settings should look like the table/screenshot below.

File/Folder	Mount path
/docker/youtubedl	/app/appdata
/data/media/youtube/subscriptions	/app/subscriptions
/data/media/youtube/users	/app/users
/data/media/youtube/audio	/app/audio
/data/media/youtube/video	/app/video

Click Next to move to the final screen.

Summary

You have now completed the setup of the container.

You will be shown an overall summary of the settings we have specified, this is a good time to double-check everything is correct. Finally, click on Done and the container should start to boot.

You should now be able to access the web interface via the IP of your NAS followed by the port 9998

e.g. 192.168.0.40:9998

You can use the main screen to download individual videos by pasting the URL and selecting the quality, or if you want to add subscriptions to specific channels use the menu on the left.

I recommend going into the advanced settings and amending the downloader to ‘yt-dlp’ if you have any issues pulling videos.

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Historic Updates	Date
New guide published	05/03/2022
Small amendment made to the environment variables to specify the use of a local database	10/05/2022
Updated with DSM7.1 Steps and Screenshots	23/06/2022
Changes to ‘latest’ image and update steps	09/07/2022
Added new port settings and Docker Bridge Network	23/07/2022
Fixed a rogue old image for the ports section use ports 9998 on both sides!	08/09/2022
Removed the default downloader so you can select one from the settings after startup.	26/01/2023
Compose version number removed and small wording amendments	09/04/2023
Amended the path to save the compose file – this is for security, so the container has no access to the file contents.	14/04/2023

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