YouTubeDL Material in Container Manager on a Synology NAS

Last updated on 26 October 2024

I am no longer updating this guide as this container seems to have been abandoned – Use the TubeArchivist guide as it provides the same functionality and has much more active development.

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 – You can also subscribe to 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. We will be using the new Projects (Docker Compose) feature to get this running as it will save you time vs manual setup using the normal UI.

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

• Docker Package, SSD and Memory Recommendations
  
• Step 1: Directory Setup Guide
• Step 2: Setting up a restricted Docker user
• Step 3: Setting up a Docker Bridge Network (synobridge)

Folder Setup

Let’s start by getting some folders set up for the container to use. Open up File Station create the following.

/docker/projects/youtubedl-compose
/docker/youtubedl

/data/media/youtube
/data/media/youtube/audio
/data/media/youtube/subscriptions
/data/media/youtube/users
/data/media/youtube/video

Container Manager

Next we are going to set up a ‘Project’ in Container Manager. Open up Container Manager and click on Project then on the right-hand side click ‘Create’.

In the next screen we will set up our General Settings, enter the following:

Next we are going to drop in our docker compose configuration, copy all the code in the box below and paste it into line ‘1’ just like the screenshot.

What on earth is a Docker Compose?
Docker Compose allows us to define how Docker should set up one or more containers within a single configuration file. This file is yaml formatted and Container Manager uses the Projects feature to manage them.

services:
  youtubedl-material:
    image: tzahi12345/youtubedl-material:nightly
    container_name: youtubedl-material
    environment:
      - UID=1234 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_UID
      - GID=65432 #CHANGE_TO_YOUR_GID
      - USER=youtube
      - ytdl_default_downloader=yt-dlp
      - ytdl_use_local_db=true
      - ytdl_port=9998
      - write_ytdl_config=true
    volumes:
      - /volume1/data/media/youtube/users:/app/users:rw
      - /volume1/data/media/youtube/subscriptions:/app/subscriptions:rw
      - /volume1/data/media/youtube/audio:/app/audio:rw
      - /volume1/data/media/youtube/video:/app/video:rw
      - /volume1/docker/youtubedl:/app/appdata:rw
    ports:
      - 9998:9998/tcp
    network_mode: synobridge
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    restart: always

Environment Variables

We are now going to amend some key variables to make sure the container has access to our folders and also knows where we are in the world. Any I don’t mention leave as they are.

Once you have made the edits you can click ‘Next’

You do not need to enable anything on the ‘Web portal settings’ screen click ‘Next’ again.

On the final screen click ‘Done’ which will begin the download of the container images and once downloaded they will be launched!

The images will now be downloaded and extracted. You should see ‘Code 0’ when it has finished.

Firewall Exceptions

(Skip if you don’t have the Firewall configured)

If you have the Synology Firewall enabled please see this additional guide for further info on exceptions and correct set up.

Container set up finished

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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