Video Downloads

Download YouTube and TikTok videos directly to your vault using local video tools.

Overview

After archiving YouTube or TikTok posts, Social Archiver can download the actual video files to your vault if you have the required video processing tools installed on your computer.

Why This Approach?

This feature is designed with two considerations in mind:

1. Vault Size Management: Some users prefer not to store large video files in their Obsidian vault. This is especially important if you use Obsidian Sync, which has file size limits:

   • Sync Standard: 5MB per file
   • Sync Plus: 200MB per file

   By making video downloads optional and requiring local tools, you have full control over what gets saved to your vault and synced across devices.

2. Technical Limitations: YouTube and TikTok implement strong protections against automated video downloads. Web-based scraping methods cannot reliably download videos from these platforms. Instead, we leverage proven open-source tools (yt-dlp, ffmpeg) that are specifically designed to handle these platforms' download mechanisms.

This approach gives you the flexibility to archive metadata and thumbnails quickly, then optionally download full videos only when needed.

Requirements

You need one of the following open-source tools installed:

yt-dlp (Recommended)

Modern, actively maintained YouTube downloader that supports multiple platforms.

Installation:

# macOS (using Homebrew)
brew install yt-dlp

# Windows (using Scoop)
scoop install yt-dlp

# Linux (using pip)
pip install yt-dlp

Verify installation:

yt-dlp --version

ffmpeg

Multimedia framework for video processing. Often used alongside yt-dlp for format conversion.

Installation:

# macOS (using Homebrew)
brew install ffmpeg

# Windows (using Scoop)
scoop install ffmpeg

# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Verify installation:

ffmpeg -version

How It Works

1. Archive the post: First, archive the YouTube or TikTok post normally
2. Wait for completion: The archive process completes with metadata and thumbnail
3. Video download banner: If yt-dlp or ffmpeg is detected, a banner appears on the post card
4. Click to download: Click the banner to download the video file
5. Video saved: The video is saved to your vault's attachment folder

Video Storage

Videos are saved to:

attachments/social-archives/{platform}/{date}_{postId}.mp4

Example:

attachments/social-archives/youtube/2024-11-14_abc123xyz.mp4

Supported Platforms

• YouTube: Full HD downloads with multiple quality options
• TikTok: Original video with watermark (due to platform restrictions)

Troubleshooting

Banner Doesn't Appear

Cause: yt-dlp or ffmpeg not found in system PATH

Solution:

1. Verify installation with yt-dlp --version or ffmpeg -version
2. Restart Obsidian after installing tools
3. Check that the tool is in your system PATH

Download Fails

Common causes:

• Video is private or deleted
• Network connection issues
• Insufficient disk space
• Platform rate limiting

Solutions:

• Verify the video is still accessible in your browser
• Check your internet connection
• Ensure you have enough free disk space
• Wait a few minutes and try again

Slow Downloads

Large video files (especially 4K) can take time to download. The banner will show progress updates.

Disk Space

Video files can be large (100MB - 1GB+). Make sure you have sufficient disk space before downloading multiple videos.

Quality Settings

Video quality is automatically selected based on:

• Available formats from the platform
• Your disk space
• Network speed

For YouTube, yt-dlp typically downloads the best available quality up to 1080p.

Privacy & Copyright

Important

Only download videos you have permission to save. Respect copyright laws and platform terms of service. This feature is for personal archiving only.