Is there a way to bulk download all metadata from my YouTube channel?

August 16, 2013 12:01 PM

I have been tasked with collecting information to report on my company's YouTube channel so we can be more consistent with tags, descriptions etc. Is there a way to bulk download everything from the channel except the video files?

I'm downloading everything Google Takeout would package, but I don't know yet whether that's just video files or if it includes metadata. YouTube's help and Channel Partner forums were a bust.

I can't think of a search query precise enough to get any useful results.

I know there are services for doing things like getting all your pictures from various online albums. If YouTube doesn't have such a feature (and I'm pretty sure they don't), is there some third-party service you know of that can do this for me? Copy-pasting from each video page would be a huge hassle, and the way they present tags now prevents them from being copied in bulk.

Thanks.

posted by under_petticoat_rule to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Best answer: You'll probably have to use the YouTube APIs. If you're a programmer, this should be pretty straightforward. If you're not, you might be able to get where you need using one of the API consoles out there. These will let you send more-or-less "raw" commands and get the results in semi-readable format (JSON, perhaps XML). Google has their own API console, and there's one from Apigee.
posted by me & my monkey at 12:47 PM on August 16, 2013

Best answer: Is it a partner account? If so, go to http://cms.youtube.com, then login with the account credentials. Go to reports, then Video Report and export a .csv. It will give you pretty much all the metadata that is available for export, but I'm pretty sure it does NOT include tags or descriptions, unfortunately.

Other options are the previously mentioned YouTube API or possibly a 3rd party service. Look into VidIQ and Tubular as possibilities.
posted by averageamateur at 1:16 PM on August 16, 2013