Sources: automatic video download from channels

The "Sources" section saves you from downloading videos by hand. You enter links to pages with posts. Then you choose the "Periodic" export type and press "Start". From then on the app works by itself. It checks the sources, downloads new videos and creates copies from them. Copies are created by the project settings. You set the check interval yourself.

What a source and a source group are

A source is a link to a page with posts. YouTube, TikTok and other platforms work. A link to a single video cannot be a source. You need the page where that video is published. For a single video there is download by link.

Sources belong to groups. A group has one proxy, one cookie file and one browser string. They apply to all links of the group. One project holds up to 500 groups. One group holds up to 500 sources. A project holds up to 10,000 sources in total.

How to turn on automatic download

1. Open the "Sources" section in the menu on the left.
2. Press "Add group". The "New source group" window opens.
3. "Source links": paste the links, one per line.
4. "Access": set "Proxy", "Cookie file" and "Use browser string". This step is optional. You can skip it with the "Skip" button.
5. "Source type check": the app checks what the page of each type gives.
6. "Video filters": set the selection conditions or leave them turned off.
7. "Quality and file name": choose "Video quality". The "Exact quality only" switch is here too.
8. "How often to check": set "How often to check, %" and "Videos per link per check, at most".
9. Press "Create group".
10. In the section footer, set "Folder for downloaded videos". Until a folder is chosen, periodic export will not start.
11. In the "Export" section, choose the "Periodic" export type, set the check interval and "Create no more per day than".
12. Press "Start".

The project may have no folder yet. Then the wizard offers to choose it at the first step.

Step 10 in full: the section footer, the folder button without a label and the Windows window.

What the "Source type check" step does

This is the third step of the wizard. The step hint says: "Checking what each page type can give. Once per type.". The app contacts the platform and checks what information it gives about posts. The request is made once per kind of page, not for every link. A YouTube channel feed, the Shorts tab and a TikTok author feed are three different kinds. So there are almost always fewer requests than links.

Each row of the step has its own state: "queued", "checking...", "done", "failed", "no videos", "videos not received", "sign-in needed". At the bottom the app shows how many kinds of pages it checked and how many requests it made.

There is no "Skip" button at this step. While the check is running, the "Next" button is unavailable. If the check fails, its label changes to "Continue without checking". The group is created without the type check too. Then the wizard cannot show the filter coverage at the fourth step. Instead of a number there will be the line "Coverage is unknown: the type check did not pass.". All six steps are covered on the Add group wizard page.

How "One-time", "Endless" and "Periodic" differ

You choose the export type in the "Export" section.

Export type	What it does	When it stops
"One-time"	Creates the set number of videos	By itself, when the number is reached
"Endless"	Keeps the set number of files in the folder	With the "Stop" button; by itself it only pauses
"Periodic"	Checks the sources once per set interval and creates copies from new videos	Only with the "Stop" button

Groups download nothing on their own. Sources are checked only with the "Periodic" export type. The second condition is pressing "Start". While another type is selected, groups are kept but not checked. You cannot change the export type while work is running. Press "Stop" first.

How to set the check interval and the daily cap

Both settings are in the "Export" section.

• "Check sources no more often than once every" is the shortest pause between the starts of checks, in minutes. Checks have no fixed schedule. A check of all groups may take longer than the pause. Then the new check starts right after the previous one ends. Two checks never run at the same time. The field accepts from 1 to 10080 minutes. The default is 30.
• "Create no more per day than" is a cap on the number of videos per day. The count resets at local midnight. The value 0 is labeled "No limit". The default value is 200. The daily video limit of your plan is a different restriction. It applies in any case.

Both settings appear only together with the "Periodic" export type.

Where downloaded videos are saved

You set the folder in the footer of the "Sources" section. The "Folder for downloaded videos" row is there. The folder is shared by all groups of the project. Downloaded files take up disk space. Please choose a folder on a disk that has free space.

Next to it is the "Delete downloaded videos after creating copies" switch. It is on by default. The app creates the copies and deletes the downloaded video right away. Without this the folder takes up more and more space. A week of round-the-clock work means tens of gigabytes. Where the copies are saved is set by the export settings.

Where the "Folder for downloaded videos" row is and what choosing a folder looks like.

How to pick only the videos you need

You set selection conditions on the group. This is the "Video filters" step of the wizard. On a finished group the conditions are in its settings. Each condition has its own switch. While it is off, the filter does not work. The value in the field stays in place.

• "Filter by views and duration": "Views at least", "Duration at most, s".
• "Filter by viewer engagement": "Likes at least", "Comments at least", "Shares at least", "Saves at least". There are also three conditions as shares of views: "Likes at least, % of views", "Comments at least, % of views", "Shares at least, % of views". "Saves" has no share. Platforms give these numbers only on the video page. So the check takes longer.
• "Filter by language and place": "Video language" and "Place in title or description". The app detects the language and place from the title and description. It does not take the map tag into account.
• "Filter by publication date": set an exact date in the "Published no earlier than" field. Or choose a period: "Last 7 days", "Last 30 days", "Last 90 days", "Last 365 days".

The platform does not always give the numbers needed. What to do with such a video is decided by the "If data is missing" item: "Skip" or "Download".

"How often to check, %" sets the share of checks for the group. 100% means the group takes part every time. 50% means every other time. 25% means every fourth time. The first check after the app starts begins right away, without waiting for the interval. It covers all groups, and the percentage does not affect it. The count of checks starts over when the app restarts. "Videos per link per check, at most" counts videos for each link separately, not for the whole group at once.

Why a check sometimes takes two requests

The platform gives views, duration and publication date right in the author's list of posts. It does not give the three engagement shares, the language and the place there. The app works out these five conditions by itself. Then a source check takes two requests. First the app collects information about the posts. Then it downloads only the videos that passed the selection.

The second request is made only with these five conditions. Views, duration and date do not need it. The price is this: the platform answers for each post of the window separately, including those that will not pass the selection. In one check the app goes through no more than 200 posts, however many the group asks for. All the numbers of this phase are collected on the Video filters page.

What the "Exact quality only" switch does

The switch is next to the "Video quality" list. In the wizard this is the "Quality and file name" step; on a finished group, its settings. It is off by default. Then the quality is a wish. If the video has no track of the needed quality, the app downloads the closest one, including a higher one.

With the switch on there is no substitution. The app skips a video without a track of the chosen quality entirely. Not a single file is saved to disk.

Such a skip is visible in the app log: it is not shown on the group tile or in the counter of videos rejected by filters. Please check this switch first if the filters are off and there are still no new videos.

The app tries such a video again at every check. This goes on while it stays at the top of the author's list of posts. With the "Maximum" quality the switch becomes unavailable and turns off by itself. There is nothing to restrict there. The setting is covered in full on the Video filters page.

How to add hundreds of links at once

Ten thousand links cannot be entered by hand. So the list is imported from a file. The import button on the "Sources" page opens the "Import sources from a file" window. A CSV table or a JSON file works.

Only the "Source link" column is required. The others can be left empty. The app reads the header in any letter case. It accepts a file of links only, even without a header. The "Save a sample" button writes a file with the correct columns. The sample has four example rows: two groups with two sources each. Each group has its own settings. The cookie file column in the sample is empty. This is done on purpose.

Before writing, the app shows what will change. The window states the number of new groups and the number of new sources. It also lists the numbers of rejected rows and the reasons. There are two modes: "Keep them and add new ones" and "Replace them with the file contents". Replacing deletes the groups that are not in the file. The app deletes their sources and settings too.

The import button has no label. It is the first icon in the row above the list of groups.

The button next to it saves all groups and their sources to the same kind of file. This is a backup. The list is stored in the project database. The database may get damaged. Then the list can be restored only from this file. The file contains the group proxies together with the login and password. Please keep it where you keep your passwords.

What you see during a check

The group tile has the "Check the sources of this group" switch. Next to it is the state label: "Not checked yet", "Checking is off", "Account sign-in needed", "The check failed" and others. A right click on the tile opens a menu: "Open", "Downloaded videos", "Duplicate", "Delete".

While this group is being checked, the tile has no state label. Its place is taken by a bar and a counter of checked sources like "57 / 128". The label returns at the end of the round: then the tile shows "Next check in {N} min" and "Last time: 3 new".

A group being checked has no state label. Its place is taken by a bar and a counter of checked sources.

The section footer shows the version of the video download module. Next to it is the arrow for updating it. Platforms change their pages. After that an old module stops downloading videos from them. Please check the version first if sources suddenly stop bringing videos.

Why the next check does not start

The "Start" button is pressed, but there are no new videos. There are exactly seven reasons. The app shows them in these exact words:

1. "Sources are being checked." The previous check has not finished yet. Two checks never run at once.
2. "Periodic source checking is off: the interval is not set." The "Check sources no more often than once every" field is set to zero.
3. "The license has expired. Source checking will resume after the key is activated."
4. "Credits have run out, and video creation on the device is off. Source checking will resume after the balance is topped up."
5. "The "Create no more per day than" setting was triggered. Source checking will resume after midnight."
6. "The daily video limit is used up. Source checking will resume after it resets."
7. "The interval between source checks has not passed yet." This is the normal wait between checks.

The fifth and sixth reasons look alike, but the restrictions differ. "Create no more per day than" is your setting; its count resets at local midnight. The daily video limit belongs to your plan, and the server decides when it resets. With the periodic export type, the daily limit of the plan does not stop the work but only pauses it. With a normal start it stops everything until the button is pressed. Details are on the How long checking sources takes page.

Frequently asked questions

Why don't the sources download anything?

Please check everything in order. Is the "Periodic" export type selected? Is the "Start" button pressed? Is the switch on the group turned on? What does the group tile say? Has "Create no more per day than" been triggered? Is the daily video limit of your plan used up? The app shows three reasons by itself before the start: "How often to check sources is not set", "No source is turned on" and "No folder chosen for downloaded videos". The seven reasons why the next check does not start are listed above. Everything else is covered on the Video does not download page.

Do checks run when the app is closed?

No. Checks run only while the app is open. Exiting the app stops periodic export. So does restarting Windows. After the app starts again, export has to be turned on again. Please press "Start". The first check after that begins right away and covers all groups.

How do I download a video that was already downloaded?

The app keeps a list of downloaded videos. A video on it is not downloaded a second time. Please right-click the group tile and open "Downloaded videos". Find the rows you need with the search and delete them. The next source check downloads these videos again. The button for clearing the list on the section page erases the whole list. Then everything that was downloaded before is downloaded again.

Does deleting a group erase the list of downloaded videos?

You decide this at the moment of deletion. Before deleting, the app shows a window with three buttons: "Cancel", "Without the list" and "With the list". Both of the last two buttons delete the group. The only difference is what happens to the list of downloaded videos of this group.