tubesync

A self-hosted recorder that watches YouTube channels and playlists, downloads new uploads and hands them to Plex or Jellyfin.

2.8k stars, 178 forks Python On GitHub since November 2020

View on GitHub How to run it

tubesync at a glance

Open sourceYes, AGPL-3.0No paid parts in the repository
Health85 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingDockerOne-click in Unraid
InterfaceEnglish onlyNo translation files found
Issue repliesWithin ~3 hoursMedian first reply; 100% of recent issues answered

What is tubesync?

TubeSync treats YouTube like a TV recorder treats broadcast channels: you add a channel or playlist as a source, choose how often it is indexed and which quality to fetch, and scheduled tasks do the rest. Under the hood it wraps yt-dlp and ffmpeg in a web interface with a task queue. Audio-only items land in one folder and videos in another, and a configured Plex or Jellyfin library is refreshed once files arrive. Failed downloads are retried with back-off timers over a long period instead of being dropped.

Good fit if

  • You follow a set of YouTube channels and want new videos to appear in your Plex or Jellyfin library automatically.
  • You want to fix the download quality per source rather than accept whatever the site serves.

Look elsewhere if

  • You only want to grab a single video now and then from a web form: MeTube.
  • You want a dedicated YouTube archive with its own player and search: Tube Archivist.
  • You would rather watch YouTube through a private front end than store copies: Invidious.

Before you adopt it

TubeSync is AGPL-3.0 and has no paid parts in the repository. It lives on a personal account, and one developer wrote close to nine in ten of the commits in the last 90 days. It is meant to run as a container under Docker or Podman on amd64 or arm64, with SQLite by default. Disk use grows with every source you add, and the README warns that indexing huge channels too often can stall downloads or get your IP address throttled.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 7 November 2026. Report a correction

How to run tubesync yourself

One-click install

  • Unraid

Not listed in Umbrel, YunoHost, TrueNAS, CasaOS, Runtipi, Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts and Coolify. Checked against each panel’s app catalog on 12 November 2026.

Ways to install

Docker files
Dockerfile or compose file in the repository
Docker image
ghcr.io/meeb/tubesync: x86-64, ARM64
Compose file
None in the repository
Setup effort
Not rated: no compose file to judge from
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
English only

Install instructions: the README on GitHub. Docker images and packages are checked weekly.

tubesync health: is it still maintained?

85 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~29 daysLatest: v0.19.0, 3 November 2026
Issue repliesWithin ~3 hoursMedian first reply; 100% of recent issues answered
Bus factorHigh riskThe most active of 7 authors wrote 86% of recent commits
  • Activity
    427 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 10 November 2026.
    30 / 30
  • Contributors
    7 people wrote the latest 100 commits; the most active wrote 86% of them.
    12 / 20
  • Releases
    10+ releases in the last 12 months; the latest, v0.19.0, on 3 November 2026.
    18 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 100% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 3 hours.
    20 / 20
  • Security practices
    No OpenSSF Scorecard for this repository yet, so this part gets a neutral score.
    5 / 10

Read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. How the score works

tubesync security

Security advisories are the vulnerabilities the maintainers disclosed on GitHub, with the versions that fix them; many advisories can mean careful disclosure as much as weak code.

Security advisoriesNone publishedNo advisories in the repository’s Security tab

Advisories read from GitHub on 12 November 2026.

tubesync license: is it open source?

tubesync uses AGPL-3.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. November 2020First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayAGPL-3.0.

tubesync for developers

Written in

  • Python 56%
  • SCSS 23%
  • CSS 11%
  • HTML 5%
  • TypeScript 2%
  • Other 4%

Getting involved

Good first issues10Open, labelled “good first issue”Help wanted10Open, labelled “help wanted”
Contributing guideNot foundNo CONTRIBUTING file in the repository
Open issues56On GitHub
Authors, 90 days7Of the latest 100 commits
DonationsGitHub SponsorsListed on GitHub

Language shares are GitHub’s count of the code in the repository.

Alternatives to tubesync

  • Tube ArchivistYour self hosted YouTube media server 67 health · GPL-3.0 · 8.6k stars
  • MeTubeSelf-hosted video downloader for YouTube and other sites (web UI for yt-dlp) 82 health · AGPL-3.0 · 15.2k stars
  • MediaMTXReady-to-use Media-over-QUIC / SRT / WebRTC / RTSP / RTMP / LL-HLS / MPEG-TS / RTP live media server and… 76 health · MIT · 20.7k stars
  • SRSSRS is a simple, high-performance, AI-driven real-time media server supporting RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, HTTP-FLV,… 73 health · MIT · 29.4k stars
  • SeerrOpen-source media request and discovery manager for Jellyfin, Plex, and Emby. 84 health · MIT · 13.2k stars

All 38 projects in Media servers & streaming

Questions about tubesync

Is tubesync open source?

Yes. tubesync is published under AGPL-3.0, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is tubesync still maintained?

Its health score is 85 of 100 (actively developed). It had 427 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 10 November 2026, and its latest release came out on 3 November 2026.

How do I run tubesync?

You can run it with the Docker image ghcr.io/meeb/tubesync and in one click from Unraid. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What is tubesync written in?

tubesync is written mainly in Python (56% of the code), with SCSS (23%) and CSS (11%), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What are the alternatives to tubesync?

Close alternatives in the Media servers & streaming category include Tube Archivist, MeTube, MediaMTX.