Start here
Paste a YouTube link, choose a resolution, and TubeVault stores it in
./downloads — ready to watch inside the app, offline.
Nothing is downloaded yet — we only read the metadata first.
1080p is a good default for laptops and TVs.
Fetch a link above and its details will appear here.
Nothing queued yet.
Your active and finished downloads will show up here with live speed and progress.
Need the details? The explains resolutions, cookies and troubleshooting.
Your collection
Everything in ./downloads, playable right here — no external player needed.
Download your first video and it will appear here, ready to play.
Learn the machinery
A short tour of the pieces, so nothing feels like a black box.
YouTube does not publish a download API. Instead, yt-dlp reads the same player data your browser receives and resolves it into concrete media streams. TubeVault never parses YouTube itself — it spawns yt-dlp and reads its JSON output and progress lines.
Above roughly 720p, YouTube serves a video-only stream and an audio-only stream. Downloading "1080p" means fetching both and muxing them with ffmpeg. Without ffmpeg, TubeVault falls back to pre-merged files, which is why some qualities may be unavailable.
The server binds to 127.0.0.1, media lands in ./downloads, and the library index is a plain JSON file. Nothing is uploaded anywhere; the app works offline once a file is saved.
Picking 1080p means "best stream at or below 1080p". If a video only offers 720p, you get 720p — the format selector always ends with a safe fallback so a request never fails just because a resolution is missing.
| Preset | Pixels | Typical size / 10 min | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4K | 3840 × 2160 | 1–3 GB | Archiving, big screens (needs ffmpeg) |
| 2K | 2560 × 1440 | 500 MB – 1.5 GB | Large monitors |
| 1080p | 1920 × 1080 | 250–600 MB | Everyday watching |
| 720p | 1280 × 720 | 100–250 MB | Phones, saving space |
| 480p / 360p | 854 × 480 / 640 × 360 | 40–120 MB | Reference clips, slow connections |
| Audio (MP3) | — | 10–25 MB | Music, podcasts, lectures |
Sizes are rough: bitrate depends on the uploader and how much motion the video has.
downloads/Your media files — the library is built by scanning this folder.downloads/.thumbnails/Cached cover images so the library works offline.data/library.jsonTitle, channel, duration and size for each file.bin/Bundled yt-dlp and ffmpeg executables.server/Zero-dependency Node server: API, queue, streaming.public/The interface you are looking at.YouTube occasionally challenges automated requests. Export cookies from your browser in Netscape format, then start the server with YTDLP_COOKIES=C:\path\cookies.txt npm start. Only do this for content you are allowed to download.
Install ffmpeg: use the button in the setup card, or npm run setup. TubeVault passes --merge-output-format mp4, so the merged result plays in the built-in player.
That video has no stream matching the preset. Pick “Best available”, or a lower resolution. Live streams and premieres can also behave differently.
Some codecs (for example AV1 in an unusual container) are not decodable by the embedded browser engine. Re-download as 720p/1080p H.264, or play the file in VLC via “Reveal in folder”.
The queue runs at most two downloads at once on purpose. Speed also depends on YouTube throttling; yt-dlp already uses parallel fragments. Try a lower resolution if the connection is the bottleneck.
TubeVault is a local tool for personal archiving. Downloading content you do not own or have rights to may violate YouTube's terms of service or copyright law. Check the rules for your country and use it for material you are permitted to save.