COOKIES.md

How to Use Cookies for Private or Age-Gated Content

This guide explains how to export your browser cookies so YMDE can download content that isn't publicly available, such as age-restricted or private videos.

Security Note: Your cookies.txt file contains sensitive session information. Treat it like a password and do not share it.

Step 1: Get a Browser Extension

You need an extension that can export cookies in the "Netscape" format. A popular choice is Get cookies.txt (available for Chrome and Firefox).

Step 2: Export Your Cookies

1. Make sure you are logged into your YouTube/Google account in your browser.
2. Go to www.youtube.com.
3. Click the "Get cookies.txt" extension icon in your browser's toolbar and click Copy. This will copy the cookie data to your clipboard.

Step 3: Create the cookies.txt File

1. Create a new text file named cookies.txt inside your local ./data folder.
2. Paste the copied cookie data into this file and save it.

Step 4: Update Your compose.yml

Uncomment the COOKIES line in your compose.yml file to enable it:

services:
  ymde:
    # ... other settings
    environment:
      # ...
      # - DRY_RUN=1                 # 1=Simulate without downloading, 0=disable
      - COOKIES=/data/cookies.txt # Path to cookies file for private/gated content.

Now, when you run the downloader, it will use your login session to access content.