YouTube Video Source URL

Introduction

A YouTube video can be either public (anyone can watch), private (only the owner can watch) or unlisted (anyone with a link can watch). I like the third option because I can share the links with whoever I want and at the same time my videos do not show up in search results. If the video is really private then do not mark it as unlisted. Anyone can try to generate or guess your video IDs. Back to the main topic. You want to generate a list of URLs for the videos in your channel. I suggest the following methods

• • Open your YouTube channel on the videos page

• Right click each video hyper link.
• Copy the target link address.
• Paste it to a text file.

This method is not practical. I guess this is not what you were expecting from this post. If that is the case then move on

Google API

Use Google data web service API endpoints. This is actually very efficient however this not what I am demonstrating today because you need to register, get an API developer key and abide with the rules in terms of call limits and things of that sort.

Semi Automated Approach

I assume you have a Mac or Linux machine. This solution does not work on Windows. This method is not completely automated however it cuts the manual time dramatically. Follow the steps below

• • Launch your browser and open your YouTube video channel on the videos page

• • By default, the first page shows up (only shows 30 videos or something). You need to keep clicking more until all video thumbnails show up. This is manual but clicking more few times is not a big deal.
  • Once all videos are showing, using your browser save the page source (In Chrome, File then Save Page As). Give the file a name (ex. videos.html). It should end with html extension.
  • Open a terminal
  • Type the following command

• Open the videos.txt in a text editor
• Find and replace watch?v= with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

That is all you need