Applies to: Multicast Video. Not sure which panel you have? See Which radio or video panel do I have?

The From URL tab lets you download videos from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter, TikTok and other sites straight to your channel. The download happens on the server, not on your computer, so you don't need to download the file and then upload it. The video is saved as MP4, goes through the usual Optimizing step and can then go into a playlist.

Rights: only download content you have the right to broadcast. The channel is responsible for what it broadcasts.

Before you start

• Availability: URL download is available on packages that include it. If the From URL tab has a PRO badge, or you see "The URL download feature is not available in your current package.", ask us to upgrade your package (see Upgrading or downgrading your package). Until then you can upload your videos as described in Uploading videos.
• Daily limit: your package sets how many downloads you can do per day (usually 5). The badge on the tab shows e.g. "2/5", meaning 2 of 5 today. Failed downloads don't count. The limit resets at midnight, based on your account's time zone (Settings → Timezone).
• Maximum duration: each video can be up to a number of minutes set by your package (usually 30 minutes). Longer videos, such as full films or shows, won't download; upload them with FTP.
• Space and number of videos: you need free space, and you must not have reached your package's maximum number of videos.

You can see all of this in the right-hand column of the Upload page: Storage space, Videos and Downloads today.

Downloading one video

1. Go to Content → Upload → From URL tab.
2. Copy the video's link from your browser's address bar (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...) and paste it into Video URL.
3. Click Check. Within a few seconds a card appears with the thumbnail, title, platform and duration. Make sure it's the right video.
4. If the video is longer than the maximum duration, you'll see a red "Video exceeds maximum duration limit (N minutes)" message and no download options will appear.
5. Choose:
   • Quality: 720p (Recommended), 1080p (HD) or 360p (Save space). For most channels we recommend 720p, which matches the default output resolution. 1080p takes more space. The quality you finally get also depends on what the site offers for that particular video.
   • Folder: which folder it goes into, or -- No folder --.
   • Add to Playlist: if you want it to go straight into a playlist, or -- None --.
6. Click Download. You'll see "Download started!" and Download in progress. The window updates by itself when it's done.
7. When the download finishes, the Video Details form appears. Correct the Title if you like (required), add a Description, choose a playlist and click Save.
8. Wait for Optimizing. When you see "Optimization complete!", the video is ready. Click View your videos, or Add another for a new download.

The download continues on the server even if you leave the page. You can follow it in the Recent Downloads list (see below).

Searching YouTube without leaving the panel

1. Open the Search YouTube tab.
2. Type a title, artist or topic in Enter search term... and click Search.
3. On the result you want, click Select. The panel takes you to the From URL tab and runs the Check by itself.
4. Carry on from step 5 of the previous section.

Searching doesn't count towards the daily limit; only downloads do. If the tab has a PRO badge, search isn't included in your package.

Downloading several videos from a YouTube playlist

1. Copy the link of a YouTube playlist. It must contain list= (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=...).
2. Paste it into Video URL, tick YouTube Playlist Mode and click Check.
3. A window opens with all the videos in the playlist. Large playlists can take a while. At the top you can see how many downloads you have Available today.
4. Tick the videos you want (or Select all).
5. Choose Quality, Folder and, if you like, a Playlist.
6. Click Download selected. You'll see "N videos added to the queue".

• If you select more videos than you have left for today, only the first ones are downloaded, up to your daily limit. Download the rest tomorrow.
• Videos longer than the maximum duration are skipped.
• YouTube Playlist Mode only works with YouTube playlists.

Recent Downloads

At the bottom of the Upload page you can see your recent downloads and their status: Pending, Downloading, Processing..., Completed or failed. Each row has these buttons:

• Cancel (✕ icon, for downloads that are waiting or downloading). It asks "Cancel this download?".
• Retry (↻ icon, only for failed downloads). You'll see "Download restarted".
• Details (ⓘ icon): title, status, duration, quality, size, start/finish times and the error message, if any. Useful if you send us a support ticket.
• Delete (bin icon): removes only the row from the list, not the downloaded video.

The list header has Refresh and a stop button. If something gets stuck, click the stop button and confirm "Θέλετε να τερματίσετε όλες τις διεργασίες;" (Terminate all processes?). All your waiting or running downloads stop. The red button next to Check ("Terminate process if stuck") does the same.

When YouTube refuses the download: cookies

Sometimes YouTube restricts automated downloads and videos won't download. You then need to upload the cookies of a YouTube account. On the From URL tab you'll see a yellow box "YouTube: Αν δεν κατεβαίνουν τα βίντεο, χρειάζονται cookies" (if videos won't download, cookies are needed) with an Instructions button.

1. In your computer's browser (Chrome, Edge or Firefox), install the Get cookies.txt LOCALLY extension.
2. Open youtube.com and log in with a Google account.
3. Click the extension's icon and Export the cookies. A cookies.txt file is saved (or a similar name ending in .txt).
4. Do not close the browser after exporting! If you log out of YouTube, the cookies stop working.
5. In the panel, on the From URL tab, click Instructions, choose the file and click Upload.
6. Try the download again.

The file must be .txt, up to 1 MB, and contain YouTube cookies. If YouTube downloads stop working again at some point, the cookies have expired; repeat the process.

If the download still doesn't work, download the video to your computer some other way and upload it from the File Upload tab (Uploading videos).

Messages / Common problems