Batch File Help (Windows)

[JamieLee2k]

I am very new to YouTube downloading and I need download multiple YT videos on a weekly basis, I want to create a batch file so I can get my work done, Can someone please tell me how I would create a batch file for Windows?

[rautamiekka]

Do you mean a .bat script or an URL list ? Cuz 'Batch file' tends to mean the Micro$oft scripting language called Batch, especially in the context of a platform-independent software.

[mrblomblo]

Hello! I'm unsure if this would be considered necroing, but I made a batch script that lets you easily download videos as either audio or video with YT-DLP & FFmpeg, it also logs all URLs you've downloaded as well as if you downloaded it as video or audio.
My code may not be the best optimized but it has worked well for me :)

You may not need this anymore, but if anyone else has a similar problem and stumbles upon your post I want to help them out as well!
I made a four minute tutorial video since it needs some preparation, but it can be summed up as:

1. Download YT-DLP & FFmpeg (the one optimized for YT-DLP).
2. Create a folder for the .exe files & put them in there and create the "log.txt" file.
3. Create a folder where downloaded videos will appear.
4. Make a text document in the folder with the .exe files and name it "run.bat", NOT "run.bat.txt"!
5. Paste the code at the bottom of my comment into "run.bat".
6. Replace the text in brackets with the appropriate locations, remember to put "\log.txt" to reference that specific file when needed.
7. Done! Try it out :)

Code:

@echo OFF
 
cd "[The location where you have yt-dlp.exe]"
 
title Enter URL to Download
 
set /p URL=URL: 
 
cls
 
title Enter File Format
 
set /p format=Audio (a) or Video (v)?: 
 
cls
 
title Downloading...
 
if %format%==a yt-dlp.exe -P "[The location where you want downloaded files to appear]" -x -f "ba/b" -o "%%(title)s.%%(ext)s" -w %URL%
 
if %format%==v yt-dlp.exe -P "[The location where you want downloaded files to appear]" -f "bv+ba/b" -o "%%(title)s.%%(ext)s" -w %URL%
 
if %format%==a @echo Audio - %URL%>>"[The location where you have your log.txt file, PUT "\log.txt" at the end!]" 
 
if %format%==v @echo Video - %URL%>>"[The location where you have your log.txt file, PUT "\log.txt" at the end!]"
 
cls
 
title Download more?
 
set /p more=Do you want to download more? Yes (y) or No (n): 
 
if %more%==y start Run.bat
 
if %more%==y exit
 
if %more%==n goto b
 
:b
 
explorer "[The location where you want downloaded files to appear]"
 
exit

[JamieLee2k]

ok so I have this all figured out thanks to help from the discord channel and it was a pain at first but its really easy and simple to use.
So let me explain what I got, I have created a URL.txt file in which I put in all my URL's on a new line then save the file, then I open CMD and put in this command.

cd [The location where you have yt-dlp.exe]
yt-dlp.exe -i --download-archive archive.log -a url.txt -P "The location of where I want my downloads to be"

So what this does is pulls the URL's from the text file and asks yt-dlp to download each file one after another, It also creates a txt file to let me know what has been downloaded before and so it wont download them multiple times in case I forget I already downloaded it.
This is much simplier than the one you suggested but yours might be better, I just haven't tried it.

[mrblomblo]

Ah okay, you were going for batch downloads, mine provides more options and can be a little faster, but only allows downloading one URL at a time by pasting it in to the command line after opening the .bat file.
Good to hear that you already have it figured out though!