Importing from Google Takeout

YT Zero has an import wizard that brings in NewPipe subscriptions or YouTube data from a Google Takeout export: channel subscriptions, playlists, and watch history. Open it from Settings → Import data, or from the button on the empty home feed.

Exporting subscriptions from NewPipe

From NewPipe's subscriptions screen, choose Import / Export → Export to and upload the resulting JSON file to YT Zero. Both the complete export (including app_version metadata) and a minimal document containing only subscriptions are supported. Only YouTube entries (service_id: 0) are imported; subscriptions for other NewPipe services are skipped.

Exporting from Google Takeout

1. Go to takeout.google.com.
2. Select only YouTube and YouTube Music.
3. Include subscriptions, playlists, and history.
4. Download the archive.

Importing

1. Drop a NewPipe subscription JSON or the whole Takeout .zip onto the import page. Loose Takeout files also work: subscriptions.csv, playlist CSVs, watch-history.json or .html. You can combine files from both sources before analyzing.
2. Click Analyze files. YT Zero recognizes the contents (localized exports work too — file names and dates in Polish or German are handled).
3. Pick what to import: toggle whole sections, deselect individual channels or playlists.
4. For watch history, choose Everything or From date. Entries are matched by video and marked as watched. They remain available in history and the library, but do not appear in the feed as unwatched videos later.

Note: in From date mode, entries older than the cutoff (and entries without a readable date) are skipped entirely. Choose Everything if you want your full history marked as watched.

After importing

Everything appears in the library immediately, but titles, thumbnails, and channel data for imported videos are filled in gradually in the background. The pace is deliberately throttled so YouTube doesn't block the requests — the result screen shows an estimate based on your settings (IMPORT_ENRICH_BATCH_SIZE, IMPORT_ENRICH_INTERVAL_MINUTES). Subscribed channels start filling the feed via their RSS feeds, as described in How It Works.