YouTube watchlist?

Knowledge management
1

Has anyone found a simple/simplified way to get a YouTube history into Obsidian?

I like to copy mine over each month so I have a record of what I’ve been watching/learning, but it takes a bunch of steps. I haven’t been able to find a “clean” way to copy the list, so I have to do a lot of cleaning up after pasting it into Obsidian.

It might be a long shot, but I thought maybe someone had already figured out a better way.

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If you’re looking for a bulk solution, I don’t think Google provides access to the watch history via API and I can’t find a helpful extension or add-on in Chrome nor Firefox. The closest service that Google provides is https://takeout.google.com/ through which you can export your watch history as an HTML file (then you just have to parse it yourself, a script, or maybe an LLM).

If you’re willing to build a workflow around it, the ReadItLater plug-in could be used to capture video details automatically, then you could use that for tracking what you want to watch and whether you’ve watched it.

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You could try asking on the web clipper channel on Discord as well.

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4

Zsolt has a solution for extracting data from a Youtube Channel, might work for history.

Zsolts YouTube Channel AI Summarizer

Alternately a Python Script maybe?

  1. First, export your YouTube history:

    • Go to Google Takeout (https://takeout.google.com)
    • Select only YouTube data
    • Choose “watch history” in the YouTube data options
    • Download the export and extract the JSON file

  2. Run the script:

    • Save the script as youtube_to_obsidian.py
    • Put your YouTube history JSON file in the same folder
    • Run the script with Python

The script will:

  • Create an individual markdown note for each watched video
  • Include YAML frontmatter with metadata
  • Create a structured template for taking notes
  • Add relevant tags
  • Use a consistent naming format: [date] - [video title].md

Each note will have sections for:

  • Metadata (title, channel, watch date, URL)
  • Your notes
  • Key points
  • Related videos

import json
from datetime import datetime
import os

def convert_youtube_history_to_obsidian(history_file_path, output_folder):
    """
    Converts YouTube watch history JSON to Obsidian markdown files.
    Each video gets its own note with metadata and tags.
    
    Args:
        history_file_path (str): Path to YouTube takeout JSON file
        output_folder (str): Directory where markdown files will be created
    """
    # Create output folder if it doesn't exist
    if not os.path.exists(output_folder):
        os.makedirs(output_folder)

    # Read the JSON file
    with open(history_file_path, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
        history = json.load(f)

    for entry in history:
        try:
            # Extract basic info
            title = entry.get('title', 'Untitled Video')
            channel = entry.get('subtitles', [{}])[0].get('name', 'Unknown Channel')
            timestamp = entry.get('time', '')
            url = entry.get('titleUrl', '')
            
            # Convert timestamp to datetime
            watch_date = datetime.strptime(timestamp, '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ')
            formatted_date = watch_date.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
            
            # Create safe filename
            safe_title = "".join(x for x in title if x.isalnum() or x in (' ', '-', '_')).rstrip()
            filename = f"{formatted_date} - {safe_title[:100]}.md"
            filepath = os.path.join(output_folder, filename)
            
            # Create markdown content
            markdown_content = f"""---
title: "{title}"
channel: "{channel}"
watch_date: {formatted_date}
url: {url}
type: youtube-video
tags: [youtube, video-notes]
---

# {title}

## Metadata
- **Channel:** {channel}
- **Watch Date:** {formatted_date}
- **URL:** {url}

## Notes
<!-- Add your notes about the video here -->

## Key Points
<!-- List key points from the video -->

## Related Videos
<!-- Link to related videos or notes -->
"""
            
            # Write to file
            with open(filepath, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
                f.write(markdown_content)
                
            print(f"Created note for: {title}")
            
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Error processing entry: {e}")

    print("\nConversion complete! Your YouTube history has been exported to Obsidian-compatible markdown files.")

# Example usage
if __name__ == "__main__":
    history_file = "watch-history.json"  # Your YouTube takeout JSON file
    output_dir = "Youtube Notes"         # Where to save the markdown files
    convert_youtube_history_to_obsidian(history_file, output_dir)
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