DEV Community: Raj Aravind

How to Export YouTube Playlist Data to CSV, Excel, JSON, and More

Raj Aravind — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 02:14:32 +0000

If you've ever tried to save the contents of a YouTube playlist, you probably know how frustrating it can be.

Whether it's a collection of educational videos, music playlists, research material, or your carefully curated learning resources, manually copying video titles and URLs is time-consuming.

And what happens if a playlist gets deleted, videos become unavailable, or you simply want to move your playlist data somewhere else?

That's where a YouTube Playlist Exporter comes in handy.

Why Export YouTube Playlists?

There are several reasons why YouTube creators and regular users might want to export their playlists:

Backup: Keep an offline copy of important playlists.

Data management: Organize hundreds of videos in a spreadsheet.

Research: Analyze video titles, URLs, and playlist contents.

Migration: Keep playlist information ready when moving between accounts.

Content planning: Maintain a structured list of reference videos.

Archiving: Preserve a record of your favorite educational or research playlists.

Introducing MyFreshTools YouTube Playlist Exporter

MyFreshTools YouTube Playlist Exporter makes it easier to export YouTube playlist information without manually copying individual video details.

Simply provide a YouTube playlist URL and export the available playlist information.

Key Features

Export YouTube playlist information.

Retrieve video titles and URLs.

Handle large playlists more conveniently than manual copying.

Download playlist data in structured formats.

Keep an offline record of your video collections.

Supported Export Formats

Choose a format depending on how you plan to use your data:

Format

Best For

CSV

Excel and Google Sheets

JSON

Developers and automation

XML

Structured data processing

HTML

Browser-friendly viewing

Markdown

Documentation and notes

Available export formats depend on the options provided by the tool.

Who Can Benefit From This Tool?

Students and Researchers

Save educational playlists and maintain a structured reference list of learning resources.

YouTube Creators

Keep track of competitor research playlists, inspiration collections, and content references.

Music Lovers

Maintain an offline record of music playlist contents.

Developers

Export playlist metadata in structured formats for further processing and automation.

Teachers and Educators

Maintain organized collections of educational videos for courses and learning materials.

How to Export a YouTube Playlist

Open MyFreshTools YouTube Playlist Exporter.

Copy the URL of your YouTube playlist.

Paste the playlist URL into the exporter.

Start the export.

Choose your preferred export format and download the data.

That's it! You have a structured copy of your playlist information.

Final Thoughts

YouTube playlists can represent hours of research, learning, entertainment, and content curation. Keeping a backup of that information is a simple way to avoid losing track of valuable video collections.

If you regularly work with YouTube playlists, give the free preview of MyFreshTools Playlist Exporter a try.

Try it here: https://www.myfreshtools.com/youtube/playlistExport

Have you ever lost an important YouTube playlist or wished you could export all its videos at once? Share your experience in the comments!

How to Sort YouTube Playlists Without Manually Rearranging Every Video

Raj Aravind — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 01:39:58 +0000

If you manage multiple YouTube playlists, you probably know how frustrating it can be to keep them organized.

Maybe you have a playlist with 100+ videos and want to arrange them by title. Or perhaps you want to organize a music playlist alphabetically, put the newest videos first, or simply clean up an old playlist.

YouTube provides some basic playlist sorting options, but what if you need more control?

Manually moving videos one by one isn't exactly fun.

Why sorting YouTube playlists can be frustrating

Here are a few common situations YouTube creators and playlist managers run into:

Large playlists: Rearranging hundreds of videos manually takes time.
Alphabetical organization: You want videos sorted by title.
Old playlists: Your playlist has grown over time and needs cleaning up.
Learning playlists: You want videos arranged in a particular order.
Music playlists: You want a more organized listening experience.

These might sound like small problems, but they become frustrating when you manage several playlists.

A simpler way to sort YouTube playlists

I recently came across a tool that makes this process much easier: MyFreshTools YouTube Playlist Sorter.

Instead of manually rearranging videos, you can use the tool to organize your playlist based on available sorting options.

The general workflow is simple:

Open the YouTube Playlist Sorter.
Provide the YouTube playlist URL.
Load the playlist videos.
Choose your preferred sorting option.
Review the sorted playlist and apply the changes.

You can use it to organize playlists without spending time dragging videos around individually.

Who might find this useful?

This can be particularly helpful for:

YouTube creators organizing educational content.
Students maintaining learning playlists.
Music lovers managing large collections.
People maintaining public or personal playlists.
Anyone who regularly works with large YouTube playlists.

Try it yourself

If you have a messy YouTube playlist that needs organizing, give it a try:

Try MyFreshTools YouTube Playlist Sorter

I'm always interested in hearing how people manage their YouTube playlists.

What is the one playlist management feature you wish YouTube offered natively?

Would you prefer sorting by title, upload date, channel, duration, or something else?

How to Find Deleted Videos in a YouTube Playlist (and Recover Their Titles)

Raj Aravind — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:48:50 +0000

Have you ever opened an old YouTube playlist and found entries that simply say [Deleted video] or [Private video]?

It is frustrating, especially when the playlist contains a tutorial you wanted to revisit, a song you forgot the name of, or an important resource you saved years ago.

YouTube can leave unavailable entries in a playlist without showing you the original title. If you have hundreds of videos, checking each entry manually becomes tedious.

The good news is that you can often identify what went missing, even when the original video is no longer available.

Here's how.

Why do YouTube playlist videos disappear?

There are several reasons a video might stop working.

Deleted by the creator: The uploader removed the video.
Made private: The video still exists, but the owner restricted access.
Copyright or policy removal: YouTube removed the upload.
Channel termination: The creator's channel and videos may no longer be accessible.
Regional restrictions: The video might still be available in other locations.

From a viewer's perspective, these situations can look very similar.

The bigger problem is that you may lose the original title, making it difficult to search for a replacement.

Method 1: Check unavailable videos directly on YouTube

Start with YouTube itself.

Open the playlist in your browser.
Check whether unavailable entries are visible.
If the playlist offers an option to show unavailable videos, enable it.
Look for entries labelled as deleted or private.

This approach is useful for a quick manual check, particularly if you own the playlist.

However, YouTube's interface can change, and the original title may remain hidden. You may also need to inspect many entries individually.

For a large playlist, a dedicated scanner is more convenient.

Method 2: Find deleted and private videos with a free online tool

I wanted a way to inspect an entire playlist without manually hunting for every missing entry.

One option is the MyFreshTools Deleted Video Finder.

It scans playlists for deleted, private, and unavailable videos, identifies their positions, and attempts to recover original titles from public web archives.

Here's how to use it.

Step 1: Copy your playlist URL

Open the YouTube playlist and copy its URL.

For example:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The list parameter identifies the playlist.

Step 2: Open the Deleted Video Finder

Visit the tool:

https://www.myfreshtools.com/youtube/deleted-video-finder

Paste the playlist URL into the input field and start the scan.

Step 3: Review the results

The report helps you identify unavailable entries, their positions in the playlist, and their reported status.

Where a public record survives, the tool can also find the original video title and channel information.

Step 4: Investigate missing videos

Use the recovered information to search for a re-upload, locate the creator's channel, or rebuild your playlist.

You can also export the report when you need a record of the results; full title details and CSV export may require an upgrade.

How can a deleted video's original title be recovered?

This is the interesting part.

When a video disappears from YouTube, the original upload may no longer be accessible. But information about it might still exist elsewhere.

For example:

The Internet Archive may have captured a page containing the original title.
Search engines or other public indexes may retain metadata.
Other websites may have linked to the video using its original title.
Archived playlist pages may contain references to the missing entry.

A deleted video can therefore leave behind enough information to identify it, even though the video itself is gone.

A recovery tool can use surviving identifiers and archived records to look for that information.

There is an important limitation: recovery is not guaranteed. A popular video that existed for years may have plenty of archived information. A video deleted shortly after upload may have left no usable record.

Can you recover the actual deleted video?

Not necessarily—and this distinction matters.

There are two different things people mean when they say they want to recover a deleted YouTube video.

Recovering metadata: Finding the original title, channel, video ID, or other identifying details.

Recovering the video itself: Obtaining the original video file or watching the original upload again.

A deleted-video finder focuses on the first task. It cannot restore a deleted upload from YouTube's servers or bypass access restrictions on private videos.

However, identifying the original title can help you find a legitimate re-upload or contact the creator.

What if the video is private instead of deleted?

A private video is different from a deleted video.

The creator may still have the original upload, but access is restricted. A public archive might preserve the video's former title, but that does not grant permission to watch it.

If the video is important, try contacting the uploader or checking whether they published it elsewhere.

If it is merely region-restricted, the video may still be available in its permitted regions.

Knowing the likely status helps you decide what to do next.

Who would find this useful?

This approach can help several types of YouTube users.

Students: Find missing lessons in old programming courses or educational playlists.

Music listeners: Identify tracks that disappeared from long-running playlists.

Researchers: Document missing videos and preserve references to public material.

Content curators: Audit large playlists and find entries that need replacements.

Everyday viewers: Work out what that mysterious deleted entry used to be.

How to prevent this problem in the future

Finding missing videos is useful, but maintaining your own backup is even better.

If a playlist contains important resources, export its metadata while the videos are still available.

Keeping a record of video IDs, titles, channel names, and playlist positions makes it easier to identify missing entries later.

You can use a YouTube Playlist Exporter to create a record of your playlist rather than relying entirely on YouTube's current contents.

For particularly important playlists, repeat the export periodically so you have an older version to compare against.

Final thoughts

A missing YouTube playlist entry doesn't always mean its identity is lost forever.

YouTube itself may no longer display the original title, but public archives and other surviving records can sometimes help you identify the video.

Start with a manual check for a small playlist. For a larger collection, scan the playlist, review the unavailable entries, and use any recovered metadata to investigate further.

And if the playlist matters to you, make a backup before more videos disappear.

Have you ever found a deleted video in a playlist that you really wanted to watch again? What did you do to find it?

How to Count Videos in Any YouTube Playlist for Free

Raj Aravind — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 01:54:05 +0000

Ever opened a YouTube playlist and wondered exactly how many videos it contains?

Maybe you're following a programming course with hundreds of lessons, managing a music playlist, or organizing educational videos.

For smaller playlists, counting videos is straightforward. But things get confusing when playlists contain hundreds or thousands of videos, especially when some are deleted or unavailable.

Here's how you can check the video count without manually scrolling through every video.

Method 1: Check the Video Count Directly on YouTube

The simplest approach is to use YouTube itself.

Open YouTube in your browser.
Navigate to the playlist you want to check.
Look for the video count displayed near the playlist title and description.
YouTube should display the total number of videos in the playlist.

For example, you might see:

Python Programming Tutorial — 125 videos

This works well for most public playlists.

However, there's one limitation: the displayed count doesn't necessarily tell you how many videos are actually playable.

Some entries may have been deleted, made private, or become unavailable.

Method 2: Use a Free YouTube Playlist Counter

If you want a quick way to inspect a playlist without scrolling through it, you can use an online playlist tool.

One option is the free MyFreshTools YouTube Playlist Video Counter.

Here's the basic process:

Open the playlist on YouTube.
Copy its URL.
Open the playlist counter.
Paste the playlist URL.
Check the result.

A typical playlist URL looks like this:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The important part is the list parameter, which identifies the playlist.

You don't need to manually count each video.

Why Does a YouTube Playlist Sometimes Show the Wrong Number?

Imagine a playlist containing 200 entries.

Over time:

10 videos are deleted by their creators.
5 videos are made private.
3 videos become unavailable in your region.

The playlist may still contain 200 entries, even though fewer videos are accessible to you.

This happens because YouTube can retain unavailable entries inside playlists.

If you're maintaining an old playlist, it's useful to distinguish between the total number of entries and the number of videos you can actually watch.

Bonus: How to Find Deleted Videos in a Playlist

If you discover unavailable videos, you might also want to identify them.

A deleted or private video often appears as an unavailable entry, without its original title.

You can inspect these entries using a YouTube Deleted Video Finder.

This is particularly helpful when maintaining older educational playlists, music collections, or video archives.

When Is a Playlist Video Counter Useful?

There are several practical situations:

Online courses: Check how many lessons are included before starting a course.

Music collections: Keep track of the size of your favorite playlists.

Content research: Compare playlists created by different YouTube channels.

Playlist maintenance: Identify when the number of entries changes.

Large playlists: Check the size of collections without scrolling through hundreds of entries.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I count videos in someone else's YouTube playlist?

Yes. If the playlist is public, you can generally see its video count without owning it.

Do deleted videos count toward a playlist's total?

They can. YouTube may retain deleted or private videos as unavailable playlist entries.

Can I count videos in a private playlist?

Private playlists are only accessible to authorized users. A public URL alone is not enough to inspect them.

Can a playlist contain duplicate videos?

Yes. A video can appear multiple times in a playlist, and each occurrence counts as a separate entry.

Do I need to install a browser extension?

No. YouTube displays playlist counts directly, and browser-based tools provide another way to inspect playlists.

Final Thoughts

Counting videos in a YouTube playlist doesn't need to be complicated.

For a quick count, start with the number displayed on YouTube.

For additional playlist inspection, an online tool can be useful, particularly when you're dealing with large collections or unavailable videos.

The important thing is knowing whether you're counting total playlist entries or videos that are currently playable.

I'm Building Tools to Solve Everyday Problems

Raj Aravind — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 01:37:34 +0000

Hey everyone! 👋

I'm Raj, a developer and indie maker.

I've been building MyFreshTools, a collection of tools that help YouTube creators manage playlists, export data, and automate repetitive tasks.

I enjoy turning small, everyday problems into useful products. Building something is one thing, but getting people to discover and actually use it has been a whole different learning experience!

I'm here to learn from other developers, share what works (and what doesn't), and connect with people building interesting things.

Curious to know — what are you working on right now?