Member accounts

Downloading needs no account. Visitors can still create a free one: they get a download history and whatever you decide to keep for members, such as private videos, whole playlists or every video size. Members are not admins: they live in a table of their own and can never open the admin panel.

Switching accounts on

Admin → Settings → Users:

• Member accounts (members_enabled, on). Off, the sign-in pages are gone and every feature set to "Members" is for everyone.
• Let visitors create an account (members_registration). Off, only you create accounts; members can still sign in.
• A new account has to confirm its e-mail address (members_verify_email, on). The site sends a link and a six-digit code, both good for 24 hours. Test your e-mail first (Settings → E-mail → Save and send a test e-mail).
• New accounts per IP address per day (members_signups_per_ip, default 5, 0 = unlimited).
• "Keep me signed in" lasts (days) (members_remember_days, default 30). Without the tick a sign-in lasts at most two days.
• Page the sign-up form asks to agree with (members_terms_page, default terms-of-service; "No checkbox" removes it).
• Downloads kept in a member's history (members_history_keep, default 500).
• E-mail providers that may not sign up (members_blocked_domains), e.g. mailinator.com, tempmail.com.

The sign-up form needs no puzzle: a hidden trap field, a time check and a small task the visitor's browser solves (so the form needs JavaScript) keep robots out.

The pages a visitor sees

/en stands for the language. When confirmation is required, the account pages stay closed until the address is confirmed, and signing in leads to the confirmation page.

The member's own area

The menu of /en/account:

• Dashboard: downloads in all, this month and from how many platforms, the recent downloads and Your member features.
• Download history: search, remove one entry, Clear the history, Get it again.
• Profile: name, e-mail address (a new address must be confirmed before it replaces the old one), picture (JPG, PNG or WebP up to 2 MB, cut to a square) and language.
• Security: Change the password (other devices are signed out and the member gets an e-mail), Signed-in devices with Sign out everywhere else, and Delete my account with the password.
• API: the member's own keys, when the developer API allows it. See REST API and embed widget.

Features per audience

Each of these settings offers Everyone, Members (signed in), Members with a confirmed e-mail address or Switched off:

access_api offers only the two member choices and "Nobody". A plugin can add its own, like the merge tool of Tools. More on the Users tab:

• Highest video size for visitors who are not signed in (guest_max_height): larger sizes show a lock that leads to the sign-in page.
• Downloads per day for a member (member_daily_limit, 0 = unlimited). Visitors keep the number of Quotas & Limits. The count is kept per network address.
• Members skip the countdown before a download (member_skip_countdown, on).
• Members see the site without advertising (member_no_ads, off).

While you are signed in to the admin panel, you can use every feature that is not switched off, and every size; the countdown and the adverts stay, as a guest sees them.

What a free account gives

The site works out, from these settings, what a member gets that a guest does not: private videos, whole playlists, every resolution, more downloads a day, no waiting, no adverts, audio in other languages, the developer API, the history, and what plugins add. Only real differences are offered; a feature you give to everyone is no reason to sign up.

That list fills a band on the home page (Sign up free and get more), a line under the download box, a card on the results page, the side of the sign-in pages and /en/join, a table "Without an account" against "Free account". It shows when sign-ups are open, the visitor is not signed in and there are at least two things to offer. Show "Sign up free and get more" (show_join, Settings → Appearance) switches the invitations off.

Private videos with the viewer's own cookies

With Private videos allowed, a switch Private video sits under the download box. The viewer signs in to the platform in their own browser, exports its cookies (a cookies.txt, the JSON of a cookie extension, or the Cookie header) and pastes them. The site reads the video that only their account may see: an own private upload, a friends-only post, an age-gated or members-only video.

• The cookies are used for that one request and never stored: not in the database, the cache, a log or a file that stays. They go only to the platform's own domains.
• The result stays out of the shared cache, has no share buttons, and its title stays out of Downloads → History and Recently downloaded.
• Facebook works as it is. YouTube needs yt-dlp installed (Admin → yt-dlp) and the yt-dlp Bridge plugin on; the help under the setting says whether it is ready right now. See yt-dlp Bridge.
• On /en/youtube-private-video-downloader and /en/facebook-private-video-downloader the switch starts switched on.

Admin → Users

Users → Users lists the accounts with Status, E-mail (Confirmed / Not confirmed), Downloads, Last seen and Joined; filter by status or e-mail and search by name, address or sign-up IP. A new sign-up rings the bell.

• The row buttons Mark the e-mail as confirmed, Suspend (signs the member out everywhere) and Lift the suspension.
• New user and the edit form: Name, E-mail address, Password (a new one signs the member out everywhere), Status, The e-mail address is confirmed (for a member whose e-mail never arrived) and Note (only admins see it). About this user shows the last sign-in, the sign-up address, devices and latest downloads.
• Export CSV downloads the whole list.