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Export YouTube Playlist to M3U8

Paste a playlist link to download an M3U8 playlist file listing every video's YouTube link with its title and length, encoded as UTF-8.

How to export a YouTube playlist to M3U8

  1. 01

    Paste the playlist link

    Copy the link of any public or unlisted playlist and press Export. Every video is read, however long the playlist is.

  2. 02

    M3U8 is already ticked

    The M3U8 file always lists each video's title, channel, length and link. Tick Leave out deleted and private videos so the player doesn't stop on them.

  3. 03

    Download

    Press Download and open the .m3u8 file in a player such as VLC.

M3U8 for titles in any language

M3U8 is the UTF-8 version of the M3U playlist format. The .m3u8 extension tells players to read the file as Unicode, so titles in Hindi, Japanese, Arabic, Cyrillic or with emoji show as written instead of as question marks.

Each video gets an #EXTINF line with its length in seconds and Channel - Title, followed by its YouTube link. This is a list of links, not an HLS video stream, even though streaming sites also use the .m3u8 extension.

Frequently asked questions

Is this an HLS stream?

No. HLS streams also use .m3u8, but this file is a plain playlist of YouTube watch links, not video segments.

Does it download the videos?

No. It contains links only, and the player streams each video from YouTube.

Should I pick M3U or M3U8?

Pick M3U8 if any titles use non-English characters or your player expects .m3u8. Otherwise either works; the content is the same.

Is there a limit on playlist length?

No. Playlists with thousands of videos are read in full, page by page, and you can export only a range with the From and To video numbers.

Export a YouTube playlist to other formats

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