Old version! An updated one is here.

Setup and usage is simplified (now it is one script, doesn't use gmail anymore).

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Description

This is a Google Apps Script that automatically adds new Youtube videos to a playlist (a replacement for Youtube Collections feature). This is done through scraping the Youtube subscription notifications in a gmail label. (a workaround for the current lack of support for the main feature in both Youtube UI and API).

Features

1. Adds all new subscription videos to a Youtube playlist.
2. Optional ability to set automatic interval for execution
3. Optional ability to add only videos selected by a custom filter (e.g. videos from a particular users (e.g. videos of music), videos not yet customly filtered to other labels, etc.)

Set-up Instructions

Step 1

1. Opt to receive youtube subscription notifications ("Send updates") to email
2. Create a label in gmail (used exclusively for the youtube notifications, any name is fine, e.g. youtube)
3. Create a filter in gmail that adds a label (and perhaps preferably also skips inbox) to the youtube notifications (e.g. all emails [email protected] with a word uploaded in the title)

Step 2

1. Copy both files to your drive: Document and Sheet
2. Open the Script Editors (in menu: Tools / Script Editor...) of both Sheet and Document and change the following variables:

• var sheetId (string in the URL of the Sheet between /d/ and /edit)
• var docId (string in the URL of the Document between /d/ and /edit)
• var label (text after label: in gmail search bar when the label is selected)
• var playlistId (string in the URL of the Youtube Playlist after ?list=)

3. Open the Script Editor of the sheet, then in menu: Resources / Advanced Google Services / Google Developers Console / Youtube API / Enable API
4. Open the Document and run Functions / getGmail once and open the Document and run Functions / putYoutube once to authorize access for the app.

Step 2 (Alternative)

1. Create a Google Document (in Google Drive) and open it
2. In menu: Tools / Script Editor copy-paste the code from docScript.gs in the repo
3. Create a Google Sheet (in Google Drive) and open it
4. Add false to A1 of the Sheet
5. Open Tools / Script Editor
6. Copy-paste the code from sheetScript.gs in the repo
7. Open the Script Editors (in menu: Tools / Script Editor) of both Sheet and Document and change the following variables:

• var sheetId (string in the URL of the Sheet between /d/ and /edit)
• var docId (string in the URL of the Document between /d/ and /edit)
• var label (text after label: in gmail search bar when the label is selected)
• var playlistId (string in the URL of the Youtube Playlist after ?list=)

8. Resources / Advanced Google Services -> Youtube Data API must be ON
9. Google Developers Console / Youtube API / Enable API
10. Open the Document and run Functions / getGmail once and open the Socument and run Functions / putYoutube once to authorize access for the app.

Usage

Manual playlist update:

1. Open the Google Document, then in menu: Functions / getGmail
2. Open the Google Sheet, then in menu: Functions / putYoutube

Scheduled playlist update:

For both Google Document and Google Sheet in their Script Editors:

1. In menu: Resources / Current project triggers
2. getGmail (or putYoutube) -> Time driven -> Hour timer -> Every hour
3. Save

(Extra) Link to remove all items:

To remove all playlist items, bookmark the link below and click on it while having the youtube playlist page open.

javascript:(function() { if (confirm('Remove all?')) {var i = window.setInterval(function() {var closeButton = document.querySelector('.pl-video-edit-remove'); if (closeButton) { closeButton.click(); } else { window.clearInterval(i); }}, 500);}})(); (source)

Feedback

Official Reddit Thread