YouTube Auto-Upload Script

PowerShell script that scans a folder for new videos and uploads them to YouTube using the YouTube Data API v3.

Setup

1. Google Cloud Credentials

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a project (or select an existing one)
3. Enable the YouTube Data API v3
4. Go to APIs & Services → Credentials → Create Credentials → OAuth 2.0 Client ID
5. Application type: Desktop app
6. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret

2. Config File

Copy config.example.json to config.json and fill in your values:

{
  "ClientId":            "YOUR_CLIENT_ID.apps.googleusercontent.com",
  "ClientSecret":        "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET",
  "ScanFolder":          "C:\\Videos\\Upload",
  "StateFile":           "uploaded_state.json",
  "TokenFile":           "tokens.json",
  "DefaultPrivacy":      "public",
  "DefaultCategoryId":   "22",
  "SupportedExtensions": [".mp4", ".mkv", ".avi", ".mov", ".wmv", ".flv", ".webm"],
  "LogFile":             "upload_log.txt"
}

YouTube Category IDs (common ones):

ID	Category
1	Film & Animation
2	Autos & Vehicles
10	Music
15	Pets & Animals
17	Sports
20	Gaming
22	People & Blogs
23	Comedy
24	Entertainment
25	News & Politics
26	How-to & Style
27	Education
28	Science & Technology

3. First Run (Authorization)

On first run, the script will open a browser for you to authorize the app. After approval, paste the code back into the terminal. The tokens are saved to tokens.json and reused (with automatic refresh) going forward.

Usage

# Watch mode (scans every 60 seconds)
.\Upload-ToYouTube.ps1

# Scan once and exit
.\Upload-ToYouTube.ps1 -Once

# Custom config and scan interval
.\Upload-ToYouTube.ps1 -ConfigFile "C:\MyConfig.json" -WatchIntervalSeconds 300

Filename Convention

Files are parsed by splitting on _. Fields in order:

[YYYY-MM-DD_]Title of the Video[_tag1,tag2][_public|private|unlisted].ext

Example	Title	Tags	Privacy
My Video.mp4	"My Video"	—	default
2024-03-15_Tutorial on Cooking_food,cooking.mp4	"Tutorial on Cooking"	food, cooking	default
2024-03-15_My Vlog_vlog,daily_private.mp4	"My Vlog"	vlog, daily	private
Gaming Session_gaming,fps_public.mp4	"Gaming Session"	gaming, fps	public

Sidecar Metadata Files

For full control, place a .json file with the same base name as your video. Sidecar values override parsed filename values.

My Video.json:

{
  "Title":       "My Amazing Video: Full Edition",
  "Description": "This is a detailed description of my video.\n\nTimestamps:\n0:00 - Intro",
  "Tags":        ["tag1", "tag2", "tag3"],
  "CategoryId":  "20",
  "Privacy":     "public"
}

State Tracking

Uploaded files are tracked in uploaded_state.json. A file is identified by a hash of its path, size, and modification time — so renaming or editing a file will cause it to be uploaded again.

To re-upload a specific file, remove its entry from uploaded_state.json.