Why? YouTube limits access to some content (age-restricted, members-only, mixes, large playlists) unless you're signed in. By uploading your browser cookies, the downloader can act as your logged-in session — no password is ever sent or stored.
How to export cookies (one-time, takes ~30 seconds):
- Install the Get cookies.txt LOCALLY extension:
Chrome / Edge / Brave |
Firefox
- Open youtube.com and sign in to your Google account.
- Click the extension icon while on YouTube and choose "Export" (or "Current Site"). A file named
cookies.txt will be downloaded.
- Come back here, click USE COOKIES FILE, select the downloaded
cookies.txt, and you're done.
Your cookies are stored on the server for 7 days and remembered across browser refreshes. Click CLEAR COOKIES to remove them at any time. Re-export if YouTube rotates your session.