TubeForge

Media Studio — save YouTube (and 1,000+ other sites) as audio or video.

Two native editions that share one design language: a Windows desktop app built with PySide6, and an Android app built with Kotlin.

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Two editions, one app

	Desktop	Android
Platform	Windows 10 / 11, x64	Android 10+ (API 29), arm64-v8a
Version	1.0.8	1.0.1
UI toolkit	PySide6 6.12 (Qt 6)	Kotlin + XML layouts, Material
Download engine	yt-dlp + ffmpeg (bundled)	youtubedl-android 0.17.4 — bundles CPython 3.11, yt-dlp, ffmpeg, ffprobe
Distribution	Per-user Inno Setup installer, 95 MB	Sideloaded APK, 42 MB
Installed size	≈ 235 MB (ffmpeg included)	≈ 75 MB after the first-run unpack
Output folder	Any folder you pick (default Downloads\TubeForge)	Download/TubeForge (shared storage, MediaStore)
Background work	In-app queue, window stays open	Foreground service + progress notification

Same palettes, same sections (Download / Queue / History / Settings), same formats, same one-at-a-time download model. The desktop build additionally has browser-cookie import, drag-and-drop and ffmpeg auto-detection; the Android build adds a share-sheet target and survives leaving the app.

Screenshots

Desktop (Windows)

Download — fetch, preview, choose a format	Queue — progress, speed and ETA
Settings — output, downloads, engine	Themes — Deep Ocean applied live

Android

Download — same format chips, touch layout	Settings — themes, proxy, embedding

Both editions share the eight palettes and the four sections; the Android build uses a bottom navigation bar and full-width cards.

Download

Builds are attached to the repository's Releases page:

Edition	File	Size	SHA-256
Windows	TubeForge-Setup-1.0.8.exe	95 MB	8E75C56D9B010052E57AEAF58446CF64B2CDD149260BFB1AAC52B07CD9F28D71
Android	TubeForge-Android-1.0.1.apk	42 MB	AD07196756CF0897F75406B0BCCC9DF94DE3E137E540F2D8537BA9372D6DC1C5

Verify an APK before installing:

Get-FileHash .\TubeForge-Android-1.0.1.apk -Algorithm SHA256

Neither build has a paid code-signing certificate, so Windows SmartScreen and Android Play Protect may warn that the publisher is unknown. That is expected for self-built software; both builds are safe to allow.

Quick start

1. Paste a link — or on Android, share one into TubeForge from another app.
2. Press Fetch to preview the title, thumbnail, channel and duration.
3. Pick an audio or video format, optionally cap the resolution.
4. Press Download and watch it on the Queue page. Finished files appear in History.

Formats

Audio

Format	Details
MP3	320 kbps, plays everywhere
M4A	AAC audio, Apple-friendly
OPUS	keeps the original opus stream (no re-encode)
FLAC	lossless
WAV	uncompressed PCM

Video

Format	Details
MP4	H.264 + AAC, maximum compatibility
WEBM	VP9 + Opus, smaller files
MKV	best available codecs, flexible container

Video quality: Best available, then 2160p, 1440p, 1080p, 720p, 480p or 360p (Android lists the heights the source actually offers, up to 2160p).

Features

Both editions

• Fetched metadata preview — title, uploader, duration, thumbnail, source chip.
• Sequential queue with live percentage, speed and ETA; cancel queued or running jobs.
• Persistent History with an Open action for finished files.
• Eight themes, applied instantly and remembered: Midnight Violet, Aurora, Sunset Heat, Deep Ocean, Evergreen, Crimson, Graphite (mono), Sepia (mono).
• Optional proxy for region-locked media — http://, https:// or socks5://, with optional user/password.
• Cover art + metadata embedding (toggleable).
• Bundled ffmpeg — no separate install, no PATH setup.
• Errors are cleaned up and shown inline: ANSI noise stripped, tracebacks trimmed to the useful lines.

Desktop only

• Frameless window with accent gradients, animated progress and toasts.
• Retry failed jobs; thumbnail cache; open file or containing folder from History.
• Browser cookies for age-restricted / private / members-only media — Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, or a Netscape cookies.txt. Chromium browsers are briefly closed, their cookie DB snapshotted, then reopened with your tabs.
• Automatic bot-check handling — retries with yt-dlp's browser impersonation (curl_cffi) when a site answers with a Cloudflare challenge.
• Force IPv4 on by default — fixes IPv6 CDN connection stalls on some networks.
• ffmpeg auto-detection with one-click winget install or a manual path picker.
• Drag a link anywhere onto the window to start; custom output folder and file-name template (%(title)s.%(ext)s).

Android only

• Share-sheet target — share a YouTube link from any app and TubeForge prefetches it.
• Foreground service with a live progress notification, so downloads continue while the app is backgrounded or the screen is off.
• Scoped-storage friendly output — files land in Download/TubeForge through MediaStore and show up in the gallery / file manager. No storage permission required on Android 10+.
• Plain-language error hints mapped from engine output — private video, region block, bot check, HTTP 403, out of storage, connection timeout and so on.
• One-tap Update yt-dlp in Settings (fixes most engine breakages after site changes).
• Licences built in — GPL-3.0 plus every bundled component's notice ships inside the APK and is readable from Settings → About → Open-source licences.

Desktop (Windows)

Install

Run TubeForge-Setup-1.0.8.exe. The installer:

• installs for the current user (no administrator prompt) into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\TubeForge,
• bundles ffmpeg and ffprobe, so nothing else is needed,
• adds Start Menu and optional Desktop shortcuts,
• registers in Settings → Apps, where it can be uninstalled.

Uninstalling removes program files and shortcuts but keeps settings, history and your downloaded media.

Files and settings

What	Where
Program	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\TubeForge
Settings / history	%APPDATA%\TubeForge
Default downloads	%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\TubeForge

Build from source

cd desktop
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
python run.py

Python 3.10+ and Windows. Requires the 64-bit CPython build.

.\build.ps1            # -> dist\TubeForge.exe  (PyInstaller)
.\build_installer.ps1  # -> dist\TubeForge-Setup-1.0.8.exe  (Inno Setup 6)

build_installer.ps1 needs Inno Setup 6 and the ffmpeg binaries in vendor\ffmpeg\bin. The 185 MB of ffmpeg binaries are not committed. Download a Windows x64 GPL shared build from BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds (the release used N-128718-gb2b543c079, --enable-gpl --enable-version3) and drop its bin\ and LICENSE.txt into desktop\vendor\ffmpeg\. The icon can be regenerated with python tools\make_icon.py.

Diagnostics in a packaged build (JSON written to %TEMP%):

.\dist\TubeForge.exe --check          # Qt / TLS / SVG / ffmpeg checks
.\dist\TubeForge.exe --download-test  # real MP3 download through the engine
.\dist\TubeForge.exe --ui-test        # window / themes / proxy-card smoke test

Android

Requirements

• Android 10 or newer (API 29).
• arm64-v8a device (the norm for phones since around 2017). The APK is not built for x86 emulators or 32-bit devices.
• ≈ 80 MB free storage for the app plus whatever you download.

Install

1. Copy TubeForge-Android-1.0.1.apk to the phone.
2. Allow "install unknown apps" for the app that opens it, then install.
3. On first launch the engine unpacks CPython and ffmpeg and installs yt-dlp — a few seconds of background work, once per install.
4. Grant the notification permission when asked (Android 13+); it powers the download progress notification.

Over USB with adb:

adb install -r TubeForge-Android-1.0.1.apk

Storage

Finished files are published to Download/TubeForge through MediaStore, so they are visible in the gallery, file managers and USB transfers without any storage permission. Downloads are staged in the app cache and removed once published.

Build from source

Requirements: JDK 17, Android SDK with platform/build-tools 35. The Gradle 8.11.1 wrapper is included. Create local.properties with sdk.dir=… or set ANDROID_HOME.

cd mobile
./gradlew assembleRelease        # Windows: gradlew.bat assembleRelease
# -> app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk

Notes:

• abiFilters = arm64-v8a, minSdk 29, targetSdk 35.
• The release variant is signed with the local debug keystore so it sideloads without extra setup. Replace signingConfig in app/build.gradle.kts with your own keystore before publishing to a store.
• extractNativeLibs=true and jniLibs.useLegacyPackaging=true are required: the engine loads libpython.zip.so / libffmpeg.zip.so from nativeLibraryDir.

Not ported to Android

Browser-cookie import, the ffmpeg path picker, drag-and-drop, custom title bar / taskbar effects and the separate Windows installer are desktop-only by design. Playlists behave the same on both editions: only the first item is used.

Repository layout

This README works for a single repository holding both editions:

README.md               this file
RELEASE-NOTES.md        text for the GitHub Release body
PUBLISHING.md           step-by-step push + release checklist
LICENSE                 GPL-3.0 full text
THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md  every bundled component, version, licence, source
PRIVACY.md              what the app talks to and stores
.gitignore              keeps keystores, local paths and build output out of git
.gitattributes          line endings (gradlew stays LF)
docs/                   screenshots used above
desktop/                PySide6 app (run.py, app/, installer/, tools/)
mobile/                 Kotlin app (gradlew, app/src, tools/)
releases/               the two installers to attach to a GitHub Release (not committed)

If you keep two repositories instead, copy this README, LICENSE, THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md, PRIVACY.md and docs/ into each repo root, and link the other repository from the header.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
"Sign in to confirm you're not a bot"	Desktop retries with impersonation automatically; if it still fails, set Settings → Downloads → Browser cookies to the browser you're signed in to. On Android, press Update yt-dlp first.
"Video not available in your country"	Set a proxy in Settings → Proxy.
Download fails out of nowhere	Site extractors change constantly — update yt-dlp (Android: Settings → Update; desktop: reinstall the latest build).
Desktop says ffmpeg is missing	Settings → Tools → Install with winget, or Locate ffmpeg.exe.
Android downloads stall in the background	Allow notifications for TubeForge so the progress notification stays visible — some OEM builds are aggressive about stopping services whose notification is hidden. Also exclude TubeForge from battery optimisation.
Files "not showing up" on Android	They are in Download/TubeForge. Some gallery apps need a refresh; a file manager will see them immediately.

Licence

TubeForge is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE. That is not a preference: the Android build links youtubedl-android (GPL-3.0) and both builds ship a GPL-enabled ffmpeg, so the combined work has to be GPL-3.0.

In short, you may use, study, share and modify it; if you distribute a build, you must publish the source under the same licence.

Third-party components

The full list, with versions, licences and upstream links, is in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. The highlights:

Component	Licence
yt-dlp	Unlicense
youtubedl-android (Android engine, bundles CPython + yt-dlp + ffmpeg)	GPL-3.0
ffmpeg — desktop N-128718-gb2b543c079, --enable-gpl --enable-version3; Android Termux build	GPL-3.0
PySide6 / Qt 6 (desktop UI)	LGPL-3.0
mutagen (tags, cover art)	GPL-2.0-or-later
curl_cffi (browser impersonation)	MIT
certifi	MPL-2.0
AndroidX + Material Components + Kotlin coroutines	Apache-2.0

On Android the same texts ship inside the APK (assets/licences/NOTICES.txt) and are readable from Settings → About → Open-source licences. Qt/PySide6 is bundled unmodified; the published source and build scripts let anyone swap in a patched Qt and relink.

Source for every binary is published in this repository at the release tag, and the upstream commits for ffmpeg/yt-dlp/youtubedl-android are pinned in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md — that is the GPL-3.0 §6 written offer.

Privacy

No accounts, no analytics, no telemetry, no ads, no author-operated server. Requests go only to the site you download from (plus GitHub for Update yt-dlp), and browser cookies stay on your machine. Details: PRIVACY.md.

Legal and fair use

TubeForge is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube, Google LLC, or any of the sites it can download from. "YouTube" is a trademark of Google LLC and is used here only to describe compatibility.

The tool is a general-purpose downloader, like a web browser's "save as". What you do with it is your responsibility:

• Downloading a video does not grant you a licence to it. Copyright stays with the rightsholder. Keep personal copies only where your local law allows it, and never redistribute, re-upload or monetise someone else's work.
• Downloading may violate a site's Terms of Service even where copyright law permits it. That is a contract question, not a copyright one, and it is between you and the site.
• Do not use it to bypass paywalls, DRM, or access controls. The app has no DRM circumvention of any kind, and it cannot download paid or protected streams.
• If you host a build, respond to valid DMCA/notice-and-takedown requests for content you host. TubeForge hosts no media and contains no catalogue.

If you plan to distribute this in a store (Google Play, Microsoft Store) or commercially, get legal advice first: store policies on downloader apps are stricter than the GPL, and the app's GPL-3.0 engine rules out proprietary redistribution.