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AI-generated summary
You know that moment when you come across an interesting YouTube video but don’t have time to watch it? Or you want to save it for a relaxed viewing session on the TV in the evening? I had this problem and found a solution that works perfectly for me using Metube , my Synology, and Apple’s Shortcuts app.
The problem
YouTube is great for discovering content, but it’s also a time sink. Between recommendations and ads, you end up scrolling for hours instead of watching what you actually wanted. And watching on your phone is fine, but on a proper TV it’s just better, right?
I wanted to:
- Save a video in one click when I find it
- Find it in the evening on my Apple TV via Plex
- Not expose any service to the internet (I’m a bit paranoid about that)
The solution: Metube on Synology
Metube is a web interface for yt-dlp (the successor to youtube-dl). Basically it’s a minimalist web page where you paste a YouTube URL and it downloads the video to your server. Simple, effective, open source.
I installed Metube via Container Manager on my Synology. The installation is really straightforward — you grab the alexta69/metube Docker image and configure a volume that points to a folder on your NAS.
And here’s where the magic happens: I configured that destination folder to be indexed by Plex. So as soon as a video is downloaded, Plex detects it and adds it to my library automatically.
Automation with Shortcuts
Where it gets really handy is with Apple’s Shortcuts app. There’s an official Metube shortcut that lets you send a URL directly to your instance from the share sheet.
The workflow is dead simple:
- You come across a YouTube video that interests you
- You tap Share → Metube
- The shortcut sends the URL to your Metube instance
- The video downloads to your Synology
- Plex indexes it automatically
- In the evening you find it on your Apple TV 📺
No more needing to remember that video — it’s waiting for you in your Plex library.
What about security?
I haven’t exposed my Metube instance to the internet. I have no desire to open yet another service to the whole world. So when I’m away from home, I connect via my WireGuard VPN and access Metube as if I were at home.
It’s a small extra friction (activating the VPN before using the shortcut) but it suits me perfectly. Most of the time I’m at home when I’m doing my YouTube browsing anyway, so it’s not an issue.
To wrap up
This solution lets me take back control over my YouTube video consumption. I’m no longer a slave to the recommendation algorithm — I choose what I want to watch and when I want to watch it. All hosted at home, with no dependency on a cloud service.
If you have a Synology (or any server capable of running Docker) and you use Plex, I really recommend trying this out. Setup takes 10 minutes, and the daily comfort it brings is genuinely appreciated.
Questions about the setup? Feel free to reach out.
