datalars

FreeTube is fantastic, and since it started including support for SponsorBlock, it has become my main way of consuming YouTube content. The only downside being the fact that there is no built-in way to synchronize your setup across computers. By the power of open source, let's fix it!

Ingredients

• Two or more computers
• Software that syncs files from your filesystem (I use Syncthing)
• Symbolic links

If you have a sync solution already set up, syncing your settings is quite simple. FreeTube has a directory that contains all its settings, which can be added to your chosen sync software, then linked into the correct locations. In my case, I wanted sync from the Linux Flatpak version of the app that runs on my personal computer, to my MacBook, and to my work computer which runs Windows. It's also important to note that Syncthing does not follow symbolic links (to avoid infinite recursion issues), so the actual FreeTube settings folder needs to live in your Syncthing directory - then linked out - not the other way around. If your chosen syncing solution syncs directories in-place, then just point it at the correct locations.

• Linux Flatpak settings directory: ~/.var/app/io.freetubeapp.FreeTube/config/FreeTube
• macOS settings directory: ~/Library/Application Support/FreeTube
• Windows settings directory: %appdata%\FreeTube

Simply sync the FreeTube directory, then use a symbolic link to place it in the correct locations:

• Linux: ln -s /path/to/synced/FreeTube/dir ~/.var/app/io.freetubeapp.FreeTube/config/FreeTube
• macOS: ln -s /path/to/synced/FreeTube/dir "~/Library/Application Support/FreeTube"
• Windows: mklink /D %appdata%\FreeTube C:\path\to\synced\FreeTube

This will synchronize all FreeTube settings, watch history and subscriptions across all linked computers.

Note that the operands are flipped between Linux/macOS ln and Windows mklink; *nix ln uses target link_name while Windows mklink uses link_name target (which is great fun when you do this relatively often and always mess up the order).

After some testing with this, I also recommend adding these files to the Syncthing ignore list on each synced client (.stignore in the root of the Syncthing directory):

Cache_Data
SingletonCookie
SingletonLock
SingletonSocket
lockfile

These are session lock and cache files used by FreeTube that will cause sync errors if they are not ignored. Since they are ignored, though, I recommend always cleanly closing FreeTube on each computer after you're done using it - using it on more than one computer at the same time WILL case sync conflicts.