YouTube subtitles no longer automatically added

 Until recently, when you created an Amara page by inserting the URL of a YouTube video in the Subtitle video form, if the YouTube video already had human-made closed-caption subtitles, they automatically got added to the created Amra page.


Unfortunately, the YouTube system has changed and you now have to be logged in, i.e. to have your Amara and YouTube channels synced up, in order for Amara to get access to the subtitles.


This means you can only have the subtitles of your own YouTube videos automatically added to Amara. And you should accurately examine the implications of syncing your YouTube channel to Amara before choosing to do so: for instance, are you OK with having your unlisted YouTube videos appearing in Amara pages that are indexed by search engines? Are you willing to take the - tiny but not inexistent - risk of a vandal misusing this syncing to add idiotic (or worse) pseudo-subtitles to your YouTube videos?


Fortunately, there is a workaround: google2srt is a desktop java applet that works with all operating systems and enables you to download the closed-caption subtitles of all YouTube videos (including automatic captions). You can then upload them manually to the Amara page for the pertinent YouTube video.


Happy captioning/subtitling


Claude Almansi


Hmm, the update is not very convenient, but fortunately there are workarounds such as google2srt. Thanks for the useful information






Website Development Dubai 

Thank you, Olivia. Google2srt works on my computer for most YouTube videos, but not all: do you know why? When google2srt doesn' workt, often downsub.com does.

If neither works:
  • request transcript via the "More... list" under the YouTube video,
  • use "Toggle timestamps" in the 3 vertical dots in the transcript to remove them
  • copy the resulting transcript
  • paste in a txt tfile

Unfortunately, it won't have empty lines to separate the subtitles, so you cannot upload it as a plain transcript to Amara. But you'll still be able copy-paste from it. With longish videos, it can be worth it.

 

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