Search FAQs

Subtitle search and metadata search work on different information and have different coverage.

• Subtitle search: searches the spoken text represented by a video's subtitles, captions or transcript. Captions are normally crawled according to view-count and other priority criteria, so small channels and low-view videos may be missing. Results can be sorted by relevance, date, views and other options, and exports can include full subtitles.
• Metadata search: searches titles and video details, with filters for channel, detected language, manual subtitle languages, upload dates, views and more. It has no minimum view count and can include videos without collected captions, unlisted or deleted records, and basic metadata for members-only videos. A Partial data icon marks records discovered without a full crawl.

Both support operators such as "exact phrase", |, -word and NEAR/N. In metadata search, the AutoSubs and ManualSubs columns identify the subtitle tracks Filmot has collected. The home page shows the approximate size of each index.

Use subtitle search for dialogue and spoken quotes; use metadata search for titles and other video details, including records without searchable captions.

Filmot searches its own index rather than YouTube in real time. A video can be missing entirely, have only metadata, or have subtitles that do not match your search. A channel being listed does not mean every video or caption track has been collected.

Common reasons include:

• Discovery and indexing delays: new uploads generally take at least a day or two to appear, sometimes longer. A new channel may not be known yet.
• Selective subtitle coverage: subtitle indexing favors more popular videos, so a video with few views may have no indexed subtitles. Metadata search has no minimum view count, so a low-view video may still be listed there.
• Missing or inaccessible captions: Filmot uses subtitles that YouTube generates or hosts; it does not transcribe audio. YouTube may not provide captions, may have disabled them, or may not have generated them yet. Availability also varies by language and by when automatic captions became available. Members-only and age-restricted videos allow collection of basic metadata, but their subtitles cannot be fetched.
• Partial data: a half-star icon marks an incomplete video record, so its title, statistics or subtitles may be missing.
• Different subtitle tracks: automatic and manual subtitles are searched separately. Switch to Search Manual Subtitles if the video has manually uploaded captions. In manual search, setting Attempt Match to Video Language to No can reveal tracks excluded because the spoken language is uncertain.
• Different wording: automatic speech recognition may spell words incorrectly, and Filmot's stored transcript can differ from the current captions on YouTube. Try a shorter quoted phrase, alternatives with |, and fewer filters.
• Title-only wording: subtitle search matches caption text. If the phrase appears only in the title, use Metadata search.
• Deleted or unavailable videos: detected deletions are periodically purged from subtitle search. Stored metadata may still appear in metadata search or on the video's page. Hide and skip unavailable videos on Settings controls the display of unavailable results, but cannot restore purged subtitle matches.

To check a video, paste its ID into the title box in metadata search and inspect AutoSubs and ManualSubs. Each column lists collected subtitle languages; an empty column means no tracks of that type are indexed. Click a language flag to open the transcript. If available, you can also export full subtitles from metadata search within the normal row limits.

To check a channel, select it in metadata search or open its channel page. The home-page and subtitle-search channel lookup only lists channels with searchable subtitles; metadata search, unlisted search and Channel Search include known channels without them.

Patreon supporters can add channels on Prioritized Channels to improve coverage in both indexes regardless of view count. Captions must still exist and be accessible on YouTube.

Filmot cannot collect or index the subtitles, captions or transcripts of age-restricted YouTube videos. Their spoken content is therefore unavailable in subtitle search, although basic metadata may appear in Metadata search.

To inspect a record, paste the video ID into the metadata title box and check AutoSubs and ManualSubs. An empty column means no subtitle tracks of that type are indexed.

Age restriction is determined by YouTube. It is one of several reasons captions can be missing, alongside members-only access, discovery delays, low view counts and captions that YouTube has not made available.

Filmot continues to discover and index publicly accessible YouTube videos. Data is added in ongoing batches, generally roughly every day, rather than in real time or on a guaranteed schedule. A new upload usually takes at least one to two days to appear and can take longer, especially if it is less popular or has not yet been discovered. This delay applies to title and metadata search as well as subtitle search.

Channels are checked for new videos at varying intervals, and there is no fixed schedule. YouTube can also delay making captions available for hours or up to a day after upload, particularly for livestreams.

Patreon supporters can add channels on Prioritized Channels. Once active, a prioritized channel is typically processed within about a day or two, although timing varies and very large channels need approval first. Priority indexing picks up new uploads faster and improves coverage in both metadata and subtitle search, regardless of view count.

Filmot covers only part of YouTube. Subtitle coverage is selective and favors more popular videos; low-view videos may never enter subtitle search without channel priority. Metadata search has no minimum view count, but each video must still be discovered. The home page shows the current totals for both indexes. Use Metadata search to check a channel's videos and its AutoSubs and ManualSubs columns to see which captions have been collected.

Filmot indexes individual YouTube videos, so a channel can be listed while some of its videos are missing or have no searchable subtitles. Coverage is substantial but incomplete: Filmot cannot collect and index the captions of every video on YouTube.

Subtitle search and metadata search have different indexing criteria:

• Subtitle search: coverage is selective and favors more popular videos, and the priorities can change over time. Videos with few views may therefore have no indexed subtitles, captions or transcripts.
• Metadata search: there is no minimum view count. Filmot collects the video details it can discover, including records without subtitles. A half-star Partial data icon marks videos that were found but never fully crawled.

Patreon supporters can add channels on Prioritized Channels. Their videos are indexed regardless of view count, improving coverage in both indexes. The available slots depend on tier: Official Patron 1, Silver Patron 4 and VIP Patron 15. Captions must still be available and accessible on YouTube; priority indexing does not generate transcripts or provide access to restricted content.

To inspect a channel's coverage, select it in Metadata search. The AutoSubs and ManualSubs columns show which subtitle languages Filmot has collected for each video.

You can look up one video or check a list of YouTube video IDs against Filmot's stored index.

• One video: open /video/ followed by its 11-character video ID. Entering that ID alone in Filmot's main search box also opens the video page when Filmot knows it. Use the ID rather than the full URL for this shortcut.
• One or several videos in metadata search: paste video IDs or YouTube links into the title box on Metadata search, separated by spaces or commas. Filmot lists the matching records it has.
• A channel: open /channel/ followed by its UC channel ID to view its known videos.

In metadata results, AutoSubs and ManualSubs show the languages of collected subtitle tracks. Click a language flag to open the captions or transcript. An empty column means no subtitles of that type are indexed. A half-star Partial data icon means the video was discovered but never fully crawled. If no record is returned, Filmot has no matching video in its index.

To check a long list, export the matching metadata and compare its video IDs with your original list. IDs fit into URL length limits more efficiently than full links. Metadata exports contain up to 100 rows without patron benefits or 10,000 with them, reduced to 2,500 if full subtitles are included, so large lists may need several batches.

To search within one video's transcript, open its video page or click a subtitle-language link, then use your browser's Find function, such as Ctrl+F on a computer or Find in page on a phone or tablet. You can also narrow subtitle search by channel and title until only that video matches. On mobile, entering the video ID works the same way; YouTube's own transcript view may also be accessible through your browser's desktop mode.

Captions can be absent because they do not exist on YouTube, are inaccessible, or were never crawled.

Select the channel in Metadata search, or find it through Channel Search and open its Filmot channel page. These listings show the videos Filmot has discovered; they do not guarantee complete coverage of every upload.

In metadata results, AutoSubs and ManualSubs list the subtitle languages collected for each video. An empty column means no captions of that type are indexed. A half-star Partial data icon identifies an incomplete video record.

On a channel page, Metadata/Sort opens that channel's videos in metadata search ordered by upload date, view count or duration. You can also sort the metadata table by Last fetch in either direction. This indicates when Filmot last encountered information about the video; it does not necessarily mean that its statistics or subtitles were updated then, or that this was its first indexing date.

If the channel is missing from subtitle lookup, try metadata search instead. The home-page and subtitle-search lookup only includes channels with searchable captions; metadata and unlisted search include known channels without them.

Patreon supporters can submit a channel on Prioritized Channels for better coverage. If it is already in the priority list, the page says so and does not add it again; otherwise it is placed in the priority queue.

A half-star Partial data icon indicates that Filmot has an incomplete record of a video. Some records contain a video ID, channel ID, upload date or view count but lack a title, other statistics or subtitles.

You can see the icon on channel pages and in metadata search results. Metadata search includes incomplete records it has discovered, even if no subtitles are available; subtitle search is more selective. Videos not discovered by Filmot will not appear at all.

Patreon supporters can add channels on Prioritized Channels to improve coverage, but prioritization cannot make inaccessible videos or missing captions available.

No. Filmot searches existing subtitles, captions and transcripts supplied through YouTube, including those uploaded by creators. It does not generate captions from audio or perform speech-to-text transcription.

A video without an indexed subtitle track may still appear in Metadata search by title, channel or other details. Patreon supporters can prioritize channels for broader coverage, but prioritization cannot create captions that do not exist.

YouTube's regional restrictions can prevent Filmot's crawler from accessing a video. When access is blocked by a geographic restriction, Filmot may be unable to collect its data or subtitles, so the video can be missing from search results.

These access restrictions are imposed by YouTube. A video being playable in your region does not necessarily mean it was accessible to Filmot when the crawler tried to fetch it.

Yes. Filmot indexes YouTube livestreams and live broadcasts with accessible captions, using the same general criteria as regular uploaded videos.

Subtitle crawling is normally prioritized by view count, so a stream with few views may not have its subtitles, captions or transcript indexed. Metadata search has no minimum view count and may still list the stream by title or channel even when no captions are searchable.

Captions must exist on YouTube. YouTube can make a livestream's subtitles available several hours, or up to a day, after the stream, and Filmot's own crawling is not instantaneous. New videos generally take at least a day or two to be discovered and processed.

Patreon supporters can add the channel on Prioritized Channels to improve indexing speed and coverage in both subtitle and metadata search, regardless of view count.

Filmot began collecting YouTube information around September 2018. That is a collection start date, not an upload-date cutoff: older videos may be indexed if they were accessible when Filmot encountered them.

Coverage is incomplete. Filmot generally cannot supply details for a video that became unavailable before it first collected those details. Subtitle indexing is selective; metadata search has no minimum view count but can only show records Filmot has discovered.

Use Channel Search to inspect known videos from a channel. A video's Filmot page shows available stored metadata and subtitles, but Filmot does not store a video or audio copy.

The Filmot home page displays approximate totals for its subtitle and metadata indexes. These totals differ because metadata search includes many videos without searchable captions, while subtitle search covers videos with indexed subtitle text.

Filmot stores text metadata and available captions or transcripts, not video or audio files. Coverage is incomplete: subtitle indexing is selective, while metadata search has no minimum view count and includes records Filmot discovers.

Filmot does not provide a public discovery-source history for individual videos or channels.

Patreon supporters can add channels to the priority indexing queue on Prioritized Channels. Sign in with your linked Patreon account, search for a channel by name and select a suggestion, or paste @handles or UC channel IDs. You can also submit a list. A channel does not need to be in Filmot already, but it must still be accessible on YouTube.

Priority indexing includes the channel's videos regardless of view count and picks up new uploads faster. It improves coverage in both subtitle search and metadata search, particularly for smaller channels whose videos would not normally meet the subtitle crawling threshold. Supporting Filmot does not automatically prioritize a channel: you need to add it to your list. Captions must still exist on YouTube and be accessible for Filmot to collect them; prioritization cannot create missing subtitles or guarantee discovery of every unlisted video.

The number of channels you can keep active at once depends on your tier:

• Official Patron: 1 channel.
• Silver Patron: 4 channels.
• VIP Patron: 15 channels.

The page shows your quota and remaining slots. Very large channels may require additional review before they are added.

To change your selection, remove a channel from the list to free a slot, then add another. Videos already indexed remain in Filmot; future uploads from the removed channel follow the normal indexing criteria without priority. Priority affects indexing speed and coverage, rather than the channel's ranking in search results.