Search FAQs

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 indexes publicly accessible information about YouTube videos; it does not provide access to private video or audio files or maintain private, account-only indexes.

Coverage depends on the video's status and what Filmot previously collected:

• Private videos: Filmot cannot access or collect metadata for private videos. Metadata collected while a video was publicly accessible may remain in its historical index.
• Unlisted videos: Filmot has incomplete coverage. Unlisted Video Search shows known records, but channel prioritization cannot guarantee discovery of every unlisted video. To be discovered the unlisted video needs to have been public at a previous time or the id should have been linked or listed somewhere (playlist, other site or forum, etc). There is no general way to discover unlisted videos.
• Deleted videos: previously collected metadata may remain, although detected deletions are periodically removed from subtitle search. Filmot cannot retrieve details it never collected and are no longer on YouTube.
• Members-only and age-restricted videos: basic metadata may appear in Metadata search, but subtitles for such videos cannot be collected for search.

Historical records may differ from a video's current status on YouTube and do not establish permission to redistribute content. Hide and skip unavailable videos in Settings changes which results are displayed.

Filmot cannot restore, download or provide the video or audio files of a deleted video or terminated channel. It may retain metadata and subtitles collected while videos were accessible, but those records are not copies of the footage.

You can search for a reupload by title in metadata search or by a distinctive quote in subtitle search. The IA links on video listings also let you check the Internet Archive for independently archived material. When an archived copy is available, Try Playing from Archive.org may offer playback; a working copy is not guaranteed.

Filmot cannot collect missing details from an inaccessible video. Archived or historical information may be outdated if present.

Yes, if Filmot already holds a record for that video. Filmot does not retrieve missing historical metadata from YouTube on demand. A stored title, channel or upload date can remain after a video is removed from YouTube or becomes private, but it may be outdated or incomplete.

To check a video ID:

• Open /video/ followed by the ID.
• Paste one or more IDs into the title box in Metadata search, separated by spaces or commas.
• Use the getvideos endpoint of the public API with an API key.

An ID alone cannot reconstruct information Filmot never collected.

Filmot Title Restorer is an optional browser userscript that displays historical titles and thumbnails for supported video IDs inside YouTube playlists. It uses metadata previously collected by Filmot.

Open Title Restorer under More and follow the Script Page link. Installation requires a userscript manager such as Tampermonkey; review the extension's permissions before installing it.

The script works only for records Filmot already knows. It does not recover video or audio, reconstruct playlists or create missing metadata. To request review of sensitive or outdated stored information, use the contact form.

Filmot may retain metadata collected while a video was publicly accessible even if the video is later deleted or made private. Availability changes can take time to appear in Filmot, so historical records do not necessarily reflect the video's current YouTube status.

Videos detected as deleted are periodically removed from subtitle search, but some previously collected details may remain on video or metadata pages. Removing a result from subtitle search is not the same as deleting the underlying stored record.

You can change the display of videos that appear unavailable:

• Subtitle search: in Settings, set Hide and skip unavailable videos to Yes, No or Unavailable Only.
• Metadata search and channel pages: use Filter videos to choose Available or Unavailable. The Metadata videos filter setting controls the initial selection.

Availability detection is not definitive, and some filters affect only the currently displayed page. These settings change what you see; they do not delete records or recover videos.

To request review or removal of stored information, use the contact form. A request can address Filmot's public pages and future API responses or exports, but Filmot cannot recall files already downloaded by third parties.

No. Filmot's coverage of unlisted videos is incomplete. Videos that were never publicly shared may not be known to Filmot, and prioritizing a channel does not guarantee discovery of all its unlisted uploads.

An unlisted video is not necessarily intended for unrestricted distribution. Filmot's recorded availability may also differ from the video's current status on YouTube.

Use Unlisted Video Search to browse known records. To request review or removal of a record, use the contact form.

Filmot cannot retrieve member-only video footage or subtitles. Basic details may appear in Metadata search, but subtitles for restricted videos are not available for new collection.

If a video later becomes publicly accessible, its captions may still be missing from Filmot until the record is updated. To check, search for the video by ID, title or channel and inspect the AutoSubs and ManualSubs columns. A later update is not guaranteed, and there is no individual-video reindexing request feature.

Age-restricted videos have similar limitations on subtitle collection.

Yes. In metadata search, unlisted video search and channel listings, a video's title opens its Filmot video page, including the side-by-side subtitle view when tracks are available. The title link works the same way for available and unavailable videos.

A separate arrow link opens the video on YouTube. The IA link opens its Internet Archive or Wayback Machine record; an archived copy is available only for some videos.

Filmot can index information only while it is accessible to the service. If a deleted, private or terminated-channel video became unavailable before Filmot collected its details, Filmot cannot reconstruct its missing title, subtitles or other metadata from its ID alone.

Filmot does not accept user-submitted historical records for addition to the index. To check an existing record, select the channel in Metadata search; a half-star Partial data icon indicates an incomplete record.

The IA links in video listings let you check for independently archived copies on the Internet Archive. Filmot does not store the video or audio files. For videos still publicly accessible, Patreon supporters can use Prioritized Channels to improve indexing coverage.

No. Filmot does not accept uploaded, crowdsourced or otherwise user-submitted subtitles, captions or transcripts. It indexes caption data collected from publicly accessible YouTube videos.

This also applies to transcripts from members-only or other non-public videos. Filmot cannot fetch their captions, and supplying a transcript yourself does not add it to the index. Basic metadata for members-only and age-restricted videos may still appear in Metadata search.

Send a channel-data removal request through the contact form, identifying the channel and the records you want reviewed.

Filmot may request reasonable verification that you own the channel or are authorized to act for it. If the channel was deleted or you no longer have access, explain that in your request. Please do not send passwords or identity documents in your initial message; Filmot will explain if additional verification is needed.

You do not need to own a channel to raise a privacy or copyright concern about specific information. These requests are assessed separately and may result in removal or other appropriate action, depending on the circumstances.

Removing a record from Filmot does not remove it from YouTube, the Internet Archive or other independent services.