Search FAQs

Wrap the phrase in double quotes, for example "gravitational waves". Filmot then looks for those words as an exact, ordered phrase or quoted phrase, instead of matching each word separately. Without quotes, gravitational waves only requires both words to appear somewhere in the transcript. More examples: "general relativity", "polymerase chain reaction" and "standard model of particle physics". To accept alternatives, combine phrases with |, for example "dark matter" | "dark energy".

If the words only need to be close to each other, use a proximity search such as "vaccine efficacy"~5. Put a quoted phrase directly followed by ~ and a number: it finds the words in any order, with up to that many words in between.

Yes, you can look a video up, search or find it by its ID or link instead of keywords:

• On metadata search, paste one or more video IDs or YouTube video links into the title box, separated by spaces or commas. Filmot lists the matching videos it knows.
• In the search box, enter just the 11-character video ID. If Filmot has the video, you go straight to its video page. Use the ID only, not the full link.
• You can also open a video's page directly at /video/ followed by the video ID.

The video page shows the video's metadata, or video details, and any available subtitles, captions or transcripts.

Yes. In subtitle search, use the Video Title field under Filters to combine title words with spoken subtitle, caption or transcript words. A matching video must satisfy both conditions. For title search without a subtitle query, use Metadata search, which also supports channel, language, date and other filters.

Subtitle and metadata searches have separate result sets. Each search removes duplicate video results within its own set, but Filmot does not deduplicate across two separate searches. A video that matches both can therefore appear in both result lists or in alerts from two saved searches.

If you need one list without that overlap, use a single subtitle search with a title filter when both conditions are required. Separate saved searches can still notify you about the same video.

Dates are not set with operators typed into the search box. The search syntax help lists no date operators. Use the date fields in the Filters section of the left sidebar instead. They are on both subtitle search and metadata search.

1. Enter the upload "from" and "to" dates. Alternatively, open the More menu and pick Today, This Week, This Month or This Year to set the range quickly.
2. Click Update.

The range applies to each video's upload date. Dates are chosen in the sidebar fields rather than typed as search operators.

Filmot has no dedicated filter that removes or leaves out YouTube Shorts, because not all videos in the index have a reliable indicator of whether they are a Short.

As an approximation, Metadata search has a video duration filter, so you can restrict results or matches by video length. Because it only looks at length, it is not a precise Shorts filter.

Filmot supports keyword, Boolean, phrase and proximity operators in subtitle search and title expressions. Click the ? icon beside the search box to open the Search Syntax Cheat Sheet.

• Spaces: require all terms, though they need not be adjacent. Example: CRISPR gene editing. Do not type AND; it is treated as an ordinary search word.
• OR, written as |: match alternatives, such as "dark matter" | "dark energy".
• Double quotes: match an exact ordered phrase, such as "gravitational waves".
• Parentheses: group conditions, such as "stem cells" (therapy | treatment) or (CRISPR | "gene editing") ("sickle cell" | "cystic fibrosis").
• "w1 w2"~N: match words near each other in any order, such as "vaccine efficacy"~5.
• NEAR/N: match nearby terms, phrases or groups, such as "black hole" NEAR/10 "event horizon".
• NOTNEAR/N: match the first term without the second nearby, such as radiation NOTNEAR/100 microwave. The maximum distance is 500.
• * inside a quoted phrase: stand for exactly one word, such as "basic * spectroscopy".
• -word: exclude every video containing that word, such as quantum -computing. A query containing only excluded terms is invalid.
• Caption placeholders: search #FUCK# for censored words, or sound labels such as #Laughter#, #Music# and #Applause#.

The same operators work in the Video Title field under subtitle-search filters and in the title box on Metadata search.

Put a minus sign immediately before a word, such as quantum -computing. Filmot then excludes every video whose searchable transcript contains "computing", even if the word appears only once in an unrelated passage. You can exclude several terms or combine them with a phrase, for example neuroscience -psychology -self-help or "nuclear fusion" -fission.

A query needs at least one positive search term; a query consisting only of excluded words is invalid.

To exclude words in video titles, use the Video Title field under Filters in subtitle search, or the title box in Metadata search. Those fields support the same operators.

If you want to avoid a term near a match rather than reject the whole transcript, use NOTNEAR/N, with a distance up to 500. Examples include radiation NOTNEAR/100 microwave and "nuclear energy" NOTNEAR/60 weapons. The Search Syntax Cheat Sheet provides more examples.

Filmot supports proximity searches and a one-word wildcard inside quoted phrases. Open the Search Syntax Cheat Sheet with the ? icon next to the search box for more examples.

• "w1 w2"~N: finds the words in any order, with up to N words between them. Put ~ and the number directly after the closing quote, for example "vaccine efficacy"~5 or "tumor suppressor"~3.
• w1 NEAR/N w2: finds two terms within N words of each other, in any order, with a distance up to 500. It also accepts quoted phrases and grouped alternatives, for example "black hole" NEAR/10 "event horizon" or ("dopamine" | "serotonin") NEAR/10 ("receptor" | "pathway").
• "w1 * w2": inside a quoted phrase, * stands for exactly one word. "observed * decay" can match "observed radioactive decay" or "observed beta decay". Use additional asterisks for a longer gap, or combine alternatives: "basic * spectroscopy" | "basic * * spectroscopy".

To exclude a nearby term instead, use w1 NOTNEAR/N w2. For example, radiation NOTNEAR/100 microwave finds occurrences of "radiation" without "microwave" within that distance.

Use parentheses to group alternatives and combine them with other conditions. Terms separated by spaces are all required, while | accepts at least one alternative.

Examples:

• "stem cells" (therapy | treatment | transplant): match the phrase together with any of those clinical terms.
• (CRISPR | "gene editing") ("sickle cell" | "cystic fibrosis"): match a gene-editing term and one of the disease expressions.
• ("deep learning" | "neural network") (protein | genomics) -tutorial: combine AI and biology terms while excluding videos containing "tutorial".

Groups also work with proximity searches, such as ("dopamine" | "serotonin") NEAR/10 ("receptor" | "pathway"). Title fields accept the same syntax.

List the word forms you want with the OR operator |. For example, run | running | runner matches any of those forms. This also helps with spelling variants and automatic-caption transcription differences, such as "mRNA" | "messenger RNA" | "messenger R.N.A." or "CO2" | "carbon dioxide" | "CO 2".

The documented search syntax does not provide a word-ending wildcard such as run*. Its * wildcard works inside a quoted phrase and stands for exactly one word. For example, "observed * decay" matches a word between "observed" and "decay". Use more asterisks for longer gaps, or combine alternatives: "basic * spectroscopy" | "basic * * spectroscopy" | "basic * * * spectroscopy".

Open the ? help icon beside the search box for the complete operator list and examples.

Filmot does not provide unrestricted regular-expression or regex search across its full subtitle database. Use the supported search operators and metadata filters to narrow the results instead.

You can match exact phrases in double quotes, list alternatives with |, exclude terms with -word, group conditions with parentheses, use * for one word inside a quoted phrase, and search nearby terms with proximity or NEAR operators. Channel, upload date and other filters can further restrict the matching videos.

For example, "CRISPR cas9" | "CRISPR-Cas9" | "CRISPR Cas 9" searches several spelling or transcription variants. The ? icon beside the search box opens the syntax guide with additional examples.

YouTube's automatic captions sometimes replace a censored word with [ __ ]. Filmot indexes that position using the marker #FUCK#. Search for #FUCK# to find those positions; it does not reveal the original words.

For example, #FUCK# NEAR/5 #Laughter# looks for a censored marker near a laughter caption. The search marker is the same across subtitle languages, but the words censored and the available caption versions can differ.

Yes. Filmot indexes descriptive caption labels using placeholders such as #Laughter#, #Music# and #Applause#. Search them like ordinary terms, alone or combined with other words. For example, "#FUCK# #Laughter#"~10 finds censored positions near laughter.

Sound labels depend on the subtitle language, and YouTube's wording can change over time. Italian tracks may use #Risate#, #Musica# and #Applauso#. The censored-word placeholder #FUCK# is the exception: Filmot uses the same marker in every language.

In manual subtitle search, Attempt Match to Video Language tries to keep subtitle tracks that match the language spoken in the video. A video may have several manually uploaded tracks, including translations, and Filmot cannot always tell which one represents the audio.

The filter assumes a match when:

• There is one manual subtitle track and no automatic captions.
• A manual track has the same language as the video's automatic subtitles.

Ambiguous cases, such as several manual languages with no automatic captions, can be excluded. This can hide a video even when its manual transcript contains your search term.

To include those tracks, click the Attempt Match to Video Language: Yes tag above the results and switch it to No. Also confirm that you are running Search Manual Subtitles rather than automatic subtitle search, since the two indexes are searched separately.