FAQ
Good questions.
Plain answers.
What the tool can fetch, what it cannot, and why a few jobs take longer than others.
Which YouTube links work?
Public video, Shorts, youtu.be, playlist, channel ID, handle, custom channel, and legacy user links are supported. Private, deleted, members-only, or otherwise unavailable videos cannot be fetched.
What counts as a transcript?
BulkTranscripts uses caption tracks YouTube exposes for the video: creator-uploaded captions or automatic captions. It does not transcribe audio and never downloads the video or audio file.
Why did my channel job stop at 500 videos?
Five hundred is the launch limit for one job. It protects the free service from runaway requests. When a source has more, the job explains that only the first 500 were queued.
Why are some results instant?
Every successful caption fetch is cached permanently. If the requested track is already cached, it can be served without a bot check, queue, or new request to YouTube.
Why can a new job take minutes?
New caption requests need pacing. A cold job processes videos steadily and reports each result live. You can bookmark the job page and return later; it does not restart when you refresh.
What do the format choices mean?
Clean TXT removes timestamps. Timestamped TXT adds a time to each caption line. Both-in-one puts clean text first, then a timestamped copy. SRT and VTT are standard subtitle formats.
What happens when my preferred language is missing?
Manual captions in your language are preferred, then automatic captions and available translations. If fallback is enabled, the best available caption track can be used and its language/source is recorded in the manifest.
What is inside a bulk ZIP?
One transcript file per successful video, plus manifest.csv and manifest.json. The manifests include the video, status, track used, and any error class so missing items never vanish silently.
What do “no captions” and “unavailable” mean?
No captions means the video exists but exposes no caption track. Unavailable means YouTube would not make the video playable—often because it is private, deleted, members-only, or region restricted.
What if new transcript fetching is paused?
Cached transcripts keep working. Cold jobs remain queued and resume when the fetch chain recovers or a monthly safety budget resets. The status page tells you which situation applies.
May I republish the transcript?
BulkTranscripts does not grant rights to anyone's words. Public availability is not a copyright license. You are responsible for permission, attribution, fair-use analysis, and any other obligations that apply to your use.
Is BulkTranscripts part of YouTube?
No. BulkTranscripts is an independent utility and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube or Google.