The Import videos page is where you find videos on YouTube and import exactly the ones you want. Open Videos → Import videos. The left column holds the search form, your saved feeds and the import settings; the results appear on the right.
The page has two tabs: Search YouTube and My YouTube.
Load a feed
Fill in the Search box and click Load feed.
Feed type
- Search query feed — searches YouTube.
- Channel uploads feed — every public video of a channel.
- User feed — the uploads of a user.
- Playlist feed — a YouTube playlist.
Search by
The search query, the playlist ID or — for channels and users — the channel ID (UC…), the handle (@name), the username or the channel URL. Don’t know the ID? Use Tools → Channel ID, linked right under the field.
Video duration and Order by
Limit search results to short (under 4 minutes), medium (4–20 minutes) or long (over 20 minutes) videos, and order them by date, rating, relevance, title or number of views. The number of results per page is set in Import options.
The page remembers where you are: the feed and the page are written in the address, so the browser’s Back and Forward buttons, reloading or a bookmark bring back the same results. Pages you already loaded come back without using API quota again, and when you open the page from the menu a Continue with link reloads the last feed.
Browse and preview
Results show as cards — thumbnail, duration, channel, views and publish date — or as a list (switch with the icons above the results). The page counter shows where you are, for example “Page 6 of 352”.
- Short labels mark YouTube Shorts.
- Already imported marks videos that are on your site, with a link to their post.
- Every card shows the channel with a Load channel videos link; a Back to link returns to the results you had before.
Click a card’s image to open the preview: the video plays from youtube-nocookie.com (no API quota used), with its full description and buttons to Select for import, Load channel videos, Save channel or Open on YouTube. Use the arrow keys for the previous or next video, S to select, Esc to close.
Select videos
Click a card to select it, or use Select all in the Import settings box. Your selection is kept when you change the page and when you load another feed, so you can collect videos from searches, playlists and channels and import them together. The selected videos are listed above the Import videos button, where you can remove them one by one or Clear selection.
Click Edit on a card to change the title and description that will be imported.
When the import settings hide Shorts or already imported videos, a message above the results tells you how many are hidden on the page, with a button to show them.
Import settings
- Hide YouTube Shorts and Hide the videos already imported — remembered for your user.
- Import as post type — Videos or regular posts; when a compatible video theme is active you can import as posts compatible with it.
- Import into category, Import with tags and Import as user (the author, shown when several users can publish).
- Post status — Published, Draft or Pending review. It starts with the default from Import options; drafts and pending posts let an editor check the videos first.
Click Import videos. Videos are imported in batches of 25, in feed order, with the progress shown. At the end you get a summary — imported, not found, skipped because they were already imported, and videos that could not be imported, such as unlisted videos when unlisted videos are not allowed.
Save feeds and create automatic imports
- Save this feed (under Load feed) saves the channel, playlist or search you loaded; the preview’s Save channel saves a video’s channel. The Saved feeds box loads them again with one click and shows the automatic import of each channel and playlist.
- For a channel, user or playlist, the Automatic import box creates an automatic import of the loaded feed with the import settings you chose — post type, categories, author, status and “Skip YouTube Shorts” when Shorts are hidden. Check Start importing right away to add it to the import queue, or save it outside the queue and review it first. When the feed already has an automatic import, the box links to it instead.
My YouTube
When the plugin is connected through OAuth, the My YouTube tab lists the playlists, channels and subscriptions of your account — private and unlisted playlists included, with a label. Load one to import its videos or create an automatic import for it. Private videos inside a playlist are still skipped, and an automatic import of a private playlist works only while the plugin stays connected through OAuth.
Want a single video instead? See single video import.