[Feature] Add `Flatten Playlists` option

[Sokis2012]

Describe the bug

1. Click add download
2. Click Discover
3. It loads forever

Describe the expected result

A dialog box pops up asking you which file type you want and other settings

URL

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTR8zrKWyBqhsQCZhAlf_Syg5u6-rG_N6

Download Options

No response

Debugging Information

App: Nickvision Parabolic
Version: 2026.2.4

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10.0.26200
Deployment Mode: Local
Locale: en-US
Running From: C:\Program Files\Nickvision Parabolic\Release

yt-dlp: 2026.2.21
deno: 2.6.9 (stable, release, x86_64-pc-windows-msvc)
ffmpeg: N-122760-g33b215d155-20260216 
aria2: 1.37.0

{
  "Theme": 2,
  "AllowPreviewUpdates": false,
  "TranslationLanguage": "",
  "WindowGeometry": {
    "Height": 1039,
    "IsMaximized": false,
    "Width": 974,
    "X": 953,
    "Y": 0
  },
  "InstalledYtdlpAppVersion": {
    "BaseVersion": "2026.2.21",
    "PreviewLabel": ""
  },
  "ShowDislcaimerOnStartup": false,
  "PreventSuspend": false,
  "OverwriteExistingFiles": true,
  "LimitCharacters": true,
  "IncludeMediaIdInTitle": true,
  "IncludeAutoGeneratedSubtitles": true,
  "PreferredVideoCodec": 0,
  "PreferredAudioCodec": 0,
  "PreferredSubtitleFormat": 0,
  "UsePartFiles": true,
  "YouTubeSponsorBlock": false,
  "SpeedLimit": null,
  "ProxyUrl": "",
  "CookiesBrowser": 0,
  "CookiesPath": "",
  "EmbedMetadata": true,
  "RemoveSourceData": false,
  "EmbedThumbnails": true,
  "CropAudioThumbnails": false,
  "EmbedChapters": true,
  "EmbedSubtitles": true,
  "PostprocessingArguments": [],
  "UseAria": false,
  "YtdlpDiscoveryArgs": "",
  "YtdlpDownloadArgs": "",
  "MaxNumberOfActiveDownloads": 5,
  "PostprocessingThreads": 8,
  "AriaMaxConnectionsPerServer": 16,
  "AriaMinSplitSize": 20
}

{
  "DownloadImmediately": false,
  "FullFileType": 7,
  "AudioOnlyFileType": 7,
  "VideoFormatIds": {
    "Video": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "MP4": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "MKV": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "WEBM": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "MOV": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "AVI": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "Audio": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "MP3": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "M4A": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "OPUS": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "FLAC": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "WAV": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "OGG": "NONE_VIDEO"
  },
  "AudioFormatIds": {
    "Video": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "MP4": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "MKV": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "WEBM": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "MOV": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "AVI": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "Audio": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "MP3": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "M4A": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "OPUS": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "FLAC": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "WAV": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "OGG": "BEST_AUDIO"
  },
  "SplitChapters": false,
  "ExportDescription": false,
  "PostProcessorArgumentName": "",
  "ExportM3U": false,
  "ReverseDownloadOrder": false,
  "NumberTitles": false,
  "SubtitleLanguages": [],
  "AudioBitrate": 1.7976931348623157E+308,
  "VideoResolution": {
    "Width": 2147483647,
    "Height": 2147483647
  },
  "SaveFolder": "C:\\Users\\sokra\\Videos\\Parabolic"
}

Additional context

No response

[Diptesh-Biswal]

Same Issue as @Sokis2012 . I retried after adding cookies from browser but no change in behaviour. Individualy videos are still loading and downloading but playlist is not.

1. Issue has been happening since Release V2026.2.0
2. Release V2025.11.1 did't launch for some reason
3. Release V202.11.0 was the last properly working version

Debug Info

App: Nickvision Parabolic
Version: 2026.2.4

Operating System: GNOME 49 (Flatpak runtime)
Deployment Mode: Flatpak
Locale: en-IN
Running From: /app/lib/org.nickvision.tubeconverter

GTK 4.20.3
libadwaita 1.8.4
yt-dlp: 2026.2.21
deno: 2.6.9 (stable, release, x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
ffmpeg: N-122688-g2e79453549-20260209 
aria2: 1.37.0

{
  "Theme": 2,
  "AllowPreviewUpdates": false,
  "TranslationLanguage": "",
  "WindowGeometry": {
    "Height": 600,
    "IsMaximized": true,
    "Width": 800,
    "X": 10,
    "Y": 10
  },
  "InstalledYtdlpAppVersion": {
    "BaseVersion": "2026.2.21",
    "PreviewLabel": ""
  },
  "ShowDislcaimerOnStartup": false,
  "PreventSuspend": true,
  "OverwriteExistingFiles": true,
  "LimitCharacters": false,
  "IncludeMediaIdInTitle": true,
  "IncludeAutoGeneratedSubtitles": true,
  "PreferredVideoCodec": 3,
  "PreferredAudioCodec": 6,
  "PreferredSubtitleFormat": 0,
  "UsePartFiles": true,
  "YouTubeSponsorBlock": false,
  "SpeedLimit": null,
  "ProxyUrl": "",
  "CookiesBrowser": 0,
  "CookiesPath": "",
  "EmbedMetadata": true,
  "RemoveSourceData": false,
  "EmbedThumbnails": true,
  "CropAudioThumbnails": false,
  "EmbedChapters": true,
  "EmbedSubtitles": true,
  "PostprocessingArguments": [],
  "UseAria": false,
  "YtdlpDiscoveryArgs": "",
  "YtdlpDownloadArgs": "",
  "MaxNumberOfActiveDownloads": 5,
  "PostprocessingThreads": 3,
  "AriaMaxConnectionsPerServer": 16,
  "AriaMinSplitSize": 20
}

{
  "DownloadImmediately": false,
  "FullFileType": 1,
  "AudioOnlyFileType": 7,
  "VideoFormatIds": {
    "Video": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "MP4": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "MKV": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "WEBM": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "MOV": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "AVI": "BEST_VIDEO",
    "Audio": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "MP3": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "M4A": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "OPUS": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "FLAC": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "WAV": "NONE_VIDEO",
    "OGG": "NONE_VIDEO"
  },
  "AudioFormatIds": {
    "Video": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "MP4": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "MKV": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "WEBM": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "MOV": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "AVI": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "Audio": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "MP3": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "M4A": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "OPUS": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "FLAC": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "WAV": "BEST_AUDIO",
    "OGG": "BEST_AUDIO"
  },
  "SplitChapters": false,
  "ExportDescription": false,
  "PostProcessorArgumentName": "",
  "ExportM3U": false,
  "ReverseDownloadOrder": false,
  "NumberTitles": false,
  "SubtitleLanguages": [],
  "AudioBitrate": 1.7976931348623157E+308,
  "VideoResolution": {
    "Width": 2147483647,
    "Height": 2147483647
  },
  "SaveFolder": "/home/lenovo/Downloads"
}

[nlogozzo]

Behavior was changed in the 2026.2.0 series. Parabolic now scans every media in a playlist for it's formats to support the highly requested feature of allowing for subtitle and quality selections within playlists.

Therefore, now, the larger the playlist, the larger the discovery time as yt-dlp runs through each video in a playlist individually one by one to get the available formats and information. You can see this locally if you run yt-dlp --list-formats "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTR8zrKWyBqhsQCZhAlf_Syg5u6-rG_N6".

So yes, a playlist of 100 videos might take 30-60 minutes to discover. And this is expected. I can add a feature to maybe download in the add download dialog to flatten playlists. This will result in the old faster time it took to discover playlists, but you will have no customizations options.

[Diptesh-Biswal]

That would be very helpful thank you!. Also a UI request if you could add a verbose output below the loading circle when we click validate, this would help users unaware of inner working of app to know that parabolic is processing in the background and not stuck or not working.

[nlogozzo]

Also a UI request if you could add a verbose output below the loading circle when we click validate, this would help users unaware of inner working of app to know that parabolic is processing in the background and not stuck or not working.

I would love to, but we don't use --list-formats directly. We use an option that gives us a JSON format to parse and use in code, and when using this option, yt-dlp gives zero output from the beginning of the process to the end. I will look into it to see if I can add it in somehow, but not sure if it is.

[Sokis2012]

it also happens on single videos for me

[nlogozzo]

it also happens on single videos for me

URL?

[Sokis2012]

URL?

Sorry, i just misremembered. it was a mix playlist.

[ad2004teaster-cmyk]

Is it possible to remove the 15–30 second sleep between each operation during the download process? This would help save a significant amount of time.

[nlogozzo]

Is it possible to remove the 15–30 second sleep between each operation during the download process? This would help save a significant amount of time.

We can add an option to turn it off...but you will get IP banned from YouTube quickly. It's there for a reason now

[ad2004teaster-cmyk]

Oh, now I understand why I got blocked while developing my batch script. Thank goodness the ban was a one-time thing and not permanent.