How can the full duration time of a youtube playlist be obtained?

The total duration of a YouTube playlist can be found by adding up the lengths of each video in the playlist. This can be done manually or using various YouTube tools and third party applications.

Manually Calculating Playlist Duration

The most straightforward way to get the total duration is to manually look at each video’s length and add them up. Here are the steps:

1. Open the YouTube playlist you want to check.
2. Click on the first video in the playlist to open it.
3. Look at the video length shown below the player.
4. Note down the length in minutes and seconds.
5. Return to playlist and repeat for every video.
6. Once you have noted all video lengths, add them up to get total duration.

This manual method can be tedious for long playlists. But it ensures accuracy if you carefully note and add up each video length.

Using YouTube’s Playlist Settings

YouTube provides a playlist settings option to see some basic stats, including total duration. Here’s how to use it:

1. Open the playlist and click on the “Settings” icon (a gear symbol).
2. In the Playlist Settings pop-up, scroll down to see stats.
3. Look for “Duration” – this shows total playlist duration.

This is easier than manual calculation. However, the total duration shown rounds off to nearest hour. So it lacks precision for shorter playlists.

Using YouTube Studio

Channel owners can see detailed playlist stats in YouTube Studio. Follow these steps:

1. Go to YouTube Studio and select “Playlists” from left sidebar.
2. Find the playlist and click on it to open details page.
3. Scroll down to see playlist stats.
4. Look for “Total duration” – shows precise total duration.

This method allows extracting the exact total duration. But you need access to YouTube Studio to view these analytics.

Using Third Party Tools

Several third party tools and browser extensions can find YouTube playlist duration. Some popular options:

• Playlist Duration Calculator – Online tool to get total playlist duration.
• TubeBuddy – Browser extension providing YouTube analytics.
• VidIQ – Extension for YouTube analysis and tracking.

These tools analyze playlist data to show precise total duration. Useful for public playlists. May require signup or subscription.

Using YouTube API

For developers, the YouTube API can be used to get playlist duration programmatically. Steps:

1. Enable YouTube API in Google Cloud Console.
2. Generate API key to authenticate requests.
3. Send API request to retrieve playlist details.
4. Parse response to extract total duration.
5. Sum up individual video durations to get total.

This method requires coding knowledge. But allows extracting duration through automation for any playlist.

Using YouTube DL

YouTube DL is a popular command line tool to download YouTube videos. It can also print playlist details including total duration. Here is the command:

youtube-dl -j --flat-playlist URL

This prints out a JSON output containing total playlist duration. Requires installing and using YouTube DL tool.

Browser Extensions

Some browser extensions like ‘Video Speed Controller’ allow viewing total playlist time. After installing:

1. Open YouTube playlist.
2. The extension icon shows total videos and duration.
3. Click the extension icon to view playlist summary with duration.

Easy way to get duration but needs a supporting browser extension installed first.

Using iTunes

If you add the YouTube playlist to iTunes library, the total duration gets calculated. Steps:

1. Install iTunes on your computer.
2. Open the playlist URL in Safari or Internet Explorer.
3. Click “Add Playlist to Library” option to import.
4. In iTunes, check playlist info to see total duration.

This method only works on desktop apps like iTunes. Duration gets imported along with playlist.

Using Online Converters

Some online tools allow converting a YouTube playlist to MP3 format. The total duration gets shown after conversion. For example:

1. Go to YTMP3.cc and enter playlist URL.
2. Click convert – total duration is shown.
3. Alternately, use services like YT1s.com to see duration.

Easy way to view duration but requires using a converter service and quality may vary.

Using Server-Side Solutions

For apps and sites needing playlist stats, server-side solutions can retrieve duration:

• Use YouTube Data API to pull playlist data.
• Retrieve playlist and video details to calculate duration.
• Store in database for faster lookup.
• Alternately use Puppeteer to scrape playlist webpage.

Requires coding and infrastructure but allows reliably extracting playlist duration.

Using Mobile Apps

Some mobile apps can show YouTube playlist duration when logged in:

• YouTube Music shows playlist duration in playlist view.
• TubeX – Third party Android app providing playlist stats.
• MetroTube – Windows app showing detailed YouTube analytics.

Easy way to view duration on mobile. But limited to specific apps only.

Considerations

Here are some things to keep in mind when getting playlist duration:

• Duration changes if videos are added/removed from playlist.
• Private or deleted videos affect total duration.
• Duration shown may get rounded off to nearest hour or minute.
• Updated video lengths lead to different total duration.

Check duration regularly for updated playlists. Use precise tools for short playlists. Consider automating if retrieving frequently.