When installing the YouTube add-on on Kodi for the first time, you will get an error message about creating a personal API key. You won’t be able to watch videos on YouTube otherwise. You can solve this problem by getting a personal API key for YouTube from Google and configuring the Kodi add-on to use this key. Having a personal key means you have your quota for YouTube without any relation to other users who use this add-on.
Here are the instructions on how to set up a personal API key for YouTube on Kodi:
If you are using Kodi on Android, we highly recommend not typing the long API keys, which is tiring and error-prone, but copying and pasting the keys, as explained here.
- Click here to go to the Google Cloud Console (login to your Google account if you haven’t done it already)
- Click Create Project at the top-left menu
- Enter kodi in the Project name and click Create
- Click here to go to the API Library screen
- Click YouTube Data API V3 under the YouTube section and then click Enable
- Click here to go to the Credentials screen
- Click Create Credentials at the top-left menu and select API key
- Copy the API key to a text file by clicking the copy icon next to it
- Click the Edit API key link in the Api key created window
- Select Restrict key under the API restrictions section
- Select YouTube Data API v3 from the Select APIs drop-down list and click Save
- Click here to go to the OAuth consent screen
- Select External under User Type and click Create
- Enter kodi in the App name field
- Click the User support email drop-down list and select your email address
- Scroll to the bottom of the screen under the Developer contact information section and enter your email address (use the same address as in the previous steps)
- Click Save and Continue at the bottom of the screen
- Click Save and Continue at the bottom of the Scopes screen
- Click Add Users in the Test users screen
- Enter your email address (use the same address as in the previous steps) and click Add
- Click Save and Continue at the bottom of the Test users screen
- Click here to go to the credentials screen
- Click Create Credentials at the top-left menu and select OAuth client ID
- Click the Application type drop-down list and select TV and Limited Input devices
- Click Create
- Copy the Client ID and Client secret to a text file by clicking the copy icon next to them and click OK
- Launch Kodi, hover over Add-ons, and click YouTube
- Click Settings and hover over API
- Click Allow developer keys to enable it
- Click API Key, enter the API key you saved before, and click OK
- Click Client ID, enter the client ID you saved before, and click OK
- Click Client Secret, enter the client secret you saved before, and click OK
- Click OK in the Settings menu
- Go back to the settings page and click Sign in
- Click OK in the Please log in twice window. A new window appears with a code
- Click here to go to Google connect a device screen
- Enter the code and click Next
- Click Allow to allow access to YouTube
- Click here again to go to Google connect a device screen
- Go back to Kodi to get a second code. Enter the code in the browser and click Next
- Click in the browser Advanced settings and then click Go to kodi (unsafe)
- Click Allow to allow access to YouTube
- You are signed in to YouTube
Now, you can start watching videos on YouTube without getting the error message.
