When using the YouTube add-on on Kodi you may get an error message that you exceeded the daily limit or quota. It means that you won’t be able to watch videos on YouTube, which is quite frustrating. However, you can solve this problem by getting a personal API key for YouTube from Google and configure the Kodi add-on to use this key. Having a personal key means that 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:
- Click here to go to the Google Cloud Console (login to your Google account if you haven’t done it already)
- Click Create Project in the top left menu
- Enter project name (the name doesn’t matter) and click Create
- Wait until the project is created
- Click on the Google APIs logo at the top left corner of the screen
- Click Library in the left menu
- Click YouTube Data API V3 under the YouTube section and then click Enable
- Click Create Credentials at the right side of the screen
- Click the Which API are you using drop-down list and choose YouTube Data API v3
- Click the Where will you be calling the API from drop-down list and choose Web server (e.g. node.js, Tomcat)
- For the What data will you be accessing radio button choose Public data
- Click What credentials do I need
- Copy your API key by clicking the copy icon next to it, and save it to a text file so you can use it later
- Click Done
- Click OAuth consent screen in the left menu
- For the User Type radio button choose External and click Create
- Enter Application name (the name doesn’t matter)
- Click the User support email drop-down list and choose 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 step)
- Click Save and Continue
- In the Scopes screen at the bottom of the screen, click Save and Continue
- In the Test users screen, click Add Users
- In Add users screen, enter your email address (use the same address as in the previous steps) and click Add
- In the Test users screen at the bottom of the screen, click Save and Continue
- Click Credentials in the left menu
- Click Create Credentials in the top menu and then select OAuth Client ID
- Click the Application type drop-down list and select TV and Limited Input devices
- Click Create
- Copy your Client ID and Client Secret by clicking the copy icon next to them, and save them to a text file so you can use them later
- 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
Now you shouldn’t get the errors anymore, and the YouTube add-on should work as expected.
If you are using Kodi on Android and don’t want to type the long API keys but to use copy and paste, follow this tutorial.
Now you should be able to watch videos on YouTube with Kodi. Enjoy it!