GreyBox Downloader

Multi-platform video/audio downloader — TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit. Built with Flask + yt-dlp, same base pattern as StreamDrop.

How to Use It:

• Download and run the .exe installer.
• Follow the installation wizard.
• Select a custom installation location if desired.
• Complete the installation.
• Done! Enjoy using the Grey Box Downloader by simply double click on the icon.

Run locally (web app)

pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

Open http://127.0.0.1:5000

How it works

• /api/fetch — reads the link with yt-dlp (no download), returns title/thumbnail/duration or playlist count.
• /api/start-download — kicks off a background download thread, returns a job_id.
• /api/progress/<job_id> — polled every second by the frontend for live percentage.
• /api/file/<job_id> — once status is done, this serves the finished file directly, so the Save button saves straight to disk instead of needing a second click.
• Playlists are zipped automatically once every item finishes; the Save button then downloads the zip.

Known platform limits (carried over from earlier research — verify before shipping)

• TikTok needs browser impersonation (extractor_args set in app.py) or requests get blocked.
• Instagram needs the Referer header set (already handled) or you'll get 403s. Private posts need cookies.
• Reddit blocks datacenter IPs at the network level — if you deploy this to a cloud VPS, Reddit links may fail even though the code is correct. Works fine when run locally on a home connection.
• LinkedIn — public video posts work; yt-dlp recently dropped LinkedIn login support, so private/authenticated content won't extract.
• Spotify is DRM-protected and intentionally blocked in the code (UNSUPPORTED_HOSTS in app.py) — yt-dlp cannot legally extract Spotify audio.

Converting to a desktop app (like StreamDrop)

Same pattern as StreamDrop: wrap this Flask app in a native window instead of rewriting it.

1. pip install pywebview
2. Add a small launcher that starts Flask in a background thread and opens a pywebview window pointed at http://127.0.0.1:5000 instead of a browser tab.
3. Package with PyInstaller: pyinstaller --onefile --add-data "templates;templates" --add-data "static;static" launcher.py
4. Build the installer with Inno Setup, same script pattern as StreamDrop.

Say the word when you're ready for step 2 (the launcher script) — it's a ~30 line addition once the web version is confirmed working the way you want.