How to fix the Plug.dj "YouTube Error"

When attempting to search for songs on YouTube, to add to your playlist, you will often encounter a pop-up error "YouTube Error Please try again", as shown to the right.  This is caused because YouTube now requires something called an API Key (like a password) to access YouTube via other programs (like Plug.dj).  Further, they only allow 10,000 requests per day per API Key.  It seems that the API Key that is automatically used by Plug.dj has its 10,000 use allocation quickly used up by other users. 

Thus, the solution is to use your own API Key!  I am no expert on this, but I'll use this page to tell you what I know and what is working for me, and I'd appreciate your feedback and improvements to this document. Click the Contact DJFox menu link to reach me, or jump into the I LOVE the 70s room and find me there.  

P.S. another user made a video showing how they logged into Google to get the API Key... they went about it a bit differently than my instructions below but it does give you an idea of what the API Key screens look like and may help you to see that it's NOT that hard!  Video is HERE.

STEP 1: Log into Google.com 

Almost everyone these days has a login to Google.com. You'll need to log into Google.com first, or create an account if you really don't have an account yet.  Go to https://www.google.com and in the top right corner, if you see Sign in, then you will need to either sign in, or choose 'create an account'.

STEP 2: Open the Google Cloud Platform API Developers Console

Go to https://console.developers.google.com/apis/credentials?pli=1 to open the Google Cloud Platform, to start the process of generating your own personal YouTube API Key.  Assuming you are a first time user, it will ask you for your Country, and ask you to check a box to agree to their terms and conditions.

STEP 3: Create a Project

You should be on the Credentials Page already at this point. If not, choose Credentials on the left menu. On the FAR right side of the page, you should see a link CREATE PROJECT -- click that.  It will ask you for a Project Name... choose anything you want, but maybe an appropriate name would be "Plug YouTube API Key" (it won't accept periods so you can't type plug.dj). It will also ask for a Location, but you can leave it at the default "No organization". Click CREATE.

STEP 4:  Use "Create Credentials" to create your own YouTube API Key

At the very top of the screen, you should see a link CREATE CREDENTIALS. Click that, then from the popup menu, choose "API Key".  A pop-up window will come up, showing your API Key. Copy the key and paste it into a blank document somewhere (Word, Notepad, etc.) to save it for later use.  Click CLOSE.  

STEP 5:  Enable the YouTube Data API

Head to the YouTube Data API page, and click ENABLE under "YouTube Data API v3".  You are done with Google at this point. If you ever forget your API Key, you can always come back to the YouTube API page and click on Credentials to see your key.

STEP 6: Add your YouTube Data API Key into Plug.dj

This will be either easy or hard, depending on whether you are using the RCS javascript extension for plug.dj.  Personally, I love RCS, as it does the typical auto-woot, plus has many other cool features.  RCS is available as a Chrome extension, as well as a javascript bookmark for any browser.  The nice folks at RCS have added the ability to enable your own YouTube Data API Key with a simple command:

How to get RCS: See their site at https://rcs.radiant.dj/

If you ARE using the RCS Script or Extension - this will be easy:

Go into a plug.dj room, click your RCS bookmark to start the RCS script (if you aren't using the Chrome extension), then in the chat window, type:  

/key AIzaSyCwDccNkbze8AqItyvNsupJvEhCr3ExA05

Where /key is the command and the AI...05 is YOUR KEY that you copied in STEP 4, above.  You will have to do this each time you use plug.dj, so keep that key handy in Notepad or other text document.

If you are NOT using RCS - this will be harder:

1. Go into a plug.dj room.  In your web browser, you will need to enable Development Tools. In Chrome and Firefox, just press your F12 button to get into Dev Tools.  
2. Click the tab that says "Console"
3. At the bottom of the screen you should see a prompt with > or >>.
   Firefox users will need to enable pasting in text by typing this right after the >>

allow pasting    (Press Enter, ignore error)  

Chrome and Firefox users will now type this:

gapi.client.setApiKey('AIzaSyCwDccNkbze8AqItyvNsupJvEhCr3ExA05');  

Of course, the gibberish between the single quotes is YOUR API KEY that you saved in Step 4.  Press ENTER.

ALL DONE!

In theory, you can now try searching for songs on YouTube and you should not get the error.  Maybe someday Plug.dj will fix this issue?  We can only hope.  

Again, questions, comments, improvement ideas... let me know by clicking the Contact DJFox link.  

Like 70s music?  Stop in the I Love 70s's room and spin some with me!  

-- DJFox