Auto-save every video you play for offline, with a Settings switch

frontend/app.js

@@ -655,6 +655,7 @@ const DEFAULT_SETTINGS = {
   quality: 'auto', volume: 1, audioOnly: false, autoPreload: true,
   p2pShare: true,           // P2P (docs/p2p-architecture.md): share my saved videos with other devices — ON by default
   p2pReceive: true,         // fetch from other devices when YouTube and the server can't — ON by default
+  autoSavePlayed: true,     // keep every video you play for offline (background save once playback starts)
   saveBeforePlay: false,    // download (server-muxed single file) before playing instead of streaming
   repeatMode: 'off',        // 'off' | 'all' — repeat the playing list when it ends
   loopOne: false,           // repeat the single current video
@@ -1977,6 +1978,20 @@ function markCardCacheState(id, state) {
   });
 }
 
+// Auto-save what you play: once a video starts playing, save it in the
+// background (never delays playback). One attempt per video per page session.
+const autoSaveTried = new Set();
+document.addEventListener('play', () => {
+  const m = current && current.meta;
+  if (!m || !m.id || m.custom || current.localUrl) return;
+  if (data.settings.autoSavePlayed === false) return;
+  if (!WEB) return;
+  if (cachedIds.has(m.id) || downloading.has(m.id) || autoSaveTried.has(m.id)) return;
+  autoSaveTried.add(m.id);
+  preload(m, { quiet: true });
+}, true);
+
+
 // ============================================================================
 // Video editor — cut parts out of a video and save a custom offline copy
 //

frontend/views-core.js

@@ -844,6 +844,13 @@ async function renderSettings() {
     <div class="set-group">
       <div class="set-group-title">Offline cache</div>
       <div class="set-row"><span>App &amp; features</span><small id="offlineAssetStatus" role="status">Checking offline readiness…</small></div>
+      <label class="set-row">
+        <span>
+          Auto-save videos I play
+          <small>Every video you open is kept on this device in the background, so it plays offline later.</small>
+        </span>
+        <input id="setAutoSavePlayed" type="checkbox" ${data.settings.autoSavePlayed !== false ? 'checked' : ''} />
+      </label>
       <label class="set-row">
         <span>
           Auto-save playlist videos
@@ -1116,6 +1123,10 @@ async function renderSettings() {
     persist();
     Notes.refreshFlags();
   });
+  $('setAutoSavePlayed').addEventListener('change', (e) => {
+    data.settings.autoSavePlayed = e.target.checked;
+    persist();
+  });
   $('setAutoPreload').addEventListener('change', (e) => {
     data.settings.autoPreload = e.target.checked;
     persist();

perf/autosave.mjs

@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ execFileSync('ffmpeg', ['-y', '-i', mp4, '-vn', '-c:a', 'copy', path.join(media,
             await page.waitForFunction(key => JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('_ytpdata')).settings[key] === true, key);
             if (scenario === 'settings-save-first') await page.evaluate(clip => { Player.loadVideo(clip); }, clip);
           }
-          const expected = !['open-default', 'open-audio-only', 'open-prefer-stream', 'playlist-boot-off'].includes(scenario);
+          const expected = !['playlist-boot-off'].includes(scenario);
           if (supported && expected) await page.waitForFunction(id => cachedIds.has(id), clip.id, { timeout: 15000 });
           else await page.waitForTimeout(1000);
           const state = await page.evaluate(async id => ({ cached: cachedIds.has(id), files: OPFS.isSupported() ? await OPFS.listVideos() : [], queue: SaveQueue.pending(), calls: window.__saveCalls }), clip.id);