Crawl Schedules

Use Crawl Schedules to run recurring crawls on websites, documentation, or YouTube channels and automatically sync new or updated content directly to NotebookLM.

Like Email to Notebook flows and Google Drive to Notebook flows, Crawl Schedules automate your source gathering so your notebooks stay up to date without manual exporting or copy-pasting.

How it works

When you create a Crawl Schedule:

1. Cloud-Based Scheduling: The WebSync servers manage the timer and queue up a crawl task at your configured frequency.
2. Local Browser Execution: The actual crawling, content extraction, and NotebookLM uploading are executed entirely inside your browser via the WebSync extension.
3. No Server-Side Content Processing: WebSync does not download your pages or access your Google/NotebookLM credentials on its servers. Your data stays private, secure, and local to your device.

Browser Online Requirement

Because the crawl runs directly in your browser, your browser must be open and online (with the WebSync extension active) in order for a scheduled task to execute. If your browser is closed at the scheduled time, the run will execute the next time you open Chrome.

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Setup: Creating a Crawl Schedule

1. Open Crawl Schedules

Go to the WebSync dashboard and navigate to the Crawl Schedules configuration page: https://websync-for-notebooklm.com/app/schedules

2. Configure the Schedule Details

Fill out the following fields:

• Schedule Name: A friendly label to identify this scheduled job (e.g., React Docs Weekly Sync or Product Launches YouTube).
• Target Notebook Name: The name of the notebook in NotebookLM where you want to import the content. WebSync will automatically locate this notebook (or create it if it does not exist) and route all files there.
• Start URL: The starting URL to crawl. This can be:
  • A website or documentation homepage (e.g., https://react.dev/reference/react).
  • A blog RSS feed or category page.
  • A YouTube channel, video, or playlist URL.
• Sync Behavior (Reconciliation): Controls how WebSync updates your notebook when sources change or disappear:
  • Mirror / Sync (Recommended for full sites): Syncs new pages and changes. Deletes pages from NotebookLM that are no longer found in the crawl (after they are missing for 3 consecutive successful runs).
  • Incremental (Recommended for YouTube / Feeds): Append-only. Only imports newly discovered pages/videos and leaves previously imported items untouched. Never deletes or replaces existing sources.
  • Add All: Keeps every previous source. Re-adds every discovered page on every single run as a new source in your notebook, keeping all previous versions.
  • Replace Everything: Refresh every source. Re-imports and refreshes every single page on every run, replacing the old source in NotebookLM even if its content has not changed. Also deletes pages no longer found (after 3 consecutive misses).
• Frequency & Time / Cron Expression:
  • Cadence: Choose a predefined interval (e.g., Daily or Weekly), select your preferred time, and specify your local timezone.
  • Custom Cron: For complex schedules, provide a standard cron expression (e.g., 0 9 * * 1-5 to run at 9:00 AM every weekday).
• Description (Optional): A brief note or description to document the purpose of the schedule.

3. Save & Monitor

Click Create Schedule. WebSync will register the schedule. You can view the status of recent runs, see when the next run is planned, and use the Run Now action to manually trigger a sync at any time.

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Sync & Reconciliation Behaviors

To keep your NotebookLM source count clean and control versioning, WebSync supports four distinct sync behaviors:

Behavior / Mode	New Pages	Changed Pages	Unchanged Pages	Absent Pages (Deleted on Web)
Mirror / Sync	Added automatically	Replaced (old version deleted, new added)	Skipped (no action)	Deleted (after 3 consecutive misses)
Incremental (Append only)	Added automatically	Skipped (remains unchanged)	Skipped (no action)	Skipped (never deleted)
Add All	Added automatically	Added as a new source (keeps old versions)	Added as a new source (keeps old versions)	Skipped (never deleted)
Replace Everything	Added automatically	Replaced (old version deleted, new added)	Replaced (old version deleted, new added)	Deleted (after 3 consecutive misses)

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Troubleshooting

Run status shows “Missed” or doesn’t execute on time

• Check Browser Status: Ensure you have Chrome open and are logged into WebSync. Scheduled tasks cannot run if the computer is turned off or Chrome is closed.
• Verify Account Matching: Confirm that you are signed into the WebSync extension, the WebSync website, and NotebookLM with the same Google account.
• Manual Override: If you need to force a sync immediately without waiting for the scheduler, open your schedule in the dashboard and click Run Now.