diff --git a/tubearchivist/home/src/helper.py b/tubearchivist/home/src/helper.py
index 80ff11fc..de417578 100644
--- a/tubearchivist/home/src/helper.py
+++ b/tubearchivist/home/src/helper.py
@@ -46,6 +46,9 @@ def process_url_list(url_str):
     url_list = re.split("\n+", url_str[0])
     youtube_ids = []
     for url in url_list:
+        if "/c/" in url or "/user/" in url:
+            raise ValueError("user name is not unique, use channel ID")
+
         url_clean = url.strip().strip("/").split("/")[-1]
         for i in to_replace:
             url_clean = url_clean.replace(i, "")
diff --git a/tubearchivist/home/views.py b/tubearchivist/home/views.py
index dfd8aa3f..a64e0aae 100644
--- a/tubearchivist/home/views.py
+++ b/tubearchivist/home/views.py
@@ -195,16 +195,16 @@ class DownloadView(View):
         download_post = dict(request.POST)
         if "vid-url" in download_post.keys():
             url_str = download_post["vid-url"]
-            print("adding to queue")
-            youtube_ids = process_url_list(url_str)
-            if not youtube_ids:
+            try:
+                youtube_ids = process_url_list(url_str)
+            except ValueError:
                 # failed to process
-                print(url_str)
+                print(f"failed to parse: {url_str}")
                 mess_dict = {
                     "status": "downloading",
                     "level": "error",
                     "title": "Failed to extract links.",
-                    "message": "",
+                    "message": "Not a video, channel or playlist ID or URL",
                 }
                 set_message("progress:download", mess_dict)
                 return redirect("downloads")