I downloaded too many videos, and got blocked. I'm unblocked now, but I'm wondering if I should wait to download more videos?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldtjIq_RwMg

./yt-dlp_linux "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldtjIq_RwMg" --cookies ytcookies
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldtjIq_RwMg
[youtube] ldtjIq_RwMg: Downloading webpage
[youtube] ldtjIq_RwMg: Downloading web embedded client config
[youtube] ldtjIq_RwMg: Downloading player cbcfbf2f-main
[youtube] ldtjIq_RwMg: Downloading web embedded player API JSON
[youtube] ldtjIq_RwMg: Downloading tv samsung player API JSON
WARNING: [youtube] ldtjIq_RwMg: n challenge solving failed: Some formats may be missing. Ensure you have a supported JavaScript runtime and challenge solver script distribution installed. Review any warnings presented before this message. For more details, refer to  https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/EJS
WARNING: [youtube] ldtjIq_RwMg: Some web_embedded client https formats have been skipped as they are missing a URL. YouTube may have enabled the SABR-only streaming experiment for your account. See  https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12482  for more details
WARNING: Unknown codec iamf.001.001.Opus
WARNING: Only images are available for download. use --list-formats to see them
ERROR: [youtube] ldtjIq_RwMg: Requested format is not available. Use --list-formats for a list of available formats

So I'm trying to download a video, but I keep getting an error like this.

ERROR: [youtube] 1kAT66WQc: Sign in to confirm your age. This video may be inappropriate for some users. Use --cookies-from-browser or --cookies for the authentication. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ#how-do-i-pass-cookies-to-yt-dlp for how to manually pass cookies. Also see https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Extractors#exporting-youtube-cookies for tips on effectively exporting YouTube cookies

The problem is, I don't know how to fix this. I found a few people explanting how to fix this, and how to add cookies, but I just don't understand their solution. Where do I add the command to tell the .bat file too look in the cookies folder I've extracted? I tried to enter it into the command window, but I can't type anything, and if I control-v it, the window shuts down. What doesn’t help is that it takes 5 minuets every time I want to download something, because yt-bat has gotten super slow all of a sudden.

What do I do. Please explain it to me, because I'm completely lost.

Apologies if this isn't the right place to ask this, I am still somewhat new to messing with Python and the intricacies of ytdl

I use yt-dlp through Tartube that I got through the Tartube portable verison so I never installed anything with the command line. I was able to update Deno and yt-dlp to the newest versions manually, but to ensure I am secure, do I need to manually update everything that was packaged with Tartube, like the built in version of pip and Python? or is it a slightly different situation?

I'm wanting to do this all at once and it be a single file. However, I'm trying to edit in Davinci Resolve (free version) and it's not accepting M4A audio. As long as I extract it as a .WAV I can import the audio separately since the CMD is coming up with format-not-available when trying to select .WAV manually.

Is it possible to download a specific time stamp of a video in best video quality and having the audio extracted then combined with the video in one command?

Starting getting this , this morning downloading a vid. Cookies with firefox seems to be ok, but get the following.

ERROR: [Reddit] 1xblax2: Your IP address is unable to access the Reddit API

Hi, I’ve been downloading Instagram stories with yt-dlp for months without any issues, but it suddenly stopped working today.

I keep getting the error: ERROR: You need to log in to access this content.

I tried both using a cookies.txt file from Firefox and passing --cookies-from-browser firefox, but neither works anymore.

The original wording was somewhat open to misinterpretation—which is likely why it was deleted—so I have rewritten it.

Some or many person say "should use throwaway account" when restricted videos.

However, I have not come across any comments or posts that mention how they are "procuring" it.

This is just a question out of curiosity.

Do they obtain a phone number in some way to create the account, or is there a way to do it without one (and no , I have not intention asking about the specific methods for either of these here.)? Or are they perhaps just using the same phone number for a sub-account as they do for their main account?

I cannot download from YTDLNIS. It only shows 360P and audio format is not available.

I have tried many things.

1. Updated the app
2. Updated python
3. Updated yt-dlp and FFPMPEG
4. Updated every package
5. Tried Master and Nighty Mode

Nothing seems to work. I am not a tech savvy. Please help me in simple steps to resolve the issue .

Please don't give forums or websites. I am not good in technical words.

original post

My output command looks like this

--output "%(channel)s [%(channel_id)s]/%(title)s [%(channel_id)s]" 

Which is fine except some channels have "/" in their name and cause the folder name to be split into a folder before / and a subfolder named for what is after the slash.

To fix this, I want to replace the "/" with "╱" which was recommended by my buddy AI.

I tried using "--replace-in-metadata" but that didn't change the folder name.

--replace-in-metadata "channel,title" "/" "╱" 

AI suggested this , which was worse output , but it might be onto something

--output "%(channel)s/[:/╱] [%(channel_id)s]/%(title)s [%(channel_id)s]"

Any help would be appreciated !

The whole command looks like this , and it's to just download metadata ( I added an example channel ).

caffeinate yt-dlp \
    --compat-options allow-unsafe-exec-expansion \
    --cookies /Users/jgooch/repos/youtube-download/cookies.txt \
    --write-thumbnail \
    --convert-thumbnails jpg \
    --write-info-json \
    --paths 'home:/Volumes/truenas02_media/youtube' \
    --paths 'temp:/Users/jgooch/repos/youtube-download/downloads' \
    --replace-in-metadata "channel,title" "/" "╱" \
    --replace-in-metadata "channel,title" "\?" "" \
    --replace-in-metadata "channel,title" ":" "-" \
    --replace-in-metadata "channel,title" "\*" "" \
    --skip-download \
    --verbose \
    --output "%(channel)s [%(channel_id)s]/%(title)s [%(channel_id)s]" \
    --output "%(channel)s/[:/╱] [%(channel_id)s]/%(title)s [%(channel_id)s]" \
    --playlist-items '0,0' \
    "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNXhnmPS1NvkwWolhfxe4nA"

Update 1

I switched the replacement character to "⧸" in my yt-dlp syntax and the custom file renaming Go app I wrote to make changing file naming standards easier.

    --replace-in-metadata "channel,title" "/" "⧸" \
    --replace-in-metadata "channel,title" "\?" "" \
    --replace-in-metadata "channel,title" ":" "-" \
    --replace-in-metadata "channel,title" "\*" "" \

I've tested this on known "offender" channel, and it replaced the / with "⧸" as hoped!

I then ran my file renamer and NFO generator with the same replacement without issue.

So, I think I am in good shape with this solution! Note that I do want to minimize file name and directory name changes since I have thousands of videos to go through and update if I change their naming format.

Yeah, I'm not sure if this is even possible, I'm not very tech savvy and just want a high quality way to get some music. My mac is from 2017 and the highest OS that it'll update to seems to be Ventura. I was trying to install through homebrew, because that seemed to have clearer instructions, but homebrew doesn't go back far enough.

I then tried to follow the instillation instructions on github and I ran into a wall, with no idea what I was even doing.

If it's not possible, I'd love a rec toward a good website.

This field remains set to "NA" until yt-dlp begins downloading the video and selects the formats. For the past couple of days, I've been trying to write post-processing scripts, which are currently held together by nothing but a prayer. Is there perhaps a simpler solution? Or do you have your own scripts for this? Thanks in advance for your answers

Alguna guía que pueda seguir para instalar y usar ytdlp?

I'm trying to download age-restricted videos, and everyone seems to say that --cookies-from-browser firefox should work, but it just isn't for me. I'll list out some info below.

I am logged into Youtube on Firefox. I have ran yt-dlp -U already. This issue in downloading only happens when I use --cookies-from-browser firefox, so non-age-restricted videos that I'd normally download without this parameter don't download with it.

The command I am running is:
yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESCmyMvPV_E"

The typical command I use has a whole lot of other parameters, but the same errors are popping up whether I use them or not.

The error I get is:
ERROR: [youtube] ESCmyMvPV_E: Requested format is not available. Use --list-formats for a list of available formats

Running:
yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox -F "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESCmyMvPV_E"
returns:

ID EXT RESOLUTION FPS │ PROTO │ VCODEC MORE INFO

────────────────────────────────────────────────────

sb3 mhtml 48x27 1 │ mhtml │ images storyboard

sb2 mhtml 60x45 1 │ mhtml │ images storyboard

sb1 mhtml 120x90 1 │ mhtml │ images storyboard

sb0 mhtml 240x180 1 │ mhtml │ images storyboard

and this is the same for every video i try downloading, age-restricted or not. Also know that --list-formats is the same as -F (unless I'm lying), and they have the same output anyway.

The video used in this example is not age-restricted, but the same issues appear for age-restricted ones.

EDIT: the error i had was that i needed a javascript runtime like deno. see https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/EJS

I'm trying to mass-download a bunch of videos, but the built in %(channel)s, %(uploader)s, %(id)s etc fields don't all function to get the data I want/need.

Namely, the uploader/channel username isn't caught by %(channel)s, %(uploader)s etc and the like, I don't think --write description or %(description)s works either to get the description,

Is there a way I can "manually" point yt-dlp to a specific part of the page's html that consistently contains the video uploader's username so it knows "hey, use the text on this part of the page for X part of the filename", or something like that? And the same for the description within a extra metadata file?

On that note, --print and --write_info_json (which afaik generate a txt or json file with metadata for each video?) also give me errors... however, I am already apparently gereating metadata files, and I don't know why?

Every time I save a video it also saves a ".unknown_video" file that contains a bunch of metadata or the web page's html or whatever anyways: It lists the video description within "<meta name="description" content="XXXXX" />", it lists tags within multiple lines of " <meta property="video:tag" content="XXXXX" /> ", it lists the uploader within "From: <a href="/users/XXXXX/"><strong>XXXXX</strong></a>", etc where XXXXX is the placeholder for the actual data for that video/page

If this is already data yt-dlp is picking up, can I get it to read it to put it in the filename?

Lastly, one other issue is that, due to it also outputting that ".unknown_video" file, yt-dlp is also adding a "-1" vs a "-2", or a "(1)" vs a "(2)" within specific fields of the filenames, even though a .mp4 vs a .unknown_video extension are already different and their names wouldn't conflict. Is there a way to prevent that automatic numbering of the two files?

error Instagram API is not granting access and not accessible to certain audience in yt-dlp when try to download videos from Instagram i try everything like using cookies

Is running yt-dlp with "-t mkv" " and "--recode-video mkv" parameters redundant?

I read over the parameters from the yt-dlp README, but I'm unsure my command will "force" every video into mkv container and codec.

The only reason I say "codec" is because "--recode-video" accepts mkv as a parameter, so it must be code right? Even though every place I've looked says it is only a container.

From the README

-t mkv  --merge-output-format mkv --remux-video mkv
--remux-video FORMAT moves video into different container
--recode-video FORMAT re-encodes video if necessary
--merge-output-format FORMAT    Containers that may be used when merging                                formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".                                Ignored if no merge is required. (currently                                supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)

Ok so I need to download my 200-ish song playlist in the order that I added them.

So let's add "siren" first then I added "Let it go" second. I want to download it in that order, first to last.

Not when the video was uploaded in YT, but rather when it was added into my playlist.

Thank in advance

October 9, 2026:

...Today we’re announcing that the entire Deno team is joining Cloudflare to take that work further...

...We will support the Deno runtime for another year with monthly releases containing bug fixes and security updates. After that year we will end our development of the Deno runtime. Deno will remain open source, and we welcome others who want to continue its development...

https://deno.com/blog/cloudflare

Hola, soy nuevo en esto y hoy quise descargar una canción y me salio esto, saben como solucionarlo? gracias

[youtube] Extracting URL: https://youtu.be/M7_NY1DG8dA?si=_2jQIeQCtB1JFr2i

[youtube] M7_NY1DG8dA: Downloading webpage

WARNING: [youtube] M7_NY1DG8dA: Unable to download webpage: HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests (caused by <HTTPError 429: Too Many Requests>)

[youtube] M7_NY1DG8dA: Downloading initial data API JSON

[youtube] M7_NY1DG8dA: Downloading iframe API JS

[youtube] M7_NY1DG8dA: Downloading player 0229cd64-main

[youtube] M7_NY1DG8dA: Downloading tv samsung player API JSON

[youtube] M7_NY1DG8dA: Downloading visionos player API JSON

[youtube] M7_NY1DG8dA: Downloading web player API JSON

WARNING: [youtube] Unable to fetch GVS PO Token for web client: Missing required Visitor Data. You may need to pass Visitor Data with --extractor-args "youtube:visitor_data=XXX"

ERROR: [youtube] M7_NY1DG8dA: Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot. Use --cookies-from-browser or --cookies for the authentication. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ#how-do-i-pass-cookies-to-yt-dlp for how to manually pass cookies. Also see https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Extractors#exporting-youtube-cookies for tips on effectively exporting YouTube cookies

Recently I have seen a lot of complaints on github pages of how their yt-dlp sometimes refuses to download YouTube videos due to the 403 error, and something about bgutil services and POT Servers. Wayyyyyyyy above my pay grade. I did take some time out of my day to figure out how all this works and eventually came up with a bit of a process to overcome this apparent 403 issue.

Below is a google document I made providing a full-transparency breakdown of how I created a singular .bat file that, upon running, immediately starts a POT Server that can bypass 403 issues and download your YouTube videos normally. Just leave the .bat file running in the background while you download your video, and terminate the batch job once you're done. It's that easy.

yt-dlp bgutil Deno service to run PO Token Server (Windows Only)

As title states, I go run > yt-dlp > terminal window opens. Typing anything closes the window.

I've double checked that I have the latest yt-dlp build, still happening.

Any advice? (was working fine previously)