1 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
4 **youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
8 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
10 sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
11 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
13 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
15 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
16 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
18 Windows users can [download a .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in their home directory or any other location on their [PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29).
20 Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html .
23 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
24 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
25 2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
26 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
27 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
30 -h, --help print this help text and exit
31 --version print program version and exit
32 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make
33 sure that you have sufficient permissions
34 (run with sudo if needed)
35 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to
36 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
37 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
38 playlist or the command line) if an error
40 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
41 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs
43 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
45 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
46 an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
48 --socket-timeout None Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
49 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
50 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
51 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
52 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
53 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
54 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
55 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
56 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
57 this is not possible instead of searching.
58 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
59 in the global configuration file /etc
60 /youtube-dl.conf: do not read the user
61 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf
62 (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
66 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
67 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
68 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or
70 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
72 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
73 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
74 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
75 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
77 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
78 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before
79 this date (i.e. inclusive)
80 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after
81 this date (i.e. inclusive)
82 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
84 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
86 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
87 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given
89 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
90 archive file. Record the IDs of all
91 downloaded videos in it.
92 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
94 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Try to download the DASH manifest on
95 YouTube videos (experimental)
98 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second
100 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
101 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
103 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer
104 size. By default, the buffer size is
105 automatically resized from an initial value
108 ## Filesystem Options:
109 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for
111 --id use only video ID in file name
112 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
113 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to
114 get the title, %(uploader)s for the
115 uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
116 uploader nickname if different,
117 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
118 incremented number, %(ext)s for the
119 filename extension, %(format)s for the
120 format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
121 "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
122 the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
123 %(upload_date)s for the upload date
124 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
125 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
126 video id, %(playlist)s for the playlist the
127 video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
128 position in the playlist and %% for a
129 literal percent. %(height)s and %(width)s
130 for the width and height of the video
131 format. %(resolution)s for a textual
132 description of the resolution of the video
133 format. Use - to output to stdout. Can also
134 be used to download to a different
135 directory, for example with -o '/my/downloa
136 ds/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
137 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in
138 %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
139 filename template or --auto-number option
141 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
142 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
144 -t, --title [deprecated] use title in file name
146 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
147 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
148 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files.
149 By default, youtube-dl will resume
150 downloads if possible.
151 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files
152 (restart from beginning)
153 --no-part do not use .part files
154 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set
155 the file modification time
156 --write-description write video description to a .description
158 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
159 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation
161 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
162 --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
163 (created with the "--write-json" option)
164 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie
166 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
167 can store some downloaded information
168 permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME
169 /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the
170 moment, only YouTube player files (for
171 videos with obfuscated signatures) are
172 cached, but that may change.
173 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
174 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
176 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
177 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
178 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
179 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
181 --skip-download do not download the video
182 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
183 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
184 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
185 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
186 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
187 --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
188 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
189 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
190 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
191 See --output for a description of available
193 --newline output progress bar as new lines
194 --no-progress do not print progress bar
195 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
196 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
197 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems
199 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
200 files in the current directory to debug
202 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
205 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
206 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
207 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
208 information about the video. (Currently
209 supported only for YouTube)
210 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
211 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video
212 access is restricted to one domain
213 --add-header FIELD:VALUE specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
214 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
215 option multiple times
216 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
217 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
218 or fribidi executable in PATH
220 ## Video Format Options:
221 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
222 preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18".
223 "-f mp4" and "-f flv" are also supported.
224 You can also use the special names "best",
225 "bestvideo", "bestaudio", "worst",
226 "worstvideo" and "worstaudio". By default,
227 youtube-dl will pick the best quality.
228 --all-formats download all available video formats
229 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific
231 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
232 -F, --list-formats list all available formats
235 --write-sub write subtitle file
236 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube
238 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of
240 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
241 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt]
243 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download
244 (optional) separated by commas, use IETF
245 language tags like 'en,pt'
247 ## Authentication Options:
248 -u, --username USERNAME account username
249 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
250 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
251 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
253 ## Post-processing Options:
254 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files
255 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
257 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
258 "opus", or "wav"; best by default
259 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
260 insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
261 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like
263 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
264 necessary (currently supported:
265 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
266 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the
267 post-processing; the video is erased by
269 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the
270 post-processed files are overwritten by
272 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
274 --embed-thumbnail embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
275 --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
276 --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs
277 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
278 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
279 postprocessors (default)
280 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
285 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as `--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or `~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and `C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf`.
289 The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
291 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
292 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
293 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
294 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
295 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
296 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
297 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
298 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
299 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
300 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
302 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
304 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title:
306 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
307 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
308 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
309 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
313 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
315 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
316 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
320 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
321 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
323 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
324 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
326 $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
327 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
331 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
333 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the `-b` option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're interested in. In that case, simply request it with the `-f` option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
335 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
337 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We're [considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
339 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
341 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
343 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
345 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. Use the `--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use `--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
347 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
349 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
351 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
353 youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
355 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
359 File "youtube-dl", line 2
360 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
362 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
364 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
366 Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
368 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
370 To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
372 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
374 Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can [download the builds](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html) or get them from their distribution.
376 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
380 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
382 python -m unittest discover
383 python test/test_download.py
386 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
394 ### Adding support for a new site
396 If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
398 1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
399 2. Check out the source code with `git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
400 3. Start a new git branch with `cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
401 4. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
404 from __future__ import unicode_literals
408 from .common import InfoExtractor
411 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
412 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
414 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
415 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10KiB of the video file',
419 'title': 'Video title goes here',
420 # TODO more properties, either as:
422 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
423 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
424 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
428 def _real_extract(self, url):
429 mobj = re.match(self._VALID_URL, url)
430 video_id = mobj.group('id')
432 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
433 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
434 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
439 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
443 5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
444 6. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done.
445 7. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L38). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
446 8. If you can, check the code with [pyflakes](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyflakes) (a good idea) and [pep8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pep8) (optional, ignore E501).
447 9. When the tests pass, [add](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-add.html) the new files and [commit](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-commit.html) them and [push](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-push.html) the result, like this:
449 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
450 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
451 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
452 $ git push origin yourextractor
454 10. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
456 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
460 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues> . Unless you were prompted so or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email.
462 Please include the full output of the command when run with `--verbose`. The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
464 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
466 When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
468 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
470 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may misread some parts.
472 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
474 - What the problem is
475 - How it could be fixed
476 - How your proposed solution would look like
478 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
480 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the *complete* output of youtube-dl when called with the -v flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
482 Site support requests **must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc . There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is *not* an example URL.
484 ### Are you using the latest version?
486 Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that you're up-to-date. About 20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature requests as well.
488 ### Is the issue already documented?
490 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or at https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version 2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
492 ### Why are existing options not enough?
494 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#synopsis). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
496 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
498 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
500 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
502 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
504 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
506 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
508 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
510 Only post features that you (or an incapicated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
512 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
514 It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's own application. Please make sure that you are actually using youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
518 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
520 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.