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1 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
2
3 - [INSTALLATION](#installation)
4 - [DESCRIPTION](#description)
5 - [OPTIONS](#options)
6 - [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
7 - [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
8 - [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
9 - [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection)
10 - [FAQ](#faq)
11 - [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
12 - [BUGS](#bugs)
13 - [COPYRIGHT](#copyright)
14
15 # INSTALLATION
16
17 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
18
19 sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
20 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
21
22 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
23
24 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
25 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
26
27 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).
28
29 OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
30
31 brew install youtube-dl
32
33 You can also use pip:
34
35 sudo pip install youtube-dl
36
37 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 .
38
39 # DESCRIPTION
40 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
41 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
42 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
43 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
44 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
45
46 youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
47
48 # OPTIONS
49 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
50 --version Print program version and exit
51 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make sure that you have sufficient permissions (run with sudo if needed)
52 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to skip unavailable videos in a playlist
53 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the playlist or the command line) if an error occurs
54 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
55 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
56 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
57 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor
58 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos from google videos for youtube-dl "large apple".
59 Use the value "auto" to let youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
60 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if this is not possible instead of searching.
61 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given in the global configuration file /etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user configuration
62 in ~/.config/youtube-dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on Windows)
63 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist, only list them.
64 --no-color Do not emit color codes in output
65
66 ## Network Options:
67 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection
68 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
69 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to (experimental)
70 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4 (experimental)
71 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6 (experimental)
72 --cn-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for some Chinese sites. The default proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the options is
73 not present) is used for the actual downloading. (experimental)
74
75 ## Video Selection:
76 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
77 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
78 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify indices of the videos in the playlist separated by commas like: "--playlist-items 1,2,5,8"
79 if you want to download videos indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can specify range: "--playlist-items 1-3,7,10-13", it will
80 download the videos at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
81 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)
82 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)
83 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
84 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
85 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
86 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date
87 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before this date (i.e. inclusive)
88 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after this date (i.e. inclusive)
89 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than COUNT views
90 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than COUNT views
91 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter (experimental). Specify any key (see help for -o for a list of available keys) to match if the key is present,
92 !key to check if the key is not present,key > NUMBER (like "comment_count > 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare against
93 a number, and & to require multiple matches. Values which are not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (?) after the
94 operator.For example, to only match videos that have been liked more than 100 times and disliked less than 50 times (or the dislike
95 functionality is not available at the given service), but who also have a description, use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
96 dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
97 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist.
98 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist.
99 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given age
100 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the archive file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in it.
101 --include-ads Download advertisements as well (experimental)
102
103 ## Download Options:
104 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT Maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
105 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or "infinite".
106 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K) (default is 1024)
107 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By default, the buffer size is automatically resized from an initial value of SIZE.
108 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
109 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with expected filesize (experimental)
110 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of ffmpeg (experimental)
111 --external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader. Currently supports aria2c,curl,httpie,wget
112 --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external downloader
113
114 ## Filesystem Options:
115 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
116 --id Use only video ID in file name
117 -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template. Use %(title)s to get the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the uploader
118 nickname if different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename extension, %(format)s for
119 the format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of the format (like YouTube's itags: "137"),
120 %(upload_date)s for the upload date (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id,
121 %(playlist_title)s, %(playlist_id)s, or %(playlist)s (=title if present, ID otherwise) for the playlist the video is in,
122 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the playlist. %(height)s and %(width)s for the width and height of the video format.
123 %(resolution)s for a textual description of the resolution of the video format. %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to stdout.
124 Can also be used to download to a different directory, for example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
125 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specify the number of digits in %(autonumber)s when it is present in output filename template or --auto-number option is given
126 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
127 -A, --auto-number [deprecated; use -o "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" ] Number downloaded files starting from 00000
128 -t, --title [deprecated] Use title in file name (default)
129 -l, --literal [deprecated] Alias of --title
130 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
131 -c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded files. By default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if possible.
132 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files (restart from beginning)
133 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into output file
134 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set the file modification time
135 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
136 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
137 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a .annotations.xml file
138 --load-info FILE JSON file containing the video information (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
139 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
140 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can store some downloaded information permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl
141 or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only YouTube player files (for videos with obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that may
142 change.
143 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
144 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
145
146 ## Thumbnail images:
147 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
148 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
149 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail formats
150
151 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
152 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
153 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
154 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write anything to disk
155 --skip-download Do not download the video
156 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
157 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
158 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
159 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
160 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
161 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
162 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
163 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
164 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information. See --output for a description of available keys.
165 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information for each command-line argument. If the URL refers to a playlist, dump the whole playlist
166 information in a single line.
167 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as JSON (video is still being downloaded).
168 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
169 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
170 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
171 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
172 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64 to debug problems (very verbose)
173 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in the current directory to debug problems
174 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
175 -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
176 --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
177
178 ## Workarounds:
179 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
180 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
181 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve information about the video. (Currently supported only for YouTube)
182 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
183 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video access is restricted to one domain
184 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value, separated by a colon ':'. You can use this option multiple times
185 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv or fribidi executable in PATH
186 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each download.
187
188 ## Video Format Options:
189 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT SELECTION" for all the info
190 --all-formats Download all available video formats
191 --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific one is requested
192 -F, --list-formats List all available formats
193 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and related data on YouTube videos
194 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g. bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg, webm, flv. Ignored if no
195 merge is required
196
197 ## Subtitle Options:
198 --write-sub Write subtitle file
199 --write-auto-sub Write automatic subtitle file (YouTube only)
200 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the video
201 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
202 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats preference, for example: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
203 --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (optional) separated by commas, use IETF language tags like 'en,pt'
204
205 ## Authentication Options:
206 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
207 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
208 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor auth code
209 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
210 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri)
211
212 ## Post-processing Options:
213 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
214 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or "wav"; "best" by default
215 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K (default
216 5)
217 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
218 --postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessor
219 -k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post-processing; the video is erased by default
220 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-processed files are overwritten by default
221 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mkv and mp4 videos)
222 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
223 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
224 --metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title / artist from the video title. The format syntax is the same as --output, the parsed
225 parameters replace existing values. Additional templates: %(album)s, %(artist)s. Example: --metadata-from-title "%(artist)s -
226 %(title)s" matches a title like "Coldplay - Paradise"
227 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs (using dublin core and xdg standards)
228 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the default;
229 fix file if we can, warn otherwise)
230 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the postprocessors (default)
231 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the postprocessors
232 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary; either the path to the binary or its containing directory.
233 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after downloading, similar to find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm
234 {}'
235 --convert-subtitles FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt)
236
237 # CONFIGURATION
238
239 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\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`.
240
241 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file ###
242
243 You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every youtube-dl execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in shell command history. You can achieve this using [`.netrc` file](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on per extractor basis. For that you will need to create `.netrc` file in your `$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by you only:
244 ```
245 touch $HOME/.netrc
246 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
247 ```
248 After that you can add credentials for extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of extractor in lowercase:
249 ```
250 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
251 ```
252 For example:
253 ```
254 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
255 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
256 ```
257 To activate authentication with `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to youtube-dl or to place it in [configuration file](#configuration).
258
259 On Windows you may also need to setup `%HOME%` environment variable manually.
260
261 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
262
263 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:
264
265 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
266 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
267 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
268 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
269 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
270 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
271 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
272 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
273 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
274 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
275
276 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
277
278 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:
279
280 ```bash
281 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
282 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
283 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
284 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
285 ```
286
287 # FORMAT SELECTION
288
289 By default youtube-dl tries to download the best quality, but sometimes you may want to download other format.
290 The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example `-f 22`. You can get the list of available formats using `--list-formats`, you can also use a file extension (currently it supports aac, m4a, mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm) or the special names `best`, `bestvideo`, `bestaudio` and `worst`.
291
292 If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes, as in `-f 22/17/18`. You can also filter the video results by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`). This works for filesize, height, width, tbr, abr, vbr, asr, and fps and the comparisons <, <=, >, >=, =, != and for ext, acodec, vcodec, container, and protocol and the comparisons =, != . Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (?) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height <=? 720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. Use commas to download multiple formats, such as `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`. You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file using `-f <video-format>+<audio-format>` (requires ffmpeg or avconv), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio`.
293
294 Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26 youtube-dl uses `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best` as default format selection (see #5447, #5456). If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` separately and muxing them together into a single file giving the best overall quality available. Otherwise it falls back to `best` and results in downloading best available quality served as a single file. `best` is also needed for videos that don't come from YouTube because they don't provide the audio and video in two different files. If you want to only download some dash formats (for example if you are not interested in getting videos with a resolution higher than 1080p), you can add `-f bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best` to your configuration file. Note that if you use youtube-dl to stream to `stdout` (and most likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e. you explicitly specify output template as `-o -`, youtube-dl still uses `-f best` format selection in order to start content delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` are downloaded and muxed.
295
296 If you want to preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to youtube-dl 2015.04.26), i.e. you want to download best available quality media served as a single file, you should explicitly specify your choice with `-f best`. You may want to add it to the [configuration file](#configuration) in order not to type it every time you run youtube-dl.
297
298 # VIDEO SELECTION
299
300 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
301
302 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
303 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
304
305 Examples:
306
307 ```bash
308 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
309 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
310
311 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
312 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
313
314 $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
315 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
316 ```
317
318 # FAQ
319
320 ### How do I update youtube-dl?
321
322 If you've followed [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html), you can simply run `youtube-dl -U` (or, on Linux, `sudo youtube-dl -U`).
323
324 If you have used pip, a simple `sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
325
326 If you have installed youtube-dl using a package manager like *apt-get* or *yum*, use the standard system update mechanism to update. Note that distribution packages are often outdated. As a rule of thumb, youtube-dl releases at least once a month, and often weekly or even daily. Simply go to http://yt-dl.org/ to find out the current version. Unfortunately, there is nothing we youtube-dl developers can do if your distributions serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.
327
328 As a last resort, you can also uninstall the version installed by your package manager and follow our manual installation instructions. For that, remove the distribution's package, with a line like
329
330 sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
331
332 Afterwards, simply follow [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
333
334 ```
335 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
336 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
337 hash -r
338 ```
339
340 Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
341
342 ### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
343
344 YouTube changed their playlist format in March 2014 and later on, so you'll need at least youtube-dl 2014.07.25 to download all YouTube videos.
345
346 If you have installed youtube-dl with a package manager, pip, setup.py or a tarball, please use that to update. Note that Ubuntu packages do not seem to get updated anymore. Since we are not affiliated with Ubuntu, there is little we can do. Feel free to [report bugs](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/youtube-dl/+filebug) to the [Ubuntu packaging guys](mailto:ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com?subject=outdated%20version%20of%20youtube-dl) - all they have to do is update the package to a somewhat recent version. See above for a way to update.
347
348 ### Do I always have to pass `-citw`?
349
350 By default, youtube-dl intends to have the best options (incidentally, if you have a convincing case that these should be different, [please file an issue where you explain that](https://yt-dl.org/bug)). Therefore, it is unnecessary and sometimes harmful to copy long option strings from webpages. In particular, the only option out of `-citw` that is regularly useful is `-i`.
351
352 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
353
354 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.
355
356 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
357
358 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.
359
360 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
361
362 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
363
364 ### I extracted a video URL with -g, but it does not play on another machine / in my webbrowser.
365
366 It depends a lot on the service. In many cases, requests for the video (to download/play it) must come from the same IP address and with the same 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.
367
368 It may be beneficial to use IPv6; in some cases, the restrictions are only applied to IPv4. Some services (sometimes only for a subset of videos) do not restrict the video URL by IP address, cookie, or user-agent, but these are the exception rather than the rule.
369
370 Please bear in mind that some URL protocols are **not** supported by browsers out of the box, including RTMP. If you are using -g, your own downloader must support these as well.
371
372 If you want to play the video on a machine that is not running youtube-dl, you can relay the video content from the machine that runs youtube-dl. You can use `-o -` to let youtube-dl stream a video to stdout, or simply allow the player to download the files written by youtube-dl in turn.
373
374 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
375
376 YouTube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
377
378 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
379
380 YouTube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
381
382 ### Video URL contains an ampersand and I'm getting some strange output `[1] 2839` or `'v' is not recognized as an internal or external command` ###
383
384 That's actually the output from your shell. Since ampersand is one of the special shell characters it's interpreted by shell preventing you from passing the whole URL to youtube-dl. To disable your shell from interpreting the ampersands (or any other special characters) you have to either put the whole URL in quotes or escape them with a backslash (which approach will work depends on your shell).
385
386 For example if your URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with following command:
387
388 ```youtube-dl 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc'```
389
390 or
391
392 ```youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\&v=BaW_jenozKc```
393
394 For Windows you have to use the double quotes:
395
396 ```youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"```
397
398 ### ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
399
400 In February 2015, the new YouTube player contained a character sequence in a string that was misinterpreted by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
401
402 ### HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
403
404 These two error codes indicate that the service is blocking your IP address because of overuse. Contact the service and ask them to unblock your IP address, or - if you have acquired a whitelisted IP address already - use the [`--proxy` or `--source-address` options](#network-options) to select another IP address.
405
406 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
407
408 The error
409
410 File "youtube-dl", line 2
411 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
412
413 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
414
415 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
416
417 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`.
418
419 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
420
421 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).
422
423 ### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
424
425 If you put youtube-dl and ffmpeg in the same directory that you're running the command from, it will work, but that's rather cumbersome.
426
427 To make a different directory work - either for ffmpeg, or for youtube-dl, or for both - simply create the directory (say, `C:\bin`, or `C:\Users\<User name>\bin`), put all the executables directly in there, and then [set your PATH environment variable](https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml) to include that directory.
428
429 From then on, after restarting your shell, you will be able to access both youtube-dl and ffmpeg (and youtube-dl will be able to find ffmpeg) by simply typing `youtube-dl` or `ffmpeg`, no matter what directory you're in.
430
431 ### How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
432
433 Use the `-o` to specify an [output template](#output-template), for example `-o "/home/user/videos/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"`. If you want this for all of your downloads, put the option into your [configuration file](#configuration).
434
435 ### How do I download a video starting with a `-` ?
436
437 Either prepend `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=` or separate the ID from the options with `--`:
438
439 youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
440 youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
441
442 ### Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
443
444 As a matter of policy (as well as legality), youtube-dl does not include support for services that specialize in infringing copyright. As a rule of thumb, if you cannot easily find a video that the service is quite obviously allowed to distribute (i.e. that has been uploaded by the creator, the creator's distributor, or is published under a free license), the service is probably unfit for inclusion to youtube-dl.
445
446 A note on the service that they don't host the infringing content, but just link to those who do, is evidence that the service should **not** be included into youtube-dl. The same goes for any DMCA note when the whole front page of the service is filled with videos they are not allowed to distribute. A "fair use" note is equally unconvincing if the service shows copyright-protected videos in full without authorization.
447
448 Support requests for services that **do** purchase the rights to distribute their content are perfectly fine though. If in doubt, you can simply include a source that mentions the legitimate purchase of content.
449
450 ### How can I speed up work on my issue?
451
452 (Also known as: Help, my important issue not being solved!) The youtube-dl core developer team is quite small. While we do our best to solve as many issues as possible, sometimes that can take quite a while. To speed up your issue, here's what you can do:
453
454 First of all, please do report the issue [at our issue tracker](https://yt-dl.org/bugs). That allows us to coordinate all efforts by users and developers, and serves as a unified point. Unfortunately, the youtube-dl project has grown too large to use personal email as an effective communication channel.
455
456 Please read the [bug reporting instructions](#bugs) below. A lot of bugs lack all the necessary information. If you can, offer proxy, VPN, or shell access to the youtube-dl developers. If you are able to, test the issue from multiple computers in multiple countries to exclude local censorship or misconfiguration issues.
457
458 If nobody is interested in solving your issue, you are welcome to take matters into your own hands and submit a pull request (or coerce/pay somebody else to do so).
459
460 Feel free to bump the issue from time to time by writing a small comment ("Issue is still present in youtube-dl version ...from France, but fixed from Belgium"), but please not more than once a month. Please do not declare your issue as `important` or `urgent`.
461
462 ### How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
463
464 For one, have a look at the [list of supported sites](docs/supportedsites.md). Note that it can sometimes happen that the site changes its URL scheme (say, from http://example.com/video/1234567 to http://example.com/v/1234567 ) and youtube-dl reports an URL of a service in that list as unsupported. In that case, simply report a bug.
465
466 It is *not* possible to detect whether a URL is supported or not. That's because youtube-dl contains a generic extractor which matches **all** URLs. You may be tempted to disable, exclude, or remove the generic extractor, but the generic extractor not only allows users to extract videos from lots of websites that embed a video from another service, but may also be used to extract video from a service that it's hosting itself. Therefore, we neither recommend nor support disabling, excluding, or removing the generic extractor.
467
468 If you want to find out whether a given URL is supported, simply call youtube-dl with it. If you get no videos back, chances are the URL is either not referring to a video or unsupported. You can find out which by examining the output (if you run youtube-dl on the console) or catching an `UnsupportedError` exception if you run it from a Python program.
469
470 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
471
472 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.
473
474 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
475
476 python -m youtube_dl
477
478 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
479
480 python -m unittest discover
481 python test/test_download.py
482 nosetests
483
484 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
485
486 * python
487 * make
488 * pandoc
489 * zip
490 * nosetests
491
492 ### Adding support for a new site
493
494 If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
495
496 1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
497 2. Check out the source code with `git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
498 3. Start a new git branch with `cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
499 4. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
500 ```python
501 # coding: utf-8
502 from __future__ import unicode_literals
503
504 from .common import InfoExtractor
505
506
507 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
508 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
509 _TEST = {
510 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
511 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
512 'info_dict': {
513 'id': '42',
514 'ext': 'mp4',
515 'title': 'Video title goes here',
516 'thumbnail': 're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
517 # TODO more properties, either as:
518 # * A value
519 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
520 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
521 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
522 }
523 }
524
525 def _real_extract(self, url):
526 video_id = self._match_id(url)
527 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
528
529 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
530 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
531
532 return {
533 'id': video_id,
534 'title': title,
535 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
536 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
537 }
538 ```
539 5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
540 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. If you decide to add more than one test, then rename ``_TEST`` to ``_TESTS`` and make it into a list of dictionaries. The tests will be then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
541 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.
542 8. If you can, check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).
543 9. When the tests pass, [add](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files and [commit](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
544
545 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
546 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
547 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
548 $ git push origin yourextractor
549
550 10. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
551
552 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
553
554 # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
555
556 youtube-dl makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language. If you encounter any problems parsing its output, feel free to [create a report](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/new).
557
558 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
559
560 ```python
561 from __future__ import unicode_literals
562 import youtube_dl
563
564 ydl_opts = {}
565 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
566 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
567 ```
568
569 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of what can be done, have a look at [youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L69). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a `logger` object.
570
571 Here's a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors (and a short message after the download is finished), and downloads/converts the video to an mp3 file:
572
573 ```python
574 from __future__ import unicode_literals
575 import youtube_dl
576
577
578 class MyLogger(object):
579 def debug(self, msg):
580 pass
581
582 def warning(self, msg):
583 pass
584
585 def error(self, msg):
586 print(msg)
587
588
589 def my_hook(d):
590 if d['status'] == 'finished':
591 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
592
593
594 ydl_opts = {
595 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
596 'postprocessors': [{
597 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
598 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
599 'preferredquality': '192',
600 }],
601 'logger': MyLogger(),
602 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
603 }
604 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
605 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
606 ```
607
608 # BUGS
609
610 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. For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
611
612 **Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with `-v`**.
613
614 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.
615
616 Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
617
618 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
619
620 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.
621
622 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
623
624 - What the problem is
625 - How it could be fixed
626 - How your proposed solution would look like
627
628 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.
629
630 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.
631
632 If your server has multiple IPs or you suspect censorship, adding --call-home may be a good idea to get more diagnostics. If the error is `ERROR: Unable to extract ...` and you cannot reproduce it from multiple countries, add `--dump-pages` (warning: this will yield a rather large output, redirect it to the file `log.txt` by adding `>log.txt 2>&1` to your command-line) or upload the `.dump` files you get when you add `--write-pages` [somewhere](https://gist.github.com/).
633
634 **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.
635
636 ### Are you using the latest version?
637
638 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.
639
640 ### Is the issue already documented?
641
642 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.
643
644 ### Why are existing options not enough?
645
646 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.
647
648 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
649
650 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).
651
652 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.
653
654 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
655
656 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.
657
658 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.
659
660 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
661
662 Only post features that you (or an incapacitated 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.
663
664 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
665
666 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.
667
668 # COPYRIGHT
669
670 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
671
672 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.