NAME
====
-youtube-dl
+youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
SYNOPSIS
========
-youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
+youtube-dl OPTIONS URL [URL...]
DESCRIPTION
===========
youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from
YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter,
-version 2.x (x being at least 6), and it is not platform specific. It
-should work in your Unix box, in Windows or in Mac OS X. It is released
-to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or
-use it however you like.
+version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should
+work on your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the
+public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it
+however you like.
OPTIONS
=======
- -h, --help print this help text and exit
- --version print program version and exit
- -U, --update update this program to latest version
- -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
- -r, --rate-limit LIMIT download rate limit (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
- -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
- --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k) (default
- is 1024)
- --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
- default, the buffer size is automatically resized
- from an initial value of SIZE.
- --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
- --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
- --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
- would handle
+ -h, --help print this help text and exit
+ --version print program version and exit
+ -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure
+ that you have sufficient permissions (run with
+ sudo if needed)
+ -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to to
+ skip unavailable videos in a playlist
+ --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
+ playlist or the command line) if an error occurs
+ --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
+ --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
+ --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
+ is restricted to one domain
+ --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
+ would handle
+ --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
+ --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in an
+ empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection
+ --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
+ --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can
+ store some downloaded information permanently. By
+ default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache
+ /youtube-dl . At the moment, only YouTube player
+ files (for videos with obfuscated signatures) are
+ cached, but that may change.
+ --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
+ --socket-timeout None Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
+ --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack bidirectional
+ text support. Requires bidiv or fribidi
+ executable in PATH
Video Selection:
----------------
- --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
- --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
- --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
- sub-string)
- --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
- caseless sub-string)
- --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
+ --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
+ --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
+ --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
+ sub-string)
+ --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
+ caseless sub-string)
+ --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
+ --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
+ (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
+ --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
+ 50k or 44.6m)
+ --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
+ --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before this
+ date (i.e. inclusive)
+ --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after this
+ date (i.e. inclusive)
+ --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than COUNT
+ views
+ --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than COUNT
+ views
+ --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
+ --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given age
+ --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the archive
+ file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in
+ it.
+
+Download Options:
+-----------------
+
+ -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g.
+ 50K or 4.2M)
+ -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
+ --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
+ (default is 1024)
+ --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
+ default, the buffer size is automatically resized
+ from an initial value of SIZE.
Filesystem Options:
-------------------
- -t, --title use title in file name
- --id use video ID in file name
- -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
- -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
- -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get the
- title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
- %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented
- number, %(ext)s for the filename extension,
- %(upload_date)s for the upload date (YYYYMMDD),
- %(extractor)s for the provider (youtube, metacafe,
- etc), %(id)s for the video id and %% for a literal
- percent. Use - to output to stdout. Can also be
- used to download to a different directory, for
- example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s/%(title
- )s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
- --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
- avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
- -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
- -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
- -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
- --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
- from beginning)
- --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
- --no-part do not use .part files
- --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the file
- modification time
- --write-description write video description to a .description file
- --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
+ -t, --title use title in file name (default)
+ --id use only video ID in file name
+ -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
+ -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
+ -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 nickname if
+ different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
+ incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
+ extension, %(format)s for the format description
+ (like "22 - 1280x720" or "HD"), %(format_id)s for
+ the unique id of the format (like Youtube's
+ itags: "137"), %(upload_date)s for the upload
+ date (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
+ (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video
+ id, %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is
+ in, %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
+ playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
+ output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
+ a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
+ ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
+ --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
+ when it is present in output filename template or
+ --auto-number option is given
+ --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
+ avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
+ -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
+ --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
+ (created with the "--write-json" option)
+ -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
+ -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files. By
+ default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if
+ possible.
+ --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
+ from beginning)
+ --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
+ --no-part do not use .part files
+ --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
+ file modification time
+ --write-description write video description to a .description file
+ --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
+ --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation file
+ --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-------------------------------
- -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
- -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write anything
- to disk
- --skip-download do not download the video
- -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
- -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
- --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
- --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
- --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
- --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
- --no-progress do not print progress bar
- --console-title display progress in console titlebar
- -v, --verbose print various debugging information
+ -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
+ -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
+ anything to disk
+ --skip-download do not download the video
+ -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
+ -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
+ --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
+ --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
+ --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
+ --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
+ --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
+ --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
+ -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information
+ --newline output progress bar as new lines
+ --no-progress do not print progress bar
+ --console-title display progress in console titlebar
+ -v, --verbose print various debugging information
+ --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems (very
+ verbose)
+ --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in
+ the current directory to debug problems
Video Format Options:
---------------------
- -f, --format FORMAT video format code
- --all-formats download all available video formats
- --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one is
- requested
- --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
- -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube only)
- --write-srt write video closed captions to a .srt file
- (currently youtube only)
- --srt-lang LANG language of the closed captions to download
- (optional) use IETF language tags like 'en'
+ -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
+ preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18". "-f mp4"
+ and "-f flv" are also supported
+ --all-formats download all available video formats
+ --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
+ is requested
+ --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
+ -F, --list-formats list all available formats
+
+Subtitle Options:
+-----------------
+
+ --write-sub write subtitle file
+ --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
+ --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
+ video
+ --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
+ --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
+ only)
+ --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
+ separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
+ 'en,pt'
Authentication Options:
-----------------------
- -u, --username USERNAME account username
- -p, --password PASSWORD account password
- -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
+ -u, --username USERNAME account username
+ -p, --password PASSWORD account password
+ -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
+ --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
Post-processing Options:
------------------------
- -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
- ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
- --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", or "wav";
- best by default
- --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert a
- value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a
- specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
- -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
- processing; the video is erased by default
+ -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
+ ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
+ --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
+ "wav"; best by default
+ --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
+ a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
+ or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
+ --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
+ (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
+ -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
+ processing; the video is erased by default
+ --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
+ processed files are overwritten by default
+ --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
+ videos)
+ --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
+ --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs (using
+ dublin core and xdg standards)
+ --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
+ postprocessors (default)
+ --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
+ postprocessors
CONFIGURATION
=============
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 ~/.local/config/youtube-dl.conf.
+mtime) into /etc/youtube-dl.conf and/or ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf. On
+Windows, the configuration file locations are
+%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt and C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf.
OUTPUT TEMPLATE
===============
the file.
- autonumber: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number
that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
+- playlist: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the
+ video.
+- playlist_index: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit
+ number.
-The current default template is %(id)s.%(ext)s, but that will be
-switchted to %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s (which can be requested with -t at
-the moment).
+The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.
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
$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
+VIDEO SELECTION
+===============
+
+Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date,
+--datebefore or --dateafter, they accept dates in two formats:
+
+- Absolute dates: Dates in the format YYYYMMDD.
+- Relative dates: Dates in the format
+ (now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?
+
+Examples:
+
+$ # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months $ youtube-dl
+--dateafter now-6months $ # Download only the videos uploaded on January
+1, 1970 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 $ # will only download the videos
+uploaded in the 200x decade $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101
+--datebefore 20091231
+
FAQ
===
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
+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.
I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
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
+too much. We're considering to provide a way to let you solve the
CAPTCHA, but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a
webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart
youtube-dl.
====
Bugs and suggestions should be reported at:
-https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues
+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.
-Please include:
-
-- Your exact command line, like
- youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title".
- A common mistake is not to escape the &. Putting URLs in quotes
- should solve this problem.
-- The output of youtube-dl --version
-- The output of python --version
-- The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or
- "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
+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.
For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
+
+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):
+
+Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
+
+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.
+
+So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you
+want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
+
+- What the problem is
+- How it could be fixed
+- How your proposed solution would look like
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Are you using the latest version?
+
+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.
+
+Is the issue already documented?
+
+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.
+
+Why are existing options not enough?
+
+Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at the list of
+supported options. 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.
+
+Is there enough context in your bug report?
+
+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).
+
+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.
+
+Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Is anyone going to need the feature?
+
+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.
+
+Is your question about youtube-dl?
+
+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.