Some known common issues. Make sure to always check this before opening issues. Duplicates of these will be strictly treated as spam!

Useful issue tracker filters:

[Core Issues] [Site Issues] [YouTube issues] [Good issues for new devs]

High priority issues

• [Youtube] Immediate HTTP Error 403 on download #11868

Intractable issues

• [youtube] "Video unavailable" with cookies - YouTube blocking accounts from web #10085
  • Do not pass cookies; do not log in with OAuth.
  • Try passing a PO Token to avoid getting blocked.
• [youtube] Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot. This helps protect our community #10128
  • Your IP has been blocked by YouTube while you are logged out. You can pass logged-in cookies; however, doing so may get your account blocked. The safer solution is to use a different IP.
  • To prevent this, try passing a PO Token, though it will not help if your IP is already blocked.
• [youtube] The following content is not available on this app.. Watch on the latest version of YouTube #10108
  • Your IP has been blocked by Youtube.
  • You can try --force-ipv6 or --force-ipv4 to switch b/w IPv4 and IPv6 IPs if you have them.
• [youtube] Age-restricted videos now always require sign-in #11296
  • The age-restriction workaround is mostly broken. You must pass logged-in cookies; however, doing so may get your account blocked
• Passing Youtube cookies doesn't seem to work; cookies are being invalidated quickly #8227
  • How to effectively export YouTube cookies
• [YouTube] This content isn't available, try again later. #11426
  • You are exceeding the rate limit. Workarounds

Recently solved bugs

Update to latest version

• [YouTube] player 3bb1f723: nsig extraction failed: Some formats may be missing #11744
• [youtube] player 3bb1f723: Signature extraction failed: Some formats may be missing #11748
• [youtube] Cannot get index py in: {} (caused by KeyError('py')) #11798
• [youtube:tab] Tab/playlist extraction intermittently yielding 0 items #11524
• [facebook] ERROR: No video formats found (on >= 2024.11.04) #11497
• [Youtube] Playlist search broken #11666
• [YouTube] non-original audio tracks being returned/downloaded as default #11753
• [instagram] Support /share/ URLs #11630
• [BiliBili] unable to extract play info #11665
• Linux/macOS/BSD chromium cookies could not be decrypted; failed to decrypt cookie (AES-CBC) because UTF-8 decoding failed #6564
• [TikTok] 31KB non-video files are being downloaded #11034
• Unicode "|" character is being replaced in filenames on filesystems that support it  #4547
• [Youtube] Unable to extract uploader id #6247

Bugs

• [adobepass] --ap-mso HTTP Error 451: Unavailable For Legal Reasons #11811
• [youtube:tab] Shorts video. More than 100 from the playlist are not downloaded. #11130
• [Vimeo] HTTP Error 429/403 When Using Impersonate Target #10422
• [Hotstar] HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable with cookies #11195
• [twitch] Cannot download more than 100 VODs from a channel when providing a /channel/videos URL #7058
  • Do not pass cookies to yt-dlp
• [facebook] Cannot parse data #4311
• [instagram:user] ERROR: Unable to extract data #4394
• [instagram] "General metadata extraction failed" / extractor needs better fallback(s) #7165
• Instagram: Can't download public Reel, "Unable to extract username" #5967
• --ap-mso DTV Broken: Unable to extract post url #2188
• [ytmusic] Parse metadata from music.youtube.com #622 / [Youtube] Can't download "Music Charts" at format 141 #5546
  • Metadata from youtube.com is used for ytmusic
• Twitch live streams have out of sync audio and lowered pitch #4280
  • Use --fixup never
• Cannot download video from udemy #1164
• --trim-filenames fails to clip file name properly when there is a dot in a video title #2314
  • Use -o %(title).200B.%(ext)s
• [teachable] ERROR: Unable to find Video URL https://edu.ecomsuccess.pk/courses/enrolled/903296 #3564
• CeskaTelevize broken #6539
• iQIYI extractor can't find any video #2740
• [Viu] URLs are using generic extractor instead of Viu extractor #6482
• [Ixigua] ERROR: Failed to get SSR_HYDRATED_DATA #5374
• Douyin always errors saying fresh cookies are needed, even when passing them #9667
• Some m3u8/HLS manifests have no audio codec/bitrate info and yt-dlp doesn't sort them correctly #11178
• ZenYandex: Unable to extract 'metadata' #11385
• [pbs] An extractor error has occurred. (caused by KeyError('title')) #11514

External issues

• --cookies-from-browser errors when Chrome/chromium-based browser is open in Windows #7271
  • Try after closing chrome completely OR
  • Launch chrome from command line w/ chrome.exe --disable-features=LockProfileCookieDatabase
  • Alternatively, you can install the ChomeCookieUnlock yt-dlp plugin
• --cookies-from-browser: WARNING: failed to decrypt with DPAPI / ERROR: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'decode' #10927
• [youtube] Is downloading a livestream in 1440p or 2160p no longer available? #11262
• [Youtube] 8k VR180 SBS videos no longer available #9903
  • Use --extractor-arg "youtube:player_client=android_vr,default"
• [Youtube] throttling and inconsistent speed in Russia #10443
  • Workarounds
• [Discord bot] Music stops in the middle #8854
• [youtube] Endless "Incomplete data received" when downloading playlist #10394
  • Don't use --extractor-retries infinite
• FFMPEG "Invalid data found when processing input" on live/post-live/dash videos (duplicate ftyp) #8641
  • Regression in ffmpeg 6.1. Upgrade to ffmpeg 6.1.1 or to master build revision N-112916 or later
• [youtube] "Invalid data found when processing input" / ffmpeg errors on HDR VP9 in mp4 #7541
  • ffmpeg bug. Upgrade to ffmpeg 7.0.1 or to the latest master build
• ffmpeg cannot properly seek in Youtube's iOS m3u8 streams #7824
  • Use -S proto:https or --extractor-args "youtube:player_client=default,-ios"
• --mark-watched fails with urlopen error #8149
  • Disable pi-hole or whitelist s.youtube.com
• Chapter Embedding Results in Unnamed Chapters When Using Recent FFmpeg Builds #6859
  • ffmpeg regression. Use https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds or upgrade to 6.1.1 or newer
• yt-dlp is detected as a virus #25
  • It's a false positive. Complain to your vendor. There is nothing we can do
• Incomplete Data Recieved #1787
  • Broken from Youtube's side. If downloading comments, use -i to ignore the error
• Wrong year in metadata in M4A, MP4, FLAC format #3087
  • Workaround: --parse-metadata "%(release_year,upload_date).4s:(?P<meta_date>.+)"
• pyinstaller temp files are not cleaned up when using yt-dlp.exe with mpv #10294
• Long Start-Up Time for yt-dlp_macos #10425

FAQ

See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ

• Filename too long
  • -o %(title).200B.%(ext)s
• [Question] odd ba* format selection? #979 (comment)
  • Generally do not use ba*
• Fix playlist_index's inconsistent behavior #302
  • Check playlist_autonumber and --compat-option playlist-index
• yt-dlp python module not compiling with pyinstaller #3845
  • Use bundle/pyinstaller.py
• Subtitle file is not deleted after being embedded #630 (comment)
  • Use --compat-option no-keep-subs
• --download-sections/--sponsorblock-remove does not cut at exact point #4216 / YouTube Clip Downloads have unintented extra beginning part with no video #5080
  • Use --force-keyframes-at-cuts
• Duplicating pull request from youtube-dl to yt-dlp #4202
• How to check in browser if the video is DRM protected
• --cookies-from-browser for a chrome/firefox like browser or non-default install location #2903
• What are yt-dlp's error codes? #4262 (comment)
• Extractor option language for crunchyrollbeta #4640
• Ability to strip Emoji from downloaded file  #4836 / File names use "full-width" special characters: '？' vs '?' #5014
• [Youtube] Extract exact timestamps #1803
• [Feature Request] Crop to square thumbnail when embedding in MP3s #429 (comment)
• Download only videos with subtitles
  • --parse-metadata "%(subtitles.\:.0.ext|)s:^(?!\[\])(?P<has_subs>.)" -v --match-filter has_subs
• How do I rename previously-downloaded files with nothing but the youtube video ID? #5692
• Remove specific fields from info-json - [Suggestion] Redact formats in info json with an option #455 (comment)
• About subtitles in mp4 container - Convert webvtt subtitles in mp4 into useable format #5833 (comment)
• Find the API option for a CLI argument #5859 (comment)
  • Use https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py
• [YouTube] youtube:skip=translated_subs doesn't work for some videos. #3875
• Youtube bestvideo and vp9 preference. #1232 (comment)
• repo: git log broken by SSH signature #7322
• download comments into separate comments.json file #2372 (comment)
• How to force a conversion to a specific video codec? #7607 (comment)
• How to download youtube videos in mp4 format? #8880

PS: These are just the most common issues at the moment. Make sure to search for duplicates in general before opening issues. Looking at this is not an excuse to not search for other duplicates!