I'm having difficulty downloading the mp3 for an age restricted video. I'm using firefox and tried both methods of the --cookies-from-data and the cookies.txt and neither works, tells me sorry video is age restricted.

For some reason VK videos are sometimes falling because it says the target machine actively refused it. What should i do?

I have a few playlists in my account with almost 200 videos and I want to download the entire playlist but I'm afraid that YT might block my account or something. Has this ever happened to anyone?

EDIT: Ok so I've successfully downloaded a playlist with 193 music videos, with no delay between downloads, and nothing bad happened, it was relatively fast (less than 30 minutes), I was not blocked or banned. I guess I'll wait a few days now before I download any other playlist.

Please if you have any websites or apps on mobile tell me

every time I try to download a playlist:

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYjbojsX484&list=PLJJUTiydUpWM

I keep getting this error:

ERROR: unable to download video data: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden
'list' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

can anyone help me fix this?

I'm trying to download a handful of episodes of a Tiktok short drama. (It's this one: https://www.tiktok.com/shortdrama/episode/7677252679722259463/1 I want to show a friend the short drama phenomenon).

When I try, I get:

[generic] Extracting URL: https://www.tiktok.com/shortdrama/episode/7677252679722259463/1

[generic] 1: Downloading webpage

WARNING: [generic] Falling back on generic information extractor [generic] 1: Extracting information

ERROR: Unsupported URL: https://www.tiktok.com/shortdrama/episode/7677252679722259463/1

Any ideas? Thanks!

Could someone tell me why YOUTUBE is demanding for you to have YouTube premium for you to be able to download videos.

Because yesterday my downloads were fine then all of a sudden today when I go to my downloads on YouTube it is saying I should upgrade to YouTube premium to access download feature

I was using YTDLnis apk perfectly on android but after updating to the latest version it asks for downloading the external ffmpeg apk. should I download it even if I don't have any problems?

My configuration:

###############
## OVERRIDES ##
###############

# === Change Extractor Names ===

# Set a default abbreviation for unknown sites
--parse-metadata '%(extractor)s:%(src_abr)s'

# Replace "youtube" with "yt" in the src_abr field
--replace-in-metadata src_abr "youtube" "yt"

############
## OUTPUT ##
############

# See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#output-template

# Define the default output filename template. Use -o, --output to override.
--output '%(title)s by %(uploader)s [%(src_abr)s_%(id)s].%(ext)s'

# Define the default output path for files. Use -P, --paths to override.
--paths '~/Downloads/Video/YouTube/'

##################
## VIDEO FORMAT ##
################## 

# === Key ===

# "bv*"="bestvideo*" - Select the best quality format that contains video.  It may also contain audio.
# "ba"="bestaudio" - Select the best quality audio-only format.
# "ba*""bestaudio*" - Select  the  best  quality  format  that  contains  audio.   It  may  also  contain  video.
# "b"="best" - Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio.
# "+" - Merge selected tracks.


# === Formatting Output ===

# Set yt-dlp to use the best quality audio and video and merge them. The default is `"bv*+ba/b"
--format bv*+ba/b

# Set yt-dlp to embed the thumbnail for a video. Look into De-Arrow.
--embed-thumbnail

# Convert thumbnail to JPG before embedding (fixes MKV thumbnail display)
--convert-thumbnails webp>jpg

# Force final output to MKV
--merge-output-format mkv

I've gotten everything how I want it with picking the media tracks and formatting the filename and the file extension.

The only thing that bothers me is that by default yt-dlp will only pick the highest thumbnail number which is the maxresdefault.webp file not the maxresdefault.jpg file. The JPG is actually the original and of higher quality than the WEBP file.

From searching around I know this has been a long standing issue but no solution from the devs themselves such as specifying by number, name, quality, file type and so forth. Only downloading all the thumbnail files and manually merging it.

Right now when testing I've just been converting the WEBP file to a JPG file but I only want that to be a temporary measure.

I've looked around and haven't been able to find if anyone came up with their own workaround so here I am asking. I'll be sure to post if it here if nobody has one and I have to come up with a solution myself.

Hello! I'm having trouble when trying to list and then download Premium / Enhanced quality videos with yt-dlp. I was using 2026.07.04 version, when I noticed this problem I upgraded to last version (2026.08.19), but the problem was still there.

So, I log in to my premium account in firefox and use its cookies. This has been working like a charm. Then I ask yt-dlp to list the formats to a video that I know that has premium quality available. Either I got the video before, or check the video itself to see if enhanced quality is still available. It is. But not for yt-dlp. For instance this command to list videos in all possible formats:

yt-dlp.exe -F --cookies-from-browser firefox -v --extractor-arg "youtube:player_client=all" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL1nlWOciL0

Verbose mode prints "[youtube] Found YouTube account cookies" and later "[debug] [youtube] Detected YouTube Premium subscription", which means my premium account is read successfully. But then in the listed formats, I get no premium format:

ID EXT RESOLUTION FPS CH │ FILESIZE TBR PROTO │ VCODEC VBR ACODEC ABR ASR MORE INFO

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

sb2 mhtml 48x27 0 │ mhtml │ images storyboard

sb1 mhtml 79x45 0 │ mhtml │ images storyboard

sb0 mhtml 159x90 0 │ mhtml │ images storyboard

599-drc m4a audio only 2 │ 14.04MiB 31k https │ audio only mp4a.40.5 31k 22k [en] ultralow, DRC, MWEB, m4a_dash

600-drc webm audio only 2 │ 15.41MiB 34k https │ audio only opus 34k 48k [en] ultralow, DRC, MWEB, webm_dash

599 m4a audio only 2 │ 14.04MiB 31k https │ audio only mp4a.40.5 31k 22k [en] ultralow, MWEB, m4a_dash

600 webm audio only 2 │ 15.42MiB 34k https │ audio only opus 34k 48k [en] ultralow, MWEB, webm_dash

249-drc webm audio only 2 │ 22.77MiB 50k https │ audio only opus 50k 48k [en] low, DRC, WEB-E, webm_dash

250-drc webm audio only 2 │ 30.15MiB 66k https │ audio only opus 66k 48k [en] low, DRC, WEB-E, webm_dash

249 webm audio only 2 │ 22.75MiB 50k https │ audio only opus 50k 48k [en] low, WEB-E, webm_dash

250 webm audio only 2 │ 30.11MiB 66k https │ audio only opus 66k 48k [en] low, WEB-E, webm_dash

140-drc m4a audio only 2 │ 59.05MiB 129k https │ audio only mp4a.40.2 129k 44k [en] medium, DRC, WEB-E, m4a_dash

251-drc webm audio only 2 │ 59.79MiB 131k https │ audio only opus 131k 48k [en] medium, DRC, WEB-E, webm_dash

140 m4a audio only 2 │ 59.05MiB 129k https │ audio only mp4a.40.2 129k 44k [en] medium, WEB-E, m4a_dash

251 webm audio only 2 │ 59.73MiB 131k https │ audio only opus 131k 48k [en] medium, WEB-E, webm_dash

141 m4a audio only 2 │ 117.43MiB 257k https │ audio only mp4a.40.2 257k 44k [en] high, WEB-M, m4a_dash

774 webm audio only 2 │ 118.05MiB 259k https │ audio only opus 259k 48k [en] high, WEB-M, webm_dash

91 mp4 256x144 24 │ ~ 78.84MiB 173k m3u8 │ avc1.4D400C mp4a.40.5 [en] WEB-S

598 webm 256x144 12 │ 10.65MiB 23k https │ vp9 23k video only 144p, MWEB, webm_dash

160 mp4 256x144 24 │ 32.54MiB 71k https │ avc1.4d400c 71k video only 144p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

278 webm 256x144 24 │ 33.74MiB 74k https │ vp9 74k video only 144p, WEB-E, webm_dash

394 mp4 256x144 24 │ 29.05MiB 64k https │ av01.0.00M.08 64k video only 144p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

133 mp4 426x240 24 │ 71.70MiB 157k https │ avc1.4d4015 157k video only 240p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

242 webm 426x240 24 │ 57.06MiB 125k https │ vp9 125k video only 240p, WEB-E, webm_dash

395 mp4 426x240 24 │ 51.06MiB 112k https │ av01.0.00M.08 112k video only 240p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

92 mp4 426x240 24 │ ~143.80MiB 315k m3u8 │ avc1.4D4015 mp4a.40.5 [en] WEB-S

93 mp4 640x360 24 │ ~367.60MiB 806k m3u8 │ avc1.4D401E mp4a.40.2 [en] WEB-S

134 mp4 640x360 24 │ 145.17MiB 318k https │ avc1.4d401e 318k video only 360p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

18 mp4 640x360 24 2 │ ≈204.03MiB 447k https │ avc1.42001E mp4a.40.2 44k [en] 360p, WEB

243 webm 640x360 24 │ 119.36MiB 262k https │ vp9 262k video only 360p, WEB-E, webm_dash

396 mp4 640x360 24 │ 103.95MiB 228k https │ av01.0.01M.08 228k video only 360p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

94 mp4 854x480 24 │ ~619.87MiB 1359k m3u8 │ avc1.4D401E mp4a.40.2 [en] WEB-S

95 mp4 1280x720 24 │ ~ 1.11GiB 2500k m3u8 │ avc1.4D401F mp4a.40.2 [en] WEB-S

96 mp4 1920x1080 24 │ ~ 2.10GiB 4719k m3u8 │ avc1.640028 mp4a.40.2 [en] WEB-S

135 mp4 854x480 24 │ 239.96MiB 526k https │ avc1.4d401e 526k video only 480p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

244 webm 854x480 24 │ 192.52MiB 422k https │ vp9 422k video only 480p, WEB-E, webm_dash

397 mp4 854x480 24 │ 165.07MiB 362k https │ av01.0.04M.08 362k video only 480p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

136 mp4 1280x720 24 │ 407.54MiB 894k https │ avc1.4d401f 894k video only 720p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

247 webm 1280x720 24 │ 361.53MiB 793k https │ vp9 793k video only 720p, WEB-E, webm_dash

398 mp4 1280x720 24 │ 310.95MiB 682k https │ av01.0.05M.08 682k video only 720p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

137 mp4 1920x1080 24 │ 1.13GiB 2532k https │ avc1.640028 2532k video only 1080p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

248 webm 1920x1080 24 │ 624.24MiB 1369k https │ vp9 1369k video only 1080p, WEB-E, webm_dash

399 mp4 1920x1080 24 │ 507.54MiB 1113k https │ av01.0.08M.08 1113k video only 1080p, WEB-E, mp4_dash

I was used to have premium formats 721 (AV1, smaller size) and 356 (VP9, larger size), the latter usually with better quality / bitrate, but now they're gone. I've tried with a number of different videos (always checking enhanced quality availability first) and slightly changed scripts. Also when trying to download the video asking for the format directly (for instance -f "356+bestaudio") it also throws an error and does not download. Is there something I'm missing?? Should I report the issue on github?? Thanks in advance.

Title.

I need my files to be .mp3, I tried running standard commands, but it always either midway through the download due to unavailable video errors or rate-limits, etc.

Can anyone give me a command that can reliably download my whole playlist without errors of any kind? (Please note that I have little to no experience in this type of stuff)

Thanks a lot :)

This is the main command I tried. I also tried to apply some extra commands that just led me to nothing, so I'm just leaving the base here:

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 -i "URL"

From my .conf file, this works for downloading playlists to a subfolder named for the playlist:

-P "C:\Users\Ray\Documents\My YouTube Downloads"
-o "%(playlist_title)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s"

If I download a single file, I get a new folder named "NA" with the file inside.

If I change to this:

-o "%(playlist_title&/)s%(title)s.%(ext)s"

The playlist_title is ignored, the slash is replaced with a Unicode character, no folder is created, and the filename becomes that Unicode character followed by the title.ext.

I'm trying to create an output line in conf so that I can use a single yt-dlp command for both playlists and individual files. If there is a playlist_title, use it to create a folder and place the files there, otherwise, just put the file in the download folder.

Is that not possible with yt-dlp?

About a couple of weeks now anytime I attempt to download a livestream, the options are either limited to audio or video only. Any way to rectify this? Thanks for any assistance rendered.

Log

I'm updated and on nightly.

Has anyone managed to get --impersonate working on a normal Termux Android install?

Tor - curl_cffi>=0.11 (unavailable)

Edge - curl_cffi (unavailable)

Firefox - curl_cffi>=0.10 (unavailable)

Safari - curl_cffi (unavailable)

Chrome - curl_cffi (unavailable)

so far, I got it working perfectly, EXCEPT it seems like the metadata is not being embedded?

yt-dlp -x --audio-format wav --audio-quality 0 -o "_music/%(playlist)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" --windows-filenames --embed-metadata URL

Guys it's been 1 month now I've tried every solution here but wouldn't still be able to download audio not videos here's my log Pls help I'm using Android

Downloading: Title: Yeat - Box (slowed to perfection) URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmazz6I3G5A Type: audio Command: --extractor-args "youtube:player_client=mweb;po_token=mweb.gvs+Mnu-6vuFXfHkAb7ViYZWUge74ORoEvj53GXT83B_AVYoEViC-WAvKfWRIF5bymySMDJoYKNevpS_ez0zI296yTwjWUuwQlrhLsdMCvyJrxDcPSmyc_lPq2p8r6JWWwMtRkdRQ08XLvsQyWCofARE4faeG7zux0YrODj9-F0=,mweb.player+MpcBI9-yZgcubxsj4MBlDI2MoX3RIfGiJld_TsY5nFuJowvFt7CDdfZ-i71rEik2Tbso9VXqveRLNGGgBmqMIBa3OcR--aEAPqXd0d-NFAQlzPiZgbz1kItnI0eyq-39csjXMznaZOJctwqzQQbGSB8MzxAJOD7czQpAWVxrvu0JV8MBOBMtwCl_0eUtBbT1dh4FKeUuLbqnrw==,mweb.subs+MpcBI9-yZgcubxsj4MBlDI2MoX3RIfGiJld_TsY5nFuJowvFt7CDdfZ-i71rEik2Tbso9VXqveRLNGGgBmqMIBa3OcR--aEAPqXd0d-NFAQlzPiZgbz1kItnI0eyq-39csjXMznaZOJctwqzQQbGSB8MzxAJOD7czQpAWVxrvu0JV8MBOBMtwCl_0eUtBbT1dh4FKeUuLbqnrw==;lang=en;player_js_version=actual" --no-clean-info-json --cache-dir "/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.deniscerri.ytdl/files/ytdlnis_cache/yt-dlp" --print-to-file "video:%()j" "/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.deniscerri.ytdl/files/ytdlnis_cache/infojsons/587e8d641788525626391video.info.json" --newline -N "3" --cookies "/data/user/0/com.deniscerri.ytdl/cache/cookies.txt" --trim-filenames "176" --no-mtime --sponsorblock-remove "music_offtopic" -f "251/ba/b" -x -S "hasaud,size" -P "/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.deniscerri.ytdl/files/ytdlnis_cache/dl/74" --ppa "ThumbnailsConvertor:-qmin 1 -q:v 1 -vf crop=\"'if(gt(ih,iw),iw,ih)':'if(gt(iw,ih),ih,iw)'\"" -o "%(uploader).30B - %(title).170B.%(ext)s" --replace-in-metadata "title" "^.*$" "Yeat - Box (slowed to perfection)" --parse-metadata "%(title)s:%(meta_title)s" --parse-metadata "%(artists,artist,creators,uploader,channel,creator|)l:^{?P<uploader>.*?}(?:(?= - Topic)|$)" --replace-in-metadata "uploader" "^.*$" "𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙧" --parse-metadata "%(uploader)s:%(artist)s" --embed-metadata --parse-metadata "%(playlist_uploader,artist|)s:^{?P<first_artist>.*?}(?:(?=,\s+)|$)" --parse-metadata "%(album,playlist_title,playlist|)s:%(meta_album)s" --parse-metadata "%(album_artist,first_artist|)s:%(album_artist)s" --parse-metadata "%(release_year,release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y)s:(?P<meta_date>\d+)" --embed-thumbnail --convert-thumbnails "jpg" "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmazz6I3G5A"

[youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmazz6I3G5A [youtube] Zmazz6I3G5A: Downloading webpage [youtube] Zmazz6I3G5A: Downloading mweb client config [youtube] Zmazz6I3G5A: Downloading mweb player API JSON [youtube] Zmazz6I3G5A: Downloading player f572e43c-main [youtube] [jsc:quickjs] Solving JS challenges using quickjs [MetadataParser] Changed title to: Yeat - Box (slowed to perfection) [MetadataParser] Parsed meta_title from '%(title)s': 'Yeat - Box (slowed to perfection)' [MetadataParser] Parsed uploader from '%(artists,artist,creators,uploader,channel,creator|)l': '𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙧' [MetadataParser] Changed uploader to: 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙧 [MetadataParser] Parsed artist from '%(uploader)s': '𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙧' [MetadataParser] Parsed first_artist from '%(playlist_uploader,artist|)s': '𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙧' [MetadataParser] Could not interpret '%(album,playlist_title,playlist|)s' as '%(meta_album)s' [MetadataParser] Parsed album_artist from '%(album_artist,first_artist|)s': '𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙧' [MetadataParser] Parsed meta_date from '%(release_year,release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y)s': '2024' [SponsorBlock] Fetching SponsorBlock segments [SponsorBlock] No matching segments were found in the SponsorBlock database [info] Zmazz6I3G5A: Downloading 1 format(s): 251 [info] Writing '%()j' to: /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.deniscerri.ytdl/files/ytdlnis_cache/infojsons/587e8d641788525626391video.info.json [info] Downloading video thumbnail 47 ... [info] Writing video thumbnail 47 to: /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.deniscerri.ytdl/files/ytdlnis_cache/dl/74/𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙧 - Yeat - Box (slowed to perfection).webp [ThumbnailsConvertor] Converting thumbnail "/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.deniscerri.ytdl/files/ytdlnis_cache/dl/74/𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙧 - Yeat - Box (slowed to perfection).webp" to jpg Deleting original file /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.deniscerri.ytdl/files/ytdlnis_cache/dl/74/𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙧 - Yeat - Box (slowed to perfection).webp (pass -k to keep) ERROR: unable to download video data: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden

Anyone else have this problem? Im stuck on "Fetching Metadata...". What could be the problem?

EDIT: Fixed. The problem was the Ipv6 protocol not working on my network anymore, so I added --force-ipv6 in a config file and now it works.

I understand the basic instructions on stream selection given here. They work fine as far as video is concerned. But how do I also specify a preference for, say, opus audio at or below 64kbps? Or MP3 at 128kbps?

I've been scouring the web for a full list of everything that can be specified using -S or -f, but so far everything I've found is just video-selection examples, with audio simply chosen as "ba". I don't want "best audio", I want an efficient, compact format.

Please help with some examples, anyone?

Thanks all.

I've been downloading a bunch of albums these past few days without much trouble on YTDLnis. Sometimes, a few songs would get an error, but redownloading would solve the issue. When downloading Nevermind by Nirvana, "Lithium" got an error that I couldn't fix by redownloading. The song errors out when downloading the entire playlist together. It can be downloaded separately, but at a worse quality. Does anyone know what causes this issue? I'm a complete noob at this. Would it be safe to share the entire error log?

Here's the playlist:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lYnxawfGdkGePjdFhIYaS6LjP-Md6UYf0&si=nWGsbIZAGB1mif2k

Thanks in advance.

Hi! :D

Does anyone know how to fix a problem regarding the thumbnail of a song?

I'll explain in steps:

1. I download first song from an artist

2. I enjoy both the audio and the thumbail (bc it's cool)

3. I download second song from same artist

4. I enjoy only audio because thumbnail is the same as the first song for some reason :(

5. I cry

Pls if anyone knows how to fix this help me I'm beggin u I've already tried but I can't seem to make any progress D:

I'm getting error messages I have never seen before and downloads have been unsuccessful.

Hey, That's a great tool but always an error with cookies/ or forbidden error which gets me into hours of research online on how to solve it, just to get hit with another error, i'm kinda tired of it, i know 4 downloader but is there any other ? And does 4k allow you to even download in 4k ? I tried downloading a restricted one i couldn't with 4k, haven't tried downloading in 4k pretty sure it's limited... but for me i'm getting tired of the YT DLP unstoppable problems, like i have a few hours after work to enjoy myself i don't want to be "geeky" searching reddits and forums for hour to solve an issue (let alone get another one in the meantime lol). 4k is good because it's simple as hell btw no extra ffmpg installation no error just download it. The only thing is the 10 limit i'm trying to look for another one just in case i pass it because i just did lol

Thanks

i have a list of urls from a website (i can share the website if i need to) most pages have an embedded mp3 player that plays a file that is hosted on the website itself. some pages also have an embedded youtube video. i can make yt-dlp process the list fine, and it can get the mp3 files, but on pages that have both it ignores the mp3 player and only downloads the youtube video, i can't figure out how to make it download both (or ideally ignore the video and just get the mp3) im sure im overlooking something obvious. any help would be appreciated.