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ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
2fa669f7 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#installation "Installation")
ae6a1b95 7[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
fc5fa964 8[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
ae6a1b95 9[![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/matrix/yt-dlp:matrix.org?color=brightgreen&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=element&style=for-the-badge)](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
fc5fa964 11[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
ae6a1b95 12[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
fc5fa964 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/Core%20Tests/master?label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
fc5fa964 14[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
46d09f87 15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge&display_timestamp=committer)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
ec2e44fc 18<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c76eb41b 19
b31fdeed 20yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 21
ec2e44fc 22<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
23
24<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
034b6215 25* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 27* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
deae7c17 28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
17fa3ee2 29 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 32 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 33* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 50* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
304ad45a 51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
50865ca8 52 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
878eac3e 53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
c76eb41b 54* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 56* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 60* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 62* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 63* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 64* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 65 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 66* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 67* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
68 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
69 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
17ffed18 70* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
deae7c17 71 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
ec2e44fc 72<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 73
74
034b6215 75# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 76
1ac7f461 77* Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12.17+ [commit/ed5c44e](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/ed5c44e7b74ac77f87ca5ed6cb5e964a0c6a0678)**<!--([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))--> and **youtube-dlc v2020.11.11-3+ [commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
034b6215 78
304ad45a 79* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 80
7581d246 81* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 82
ae6a1b95 83* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 84
ae61d108 85* **YouTube improvements**:
86 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, YouTube Music Albums/Channels ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723)), and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
87 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
88 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
89 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
90 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from YouTube Music when premium cookies are given
86973308 91 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
f20f5fe5 92
304ad45a 93* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
245524e6 94
5ec1b6b7 95* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
96
597c1866 97* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
98
b31fdeed 99* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
8d801631 100
b31fdeed 101* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 102
e75bb0d6 103* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
86c1a8aa 104
56ba69e4 105* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
fac98805 106
3de7c2ce 107* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
034b6215 108
597c1866 109* **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
0bc0a322 110
d4ada357 111* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
0bc0a322 112
418964fa 113* **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
fac98805 114
8a82af35 115* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 116
08d30158 117* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
c69911e4 118
86c1a8aa 119* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 120
7a5c1cfe 121* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 122
7a5c1cfe 123See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 124
ae61d108 125Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
126
53ed7066 127### Differences in default behavior
128
0930b11f 129Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 130
96565c7e 131* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 132* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
d4ada357 133* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 134* The default [output template](#output-template) is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use `--compat-options filename`
e4f02757 135* The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
e75bb0d6 136* The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
28b0eb0f 137* Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
08d30158 138* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 139* When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
9222c381 140* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
9e907ebd 141* Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
28b0eb0f 142* `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like `--playlist-reverse` and `--playlist-items`. See [#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use `--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
143* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
b79f9e30 144* Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
86973308 145* YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
304ad45a 146* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
1ff88b7a 147* The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
18e674b4 148* If `ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use `--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
e858a9d6 149* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 150* Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 151* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
168bbc4f 152* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
1e4fca9a 153* yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
53ed7066 154
155For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 156
8a82af35 157* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
28b0eb0f 158* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
159* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 160
f20f5fe5 161
d19bb9c0 162# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 163
fc5fa964 164<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
165[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
17ffed18 166[![Unix](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
24146491 167[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
17ffed18 168[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 169[![Source Tarball](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Source_tar-green.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
170[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 171[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 172<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
173
17ffed18 174You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
0930b11f 175
b8773e63 176
a4211baf 177## UPDATE
17ffed18 178You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the release binaries](#release-files)
179
180If you [installed with PIP](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
0930b11f 181
17ffed18 182For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) or refer their documentation
0930b11f 183
cf59cd4d 184
ec2e44fc 185<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 186## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 187
733d8e8f 188#### Recommended
189
190File|Description
191:---|:---
962ffcf8 192[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
0930b11f 193[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
f2df4071 194[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 195
196#### Alternatives
197
0e5927ee
R
198File|Description
199:---|:---
0930b11f 200[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
8aa0e7cd 201[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
f2df4071 202[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
203[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
17fc3dc4
M
204[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
205[yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
0930b11f 206[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
207[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
6d916fe7 208[yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
733d8e8f 209
210#### Misc
211
212File|Description
213:---|:---
17ffed18 214[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee
R
215[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
216[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
ec2e44fc 217<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
0e5927ee 218
17ffed18 219
220Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
221
a4211baf 222## DEPENDENCIES
eff42759 223Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 224
c9652aa4 225<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
226<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 227On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
c9652aa4 228-->
fac98805 229
e75bb0d6 230While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 231
8aa0e7cd 232### Strongly recommended
233
b69fd25c 234* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
8aa0e7cd 235
236 <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
237 **Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
238
239### Networking
d5820461 240* [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 241* [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or [**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) - [Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
242* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
243
244### Metadata
245
246* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
247* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
248* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Linux**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
249
250### Misc
251
252* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
5d0aeac0 253* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
8aa0e7cd 254* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
cf59cd4d 255* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 256
deae7c17 257### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 258
259* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
260* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
998a3cae 261* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
262* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
8aa0e7cd 263
cf59cd4d 264To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
265
f2df4071 266The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 267
8aa0e7cd 268If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
d710cc6d 269
5f326cf5 270
a4211baf 271## COMPILE
5f326cf5 272
8aa0e7cd 273### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
115add43 274To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM, 32/64 bit) as the Python used.
e38df8f9 275
8aa0e7cd 276 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
277 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
278 python3 pyinst.py
279
280On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
281
73ac0e6b 282`pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
283
d2c8aadf 284Note that pyinstaller with versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
8aa0e7cd 285
286**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 287
8aa0e7cd 288### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
deae7c17 289You will need the build tools `python` (3.7+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 290
8aa0e7cd 291After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 292
a831c2ea 293You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
d19bb9c0 294
8aa0e7cd 295### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
296
297While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and needs VC++14** on the target computer to run.
298
299If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
300
301 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
302 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
303 py setup.py py2exe
304
305### Related scripts
306
70b23409 307* **`devscripts/update-version.py [revision]`** - Update the version number based on current date
308* **`devscripts/set-variant.py variant [-M update_message]`** - Set the build variant of the executable
8aa0e7cd 309* **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
310
304ad45a 311You can also fork the project on GitHub and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a full release
59a7a13e 312
b31fdeed 313# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 314
ec2e44fc 315<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 316 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 317
c2b5f311 318`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 319<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 320
ec2e44fc 321<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 322## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 323 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
324 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 325 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
326 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
2dd5a2e3 327 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
328 The download will be considered successful
329 even if the postprocessing fails
330 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
331 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
332 playlist (default)
333 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
334 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
335 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
336 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
337 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
338 extractors and exit
2516cafb 339 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 340 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
341 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
342 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
343 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
344 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 345 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 346 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 347 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
348 google videos for the search term "python".
349 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
350 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
351 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
352 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
353 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
354 possible instead of searching
355 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
356 except those given by --config-locations.
357 For backward compatibility, if this option
358 is found inside the system configuration
359 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
360 (Alias: --no-config)
361 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
362 (default). When given inside a configuration
363 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
364 defined in the current file
365 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
366 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 367 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
368 used multiple times and inside other
369 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 370 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
371 only list them
372 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
373 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
374 Currently only supported for YouTube
375 (Experimental)
376 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
377 (default)
378 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
379 available. Pass the minimum number of
380 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
381 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
382 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
383 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
f2df4071 384 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output (Alias:
385 --no-colours)
2dd5a2e3 386 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
387 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
388 configurations by reverting some of the
389 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
390 default behavior" for details
391 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
392 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
393 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
394 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 395 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 396 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
397 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
398 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
399 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
400 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
401 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 402 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 403 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
404 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 405 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 406
149f05c7 407## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 408 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
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409 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
410 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
411 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
412 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 413 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
414 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
415 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
416 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 417
b31fdeed 418## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 419 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
420 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
421 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
422 is not present) is used for the actual
423 downloading
424 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
425 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
426 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
427 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
428 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
429 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
430 country code
431 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
64fa820c 432 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
149f05c7 433
cfcec693 434## Video Selection:
962ffcf8 435 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the videos
7e88d7d7 436 to download. You can specify a range using
437 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
438 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
439 Use negative indices to count from the right
440 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 441 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
7e88d7d7 442 playlist of size 15 will download the videos
443 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
62b58c09
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444 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
445 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
446 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE,
447 e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 448 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
449 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
450 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
62b58c09 451 E.g. --date today-2weeks
2dd5a2e3 452 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
453 this date. The date formats accepted is the
454 same as --date
455 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
456 this date. The date formats accepted is the
457 same as --date
458 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
459 field can be compared with a number or a
460 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 461 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 462 specify a field to match if the field is
463 present, use "!field" to check if the field
464 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
465 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
466 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
467 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 468 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 469 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
470 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
471 only videos that are not live OR those that
472 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
473 field is not available) and also has a
474 description that contains the phrase "cats &
475 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
476 interactively ask whether to download each
477 video
478 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
479 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
480 to a video and a playlist
481 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
482 a video and a playlist
483 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
484 age
485 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
486 archive file. Record the IDs of all
487 downloaded videos in it
488 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
489 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
490 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
491 a file that is in the archive
492 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
493 a file that has been filtered out
d2c8aadf 494 --break-per-input --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject,
495 --max-downloads, and autonumber resets per
2dd5a2e3 496 input URL
497 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
498 terminates the entire download queue
499 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
500 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 501
d5a62e4f 502## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 503 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
504 video that should be downloaded concurrently
505 (default is 1)
62b58c09
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506 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
507 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 508 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
509 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 510 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 511 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
512 "infinite"
513 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
514 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
515 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
516 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 517 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
518 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
519 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
520 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
521 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
522 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
523 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 524 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 525 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
526 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
527 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
528 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
529 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
530 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
531 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
532 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
533 downloading is finished
534 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
535 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 536 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 537 (default is 1024)
538 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
539 from an initial value of --buffer-size
540 (default)
541 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
542 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 543 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 544 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
545 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
546 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 547 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 548 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
549 received. This disables n_entries,
550 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
551 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
552 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 553 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
554 expected file size
555 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
556 allowing some players to play the video
557 while downloading, and reducing the chance
558 of file corruption if download is
559 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
560 live streams
561 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
562 videos. This is default when not downloading
563 live streams
5ec1b6b7 564 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
565 the given regular expression. Time ranges
566 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
567 of chapters to download the specified range.
62b58c09
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568 Needs ffmpeg. This option can be used
569 multiple times to download multiple
570 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 571 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 572 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
573 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
574 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
575 use it for. Currently supports native,
576 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
577 wget. You can use this option multiple times
578 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 579 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 580 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
581 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
582 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
583 (Alias: --external-downloader)
584 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
585 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
586 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
587 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
588 positions using the same syntax as
589 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
590 option multiple times to give different
591 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
592 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 593
cfcec693 594## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 595 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
596 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
597 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
598 comments and ignored
599 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
600 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
601 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
602 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
603 TYPES as --output are supported.
604 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
605 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
606 files are first downloaded to the temp path
607 and then the final files are moved over to
608 the home path after download is finished.
609 This option is ignored if --output is an
610 absolute path
611 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
612 TEMPLATE" for details
613 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
614 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
615 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
616 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
617 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
618 filenames (default)
619 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
620 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
621 using Windows (default)
622 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
623 extension) to the specified number of
624 characters
625 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
626 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
627 option includes --no-continue
628 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
629 related files (default)
630 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
631 (default)
632 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
633 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
634 restart download of the entire file
635 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
636 into output file (default)
637 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
638 output file
639 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
640 modification time (default)
641 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
642 the file modification time
64fa820c 643 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 644 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
645 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
646 (this may contain personal information)
647 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
648 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
649 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
650 --write-description etc. (default)
651 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
652 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
653 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
654 from the infojson. Note that it could still
655 contain some personal information (default)
656 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
657 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
658 infojson. The comments are fetched even
659 without this option if the extraction is
660 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
661 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
662 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
663 --no-get-comments)
664 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 665 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 666 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
667 and dump cookie jar in
668 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
669 (default)
825d3ce3 670 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
671 The name of the browser to load cookies
672 from. Currently supported browsers are:
673 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
674 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
675 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
676 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
677 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
678 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
679 be given with their respective seperators.
680 By default, all containers of the most
681 recently accessed profile are used.
682 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
683 gnomekeyring, kwallet
2dd5a2e3 684 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 685 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
686 store some downloaded information (such as
687 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 688 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 689 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
690 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 691
b31fdeed 692## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 693 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 694 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 695 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
696 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
697 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 698
732044af 699## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 700 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
701 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
702 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
703 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
704 OS caches the URL based on the file path
705 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
706 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 707
0744a815 708## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 709 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
710 print the log to stderr
711 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
712 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
713 anything to disk
714 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
715 options are used
716 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
717 extracting metadata even if the videos are
718 not actually available for download
719 (experimental)
720 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
721 formats are found (default)
722 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
723 related files (Alias: --no-download)
724 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
725 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
726 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
727 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
728 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
729 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
730 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
731 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 732 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 733 Append given template to the file. The
734 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
735 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
736 output template. This option can be used
737 multiple times
738 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
739 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
740 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
741 description of available keys
742 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
743 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
744 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
745 a playlist, the whole playlist information
746 is dumped in a single line
747 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
748 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
749 another simulation option is used (Alias:
750 --force-download-archive)
751 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
752 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
753 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
754 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 755 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 756 Template for progress outputs, optionally
757 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
758 "download-title:" (the console title),
759 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
760 The video's fields are accessible under the
761 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 762 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 763 --console-title --progress-template
764 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
765 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
766 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
767 to debug problems (very verbose)
768 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
769 in the current directory to debug problems
770 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 771
36f35428 772## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 773 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
774 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
775 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
776 renegotiation
777 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
778 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
779 information about the video (Currently
780 supported only for YouTube)
781 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
782 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
783 option multiple times
784 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
785 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
786 or fribidi executable in PATH
787 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
788 during data extraction
789 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
790 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
791 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
792 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
793 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
794 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
795 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
796 subtitle download
36f35428 797
cfcec693 798## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 799 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
800 for more details
801 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
802 "Sorting Formats" for more details
803 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
804 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
805 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
806 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
807 specified sort order (default)
808 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
809 into a single file
810 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
811 output file (default)
812 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
813 into a single file
814 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
815 output file (default)
816 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
817 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
818 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
819 irrespective of quality
820 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
821 containers (default)
822 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
823 those that are actually downloadable
824 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
825 actually downloadable
826 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
827 downloadable
828 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
829 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 830 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 831 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL
832 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
833 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH
834
835## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 836 --write-subs Write subtitle file
837 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
838 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
839 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
840 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
841 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
842 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
843 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
844 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 845 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 846 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L
847 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
848 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 849 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L
850 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
851 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 852 of available language tags
6bcd846b 853
cfcec693 854## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 855 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
856 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
857 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
858 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
859 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
860 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
861 either the path or its containing directory.
862 Defaults to ~/.netrc
863 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
864 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
865 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
866 a list of available MSOs
867 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
868 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
869 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
870 interactively
871 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
872 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
873 format. May include the private key
874 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
875 Path to private key file for client
876 certificate
bb58c9ed 877 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 878 Password for client certificate private key,
879 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
880 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 881
c76eb41b 882## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 883 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
884 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 885 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
886 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 887 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 888 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
889 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 890 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
891 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
892 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
893 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
894 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 895 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
896 mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac, flac,
897 m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis, wav). If
2dd5a2e3 898 target container does not support the
899 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
62b58c09 900 can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 901 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 902 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 903 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
904 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
905 are the same as --remux-video
906 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
907 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
908 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
909 to give the argument to the specified
910 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
911 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
912 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
913 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
914 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
915 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
916 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
917 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
918 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
919 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
920 specified executable only when being used by
921 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
922 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
923 appended to the prefix optionally followed
924 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 925 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 926 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
927 this option multiple times to give different
928 arguments to different postprocessors.
929 (Alias: --ppa)
930 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
931 after post-processing
932 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
933 post-processing (default)
934 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
935 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
936 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
937 webm and mkv videos)
938 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
939 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
940 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
941 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
942 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
943 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
944 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
945 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
946 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
947 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
948 (Alias: --add-chapters)
949 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
950 --no-add-chapters)
951 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
952 mkv/mka video files
953 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
954 to the video file
955 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
956 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
957 for details
e9f4ccd1 958 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 959 Replace text in a metadata field using the
960 given regex. This option can be used
961 multiple times
962 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
963 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
964 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
965 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
966 (default; only when the videos form a single
967 show). All the video files must have same
968 codecs and number of streams to be
969 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
970 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
971 the output filename for the concatenated
972 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
973 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
974 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
975 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
976 default; fix file if we can, warn
977 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
978 already exists)
979 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 980 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 981 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
982 when to execute it (after_move if
983 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
984 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
985 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
986 output template can be used to pass any
987 field as arguments to the command. After
988 download, an additional field "filepath"
989 that contains the final path of the
990 downloaded file is also available, and if no
991 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
992 to the end of the command. This option can
993 be used multiple times
994 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
995 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 996 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 997 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
998 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 999 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1000 can specify multiple rules using similar
1001 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1002 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1003 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1004 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1005 the output filename for the split files. See
1006 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1007 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1008 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1009 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1010 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1011 be used multiple times
1012 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1013 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1014 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1015 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1016 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1017 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1018 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1019 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1020 when cutting/splitting (default)
1021 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1022 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1023 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1024 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1025 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1026 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1027 The "when" argument determines when the
1028 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1029 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1030 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1031 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1032 "post_process" (after each video download;
1033 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1034 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1035 (after downloading and processing all
1036 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1037 of playlist). This option can be used
64fa820c 1038 multiple times to add different postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1039
1040## SponsorBlock Options:
1041Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1042 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1043 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1044
2dd5a2e3 1045 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1046 for, separated by commas. Available
1047 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1048 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
63c547d7 1049 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all and
2dd5a2e3 1050 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1051 with a "-" to exclude it. See [1] for
62b58c09 1052 description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1053 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1054 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1055 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1056 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1057 category is present in both mark and remove,
1058 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1059 available categories are the same as for
1060 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
63c547d7
AR
1061 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight and
1062 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1063 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1064 An output template for the title of the
1065 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1066 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1067 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1068 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1069 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1070 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1071 --sponsorblock-remove
1072 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1073 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1074
78895bd3 1075## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1076 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1077 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1078 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1079 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1080 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1081 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1082 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1083 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1084 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1085 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1086 (default)
2fa669f7 1087 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1088 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1089 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1090 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1091
b7770046
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1092# CONFIGURATION
1093
7a5c1cfe 1094You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1095
878eac3e 10961. **Main Configuration**:
1097 * The file given by `--config-location`
10981. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1099 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1100 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
11011. **Home Configuration**:
1102 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1103 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 11041. **User Configuration**:
878eac3e 1105 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1106 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
1107 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1108 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1109 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1110 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
3d3bb168 1111
878eac3e 1112 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11131. **System Configuration**:
1114 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 1115
62b58c09 1116E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
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1117```
1118# Lines starting with # are comments
1119
1120# Always extract audio
1121-x
1122
1123# Do not copy the mtime
1124--no-mtime
1125
1126# Use this proxy
1127--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1128
298f597b 1129# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1130-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
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1131```
1132
2fa669f7 1133Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
b7770046 1134
a4211baf 1135You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
b7770046 1136
304ad45a 1137### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1138
304ad45a 1139The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1140
88f60feb 1141If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
a904a7f8 1142
b7770046
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1143### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1144
304ad45a 1145You 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 yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per-extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
b7770046 1146```
878eac3e 1147touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1148chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
b7770046
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1149```
1150After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1151```
0001fcb5 1152machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1153```
62b58c09 1154E.g.
b7770046
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1155```
1156machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1157machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1158```
7a5c1cfe 1159To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1160
878eac3e 1161The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1162
1163### Notes about environment variables
1164* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1165* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1166* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1167* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1168* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
b7770046
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1169
1170# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1171
0202b52a 1172The `-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while `-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
b7770046 1173
ec2e44fc 1174<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1175**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1176<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1177
e58c22a0 1178The simplest usage of `-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is _not_ recommended and could break some post-processing).
a439a3a4 1179
62b58c09 1180It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1181
1182The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1183
07a1250e 11841. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1185
62b58c09 11861. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1187
62b58c09 11881. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1189
62b58c09 11901. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1191
304ad45a 11921. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator. If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty.
e978789f 1193
17ffed18 11941. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1195
9b9dad11 11961. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
ec2e44fc 1197
d5d1df8a 11981. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [Unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1199
1200To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1201```
e978789f 1202%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1203```
de6000d9 1204
62b58c09 1205Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. E.g. `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1206
1207The available fields are:
b7770046
U
1208
1209 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1210 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1211 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U
1212 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1213 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1214 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U
1215 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1216 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1217 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1218 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1219 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1220 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1221 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1222 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
f0d785d3 1223 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1224 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U
1225 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1226 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1227 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1228 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
b7770046
U
1229 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1230 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1231 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1232 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1233 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
b7770046
U
1234 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1235 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1236 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1237 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1238 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
b7770046 1239 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1240 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1241 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1242 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1243 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1244 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
b7770046
U
1245 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1246 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
U
1247 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1248 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1249 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b7770046 1250 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
9c906919 1251 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1252 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1253 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1254 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1255 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1256 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1257 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1258 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
U
1259 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1260 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1261 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1262 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1263 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1264 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
d2c8aadf 1265
1266All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
b7770046
U
1267
1268Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1269
1270 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1271 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1272 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1273
1274Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1275
1276 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1277 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1278 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1279 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1280 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1281 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1282 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1283
1284Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1285
1286 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1287 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1288 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1289 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1290 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1291 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1292 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1293 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1294 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1295 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1296
5ec1b6b7 1297Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1298
1299 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1300 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1301 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1302 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1303
53c18592 1304Available only when used in `--print`:
1305
1306 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1307 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
ed5835b4 1308 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1309 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1310 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1311 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1312
7a340e0d
NA
1313
1314Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1315
1316 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1317 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1318 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA
1319 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1320 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1321 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1322 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1323
62b58c09 1324Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
49a57e70 1325
1326Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1327
0930b11f 1328**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1329
62b58c09 1330For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1331
940a67a3 1332Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
b7770046
U
1333
1334To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1335
91ebc640 1336The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1337
f304da8a 1338In 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.
b7770046 1339
b7770046
U
1340#### Output template examples
1341
b7770046 1342```bash
d2c8aadf 1343$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1344test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1345
d2c8aadf 1346$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1347youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1348
d2c8aadf 1349$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1350youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U
1351
1352# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1353$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1354
b050d210 1355# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1356$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1357
e978789f 1358# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
6a34813a 1359$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1360
b7770046 1361# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1362$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
U
1363
1364# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1365$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
b7770046
U
1366
1367# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1368$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" "https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617"
b7770046 1369
6a34813a 1370# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1371# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1372$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1373
1374# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1375$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1376
b7770046 1377# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1378$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U
1379```
1380
1381# FORMAT SELECTION
1382
7a5c1cfe
P
1383By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1384This is generally equivalent to using `-f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best`. However, if multiple audiostreams is enabled (`--audio-multistreams`), the default format changes to `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best`. Similarly, if ffmpeg is unavailable, or if you use yt-dlp to stream to `stdout` (`-o -`), the default becomes `-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
b7770046 1385
c111cefa 1386**Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to `-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the `-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1387
eff63539 1388The general syntax for format selection is `-f FORMAT` (or `--format FORMAT`) where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
b7770046 1389
ec2e44fc 1390<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1391**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1392<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1393
62b58c09 1394The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
b7770046
U
1395
1396You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download the best quality format with the `webm` extension served as a single file.
1397
fa9f30b8 1398You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1399
b7770046
U
1400You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1401
59a7a13e 1402 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1403 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1404 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1405 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1406 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1407 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1408 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1409 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
59a7a13e 1410 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1411 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1412 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1413 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1414 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1415 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1416
d4ada357 1417For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-S +size` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1418
1419You can select the n'th best format of a type by using `best<type>.<n>`. For example, `best.2` will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, `bv*.3` will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.
b7770046 1420
304ad45a 1421If you want to download multiple videos, and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
b7770046
U
1422
1423If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature: `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
1424
62b58c09 1425You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
d806c9fd 1426
1427**Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1428
304ad45a 1429Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1430
1431## Filtering Formats
1432
b7770046
U
1433You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1434
1435The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1436
1437 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1438 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
U
1439 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1440 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1441 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1442 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1443 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1444 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1445 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1446 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1447 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1448
1ce9a3cb 1449Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1450
d2c8aadf 1451 - `url`: Video URL
b7770046
U
1452 - `ext`: File extension
1453 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1454 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1455 - `container`: Name of the container format
1456 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
29f7c58a 1457 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1458 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1459 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1460 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1461 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1462 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1463
1ce9a3cb 1464Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-`.
b7770046 1465
e58c22a0 1466Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1467
62b58c09 1468Formats 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. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1469
62b58c09 1470Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
b7770046 1471
eb8a4433 1472## Sorting Formats
1473
2e7781a9 1474You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1475
1476The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1477
304ad45a 1478 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1479 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1480 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1481 - `lang`: The language preference
1482 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1483 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1484 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1485 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1486 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1487 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
d80d98e7 1488 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1489 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
63be1aab 1490 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1491 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1492 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1493 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1494 - `height`: Height of video
1495 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1496 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1497 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1498 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1499 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1500 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1501 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1502 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1503 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1504 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1505
1506**Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
eb8a4433 1507
62b58c09 1508All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
9ee4f0bb 1509
7e798d72 1510The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1511
7e798d72 1512Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1513
e58c22a0 1514If your format selector is `worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all respects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
eb8a4433 1515
1516**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1517
eb8a4433 1518## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1519
b7770046 1520```bash
e58c22a0 1521# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1522# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1523$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1524
1525# Download best format that contains video,
1526# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1527$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1528
1529# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1530$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1531
6fd35a11 1532# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1533# For this case, an output template should be used since
1534# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1535$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1536
f8d4ad9a 1537# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1538# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1539$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1540
1541# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1542# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1543$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1544
6fd35a11 1545
1546# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1547# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1548
1549# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1550$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1551
1552# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1553$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1554
1555# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1556$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1557
1558
909d24dd 1559
eb8a4433 1560# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1561$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1562
1563# Download the best video with the best extension
1564# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1565$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1566
1567
909d24dd 1568
eb8a4433 1569# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1570# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1571$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1572
eb8a4433 1573# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1574# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1575$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1576
eb8a4433 1577# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1578# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1579# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1580# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1581$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1582
b7770046 1583
909d24dd 1584
eb8a4433 1585# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1586# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1587$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1588
1589# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1590# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1591$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1592
1593# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1594$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1595
1596
909d24dd 1597
eb8a4433 1598# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1599# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1600$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1601
1602# Download best video available via the best protocol
1603# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1604$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1605
1606
909d24dd 1607
1ce9a3cb
LF
1608# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1609# or the best video if there is no such video
1610$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1611
1612# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1613# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1614$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1615
1616# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1617# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1618$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1619
1620
1621
1622# More complex examples
1623
e58c22a0 1624# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1625# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1626$ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
eb8a4433 1627
1628# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1629# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1630# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1631$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1632
1633
909d24dd 1634
eb8a4433 1635# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1636# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1637# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1638$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1639```
eb8a4433 1640
73cd218f 1641# MODIFYING METADATA
1642
a4211baf 1643The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1644
418964fa 1645`--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
e9f4ccd1 1646
46d09f87 1647The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1648
46d09f87 1649Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
73cd218f 1650
9c2b75b5 1651This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1652
62b58c09 1653* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
3d3bb168 1654
62b58c09 1655* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1656
08d30158 1657**Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1658
c31be5b0 1659For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1660
08d30158 1661Metadata fields | From
1662:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1663`title` | `track` or `title`
1664`date` | `upload_date`
1665`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1666`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1667`track` | `track_number`
1668`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1669`genre` | `genre`
1670`album` | `album`
1671`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1672`disc` | `disc_number`
1673`show` | `series`
1674`season_number` | `season_number`
1675`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1676`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1677`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1678
c31be5b0 1679**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1680
73cd218f 1681
1682## Modifying metadata examples
1683
73cd218f 1684```bash
1685# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1686$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1687
1688# Regex example
940a67a3 1689$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1690
1691# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1692$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1693
a44ca5a4 1694# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1695$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1696
1697# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1698# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1699$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1700
8aa0e7cd 1701# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1702$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1703
0930b11f 1704# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
940a67a3 1705$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
0930b11f 1706
e9f4ccd1 1707# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1708$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1709
73cd218f 1710```
1711
5d3a0e79 1712# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1713
62b58c09 1714Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1715
1716The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1717
1718#### youtube
2fa669f7 1719* `lang`: Language code to prefer translated metadata of this language (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
8aa0e7cd 1720* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
304ad45a 1721* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1722* `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
96565c7e 1723* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1724* `max_comments`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread`. Default is `all,all,all,all`
1725 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
4d37720a 1726* `include_incomplete_formats`: Extract formats that cannot be downloaded completely (live dash and post-live m3u8)
1e4fca9a 1727* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
2ae778b8 1728* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
96565c7e 1729
1730#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1731* `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
5225df50 1732* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1733
1734#### funimation
304ad45a 1735* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1736* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1737
cb1553e9 1738#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
62b58c09 1739* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
dfea94f8 1740* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1741
96565c7e 1742#### vikichannel
1743* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1744
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1745#### niconico
1746* `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1747
aa4b0545 1748#### youtubewebarchive
1749* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1750
d43de682
M
1751#### gamejolt
1752* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1753
26f2aa3d
AG
1754#### hotstar
1755* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1756* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1757* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1758
046cab39 1759#### tiktok
62b58c09
L
1760* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1761* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1762
7eaf7f9a 1763#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1764* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1765
7a26ce26
SS
1766#### twitter
1767* `force_graphql`: Force usage of the GraphQL API. By default it will only be used if login cookies are provided
7eaf7f9a 1768
bc97cdae 1769NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1770
ec2e44fc 1771<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1772
3acf6d38 1773
f74980cb 1774# PLUGINS
b7770046 1775
3ae5e797 1776Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip` version
1777
1778Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1779
1780See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1781
1782Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code
1783
1784If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1785
deae7c17 1786See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1787
b7770046 1788
8c6f4daa 1789
1790# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1791
1792yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1793
1794Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J`, `--print`, `--progress-template`, `--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1795
1796From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1797
1798```python
59a7a13e 1799from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1800
3d3bb168 1801URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1802with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1803 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1804```
1805
1890fc63 1806Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L180).
8c6f4daa 1807
43cc91ad 1808**Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
3d3bb168 1809
1810## Embedding examples
1811
43cc91ad 1812#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1813
1814```python
1815import json
8c6f4daa 1816import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1817
3d3bb168 1818URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1819
1820# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1821ydl_opts = {}
1822with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1823 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1824
1825 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1826 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1827```
43cc91ad 1828#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 1829
1830```python
1831import yt_dlp
1832
1833INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1834
1835with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1836 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1837
1838print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1839 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1840```
1841
43cc91ad 1842#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 1843
1844```python
1845import yt_dlp
1846
1847URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1848
1849ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 1850 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 1851 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1852 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1853 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1854 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1855 }]
1856}
1857
1858with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1859 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1860```
0a41f331 1861
1862#### Filter videos
1863
1864```python
1865import yt_dlp
1866
1867URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1868
1869def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1870 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1871 duration = info.get('duration')
1872 if duration and duration < 60:
1873 return 'The video is too short'
1874
1875ydl_opts = {
1876 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1877}
1878
1879with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1880 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1881```
1882
43cc91ad 1883#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 1884
1885```python
1886import yt_dlp
1887
1888URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 1889
1890class MyLogger:
1891 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 1892 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 1893 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1894 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1895 pass
1896 else:
1897 self.info(msg)
1898
1899 def info(self, msg):
1900 pass
1901
1902 def warning(self, msg):
1903 pass
1904
1905 def error(self, msg):
1906 print(msg)
1907
1908
3d3bb168 1909# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1910def my_hook(d):
1911 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1912 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1913
1914
1915ydl_opts = {
1916 'logger': MyLogger(),
1917 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1918}
1919
1920with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1921 ydl.download(URLS)
1922```
1923
43cc91ad 1924#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 1925
1926```python
1927import yt_dlp
1928
1929URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1930
1931# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 1932class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 1933 def run(self, info):
1934 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1935 return [], info
1936
1937
3d3bb168 1938with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 1939 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
1940 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 1941 ydl.download(URLS)
1942```
8c6f4daa 1943
1944
43cc91ad 1945#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 1946
1947```python
1948import yt_dlp
1949
1950URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1951
093a1710 1952def format_selector(ctx):
1953 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 1954 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 1955
1956 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1957 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1958
1959 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1960 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1961 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1962
1963 # find compatible audio extension
1964 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1965 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1966 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1967 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1968
3d3bb168 1969 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 1970 yield {
093a1710 1971 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1972 'ext': best_video['ext'],
1973 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 1974 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 1975 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
1976 }
1977
1978
8c6f4daa 1979ydl_opts = {
093a1710 1980 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 1981}
1982
1983with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 1984 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1985```
1986
ec2e44fc 1987<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
1988
e167860c 1989# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1990
1991These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1992
8130779d 1993#### Almost redundant options
1994While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
1995
1996 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
1997 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 1998 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 1999 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2000
6ccf351a 2001#### Redundant options
2002While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2003
53c18592 2004 --get-description --print description
2005 --get-duration --print duration_string
2006 --get-filename --print filename
2007 --get-format --print format
2008 --get-id --print id
2009 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2010 -e, --get-title --print title
2011 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2012 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2013 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2014 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2015 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
8b7539d2 2016 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2017 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2018 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2019 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2020 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2021 --no-playlist-reverse Default
6ccf351a 2022
2023
2024#### Not recommended
2025While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2026
fe7866d0 2027 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2028 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2029 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2030 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2031 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2032 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2033 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2034 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2035 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2036 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2037 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2038 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2039 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2040 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2041 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2042 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2043 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2044 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 2045
2046
2047#### Developer options
2048These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2049
34488702 2050 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2051 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2052 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2053 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2054 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2055
2056
2057#### Old aliases
2058These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2059
2060 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2061 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2062 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2063 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2064 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2065 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2066 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2067 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2068 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2069 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2070 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2071 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2072 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2073 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2074 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2075 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2076 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2077
7a340e0d 2078#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2079Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2080
2081 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2082 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2083 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2084 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2085 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2086 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2087 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2088 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2089
f4536226 2090#### No longer supported
2091These options may no longer work as intended
2092
2093 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2094 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2095 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2096 --no-call-home Default
2097 --include-ads No longer supported
2098 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2099 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2100 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2101 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2102
2103#### Removed
2104These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2105
f4536226 2106 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2107 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2108
8c6f4daa 2109# CONTRIBUTING
2110See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
e167860c 2111
17ffed18 2112# WIKI
2113See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information