]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
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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
ae6a1b95 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#release-files "Release")
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")
15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)](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)
17fa3ee2 28 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 29 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 30 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 31 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 32* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
33 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 34 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 35 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 36 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
37 * [Download Options](#download-options)
38 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 39 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 40 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 41 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 42 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
43 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
44 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
45 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 46 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 47 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 48 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 49* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 50 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 51* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 52 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 54* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 58* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 60* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 61* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 62* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
e167860c 63* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 64* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
65 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
66 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
c76eb41b 67* [MORE](#more)
ec2e44fc 68<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 69
70
034b6215 71# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 72
592b7485 73* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.12.17 [commit/6508688](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/6508688e88c83bb811653083db9351702cd39a6a)** and **youtube-dlc 2020.11.11-3 [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 74
7a340e0d 75* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 76
7581d246 77* **[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 78
ae6a1b95 79* **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 80
f5546c0b 81* **Youtube improvements**:
6ccf351a 82 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
0fdf490d 83 * Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
84 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
86c1a8aa 85 * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
a4211baf 86 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
f20f5fe5 87 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
e6f21b3d 88 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
9ee4f0bb 89 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
144a3588 90 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (experimental)
f20f5fe5 91
f59f5ef8 92* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
245524e6 93
597c1866 94* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
95
b31fdeed 96* **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 97
b31fdeed 98* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 99
e75bb0d6 100* **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 101
102* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN
fac98805 103
3de7c2ce 104* **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 105
597c1866 106* **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 107
108* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
109
418964fa 110* **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 111
144a3588 112* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--concat-playlist`, `--print`, `--wait-for-video`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 113
08d30158 114* **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 115
86c1a8aa 116* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 117
7a5c1cfe 118* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 119
7a5c1cfe 120See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 121
53ed7066 122### Differences in default behavior
123
0930b11f 124Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 125
96565c7e 126* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 127* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
96565c7e 128* 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 129* 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 130* 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 131* 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 132* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 133* 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 134* `--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 135* 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 136* `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
137* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 138* All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use `--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
28b0eb0f 139* Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
64f36541 140* Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Append a `/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent `UU` playlist instead. For all other tabs, 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
28b0eb0f 141* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 142* 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 143* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 144* 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 145* 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
d5820461 146* `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`
5c3895ff 147* youtube-dl tries to remove some superfluous punctuations from filenames. While this can sometimes be helpfull, it is often undesirable. So yt-dlp tries to keep the fields in the filenames as close to their original values as possible. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
53ed7066 148
149For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
28b0eb0f 150* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
151* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
152* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 153
f20f5fe5 154
d19bb9c0 155# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 156
7bc877a2 157You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
a61f4b28 158
a4211baf 159### Using the release binary
0930b11f 160
fc5fa964 161You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
5f326cf5 162
fc5fa964 163<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
164[![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)
165[![Linux](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/MacOS/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
166[![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)
167[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
168[![ALl versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
169<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
170
171Note: 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)
172
173<!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
0930b11f 174In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
5ba4a0b6
A
175
176```
177sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
178sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
179```
180
181```
182sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
183sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
184```
185
186```
b69fd25c 187sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
5ba4a0b6
A
188sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
189```
190
0930b11f 191
a4211baf 192### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
0930b11f 193
194You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
195```
196python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
197```
198
86c1a8aa 199You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
0930b11f 200```
201python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
202```
203
86c1a8aa 204If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
0930b11f 205```
ae6a1b95 206python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
0930b11f 207```
208
209Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
210
fc5fa964 211<!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
a4211baf 212### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
0930b11f 213
214macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
b8773e63
THD
215
216```
217brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
218```
219
a4211baf 220## UPDATE
0930b11f 221You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
222
223If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
224
225If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 226
ec2e44fc 227<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 228## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 229
733d8e8f 230#### Recommended
231
232File|Description
233:---|:---
ae6a1b95 234[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
0930b11f 235[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**)
ae6a1b95 236[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 237
238#### Alternatives
239
0e5927ee
R
240File|Description
241:---|:---
0930b11f 242[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
96565c7e 243[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/> Does not contain `pycryptodomex`, needs VC++14
0930b11f 244[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
245[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)
733d8e8f 246
247#### Misc
248
249File|Description
250:---|:---
0e5927ee
R
251[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
252[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
253[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
ec2e44fc 254<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
0e5927ee 255
a4211baf 256## DEPENDENCIES
cf59cd4d 257Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 258
c9652aa4 259<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
260<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 261On 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 262-->
fac98805 263
e75bb0d6 264While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 265
b69fd25c 266* [**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)
d5820461 267* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
268* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
269* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
270* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage)\* - For accessing the Gnome keyring while decrypting cookies of Chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under [BSD](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
271* [**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>
272* [**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)
08d30158 273* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen/ffmpeg cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
0930b11f 274* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
275* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
276* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
277* [**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)
cf59cd4d 278* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 279
cf59cd4d 280To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
281
d5820461 282The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are already built with the python interpreter and all optional python packages (marked with \*) included.
d710cc6d 283
08d30158 284<!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
fc5fa964 285**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
d710cc6d 286
5f326cf5 287
a4211baf 288## COMPILE
5f326cf5 289
c76eb41b 290**For Windows**:
4390d5ec 291To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and any of yt-dlp's optional dependencies if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using `devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
e38df8f9 292
733d8e8f 293 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
49a57e70 294 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
733d8e8f 295 py pyinst.py
7581d246 296
fac98805 297Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment
b96a939b 298
c76eb41b 299**For Unix**:
060ac762 300You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `pytest`
127d0759 301Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 302
49a57e70 303**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 304
75b725a7 305You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a release
59a7a13e 306
b31fdeed 307# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 308
ec2e44fc 309<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 310 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 311
c2b5f311 312`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 313<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 314
ec2e44fc 315<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 316## General Options:
1dc2726f
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317 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
318 --version Print program version and exit
8d801631 319 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
320 sure that you have sufficient permissions
321 (run with sudo if needed)
b1940459 322 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
0930b11f 323 The download will be considered successful
b1940459 324 even if the postprocessing fails
325 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
326 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
327 a playlist (default)
8a51f564 328 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
329 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
34488702 330 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
331 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
c4af7684 332 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
34488702 333 extractors and exit
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334 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
335 extractor
336 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
337 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
9ee4f0bb 338 from google videos for the search term
339 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
340 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
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341 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
342 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
343 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
8a51f564 344 this is not possible instead of searching
9e907ebd 345 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
346 except those given by --config-locations.
347 For backward compatibility, if this option
348 is found inside the system configuration
fc5fa964 349 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
350 (Alias: --no-config)
9e907ebd 351 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
352 (default). When given inside a
353 configuration file, ignore all previous
354 --config-locations defined in the current
355 file
356 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
0202b52a 357 either the path to the config or its
9e907ebd 358 containing directory. Can be used multiple
359 times and inside other configuration files
c4af7684 360 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
8a51f564 361 only list them
6623ac34 362 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
adbc4ec4
THD
363 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
364 Currently only supported for YouTube
9e907ebd 365 (Experimental)
87e04996 366 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
367 (default)
91f071af 368 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
369 available. Pass the minimum number of
370 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
371 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
e248be33 372 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
597c1866 373 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8a51f564 374 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
53ed7066 375 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
31654882 376 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
53ed7066 377 configurations by reverting some of the
378 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
379 default behavior" for details
08c1d0d3 380
149f05c7 381## Network Options:
28b4f736 382 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
0934c9d4
S
383 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
384 scheme. For example
88f23a18 385 socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in
386 an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
387 connection
149f05c7 388 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
c4af7684 389 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
c4af7684 390 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
c4af7684 391 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 392
b31fdeed 393## Geo-restriction:
c25f1a9b
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394 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
395 some geo-restricted sites. The default
396 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
7550ea50 397 option is not present) is used for the
8a51f564 398 actual downloading
8c6c88c7 399 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
455a15e2 400 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
8c6c88c7
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401 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
402 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S
403 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
404 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
0934c9d4 405 country code
9e18bb4c
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406 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
407 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
0934c9d4 408 notation
149f05c7 409
cfcec693 410## Video Selection:
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411 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
412 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
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413 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
414 indices of the videos in the playlist
415 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
416 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
417 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
418 specify range: "--playlist-items
419 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
8a51f564 420 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
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421 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
422 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
423 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
424 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
0930b11f 425 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
6623ac34 426 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
427 "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
c4af7684 428 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
c76eb41b 429 this date. The date formats accepted is the
430 same as --date
c4af7684 431 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
c76eb41b 432 this date. The date formats accepted is the
433 same as --date
77b87f05
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434 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
435 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
a047eeb6 436 number or a string using the operators
437 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
438 also simply specify a field to match if the
439 field is present and "!field" to check if
440 the field is not present. In addition,
441 Python style regular expression matching
442 can be done using "~=", and multiple
443 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\"
444 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
445 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?100
2e7781a9 446 & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
a047eeb6 447 matches only videos that are not live, has
448 a like count more than 100 (or the like
77b87f05 449 field is not available), and also has a
a047eeb6 450 description that contains the phrase "cats
451 & dogs" (ignoring case)
c76eb41b 452 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
c4af7684 453 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
8a51f564 454 to a video and a playlist
c4af7684 455 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
8a51f564 456 a video and a playlist
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457 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
458 age
459 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
460 archive file. Record the IDs of all
8a51f564 461 downloaded videos in it
91f071af 462 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
463 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
8b0d7497 464 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 465 a file that is in the archive
8b0d7497 466 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 467 a file that has been filtered out
91f071af 468 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing and --break-on-
469 reject act only on the current input URL
470 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and --break-on-reject
471 terminates the entire download queue
26e2805c 472 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
473 of the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 474
d5a62e4f 475## Download Options:
b31fdeed 476 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
87e04996 477 video that should be downloaded
478 concurrently (default is 1)
5e3856a2 479 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
c4af7684 480 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
6aecd871 481 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
482 below which throttling is assumed and the
483 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
c4af7684 484 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
8a51f564 485 "infinite"
87e04996 486 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
487 error (default is 10), or "infinite"
0be8314d 488 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
b56e41a7
S
489 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
490 ISM)
6623ac34 491 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
492 hlsnative and ISM (default)
8a51f564 493 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
6623ac34 494 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
8a51f564 495 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
a82f4184 496 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
6623ac34 497 downloading is finished
c76eb41b 498 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
499 downloading is finished (default)
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500 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
501 (default is 1024)
c76eb41b 502 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
503 from an initial value of --buffer-size
504 (default)
505 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
db157d2a
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506 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
507 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
508 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
509 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
510 (experimental)
2101f5d4 511 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
6623ac34 512 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
c76eb41b 513 (default)
31487eb9 514 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
c4af7684 515 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
0934c9d4 516 expected file size
9bd20204 517 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
518 allowing some players to play the video
519 while downloading, and reducing the chance
520 of file corruption if download is
521 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
522 live streams
523 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
524 videos. This is default when not
525 downloading live streams
52a8a1e1 526 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
527 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
528 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
529 use it for. Currently supports native,
530 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
531 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
532 this option multiple times to set different
533 downloaders for different protocols. For
534 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
535 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
536 http/ftp downloads, and the native
fc5fa964 537 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads (Alias:
538 --external-downloader)
46ee996e 539 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
540 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
330690a2 541 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
542 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
543 different positions using the same syntax
544 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
545 option multiple times to give different
fc5fa964 546 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
547 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 548
cfcec693 549## Filesystem Options:
940a67a3 550 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
e8dfecb3 551 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
940a67a3 552 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
8a51f564 553 comments and ignored
1e520b55 554 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
6ccf351a 555 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
0202b52a 556 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
de6000d9 557 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
6a34813a 558 same TYPES as --output are supported.
de6000d9 559 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
6ccf351a 560 (default) and "temp" paths. All
561 intermediary files are first downloaded to
562 the temp path and then the final files are
563 moved over to the home path after download
564 is finished. This option is ignored if
565 --output is an absolute path
d818eb74 566 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
c76eb41b 567 TEMPLATE" for details
0bc0a322 568 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
569 fields in output filename template
570 (default: "NA")
c4af7684
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571 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
572 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
573 filenames
c76eb41b 574 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
575 filenames (default)
0930b11f 576 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
577 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
578 using Windows (default)
c2934512 579 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
580 extension) to the specified number of
581 characters
9b45b9f5 582 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
583 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
584 This option includes --no-continue
585 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
586 related files (default)
c25228e5 587 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
588 (default)
589 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
e58c22a0 590 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
c25228e5 591 restart download of the entire file
c76eb41b 592 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
6623ac34 593 into output file (default)
c4af7684
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594 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
595 into output file
c76eb41b 596 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
597 file modification time (default)
c4af7684
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598 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
599 the file modification time
600 --write-description Write video description to a .description
601 file
6623ac34 602 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
1dc2726f 603 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
c25228e5 604 (this may contain personal information)
6623ac34 605 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
cac96421 606 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
607 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
608 --write-description etc. (default)
609 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
610 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
08d30158 611 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as
75d43ca0 612 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
613 could still contain some personal
614 information (default)
08d30158 615 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
2305e2e5 616 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
617 infojson. The comments are fetched even
618 without this option if the extraction is
619 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
620 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
fc5fa964 621 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
622 --no-get-comments)
d845622b 623 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
c4af7684
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624 (created with the "--write-info-json"
625 option)
91f071af 626 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies
627 from and dump cookie jar in
982ee69a
MB
628 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
629 (default)
f59f5ef8
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630 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
631 The name of the browser and (optionally)
632 the name/path of the profile to load
633 cookies from, separated by a ":". Currently
634 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
635 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
636 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
637 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
638 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux
639 can be (optionally) specified after the
640 browser name separated by a "+". Currently
641 supported keyrings are: basictext,
642 gnomekeyring, kwallet
982ee69a 643 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
6623ac34 644 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
3b1fe47d 645 can store some downloaded information (such
646 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
9ee4f0bb 647 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
648 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
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649 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
650 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 651
b31fdeed 652## Thumbnail Options:
1dc2726f 653 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
6623ac34 654 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
c76eb41b 655 (default)
1dc2726f 656 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
34488702 657 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
658 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 659
732044af 660## Internet Shortcut Options:
8a51f564 661 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
662 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
663 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
664 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
665 OS caches the URL based on the file path
666 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
667 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 668
0744a815 669## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
34488702 670 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
671 --verbose, print the log to stderr
6c072e7d 672 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
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673 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
674 anything to disk
34488702 675 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
676 options are used
0930b11f 677 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
678 extracting metadata even if the videos are
679 not actually available for download
0cf05715 680 (experimental)
681 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
682 formats are found (default)
e167860c 683 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
684 related files (Alias: --no-download)
ca30f449 685 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
ed5835b4 686 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
687 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
688 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
689 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
690 Implies --quiet and --simulate (unless
691 --no-simulate is used). This option can be
692 used multiple times
bb66c247 693 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
694 Append given template to the file. The
695 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as
696 that of --print. FILE uses the same syntax
697 as the output template. This option can be
698 used multiple times
34488702 699 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
700 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
701 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
702 description of available keys
703 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
704 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
705 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
706 a playlist, the whole playlist information
707 is dumped in a single line
8a51f564 708 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
e58c22a0 709 written as far as no errors occur, even if
710 -s or another simulation option is used
8a51f564 711 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
1dc2726f
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712 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
713 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
819e0531 714 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
1dc2726f 715 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 716 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
717 Template for progress outputs, optionally
718 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
719 "download-title:" (the console title),
720 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
721 The video's fields are accessible under the
722 "info" key and the progress attributes are
0930b11f 723 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
819e0531 724 --console-title --progress-template
725 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
1dc2726f 726 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
c4af7684
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727 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
728 to debug problems (very verbose)
729 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
730 files in the current directory to debug
731 problems
780083db 732 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 733
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734## Workarounds:
735 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
144a3588 736 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to
737 servers that do not support RFC 5746 secure
738 renegotiation
0930b11f 739 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
c4af7684 740 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
e167860c 741 information about the video (Currently
05a7ffb1 742 supported only for YouTube)
c4af7684 743 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45016689 744 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
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745 option multiple times
746 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
747 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
748 or fribidi executable in PATH
1cf376f5 749 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
750 during data extraction
c4af7684 751 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
e167860c 752 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
753 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
754 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
755 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
756 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
1cf376f5 757 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
758 subtitle download
36f35428 759
cfcec693 760## Video Format Options:
eb8a4433 761 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
762 for more details
763 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
764 "Sorting Formats" for more details
8a51f564 765 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
766 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
eb8a4433 767 Formats" for more details
768 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
c76eb41b 769 specified sort order (default), see
770 "Sorting Formats" for more details
771 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
772 into a single file
773 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
774 each output file (default)
775 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
776 into a single file
777 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
778 each output file (default)
da9be05e 779 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
780 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
781 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
782 containers irrespective of quality
783 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
784 containers (default)
0930b11f 785 --check-formats Check that the selected formats are
0ba692ac 786 actually downloadable
0930b11f 787 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
0ba692ac 788 actually downloadable
0930b11f 789 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
790 downloadable
34488702 791 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
792 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
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793 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
794 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
795 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
796 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
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797
798## Subtitle Options:
c76eb41b 799 --write-subs Write subtitle file
800 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
801 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
e167860c 802 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
803 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
804 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
34488702 805 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
806 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
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807 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
808 preference, for example: "srt" or
809 "ass/srt/best"
c32b0aab 810 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
811 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
a4211baf 812 (Eg: --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix
c32b0aab 813 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
fc5fa964 814 from the requested languages. (Eg:
815 --sub-langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs
816 for a list of available language tags
6bcd846b 817
cfcec693 818## Authentication Options:
1dc2726f 819 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
c4af7684 820 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
7a5c1cfe 821 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
dc48a354 822 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
1dc2726f 823 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
0001fcb5 824 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
825 either the path or its containing
826 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
29f7c58a 827 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
f5e008d1 828 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909d24dd 829 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
830 a list of available MSOs
f5e008d1
S
831 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
832 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
c74d1aa3 833 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
834 interactively
f5e008d1
S
835 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
836 operators
837
c76eb41b 838## Post-Processing Options:
c4af7684 839 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
e4172ac9 840 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
3de7c2ce 841 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
842 to when -x is used. Currently supported
843 formats are: best (default) or one of
9222c381 844 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav|alac
e4172ac9 845 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
86c1a8aa 846 value between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for
e4172ac9 847 VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
c4af7684 848 (default 5)
c76eb41b 849 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
29b6000e 850 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
851 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
852 target container does not support the
06167fbb 853 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
3de7c2ce 854 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
06167fbb 855 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
856 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
c76eb41b 857 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
3de7c2ce 858 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
859 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
1b77b347 860 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
43820c03 861 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
45016689 862 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
863 to give the argument to the specified
8fa43c73 864 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
7a340e0d
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865 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
866 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
8fa43c73 867 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
868 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
6aecd871 869 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
870 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
8fa43c73 871 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
9ee4f0bb 872 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
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873 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
874 specified executable only when being used
875 by the specified postprocessor.
876 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
877 can be appended to the prefix optionally
878 followed by a number to pass the argument
879 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
880 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
881 use this option multiple times to give
e4172ac9 882 different arguments to different
5b1ecbb3 883 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
c76eb41b 884 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
6623ac34 885 after post-processing
c76eb41b 886 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
6623ac34 887 post-processing (default)
888 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
889 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
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890 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
891 webm and mkv videos)
c76eb41b 892 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
6aecd871 893 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
6623ac34 894 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
9222c381 895 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
896 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
897 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json
898 are used (Alias: --add-metadata)
7a340e0d 899 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
6aecd871 900 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
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901 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
902 (Alias: --add-chapters)
903 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
904 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
9222c381 905 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
906 mkv/mka video files
907 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
908 to the video file
73cd218f 909 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
910 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
911 for details
e9f4ccd1 912 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
913 Replace text in a metadata field using the
914 given regex. This option can be used
915 multiple times
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916 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
917 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
3b603dbd 918 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
fc5fa964 919 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
920 (default; only when the videos form a
3b603dbd 921 single show). All the video files must have
922 same codecs and number of streams to be
923 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
924 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
925 the output filename for the split files.
926 See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
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927 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
928 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
929 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
930 default; fix file if we can, warn
6aecd871 931 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
87e04996 932 already exists)
e4172ac9 933 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
934 path to the binary or its containing
935 directory
1e43a6f7 936 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
937 when to execute it (after_move if
938 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
939 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
940 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
941 output template can be used to pass any
942 field as arguments to the command. After
943 download, an additional field "filepath"
9de3ea31 944 that contains the final path of the
1e43a6f7 945 downloaded file is also available, and if
946 no fields are passed, %(filepath)q is
947 appended to the end of the command. This
34488702 948 option can be used multiple times
1e43a6f7 949 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
e167860c 950 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
3de7c2ce 951 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
e167860c 952 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
8fa43c73 953 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
72073451 954 (currently supported: jpg|png|webp)
72755351 955 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
956 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
957 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
958 to set the output filename for the split
959 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
960 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
961 (default)
7a340e0d 962 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
2d9ec704 963 given regular expression. Time ranges
964 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
965 of chapters to remove the specified range.
966 Eg: --remove-chapters "*10:15-15:00"
967 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
7a340e0d 968 be used multiple times
9ee4f0bb 969 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
970 (default)
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971 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
972 removing/splitting them. Requires a
e75bb0d6 973 re-encode and thus is very slow, but the
7a340e0d
NA
974 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
975 around the cuts
976 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
977 when cutting/splitting (default)
3ae5e797 978 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
979 postprocessors to be enabled, and
980 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
e75bb0d6 981 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
3ae5e797 982 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
983 The "when" argument determines when the
984 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
09b49e1f 985 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
986 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
987 "before_dl" (before each video download),
988 "post_process" (after each video download;
989 default), "after_move" (after moving video
990 file to it's final locations),
991 "after_video" (after downloading and
992 processing all formats of a video), or
993 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This
994 option can be used multiple times to add
995 different postprocessors
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996
997## SponsorBlock Options:
998Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
999 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1000 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1001
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1002 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1003 for, separated by commas. Available
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NA
1004 categories are all, default(=all), sponsor,
1005 intro, outro, selfpromo, preview, filler,
1006 interaction, music_offtopic, poi_highlight.
1007 You can prefix the category with a "-" to
1008 exempt it. See [1] for description of the
1009 categories. Eg: --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1010 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
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1011 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1012 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1013 category is present in both mark and
1014 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
1015 and available categories are the same as
8157a09d
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1016 for --sponsorblock-mark except that
1017 "default" refers to "all,-filler" and
1018 poi_highlight is not available
7a340e0d
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1019 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1020 The title template for SponsorBlock
1021 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
1022 The same syntax as the output template is
1023 used, but the only available fields are
1024 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
1025 name, category_names. Defaults to
1026 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1027 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1028 --sponsorblock-remove
1029 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1030 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1031
78895bd3 1032## Extractor Options:
5ef7d9bd 1033 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
d6e51845 1034 errors (default is 3), or "infinite"
6623ac34 1035 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
8a51f564 1036 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1037 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1038 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
e409895f 1039 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1040 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1041 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1042 formats at discontinuities such as ad
1043 breaks (default)
5d3a0e79 1044 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1045 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1046 use this option multiple times to give
245524e6 1047 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1048
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1049# CONFIGURATION
1050
7a5c1cfe 1051You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1052
0202b52a 10531. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe 10541. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
88f23a18 10551. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 10561. **User Configuration**:
1057 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1058 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1059 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1060 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1061 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1062 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1063
ec2e44fc 1064 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `%APPDATA%` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming` and `~` points to `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`), or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
07cce701 10651. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 1066
7a5c1cfe 1067For example, 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:
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1068```
1069# Lines starting with # are comments
1070
1071# Always extract audio
1072-x
1073
1074# Do not copy the mtime
1075--no-mtime
1076
1077# Use this proxy
1078--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1079
298f597b 1080# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1081-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
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1082```
1083
e2e43aea 1084Note 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`.
b7770046 1085
a4211baf 1086You 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.
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1087
1088### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1089
0001fcb5 1090You 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:
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1091```
1092touch $HOME/.netrc
1093chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1094```
1095After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1096```
0001fcb5 1097machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
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1098```
1099For example:
1100```
1101machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1102machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1103```
7a5c1cfe 1104To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1105
0001fcb5 1106The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
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1107
1108# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1109
0202b52a 1110The `-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 1111
ec2e44fc 1112<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1113**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1114<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1115
e58c22a0 1116The 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 1117
0930b11f 1118It 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). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1119
1120The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
2b8a2973 11211. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. Eg: `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. `%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1122
e625be0d 11231. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1124
e625be0d 11251. **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 `>`. Eg: `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1126
e75bb0d6 11271. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1128
e978789f
P
11291. **Replacement**: A replacement value can 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.
1130
e75bb0d6 11311. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1132
abbeeebc 11331. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q`, `D`, `S` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing), a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), to add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg: 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted), respectively
ec2e44fc 1134
524e2e4f 11351. **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. Eg: `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1136
1137To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1138```
e978789f 1139%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1140```
de6000d9 1141
dbcea058 1142Additionally, 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`. For example, `-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. Eg: `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1143
1144The available fields are:
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1145
1146 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1147 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1148 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
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1149 - `url` (string): Video URL
1150 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1151 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1152 - `description` (string): The description of the video
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1153 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1154 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1155 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1156 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1157 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1158 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1159 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1160 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
f0d785d3 1161 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1162 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
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1163 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1164 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1165 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1166 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
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1167 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1168 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1169 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
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1170 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1171 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1172 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1173 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1174 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1175 - `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 1176 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
940a67a3 1177 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
b7770046 1178 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1179 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1180 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1181 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
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1182 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1183 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1184 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
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1185 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1186 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1187 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1188 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1189 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1190 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1191 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1192 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1193 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1194 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1195 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1196 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
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1197 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1198 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1199 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1200 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1201 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1202 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1203 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1204 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b7770046 1205 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
9c906919 1206 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1207 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1208 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1209 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1210 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1211 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1212 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1213 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
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1214 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1215 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1216 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1217 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1218 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1219 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
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1220
1221Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1222
1223 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1224 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1225 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1226
1227Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1228
1229 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1230 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1231 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1232 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1233 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1234 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1235 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1236
1237Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1238
1239 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1240 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1241 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1242 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1243 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1244 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1245 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1246 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1247 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1248 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1249
b050d210 1250Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1251
1252 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1253 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1254 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1255 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1256
53c18592 1257Available only when used in `--print`:
1258
1259 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1260 - `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 1261 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1262 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1263 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1264 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1265
7a340e0d
NA
1266
1267Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1268
1269 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1270 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1271 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1272 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1273 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1274 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1275
49a57e70 1276Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example 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.
1277
1278Note 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 1279
0930b11f 1280**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1281
49a57e70 1282For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1283
940a67a3 1284Output 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.
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1285
1286To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1287
91ebc640 1288The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1289
f304da8a 1290In 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 1291
ec2e44fc 1292<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
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1293#### Output template and Windows batch files
1294
1295If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
ec2e44fc 1296<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
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1297
1298#### Output template examples
1299
b7770046 1300```bash
940a67a3 1301$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1302test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1303
940a67a3 1304$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1305youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1306
940a67a3 1307$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1308youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
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1309
1310# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1311$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1312
b050d210 1313# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1314$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1315
e978789f 1316# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
6a34813a 1317$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1318
b7770046 1319# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1320$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
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1321
1322# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1323$ 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"
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1324
1325# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1326$ 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 1327
6a34813a 1328# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1329# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1330$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1331
1332# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1333$ 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
1334
b7770046 1335# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1336$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
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1337```
1338
1339# FORMAT SELECTION
1340
7a5c1cfe
P
1341By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1342This 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 1343
c111cefa 1344**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.
1345
eff63539 1346The 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 1347
ec2e44fc 1348<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1349**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1350<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1351
a439a3a4 1352The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example 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.
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1353
1354You 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.
1355
fa9f30b8 1356You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1357
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1358You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1359
59a7a13e 1360 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1361 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1362 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1363 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1364 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1365 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1366 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1367 - `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 1368 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1369 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1370 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1371 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1372 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1373 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1374
ae6a1b95 1375For 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 1376
1377You 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 1378
eb8a4433 1379If 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, for example `-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.
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1380
1381If 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`.
1382
d806c9fd 1383You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1384
1385**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
1386
1387Unless `--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. For example, `-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 and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1388
1389## Filtering Formats
1390
b7770046
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1391You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1392
1393The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1394
1395 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1396 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1397 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1398 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1399 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1400 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1401 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1402 - `fps`: Frame rate
1403
1ce9a3cb 1404Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046
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1405
1406 - `ext`: File extension
1407 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1408 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1409 - `container`: Name of the container format
1410 - `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`)
1411 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1412 - `language`: Language code
b7770046 1413
1ce9a3cb 1414Any 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 1415
e58c22a0 1416Note 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 1417
e094cec1 1418Formats 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. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1419
940a67a3 1420Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"`.
b7770046 1421
eb8a4433 1422## Sorting Formats
1423
2e7781a9 1424You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1425
1426The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1427
63be1aab 1428 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1429 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
ed8d87f9 1430 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1431 - `lang`: The language preference
1432 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1433 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1434 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1435 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1436 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1437 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
d80d98e7 1438 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1439 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
63be1aab 1440 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1441 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1442 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1443 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1444 - `height`: Height of video
1445 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1446 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1447 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1448 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1449 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1450 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1451 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1452 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1453 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1454
1455**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 1456
9ee4f0bb 1457All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `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. Eg: `+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. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1458
176f1866 1459The 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,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1460
e75bb0d6 1461Note that the default has `codec: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 1462
e58c22a0 1463If 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 1464
1465**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1466
eb8a4433 1467## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1468
b7770046 1469```bash
e58c22a0 1470# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1471# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1472$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1473
1474# Download best format that contains video,
1475# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1476$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1477
1478# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1479$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1480
6fd35a11 1481# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1482# For this case, an output template should be used since
1483# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1484$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1485
f8d4ad9a 1486# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1487# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1488$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1489
1490# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1491# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1492$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1493
6fd35a11 1494
1495# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1496# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1497
1498# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1499$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1500
1501# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1502$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1503
1504# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1505$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1506
1507
909d24dd 1508
eb8a4433 1509# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1510$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1511
1512# Download the best video with the best extension
1513# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1514$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1515
1516
909d24dd 1517
eb8a4433 1518# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1519# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1520$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1521
eb8a4433 1522# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1523# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1524$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1525
eb8a4433 1526# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1527# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1528# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1529# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1530$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1531
b7770046 1532
909d24dd 1533
eb8a4433 1534# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1535# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1536$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1537
1538# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1539# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1540$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1541
1542# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1543$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1544
1545
909d24dd 1546
eb8a4433 1547# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1548# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1549$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1550
1551# Download best video available via the best protocol
1552# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1553$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1554
1555
909d24dd 1556
1ce9a3cb
LF
1557# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1558# or the best video if there is no such video
1559$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1560
1561# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1562# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1563$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1564
1565# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1566# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1567$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1568
1569
1570
1571# More complex examples
1572
e58c22a0 1573# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1574# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1575$ 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 1576
1577# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1578# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1579# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1580$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1581
1582
909d24dd 1583
eb8a4433 1584# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1585# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1586# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1587$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1588```
eb8a4433 1589
73cd218f 1590# MODIFYING METADATA
1591
a4211baf 1592The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1593
418964fa 1594`--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 1595
2e7781a9 1596The 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 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 1597
1598Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
1599
9c2b75b5 1600This option also has a few special uses:
28b0eb0f 1601* 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. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
88968992 1602* 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. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (Eg: `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1603
08d30158 1604**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.
1605
c31be5b0 1606For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1607
08d30158 1608Metadata fields | From
1609:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1610`title` | `track` or `title`
1611`date` | `upload_date`
1612`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1613`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1614`track` | `track_number`
1615`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1616`genre` | `genre`
1617`album` | `album`
1618`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1619`disc` | `disc_number`
1620`show` | `series`
1621`season_number` | `season_number`
1622`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1623`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1624`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1625
c31be5b0 1626**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1627
73cd218f 1628
1629## Modifying metadata examples
1630
73cd218f 1631```bash
1632# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1633$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1634
1635# Regex example
940a67a3 1636$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1637
1638# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1639$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1640
1641# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
940a67a3 1642$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
73cd218f 1643
0930b11f 1644# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
940a67a3 1645$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
0930b11f 1646
e9f4ccd1 1647# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1648$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1649
73cd218f 1650```
1651
5d3a0e79 1652# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1653
59a7a13e 1654Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1655
1656The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1657
1658#### youtube
18e49408 1659* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and auto-translated subtitles respectively
e7870111 1660* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (Eg: `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 1661* `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
adbc4ec4 1662* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
96565c7e 1663* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
e75bb0d6 1664* `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`.
46383212 1665 * 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.
1666* `max_comment_depth` Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default)
1667 * **Deprecated**: Set `max-replies` to `0` or `all` in `max_comments` instead (e.g. `max_comments=all,all,0` to get no replies)
96565c7e 1668
1669#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1670* `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)
a30a6ed3 1671* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1672
1673#### funimation
1674* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1675* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1676
a9d4da60 1677#### crunchyroll
1678* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1679* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
1680
ae6a1b95 1681#### crunchyrollbeta
706dfe44
JH
1682* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls`
1683 * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `trailer_hls`, `trailer_dash`
1684* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1685
96565c7e 1686#### vikichannel
1687* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1688
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1689#### niconico
1690* `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.**
1691
aa4b0545 1692#### youtubewebarchive
1693* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1694
d43de682
M
1695#### gamejolt
1696* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1697
26f2aa3d
AG
1698#### hotstar
1699* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1700* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1701* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1702
046cab39
M
1703#### tiktok
1704* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
1705* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
1706
7eaf7f9a 1707#### rokfinchannel
1708* `tab`: Which tab to download. One of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams`)
1709
1710
bc97cdae 1711NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1712
ec2e44fc 1713<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1714
3acf6d38 1715
f74980cb 1716# PLUGINS
b7770046 1717
3ae5e797 1718Plugins 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
1719
1720Plugins 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`.
1721
1722See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1723
1724Note 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
1725
1726If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1727
b7770046 1728
8c6f4daa 1729
1730# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1731
1732yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1733
1734Your 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.
1735
1736From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1737
1738```python
59a7a13e 1739from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1740
093a1710 1741ydl_opts = {'format': 'bestaudio'}
59a7a13e 1742with YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
8c6f4daa 1743 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1744```
1745
ed8d87f9 1746Most 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#L191).
8c6f4daa 1747
093a1710 1748Here's a more complete example demonstrating various functionality:
8c6f4daa 1749
1750```python
1751import json
8c6f4daa 1752import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1753
1754
1755class MyLogger:
1756 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 1757 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 1758 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1759 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1760 pass
1761 else:
1762 self.info(msg)
1763
1764 def info(self, msg):
1765 pass
1766
1767 def warning(self, msg):
1768 pass
1769
1770 def error(self, msg):
1771 print(msg)
1772
1773
093a1710 1774# ℹ️ See the docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor
59a7a13e 1775class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
093a1710 1776 # ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor.run
8c6f4daa 1777 def run(self, info):
1778 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1779 return [], info
1780
1781
093a1710 1782# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in the docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1783def my_hook(d):
1784 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1785 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1786
1787
093a1710 1788def format_selector(ctx):
1789 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1790 This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1791
1792 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1793 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1794
1795 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1796 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1797 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1798
1799 # find compatible audio extension
1800 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1801 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1802 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1803 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1804
1805 yield {
1806 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
1807 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1808 'ext': best_video['ext'],
1809 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 1810 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 1811 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
1812 }
1813
1814
1815# ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for a description of the options
8c6f4daa 1816ydl_opts = {
093a1710 1817 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 1818 'postprocessors': [{
093a1710 1819 # Embed metadata in video using ffmpeg.
1820 # ℹ️ See yt_dlp.postprocessor.FFmpegMetadataPP for the arguments it accepts
1821 'key': 'FFmpegMetadata',
1822 'add_chapters': True,
1823 'add_metadata': True,
8c6f4daa 1824 }],
1825 'logger': MyLogger(),
1826 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
08d30158 1827 # Add custom headers
1828 'http_headers': {'Referer': 'https://www.google.com'}
8c6f4daa 1829}
1830
59a7a13e 1831
093a1710 1832# ℹ️ See the public functions in yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for for other available functions.
1833# Eg: "ydl.download", "ydl.download_with_info_file"
8c6f4daa 1834with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1835 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1836 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
093a1710 1837
1838 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
8c6f4daa 1839 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1840```
1841
49a57e70 1842**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 above
1843
8c6f4daa 1844
ec2e44fc 1845<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
1846
e167860c 1847# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1848
1849These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1850
8130779d 1851#### Almost redundant options
1852While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
1853
1854 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
1855 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 1856 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 1857 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
1858
6ccf351a 1859#### Redundant options
1860While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 1861
53c18592 1862 --get-description --print description
1863 --get-duration --print duration_string
1864 --get-filename --print filename
1865 --get-format --print format
1866 --get-id --print id
1867 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1868 -e, --get-title --print title
1869 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 1870 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1871 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1872 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1873 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
8b7539d2 1874 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
1875 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
6ccf351a 1876
1877
1878#### Not recommended
1879While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1880
1e43a6f7 1881 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
1882 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 1883 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 1884 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 1885 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 1886 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 1887 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 1888 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 1889 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 1890 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1891 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 1892 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1893 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 1894 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1895 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1896 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1897 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 1898
1899
1900#### Developer options
1901These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1902
34488702 1903 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
6ccf351a 1904 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 1905 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1906 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 1907
1908
1909#### Old aliases
1910These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1911
1912 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 1913 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 1914 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1915 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1916 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1917 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1918 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 1919 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 1920 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 1921 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 1922 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1923 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 1924 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1925 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 1926 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 1927 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 1928 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 1929
7a340e0d 1930#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 1931Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
1932
1933 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1934 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1935 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1936 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1937 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1938 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1939 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1940 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1941
f4536226 1942#### No longer supported
1943These options may no longer work as intended
1944
1945 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1946 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1947 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1948 --no-call-home Default
1949 --include-ads No longer supported
1950 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 1951 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1952 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 1953
1954#### Removed
1955These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
1956
f4536226 1957 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1958 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1959 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1960
8c6f4daa 1961# CONTRIBUTING
1962See [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 1963
c2b5f311 1964# MORE
8c6f4daa 1965For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)