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ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
2fa669f7 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#installation "Installation")
ae6a1b95 7[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
fc5fa964 8[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
ae6a1b95 9[![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/matrix/yt-dlp:matrix.org?color=brightgreen&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=element&style=for-the-badge)](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
fc5fa964 11[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
ae6a1b95 12[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
08e29b9f 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/core.yml?branch=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")
b532a348 15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge&display_timestamp=committer)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
ec2e44fc 18<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c76eb41b 19
388c979a 20yt-dlp is a feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader with support for [thousands of sites](supportedsites.md). The project is a fork of [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc).
5c0e5bc4 21
ec2e44fc 22<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
23
24<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c76eb41b 25* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
deae7c17 26 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
0e5927ee 27 * [Release Files](#release-files)
47ab66db 28 * [Update](#update)
cf59cd4d 29 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 30 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 31* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
32 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 33 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 34 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 35 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
36 * [Download Options](#download-options)
37 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 38 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 39 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 40 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
42 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
43 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
44 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 45 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 46 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 48* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
304ad45a 49 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
db3ad8a6 50 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
878eac3e 51 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
c76eb41b 52* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 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)
8e40b9d1
M
62 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
63 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
8c6f4daa 64* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 65 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
47ab66db 66* [CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL](#changes-from-youtube-dl)
67 * [New features](#new-features)
68 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
69 * [Deprecated options](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 70* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
71 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
72 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
17ffed18 73* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
deae7c17 74 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
ec2e44fc 75<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 76
77
d19bb9c0 78# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 79
fc5fa964 80<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
81[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
17ffed18 82[![Unix](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
24146491 83[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
17ffed18 84[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 85[![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)
86[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 87[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 88<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
89
c8bc203f 90You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
0930b11f 91
b8773e63 92
ec2e44fc 93<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 94## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 95
733d8e8f 96#### Recommended
97
98File|Description
99:---|:---
962ffcf8 100[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
0930b11f 101[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
f2df4071 102[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 103
104#### Alternatives
105
0e5927ee
R
106File|Description
107:---|:---
47ab66db 108[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
8aa0e7cd 109[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
f2df4071 110[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
17fc3dc4
M
111[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
112[yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
0930b11f 113[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
114[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
6d916fe7 115[yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
733d8e8f 116
117#### Misc
118
119File|Description
120:---|:---
17ffed18 121[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee 122[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
12647e03 123[SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
0e5927ee 124[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
12647e03 125[SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
0e5927ee 126
12647e03
SS
127The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
128Example usage:
129```
130curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
131gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
132gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
133```
134<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
17ffed18 135
ad54c913 136**Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
17ffed18 137
47ab66db 138
139## UPDATE
140You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
141
142If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
143
144For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
145
146<a id="update-channels"></a>
147
148There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
149
150* `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
151* The `nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The `nightly` releases are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the `yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's `--pre` flag).
152* The `master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
153
154When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
155`--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
156
157You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
158
159Example usage:
df0e138f 160
47ab66db 161* `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
162* `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
163* `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
164* `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.09.24`
165
166**Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
167```
168# To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
169yt-dlp --update-to nightly
170
171# To install nightly with pip:
5c019f63 172python3 -m pip install -U --pre "yt-dlp[default]"
47ab66db 173```
174
a4211baf 175## DEPENDENCIES
f4b95aca 176Python versions 3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 177
c9652aa4 178<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
179<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 180On 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 181-->
fac98805 182
e75bb0d6 183While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 184
8aa0e7cd 185### Strongly recommended
186
b69fd25c 187* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
8aa0e7cd 188
292d60b1 189 There are bugs in ffmpeg that cause 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 some of 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
8e174ba7 190
47ab66db 191 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the Python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
8aa0e7cd 192
193### Networking
d5820461 194* [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 195* [**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>
196* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
8a8b5452 197* [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 198
52f5be1f 199#### Impersonation
200
201The following provide support for impersonating browser requests. This may be required for some sites that employ TLS fingerprinting.
202
203* [**curl_cffi**](https://github.com/yifeikong/curl_cffi) (recommended) - Python binding for [curl-impersonate](https://github.com/lwthiker/curl-impersonate). Provides impersonation targets for Chrome, Edge and Safari. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/yifeikong/curl_cffi/blob/main/LICENSE)
5c019f63 204 * Can be installed with the `curl-cffi` group, e.g. `pip install "yt-dlp[default,curl-cffi]"`
b19ae095 205 * Currently only included in `yt-dlp.exe` and `yt-dlp_macos` builds
52f5be1f 206
207
8aa0e7cd 208### Metadata
209
210* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
211* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
84e26038 212* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Mac** and **BSD**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
8aa0e7cd 213
214### Misc
215
216* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
5d0aeac0 217* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
f9fb3ce8 218* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage)\* - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
cf59cd4d 219* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 220
deae7c17 221### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 222
223* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
224* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
998a3cae 225* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
226* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
8aa0e7cd 227
cf59cd4d 228To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
229
f2df4071 230The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 231
8aa0e7cd 232If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
d710cc6d 233
5f326cf5 234
a4211baf 235## COMPILE
5f326cf5 236
8aa0e7cd 237### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
47ab66db 238To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). The executable will be built for the same CPU architecture as the Python used.
239
240You can run the following commands:
e38df8f9 241
a1b77842 242```
b8a433aa 243python3 devscripts/install_deps.py --include pyinstaller
a1b77842 244python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
245python3 -m bundle.pyinstaller
246```
8aa0e7cd 247
248On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
249
47ab66db 250`python -m bundle.pyinstaller` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
73ac0e6b 251
8e174ba7 252**Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
8aa0e7cd 253
47ab66db 254**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **instead of** using `python -m bundle.pyinstaller` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 255
8aa0e7cd 256### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
f4b95aca 257You will need the build tools `python` (3.8+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 258
8aa0e7cd 259After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 260
a831c2ea 261You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
d19bb9c0 262
8aa0e7cd 263### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
264
3f799953 265While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and need VC++14** on the target computer to run.
8aa0e7cd 266
a1b77842 267If you wish to build it anyway, install Python (if it is not already installed) and you can run the following commands:
8aa0e7cd 268
a1b77842 269```
b8a433aa 270py devscripts/install_deps.py --include py2exe
a1b77842 271py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
272py -m bundle.py2exe
273```
8aa0e7cd 274
275### Related scripts
276
b8a433aa 277* **`devscripts/install_deps.py`** - Install dependencies for yt-dlp.
d400e261
SS
278* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
279* **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
280* **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
8aa0e7cd 281* **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
282
d400e261
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283Note: See their `--help` for more info.
284
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285### Forking the project
286If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
59a7a13e 287
b31fdeed 288# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 289
ec2e44fc 290<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 291 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 292
c2b5f311 293`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 294<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 295
ec2e44fc 296<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 297## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 298 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
299 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 300 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
301 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
77df20f1 302 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
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303 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
304 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
305 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
5d3a3cd4 306 details. Supported channels: stable,
307 nightly, master
2dd5a2e3 308 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
309 The download will be considered successful
310 even if the postprocessing fails
311 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
312 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
313 playlist (default)
314 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
315 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
316 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
317 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
318 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
319 extractors and exit
2516cafb 320 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 321 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
322 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
323 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
324 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
325 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 326 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 327 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 328 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
329 google videos for the search term "python".
330 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
331 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
332 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
333 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
334 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
335 possible instead of searching
336 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
47ab66db 337 except those given to --config-locations.
2dd5a2e3 338 For backward compatibility, if this option
339 is found inside the system configuration
340 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
341 (Alias: --no-config)
342 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
343 (default). When given inside a configuration
344 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
345 defined in the current file
346 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
347 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 348 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
349 used multiple times and inside other
350 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 351 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
352 only list them
c8bc203f 353 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
354 (default)
2dd5a2e3 355 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
356 Currently only supported for YouTube
357 (Experimental)
358 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
359 (default)
360 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
361 available. Pass the minimum number of
362 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
363 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
364 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
365 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
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366 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
367 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
368 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
369 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
370 "no_color" (use non color terminal
371 sequences). Can be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 372 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
373 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
374 configurations by reverting some of the
375 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
376 default behavior" for details
377 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
378 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
379 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
380 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 381 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 382 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
383 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
384 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
385 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
386 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
387 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 388 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 389 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
390 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 391 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 392
149f05c7 393## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 394 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
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395 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
396 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
397 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
398 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 399 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
400 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
0b81d4d2 401 --impersonate CLIENT[:OS] Client to impersonate for requests. E.g.
402 chrome, chrome-110, chrome:windows-10. Pass
403 --impersonate="" to impersonate any client.
404 --list-impersonate-targets List available clients to impersonate.
2dd5a2e3 405 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
406 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8300774c
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407 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
408 default for security reasons.
8c6c88c7 409
b31fdeed 410## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 411 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
412 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
413 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
414 is not present) is used for the actual
415 downloading
c1664464 416 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
417 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
c8bc203f 418 "default" (only when known to be useful),
419 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
420 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
149f05c7 421
cfcec693 422## Video Selection:
71df9b7f 423 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
7e88d7d7 424 to download. You can specify a range using
425 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
426 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
427 Use negative indices to count from the right
428 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 429 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
71df9b7f 430 playlist of size 15 will download the items
7e88d7d7 431 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
71df9b7f 432 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
433 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
434 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
62b58c09 435 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 436 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
437 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
438 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
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439 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
440 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
2dd5a2e3 441 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
442 this date. The date formats accepted is the
443 same as --date
444 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
445 this date. The date formats accepted is the
446 same as --date
447 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
448 field can be compared with a number or a
449 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 450 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 451 specify a field to match if the field is
452 present, use "!field" to check if the field
453 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
454 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
455 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
456 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 457 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 458 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
459 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
460 only videos that are not live OR those that
461 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
462 field is not available) and also has a
463 description that contains the phrase "cats &
464 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
465 interactively ask whether to download each
466 video
c8bc203f 467 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
fe2ce85a 468 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
469 download process when a video is rejected
470 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
2dd5a2e3 471 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
472 to a video and a playlist
473 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
474 a video and a playlist
475 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
476 age
477 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
478 archive file. Record the IDs of all
479 downloaded videos in it
480 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
481 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
482 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
483 a file that is in the archive
16be1177 484 --no-break-on-existing Do not stop the download process when
485 encountering a file that is in the archive
486 (default)
71df9b7f 487 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
354d5fca 488 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
489 reset per input URL
2dd5a2e3 490 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
491 terminates the entire download queue
492 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
493 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 494
d5a62e4f 495## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 496 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
497 video that should be downloaded concurrently
498 (default is 1)
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499 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
500 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 501 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
502 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 503 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 504 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
505 "infinite"
506 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
507 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
508 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
509 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 510 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
511 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
512 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
513 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
514 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
515 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
516 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 517 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 518 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
519 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
520 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
8e174ba7 521 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
522 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
2dd5a2e3 523 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
524 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
525 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
526 downloading is finished
527 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
528 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 529 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 530 (default is 1024)
531 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
532 from an initial value of --buffer-size
533 (default)
534 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
535 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 536 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 537 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
538 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
539 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 540 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 541 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
542 received. This disables n_entries,
543 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
544 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
545 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 546 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
547 expected file size
548 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
549 allowing some players to play the video
550 while downloading, and reducing the chance
551 of file corruption if download is
552 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
553 live streams
554 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
555 videos. This is default when not downloading
556 live streams
b4e0d758 557 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
558 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
559 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
560 timestamps are calculated from the end.
561 "*from-url" can be used to download between
562 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
563 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
564 be used multiple times to download multiple
62b58c09 565 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 566 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 567 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
568 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
569 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
570 use it for. Currently supports native,
571 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
572 wget. You can use this option multiple times
573 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 574 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 575 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
576 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
577 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
578 (Alias: --external-downloader)
579 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
580 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
581 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
582 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
583 positions using the same syntax as
584 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
585 option multiple times to give different
586 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
587 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 588
cfcec693 589## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 590 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
591 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
592 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
593 comments and ignored
594 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
595 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
596 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
597 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
598 TYPES as --output are supported.
599 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
600 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
601 files are first downloaded to the temp path
602 and then the final files are moved over to
603 the home path after download is finished.
604 This option is ignored if --output is an
605 absolute path
606 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
607 TEMPLATE" for details
608 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
47ab66db 609 --output (default: "NA")
2dd5a2e3 610 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
611 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
612 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
613 filenames (default)
614 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
615 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
616 using Windows (default)
617 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
618 extension) to the specified number of
619 characters
620 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
621 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
622 option includes --no-continue
623 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
624 related files (default)
625 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
626 (default)
627 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
628 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
629 restart download of the entire file
630 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
631 into output file (default)
632 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
633 output file
634 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
635 modification time (default)
636 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
637 the file modification time
64fa820c 638 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 639 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
640 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
641 (this may contain personal information)
642 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
643 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
644 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
645 --write-description etc. (default)
646 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
647 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
ad54c913 648 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
649 filenames from the infojson (default)
2dd5a2e3 650 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
651 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
652 infojson. The comments are fetched even
653 without this option if the extraction is
654 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
655 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
656 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
657 --no-get-comments)
658 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 659 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 660 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
661 and dump cookie jar in
662 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
663 (default)
825d3ce3 664 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
665 The name of the browser to load cookies
666 from. Currently supported browsers are:
667 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
dd9ad97b 668 opera, safari, vivaldi, whale. Optionally, the
825d3ce3 669 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
670 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
671 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
672 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
673 be given with their respective seperators.
674 By default, all containers of the most
675 recently accessed profile are used.
676 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
2e023649 677 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
2dd5a2e3 678 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 679 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
680 store some downloaded information (such as
681 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 682 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 683 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
684 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 685
b31fdeed 686## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 687 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 688 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 689 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
690 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
691 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 692
732044af 693## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 694 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
695 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
696 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
697 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
698 OS caches the URL based on the file path
699 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
700 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 701
0744a815 702## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 703 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
704 print the log to stderr
d669772c 705 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
2dd5a2e3 706 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
707 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
708 anything to disk
709 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
710 options are used
711 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
712 extracting metadata even if the videos are
713 not actually available for download
714 (experimental)
715 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
716 formats are found (default)
717 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
718 related files (Alias: --no-download)
719 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
720 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
721 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
722 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
119e40ef 723 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
2dd5a2e3 724 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
725 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
726 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 727 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 728 Append given template to the file. The
729 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
730 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
731 output template. This option can be used
732 multiple times
733 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
734 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
735 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
736 description of available keys
737 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
738 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
739 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
740 a playlist, the whole playlist information
741 is dumped in a single line
742 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
743 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
744 another simulation option is used (Alias:
745 --force-download-archive)
746 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
747 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
748 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
749 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 750 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 751 Template for progress outputs, optionally
752 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
753 "download-title:" (the console title),
754 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
755 The video's fields are accessible under the
756 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 757 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 758 --console-title --progress-template
759 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
9590cc6b 760 --progress-delta SECONDS Time between progress output (default: 0)
2dd5a2e3 761 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
762 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
763 to debug problems (very verbose)
764 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
765 in the current directory to debug problems
766 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 767
36f35428 768## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 769 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
770 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
771 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
772 renegotiation
773 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
774 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
775 information about the video (Currently
776 supported only for YouTube)
a5387729 777 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
2dd5a2e3 778 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
779 option multiple times
780 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
781 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
782 or fribidi executable in PATH
783 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
784 during data extraction
785 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
786 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
787 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
788 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
789 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
790 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
791 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
792 subtitle download
36f35428 793
cfcec693 794## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 795 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
796 for more details
797 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
798 "Sorting Formats" for more details
799 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
800 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
801 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
802 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
803 specified sort order (default)
804 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
805 into a single file
806 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
807 output file (default)
808 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
809 into a single file
810 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
811 output file (default)
812 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
813 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
814 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
815 irrespective of quality
816 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
817 containers (default)
818 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
819 those that are actually downloadable
820 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
821 actually downloadable
822 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
823 downloadable
824 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
825 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 826 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 827 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL
828 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
829 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH
830
831## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 832 --write-subs Write subtitle file
833 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
834 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
835 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
836 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
837 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
838 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
839 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
840 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 841 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 842 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L
843 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
844 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 845 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L
846 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
847 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 848 of available language tags
6bcd846b 849
cfcec693 850## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 851 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
852 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
853 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
854 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
855 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
856 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
857 either the path or its containing directory.
858 Defaults to ~/.netrc
db3ad8a6 859 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
d1b21561 860 for an extractor.
b634ba74 861 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
2dd5a2e3 862 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
863 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
864 a list of available MSOs
865 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
866 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
867 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
868 interactively
869 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
870 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
871 format. May include the private key
872 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
873 Path to private key file for client
874 certificate
bb58c9ed 875 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 876 Password for client certificate private key,
877 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
878 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 879
c76eb41b 880## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 881 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
882 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 883 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
884 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 885 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 886 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
887 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 888 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
889 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
890 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
891 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
892 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 893 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
69f5fe45 894 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
895 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
896 wav). If target container does not support
897 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
898 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 899 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 900 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 901 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
902 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
903 are the same as --remux-video
904 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
905 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
906 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
907 to give the argument to the specified
908 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
909 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
910 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
911 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
912 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
913 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
914 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
915 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
916 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
917 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
918 specified executable only when being used by
919 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
920 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
921 appended to the prefix optionally followed
922 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 923 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 924 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
925 this option multiple times to give different
926 arguments to different postprocessors.
927 (Alias: --ppa)
928 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
929 after post-processing
930 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
931 post-processing (default)
932 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
933 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
934 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
935 webm and mkv videos)
936 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
937 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
938 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
939 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
940 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
941 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
942 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
943 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
944 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
945 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
946 (Alias: --add-chapters)
947 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
948 --no-add-chapters)
949 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
950 mkv/mka video files
951 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
952 to the video file
fe74d5b5 953 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
954 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
2dd5a2e3 955 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
fe74d5b5 956 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
957 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
958 (default: pre_process)
959 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 960 Replace text in a metadata field using the
961 given regex. This option can be used
fe74d5b5 962 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
963 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
964 (default: pre_process)
2dd5a2e3 965 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
966 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
967 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
968 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
969 (default; only when the videos form a single
970 show). All the video files must have same
971 codecs and number of streams to be
972 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
973 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
974 the output filename for the concatenated
975 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
976 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
977 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
978 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
979 default; fix file if we can, warn
980 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
981 already exists)
982 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 983 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 984 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
119e40ef 985 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
986 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
987 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
988 after_move). Same syntax as the output
989 template can be used to pass any field as
ad54c913 990 arguments to the command. If no fields are
991 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
992 to the end of the command. This option can
993 be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 994 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
995 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 996 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 997 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
998 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 999 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1000 can specify multiple rules using similar
1001 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1002 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1003 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1004 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1005 the output filename for the split files. See
1006 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1007 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1008 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1009 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1010 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1011 be used multiple times
1012 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1013 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1014 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1015 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1016 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1017 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1018 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1019 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1020 when cutting/splitting (default)
1021 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1022 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1023 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1024 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1025 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1026 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1027 The "when" argument determines when the
1028 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1029 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1030 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
119e40ef 1031 "video" (after --format; before
1032 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1033 video download), "post_process" (after each
1034 video download; default), "after_move"
1035 (after moving video file to it's final
1036 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1037 and processing all formats of a video), or
1038 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1039 can be used multiple times to add different
1040 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1041
1042## SponsorBlock Options:
1043Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1044 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1045 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1046
2dd5a2e3 1047 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1048 for, separated by commas. Available
1049 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1050 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
71df9b7f 1051 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1052 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1053 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1054 for description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1055 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1056 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1057 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1058 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1059 category is present in both mark and remove,
1060 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1061 available categories are the same as for
1062 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
71df9b7f 1063 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
63c547d7 1064 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1065 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1066 An output template for the title of the
1067 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1068 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1069 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1070 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1071 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1072 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1073 --sponsorblock-remove
1074 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1075 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1076
78895bd3 1077## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1078 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1079 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1080 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1081 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1082 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1083 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1084 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1085 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1086 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1087 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1088 (default)
2fa669f7 1089 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1090 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1091 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1092 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1093
b7770046
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1094# CONFIGURATION
1095
7a5c1cfe 1096You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1097
878eac3e 10981. **Main Configuration**:
47ab66db 1099 * The file given to `--config-location`
878eac3e 11001. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1101 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1102 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
11031. **Home Configuration**:
47ab66db 1104 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given to `-P`
878eac3e 1105 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 11061. **User Configuration**:
773c272d 1107 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1108 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
8e40b9d1 1109 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
773c272d 1110 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1111 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1112 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1113 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1114 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
8e40b9d1
M
1115 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1116 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
3d3bb168 1117
878eac3e 1118 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11191. **System Configuration**:
1120 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
8e40b9d1
M
1121 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1122 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
b7770046 1123
62b58c09 1124E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
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1125```
1126# Lines starting with # are comments
1127
1128# Always extract audio
1129-x
1130
1131# Do not copy the mtime
1132--no-mtime
1133
1134# Use this proxy
1135--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1136
298f597b 1137# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1138-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
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1139```
1140
8e174ba7 1141**Note**: Options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
b7770046 1142
a4211baf 1143You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
b7770046 1144
304ad45a 1145### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1146
304ad45a 1147The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1148
88f60feb 1149If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
a904a7f8 1150
db3ad8a6 1151### Authentication with netrc
b7770046 1152
304ad45a 1153You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per-extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
b7770046 1154```
878eac3e 1155touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1156chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
b7770046
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1157```
1158After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1159```
0001fcb5 1160machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1161```
62b58c09 1162E.g.
b7770046
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1163```
1164machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1165machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1166```
7a5c1cfe 1167To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1168
878eac3e 1169The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1170
d7cd97e8 1171As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
db3ad8a6
ND
1172
1173E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1174```
1175yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1176```
1177
1178
878eac3e 1179### Notes about environment variables
1180* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1181* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1182* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1183* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1184* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
b7770046
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1185
1186# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1187
0202b52a 1188The `-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 1189
ec2e44fc 1190<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1191**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1192<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1193
e58c22a0 1194The 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 1195
62b58c09 1196It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1197
1198The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1199
07a1250e 12001. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1201
993edd3f 12021. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using `+`, `-` and `*`. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1203
62b58c09 12041. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1205
62b58c09 12061. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1207
ec9311c4 12081. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). 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. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
e978789f 1209
17ffed18 12101. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1211
9b9dad11 12121. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
ec2e44fc 1213
d5d1df8a 12141. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [Unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1215
1216To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1217```
e978789f 1218%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1219```
de6000d9 1220
62b58c09 1221Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. E.g. `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1222
47ab66db 1223<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"></a>
7aaf4cd2 1224
8e174ba7 1225**Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
7aaf4cd2 1226
e29663c6 1227The available fields are:
b7770046
U
1228
1229 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1230 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1231 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U
1232 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1233 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1234 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U
1235 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1236 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
f4f9f6d0 1237 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1238 - `uploader_url` (string): URL to the video uploader's profile
b7770046 1239 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
104a7b5a
L
1240 - `creators` (list): The creators of the video
1241 - `creator` (string): The creators of the video; comma-separated
b7770046 1242 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1243 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1244 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1245 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1732eccc 1246 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
f0d785d3 1247 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1248 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U
1249 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1250 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
f4f9f6d0 1251 - `channel_url` (string): URL of the channel
6c73052c 1252 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
8213ce28 1253 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
b7770046
U
1254 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1255 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1256 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1257 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1258 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
b7770046
U
1259 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1260 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1261 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1262 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1263 - `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 1264 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1265 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1266 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1267 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1268 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1269 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
e370f9ec 1270 - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
b7770046
U
1271 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1272 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
U
1273 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1274 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1275 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b532a348 1276 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
9c906919 1277 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1278 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1279 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1280 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1281 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1282 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1283 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1284 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
U
1285 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1286 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1287 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1288 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1289 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1290 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
f4f9f6d0 1291 - `categories` (list): List of categories the video belongs to
1292 - `tags` (list): List of tags assigned to the video
1293 - `cast` (list): List of cast members
1294
d2c8aadf 1295All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
b7770046
U
1296
1297Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1298
1299 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1300 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1301 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1302
1303Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1304
1305 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
f4f9f6d0 1306 - `series_id` (string): Id of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
b7770046
U
1307 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1308 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1309 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1310 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1311 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1312 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1313
1314Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1315
1316 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1317 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1318 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
104a7b5a
L
1319 - `artists` (list): Artist(s) of the track
1320 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track; comma-separated
1321 - `genres` (list): Genre(s) of the track
1322 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track; comma-separated
1323 - `composers` (list): Composer(s) of the piece
1324 - `composer` (string): Composer(s) of the piece; comma-separated
b7770046
U
1325 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1326 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
104a7b5a
L
1327 - `album_artists` (list): All artists appeared on the album
1328 - `album_artist` (string): All artists appeared on the album; comma-separated
b7770046 1329 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
b7770046 1330
5ec1b6b7 1331Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1332
1333 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1334 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1335 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1336 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1337
53c18592 1338Available only when used in `--print`:
1339
1340 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
7aaf4cd2 1341 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
ed5835b4 1342 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1343 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1344 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1345 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1346
ad54c913 1347 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
7a340e0d 1348
ad54c913 1349 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1350
7a340e0d
NA
1351Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1352
1353 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1354 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1355 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA
1356 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1357 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1358 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1359 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1360
62b58c09 1361Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
49a57e70 1362
8e174ba7 1363**Note**: 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 1364
0930b11f 1365**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1366
62b58c09 1367For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1368
940a67a3 1369Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
b7770046
U
1370
1371To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1372
91ebc640 1373The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1374
f304da8a 1375In 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 1376
b7770046
U
1377#### Output template examples
1378
b7770046 1379```bash
d2c8aadf 1380$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1381test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1382
d2c8aadf 1383$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1384youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1385
d2c8aadf 1386$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1387youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U
1388
1389# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1390$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1391
b050d210 1392# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1393$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1394
e978789f 1395# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
ad54c913 1396$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1397
b7770046 1398# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1399$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
U
1400
1401# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1402$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
b7770046
U
1403
1404# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1405$ 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 1406
6a34813a 1407# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1408# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1409$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1410
1411# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1412$ 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
1413
b7770046 1414# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1415$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U
1416```
1417
1418# FORMAT SELECTION
1419
7a5c1cfe
P
1420By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1421This 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 1422
c111cefa 1423**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.
1424
eff63539 1425The 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 1426
ec2e44fc 1427<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1428**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1429<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1430
62b58c09 1431The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
b7770046
U
1432
1433You 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.
1434
fa9f30b8 1435You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1436
b7770046
U
1437You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1438
59a7a13e 1439 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1440 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1441 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1442 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1443 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1444 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1445 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1446 - `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 1447 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1448 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1449 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1450 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1451 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1452 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1453
d4ada357 1454For 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 1455
1456You 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 1457
304ad45a 1458If you want to download multiple videos, and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
b7770046
U
1459
1460If 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`.
1461
62b58c09 1462You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
d806c9fd 1463
1464**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
1465
304ad45a 1466Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1467
1468## Filtering Formats
1469
b532a348 1470You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
b7770046
U
1471
1472The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1473
1474 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1475 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
U
1476 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1477 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
105bfd90 1478 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
86e3b822 1479 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in [kbps](## "1000 bits/sec")
1480 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in [kbps](## "1000 bits/sec")
1481 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in [kbps](## "1000 bits/sec")
b7770046
U
1482 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1483 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1484 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1485 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1486
1ce9a3cb 1487Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1488
d2c8aadf 1489 - `url`: Video URL
b7770046
U
1490 - `ext`: File extension
1491 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1492 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1493 - `container`: Name of the container format
1494 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
29f7c58a 1495 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1496 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1497 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1498 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1499 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1500 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1501
1ce9a3cb 1502Any 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 1503
8e174ba7 1504**Note**: 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 1505
86e3b822 1506Formats 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 "bv[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 kbps. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1507
62b58c09 1508Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
b7770046 1509
eb8a4433 1510## Sorting Formats
1511
2e7781a9 1512You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1513
1514The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1515
304ad45a 1516 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1517 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1518 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1519 - `lang`: The language preference
1520 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1521 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1522 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1523 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
a5387729 1524 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1525 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
29ca4082 1526 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1527 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
63be1aab 1528 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1529 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
62b5c94c 1530 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
63be1aab 1531 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1532 - `height`: Height of video
1533 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1534 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1535 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1536 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1537 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
86e3b822 1538 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in [kbps](## "1000 bits/sec")
1539 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in [kbps](## "1000 bits/sec")
1540 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in [kbps](## "1000 bits/sec")
1541 - `br`: Average bitrate in [kbps](## "1000 bits/sec"), `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
63be1aab 1542 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1543
1544**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 1545
62b58c09 1546All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
9ee4f0bb 1547
7e798d72 1548The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1549
7e798d72 1550Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1551
e58c22a0 1552If 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 1553
1554**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1555
eb8a4433 1556## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1557
b7770046 1558```bash
e58c22a0 1559# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1560# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1561$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1562
1563# Download best format that contains video,
1564# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1565$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1566
1567# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1568$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1569
6fd35a11 1570# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1571# For this case, an output template should be used since
1572# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1573$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1574
f8d4ad9a 1575# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1576# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1577$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1578
1579# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1580# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1581$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1582
6fd35a11 1583
1584# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1585# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1586
1587# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1588$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1589
1590# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1591$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1592
1593# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1594$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1595
1596
909d24dd 1597
eb8a4433 1598# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1599$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1600
1601# Download the best video with the best extension
29ca4082 1602# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1603$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1604
1605
909d24dd 1606
eb8a4433 1607# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1608# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1609$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1610
eb8a4433 1611# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1612# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1613$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1614
eb8a4433 1615# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1616# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1617# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1618# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1619$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1620
b7770046 1621
909d24dd 1622
eb8a4433 1623# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1624# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1625$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1626
1627# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1628# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1629$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1630
1631# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1632$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1633
1634
909d24dd 1635
eb8a4433 1636# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1637# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1638$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1639
1640# Download best video available via the best protocol
1641# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1642$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1643
1644
909d24dd 1645
1ce9a3cb
LF
1646# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1647# or the best video if there is no such video
1648$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1649
1650# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1651# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1652$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1653
1654# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1655# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1656$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1657
1658
1659
1660# More complex examples
1661
e58c22a0 1662# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1663# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1664$ 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 1665
1666# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1667# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1668# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1669$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1670
1671
909d24dd 1672
eb8a4433 1673# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1674# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1675# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1676$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1677```
eb8a4433 1678
73cd218f 1679# MODIFYING METADATA
1680
a4211baf 1681The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1682
47ab66db 1683`--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 1684
47ab66db 1685The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [Python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1686
46d09f87 1687Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
73cd218f 1688
9c2b75b5 1689This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1690
c8bc203f 1691* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)"` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
3d3bb168 1692
62b58c09 1693* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1694
08d30158 1695**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.
1696
c31be5b0 1697For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1698
08d30158 1699Metadata fields | From
1700:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1701`title` | `track` or `title`
1702`date` | `upload_date`
1703`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1704`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1705`track` | `track_number`
104a7b5a
L
1706`artist` | `artist`, `artists`, `creator`, `creators`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1707`composer` | `composer` or `composers`
1708`genre` | `genre` or `genres`
08d30158 1709`album` | `album`
104a7b5a 1710`album_artist` | `album_artist` or `album_artists`
08d30158 1711`disc` | `disc_number`
1712`show` | `series`
1713`season_number` | `season_number`
1714`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1715`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1716`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1717
c31be5b0 1718**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1719
73cd218f 1720
1721## Modifying metadata examples
1722
73cd218f 1723```bash
1724# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1725$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1726
1727# Regex example
940a67a3 1728$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1729
1730# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1731$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1732
a44ca5a4 1733# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1734$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1735
1736# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1737# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1738$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1739
8aa0e7cd 1740# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1741$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1742
0930b11f 1743# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
7f9c6a63 1744$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
0930b11f 1745
e9f4ccd1 1746# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1747$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1748
73cd218f 1749```
1750
5d3a0e79 1751# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1752
5c019f63 1753Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;formats=incomplete" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1754
a5387729 1755Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1756
5d3a0e79 1757The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1758
1759#### youtube
8e174ba7 1760* `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
8aa0e7cd 1761* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
12d8ea82 1762* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `ios` and `android`, with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,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. The `android` clients will always be given lowest priority since their formats are broken. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1763* `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
ba06d77a 1764* `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
96565c7e 1765* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1766* `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`
1767 * 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
b532a348 1768* `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1e4fca9a 1769* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
2ae778b8 1770* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
eb5bdbfa 1771* `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
96565c7e 1772
1773#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1774* `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
5225df50 1775* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1776
3b021eac 1777#### generic
5cc0a8fd 1778* `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1779* `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
c2e0fc40 1780* `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
93e7c699 1781* `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
3b021eac 1782
96565c7e 1783#### funimation
304ad45a 1784* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1785* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1786
cb1553e9 1787#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
954e57e4 1788* `hardsub`: One or more hardsub versions to extract (in order of preference), or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs will be extracted), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,de-DE`
706dfe44 1789
96565c7e 1790#### vikichannel
1791* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1792
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1793#### niconico
1794* `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.**
1795
aa4b0545 1796#### youtubewebarchive
1797* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1798
d43de682
M
1799#### gamejolt
1800* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1801
26f2aa3d
AG
1802#### hotstar
1803* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1804* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1805* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1806
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1807#### niconicochannelplus
1808* `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1809
046cab39 1810#### tiktok
cb61e20c 1811* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API calls, e.g. `api22-normal-c-alisg.tiktokv.com`
1812* `app_name`: Default app name to use with mobile API calls, e.g. `trill`
1813* `app_version`: Default app version to use with mobile API calls - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `34.1.2`
1814* `manifest_app_version`: Default numeric app version to use with mobile API calls, e.g. `2023401020`
41ba4a80 1815* `aid`: Default app ID to use with mobile API calls, e.g. `1180`
1816* `app_info`: Enable mobile API extraction with one or more app info strings in the format of `<iid>/[app_name]/[app_version]/[manifest_app_version]/[aid]`, where `iid` is the unique app install ID. `iid` is the only required value; all other values and their `/` separators can be omitted, e.g. `tiktok:app_info=1234567890123456789` or `tiktok:app_info=123,456/trill///1180,789//34.0.1/340001`
3584b839 1817* `device_id`: Enable mobile API extraction with a genuine device ID to be used with mobile API calls. Default is a random 19-digit string
046cab39 1818
7eaf7f9a 1819#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1820* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1821
b03fa783 1822#### twitter
a006ce2b 1823* `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
b03fa783 1824
af1fd12f 1825#### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
ef8fb7f0 1826* `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1827
7f9c6a63 1828#### twitch
1829* `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
01231feb 1830
81c8b9bd 1831#### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1832* `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1833
1eaca74b 1834#### nflplusreplay
1835* `type`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game`, `full_game_spanish`, `condensed_game` and `all_22`. You can use `all` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
1836
1463945a 1837#### jiocinema
1838* `refresh_token`: The `refreshToken` UUID from browser local storage can be passed to extend the life of your login session when logging in with `token` as username and the `accessToken` from browser local storage as password
1839
5154dc0a 1840#### jiosaavn
1841* `bitrate`: Audio bitrates to request. One or more of `16`, `32`, `64`, `128`, `320`. Default is `128,320`
1842
315b3544 1843#### afreecatvlive
1844* `cdn`: One or more CDN IDs to use with the API call for stream URLs, e.g. `gcp_cdn`, `gs_cdn_pc_app`, `gs_cdn_mobile_web`, `gs_cdn_pc_web`
1845
beaf832c 1846#### soundcloud
1847* `formats`: Formats to request from the API. Requested values should be in the format of `{protocol}_{extension}` (omitting the bitrate), e.g. `hls_opus,http_aac`. The `*` character functions as a wildcard, e.g. `*_mp3`, and can passed by itself to request all formats. Known protocols include `http`, `hls` and `hls-aes`; known extensions include `aac`, `opus` and `mp3`. Original `download` formats are always extracted. Default is `http_aac,hls_aac,http_opus,hls_opus,http_mp3,hls_mp3`
1848
8e174ba7 1849**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1850
ec2e44fc 1851<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1852
3acf6d38 1853
f74980cb 1854# PLUGINS
b7770046 1855
8e40b9d1 1856Note 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!**
3ae5e797 1857
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M
1858Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1859- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1860- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1861- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
3ae5e797 1862
3ae5e797 1863
8e40b9d1 1864Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
3ae5e797 1865
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M
1866In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1867
1868 yt_dlp_plugins/
1869 extractor/
1870 myplugin.py
1871 postprocessor/
1872 myplugin.py
1873
1874yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
b7770046 1875
deae7c17 1876See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1877
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1878## Installing Plugins
1879
1880Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1881
18821. **Configuration directories**:
1883 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1884 * **User Plugins**
1885 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1886 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1887 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
773c272d 1888 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
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1889 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1890 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1891 * **System Plugins**
1892 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1893 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
c8bc203f 18942. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
8e40b9d1
M
1895 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1896 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1897
18983. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
e756f45b 1899 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
8e174ba7 1900 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
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1901 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1902 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1903
1904
8e174ba7 1905`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
df0e138f 1906
8e174ba7 1907* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
8e40b9d1 1908
8e174ba7 1909Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
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1910
1911## Developing Plugins
1912
8e174ba7 1913See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
8e40b9d1 1914
8e174ba7 1915All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
e756f45b 1916
773c272d 1917To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
8e40b9d1 1918
8e174ba7 1919If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
b7770046 1920
8e40b9d1 1921See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
8c6f4daa 1922
1923# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1924
1925yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1926
1927Your 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.
1928
1929From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1930
1931```python
59a7a13e 1932from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1933
3d3bb168 1934URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1935with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1936 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1937```
1938
b532a348 1939Most 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#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
8c6f4daa 1940
43cc91ad 1941**Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
3d3bb168 1942
1943## Embedding examples
1944
43cc91ad 1945#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1946
1947```python
1948import json
8c6f4daa 1949import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1950
3d3bb168 1951URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1952
1953# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1954ydl_opts = {}
1955with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1956 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1957
1958 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1959 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1960```
43cc91ad 1961#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 1962
1963```python
1964import yt_dlp
1965
1966INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1967
1968with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1969 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1970
1971print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1972 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1973```
1974
43cc91ad 1975#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 1976
1977```python
1978import yt_dlp
1979
1980URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1981
1982ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 1983 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 1984 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1985 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1986 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1987 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1988 }]
1989}
1990
1991with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1992 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1993```
0a41f331 1994
1995#### Filter videos
1996
1997```python
1998import yt_dlp
1999
2000URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2001
2002def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2003 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2004 duration = info.get('duration')
2005 if duration and duration < 60:
2006 return 'The video is too short'
2007
2008ydl_opts = {
2009 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2010}
2011
2012with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2013 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2014```
2015
43cc91ad 2016#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 2017
2018```python
2019import yt_dlp
2020
2021URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 2022
2023class MyLogger:
2024 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 2025 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 2026 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2027 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2028 pass
2029 else:
2030 self.info(msg)
2031
2032 def info(self, msg):
2033 pass
2034
2035 def warning(self, msg):
2036 pass
2037
2038 def error(self, msg):
2039 print(msg)
2040
2041
3d3bb168 2042# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2043def my_hook(d):
2044 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2045 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2046
2047
2048ydl_opts = {
2049 'logger': MyLogger(),
2050 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2051}
2052
2053with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2054 ydl.download(URLS)
2055```
2056
43cc91ad 2057#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 2058
2059```python
2060import yt_dlp
2061
2062URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2063
2064# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 2065class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 2066 def run(self, info):
2067 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2068 return [], info
2069
2070
3d3bb168 2071with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 2072 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2073 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 2074 ydl.download(URLS)
2075```
8c6f4daa 2076
2077
43cc91ad 2078#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 2079
2080```python
2081import yt_dlp
2082
c8bc203f 2083URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
3d3bb168 2084
093a1710 2085def format_selector(ctx):
2086 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 2087 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 2088
2089 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2090 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2091
2092 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2093 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2094 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2095
2096 # find compatible audio extension
2097 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2098 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2099 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2100 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2101
3d3bb168 2102 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2103 yield {
093a1710 2104 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2105 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2106 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2107 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2108 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2109 }
2110
2111
8c6f4daa 2112ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2113 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2114}
2115
2116with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2117 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2118```
2119
ec2e44fc 2120
47ab66db 2121# CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL
2122
2123### New features
2124
a4da9db8 2125* Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@a08f2b7**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/a08f2b7e4567cdc50c0614ee0a4ffdff49b8b6e6) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
47ab66db 2126
2127* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
2128
2129* **[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))
2130
2131* **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 NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
2132
2133* **YouTube improvements**:
2134 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
2135 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
2136 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
2137 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
2138 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
2139
2140* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
2141
2142* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
2143
2144* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
2145
2146* **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
2147
2148* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
2149
2150* **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)
2151
2152* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
2153
2154* **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
2155
2156* **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`)
2157
2158* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
2159
2160* **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`
2161
2162* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
2163
2164* **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
2165
2166* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
2167
2168* **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
2169
2170* **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
2171
2172See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
2173
2174Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
2175
2176### Differences in default behavior
2177
2178Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
2179
2180* yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.8+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
2181* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
2182* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
2183* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
2184* 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`
2185* 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
2186* 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
2187* 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
2188* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
2189* 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
2190* `--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
2191* 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
2192* `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
2193* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
2194* Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
2195* YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
2196* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
2197* The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
2198* 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
2199* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
2200* Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
2201* 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
2202* `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`
2203* yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
2204* ~~yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [aria2c](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is~~
2205* yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
2206* yt-dlp versions between 2021.11.10 and 2023.06.21 estimated `filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in [f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in [0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use `--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
2207* yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as `requests`. Use `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
ed3bb2b0 2208* The sub-modules `swfinterp`, `casefold` are removed.
47ab66db 2209
2210For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
2211
2212* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
2213* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2214* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2215* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
2216* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options 2023,playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress,prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`
2217* `--compat-options 2023`: Currently does nothing. Use this to enable all future compat options
2218
2219### Deprecated options
e167860c 2220
2221These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2222
8130779d 2223#### Almost redundant options
2224While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2225
2226 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2227 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2228 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2229 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2230
6ccf351a 2231#### Redundant options
2232While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2233
53c18592 2234 --get-description --print description
2235 --get-duration --print duration_string
2236 --get-filename --print filename
2237 --get-format --print format
2238 --get-id --print id
2239 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2240 -e, --get-title --print title
2241 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2242 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2243 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2244 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2245 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
fe2ce85a 2246 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
8b7539d2 2247 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2248 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2249 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2250 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2251 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2252 --no-playlist-reverse Default
8417f26b 2253 --no-colors --color no_color
6ccf351a 2254
6ccf351a 2255#### Not recommended
2256While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2257
fe7866d0 2258 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2259 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2260 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2261 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2262 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2263 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2264 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2265 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2266 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2267 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2268 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2269 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2270 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2271 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2272 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2273 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2274 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2275 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
c1664464 2276 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2277 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2278 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2279 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
6ccf351a 2280
6ccf351a 2281#### Developer options
2282These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2283
34488702 2284 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2285 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2286 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2287 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2288 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2289
f4536226 2290#### Old aliases
2291These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2292
2293 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2294 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2295 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2296 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2297 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2298 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2299 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2300 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2301 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2302 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2303 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2304 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2305 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2306 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2307 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2308 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2309 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2310
7a340e0d 2311#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2312Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2313
2314 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2315 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2316 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2317 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2318 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2319 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2320 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2321 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2322
f4536226 2323#### No longer supported
2324These options may no longer work as intended
2325
2326 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2327 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2328 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2329 --no-call-home Default
2330 --include-ads No longer supported
2331 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2332 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2333 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2334 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
96a134de 2335 --compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date No longer supported
486fb179 2336
2337#### Removed
2338These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2339
f4536226 2340 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2341 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2342
47ab66db 2343
8c6f4daa 2344# CONTRIBUTING
2345See [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 2346
17ffed18 2347# WIKI
2348See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information