]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
Release 2021.05.11
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
CommitLineData
b31fdeed 1<div align="center">
2
d9d045e2 3# YT-DLP
b31fdeed 4A command-line program to download videos from YouTube and many other [video platforms](supportedsites.md)
d9d045e2 5
e58c22a0 6<!-- GHA doesn't have for-the-badge style
7a5c1cfe 7[![CI Status](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/workflows/Core%20Tests/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions)
b31fdeed 8-->
9[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Release&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
10[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE)
11[![Doc Status](https://readthedocs.org/projects/yt-dlp/badge/?version=latest&style=for-the-badge)](https://yt-dlp.readthedocs.io)
a7191c6f 12[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&label=discord&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
b31fdeed 13[![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)
14[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
a7191c6f 15[![Downloads](https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/total?style=for-the-badge&color=blue)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
b31fdeed 16[![PyPi Downloads](https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/yt-dlp?label=PyPi&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
c76eb41b 17
b31fdeed 18</div>
c76eb41b 19
b31fdeed 20yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 21
034b6215 22* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 23 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 24* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
e58c22a0 25 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 26 * [Update](#update)
27 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 28* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
29 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 30 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 31 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 32 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
33 * [Download Options](#download-options)
34 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 35 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 36 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 37 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 38 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
39 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
40 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
41 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 42 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
8a51f564 43 * [SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 44 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 45* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 46 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 47* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 48 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
49 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 50* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 51 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
52 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
53 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 54* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
55 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
f74980cb 56* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
e167860c 57* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
c76eb41b 58* [MORE](#more)
b31fdeed 59</div>
50865ca8 60
61
034b6215 62# NEW FEATURES
f20f5fe5 63The major new features from the latest release of [blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
034b6215 64
7a5c1cfe 65* **[SponSkrub Integration](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)**: You can use [SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) to mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 66
90505ff1 67* **[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 that what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 68
fac98805 69* **Merged with youtube-dl [commit/a726009](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/a7260099873acc6dc7d76cafad2f6b139087afd0)**: (v2021.04.26) You get all the latest features and patches of [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
034b6215 70
fac98805 71* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--get-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 72
f5546c0b 73* **Youtube improvements**:
0cf05715 74 * All Youtube Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) works and supports downloading multiple pages of content
75 * Youtube search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`) along with Search URLs work
76 * Youtube mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
f20f5fe5 77 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
78
597c1866 79* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
80
b31fdeed 81* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
8d801631 82
b31fdeed 83* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 84
fac98805 85* **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius, zee5, mtv.it, wimtv, pluto.tv, niconico users, discoveryplus.in, mediathek, NFHSNetwork, nebula, ukcolumn, whowatch, MxplayerShow
f20f5fe5 86
fac98805 87* **Fixed extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, akamai, ina, rumble, tennistv, amcnetworks, la7 podcasts, linuxacadamy, nitter, twitcasting, viu, crackle, curiositystream, mediasite, rmcdecouverte, sonyliv, tubi
88
89* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
034b6215 90
597c1866 91* **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
0bc0a322 92
93* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
94
fac98805 95* **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`
96
97* **Other new options**: `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 98
fac98805 99* **Improvements**: Multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
c69911e4 100
b31fdeed 101* **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
102
7a5c1cfe 103* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 104
29b6000e 105
7a5c1cfe 106See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 107
108
90505ff1 109**PS**: Some of these changes are already in youtube-dlc, but are still unreleased. See [this](Changelog.md#unreleased-changes-in-blackjack4494yt-dlc) for details
f20f5fe5 110
b9650873 111If you are coming from [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl), the amount of changes are very large. Compare [options](#options) and [supported sites](supportedsites.md) with youtube-dl's to get an idea of the massive number of features/patches [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) has accumulated.
f20f5fe5 112
53ed7066 113### Differences in default behavior
114
115Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc.
116
1171. The options `--id`, `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
1181. `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
1191. 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`
1201. 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
1211. 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 prefered. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
1221. 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
1231. `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
1241. 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
1251. `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
1261. The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
1271. Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
1281. Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Either append a `/featured` to the URL or use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to download only the videos in the home page
1291. Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
130
131For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
1321. `--compat-options all` = Use all compat options
1331. `--compat-options youtube-dl` = `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
1341. `--compat-options youtube-dlc` = `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
135
f20f5fe5 136
d19bb9c0 137# INSTALLATION
b31fdeed 138yt-dlp is not platform specific. So it should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS
50865ca8 139
7bc877a2 140You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
7a5c1cfe 141* Download the binary from the [latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) (recommended method)
a61f4b28 142* Use [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp): `python3 -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
143* Use pip+git: `python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp.git@release`
144* Install master branch: `python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp`
145
146Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
5f326cf5 147
5ba4a0b6
A
148UNIX users (Linux, macOS, BSD) can also install the [latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) one of the following ways:
149
150```
151sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
152sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
153```
154
155```
156sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
157sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
158```
159
160```
161sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
162sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
163```
164
e58c22a0 165### DEPENDENCIES
a61f4b28 166Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are officially supported. Other versions and implementations may or maynot work correctly.
b31fdeed 167
fac98805 168On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999) 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.
169
170Although there are no other required dependencies, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended. Other optional dependencies are `sponskrub`, `AtomicParsley`, `mutagen`, `pycryptodome` and any of the supported external downloaders. Note that the windows releases are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen and pycryptodome included.
b31fdeed 171
c76eb41b 172### UPDATE
b31fdeed 173You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the provided release.
aa837ddf 174If you are using `pip`, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program.
5f326cf5 175
c76eb41b 176### COMPILE
5f326cf5 177
c76eb41b 178**For Windows**:
5d25607a 179To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen and pycryptodome)
d19bb9c0 180
a61f4b28 181 python3 -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller mutagen pycryptodome
e38df8f9 182
a61f4b28 183Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, just run `py pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
5f326cf5 184
e38df8f9 185You can also build the executable without any version info or metadata by using:
186
7a5c1cfe 187 pyinstaller.exe yt_dlp\__main__.py --onefile --name yt-dlp
fac98805 188
189Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment
b96a939b 190
c76eb41b 191**For Unix**:
c74d1aa3 192You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `nosetests`
127d0759 193Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 194
e38df8f9 195**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 196
b31fdeed 197# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 198
7a5c1cfe 199 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 200
c2b5f311 201`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
e58c22a0 202<!-- Auto generated -->
c2b5f311 203
c76eb41b 204## General Options:
1dc2726f
PH
205 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
206 --version Print program version and exit
8d801631 207 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
208 sure that you have sufficient permissions
209 (run with sudo if needed)
c4af7684
PH
210 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
211 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
8a51f564 212 (default) (Alias: --no-abort-on-error)
213 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
214 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
1dc2726f 215 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
4b9f9010 216 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
c4af7684
PH
217 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
218 extractors
219 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
220 extractor
221 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
222 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
6623ac34 223 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
c4af7684 224 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
6623ac34 225 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
c4af7684
PH
226 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
227 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
228 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
8a51f564 229 this is not possible instead of searching
298f597b 230 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
8a51f564 231 except the one provided by --config-location.
232 When given inside a configuration
298f597b 233 file, no further configuration files are
234 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
235 compatibility) if this option is found
236 inside the system configuration file, the
8a51f564 237 user configuration is not loaded
0202b52a 238 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
239 either the path to the config or its
240 containing directory
c4af7684 241 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
8a51f564 242 only list them
6623ac34 243 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
bdf7f139 244 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
597c1866 245 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8a51f564 246 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
53ed7066 247 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
248 with youtube-dl and youtube-dlc
249 configurations by reverting some of the
250 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
251 default behavior" for details
08c1d0d3 252
149f05c7 253## Network Options:
28b4f736 254 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
0934c9d4
S
255 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
256 scheme. For example
28b4f736
PH
257 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
258 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
149f05c7 259 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
c4af7684 260 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
c4af7684 261 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
c4af7684 262 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 263
b31fdeed 264## Geo-restriction:
c25f1a9b
S
265 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
266 some geo-restricted sites. The default
267 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
7550ea50 268 option is not present) is used for the
8a51f564 269 actual downloading
8c6c88c7 270 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
0934c9d4 271 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S
272 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
273 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S
274 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
275 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
0934c9d4 276 country code
9e18bb4c
S
277 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
278 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
0934c9d4 279 notation
149f05c7 280
cfcec693 281## Video Selection:
1dc2726f
PH
282 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
283 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
c4af7684
PH
284 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
285 indices of the videos in the playlist
286 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
287 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
288 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
289 specify range: "--playlist-items
290 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
8a51f564 291 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
c4af7684
PH
292 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
293 caseless sub-string)
294 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
295 caseless sub-string)
780083db 296 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
c4af7684
PH
297 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
298 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
299 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
300 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
6623ac34 301 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
302 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
303 "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
c4af7684 304 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
c76eb41b 305 this date. The date formats accepted is the
306 same as --date
c4af7684 307 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
c76eb41b 308 this date. The date formats accepted is the
309 same as --date
c4af7684
PH
310 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
311 COUNT views
312 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
313 COUNT views
4d2fdb07 314 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
8a51f564 315 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of available
316 keys) to match if the key is present, !key
317 to check if the key is not present,
277d6ff5 318 key>NUMBER (like "view_count > 12", also
8a51f564 319 works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare
320 against a number, key = 'LITERAL' (like
321 "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works with
322 !=) to match against a string literal and &
323 to require multiple matches. Values which
324 are not known are excluded unless you put a
325 question mark (?) after the operator. For
326 example, to only match videos that have
8c6c88c7
S
327 been liked more than 100 times and disliked
328 less than 50 times (or the dislike
329 functionality is not available at the given
330 service), but who also have a description,
331 use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
8a51f564 332 dislike_count <? 50 & description"
c76eb41b 333 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
c4af7684 334 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
8a51f564 335 to a video and a playlist
c4af7684 336 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
8a51f564 337 a video and a playlist
c4af7684
PH
338 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
339 age
340 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
341 archive file. Record the IDs of all
8a51f564 342 downloaded videos in it
8b0d7497 343 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 344 a file that is in the archive
8b0d7497 345 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 346 a file that has been filtered out
26e2805c 347 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
348 of the playlist is skipped
c76eb41b 349 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
6bcd846b 350
d5a62e4f 351## Download Options:
b31fdeed 352 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
353 video that should be download concurrently
354 (default is 1)
5e3856a2 355 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
c4af7684
PH
356 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
357 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
8a51f564 358 "infinite"
0be8314d 359 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
b56e41a7
S
360 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
361 ISM)
6623ac34 362 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
363 hlsnative and ISM (default)
8a51f564 364 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
6623ac34 365 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
8a51f564 366 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
a82f4184 367 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
6623ac34 368 downloading is finished
c76eb41b 369 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
370 downloading is finished (default)
c4af7684
PH
371 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
372 (default is 1024)
c76eb41b 373 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
374 from an initial value of --buffer-size
375 (default)
376 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
db157d2a
S
377 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
378 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
379 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
380 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
381 (experimental)
2101f5d4 382 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
6623ac34 383 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
c76eb41b 384 (default)
31487eb9 385 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
c4af7684 386 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
0934c9d4 387 expected file size
9bd20204 388 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
389 allowing some players to play the video
390 while downloading, and reducing the chance
391 of file corruption if download is
392 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
393 live streams
394 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
395 videos. This is default when not
396 downloading live streams
52a8a1e1 397 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
398 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
399 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
400 use it for. Currently supports native,
401 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
402 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
403 this option multiple times to set different
404 downloaders for different protocols. For
405 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
406 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
407 http/ftp downloads, and the native
408 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
409 (Alias: --external-downloader)
46ee996e 410 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
411 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
412 the arguments separated by a colon ":". You
29b6000e 413 can use this option multiple times
414 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 415
cfcec693 416## Filesystem Options:
c4af7684 417 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
e8dfecb3
S
418 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
419 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
8a51f564 420 comments and ignored
d818eb74 421 -P, --paths TYPES:PATH The paths where the files should be
0202b52a 422 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
de6000d9 423 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
424 same types as --output are supported.
425 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
426 and "temp" paths. All intermediary files
427 are first downloaded to the temp path and
428 then the final files are moved over to the
429 home path after download is finished. This
430 option is ignored if --output is an
431 absolute path
d818eb74 432 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
c76eb41b 433 TEMPLATE" for details
0bc0a322 434 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
435 fields in output filename template
436 (default: "NA")
c4af7684
PH
437 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
438 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
439 filenames
c76eb41b 440 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
441 filenames (default)
c2934512 442 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be windows compatible
443 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames windows compatible only if
444 using windows (default)
445 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
446 extension) to the specified number of
447 characters
9b45b9f5 448 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
449 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
450 This option includes --no-continue
451 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
452 related files (default)
c25228e5 453 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
454 (default)
455 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
e58c22a0 456 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
c25228e5 457 restart download of the entire file
c76eb41b 458 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
6623ac34 459 into output file (default)
c4af7684
PH
460 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
461 into output file
c76eb41b 462 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
463 file modification time (default)
c4af7684
PH
464 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
465 the file modification time
466 --write-description Write video description to a .description
467 file
6623ac34 468 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
1dc2726f 469 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
c25228e5 470 (this may contain personal information)
6623ac34 471 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
c4af7684
PH
472 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
473 .annotations.xml file
6623ac34 474 --no-write-annotations Do not write video annotations (default)
cac96421 475 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
476 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
477 --write-description etc. (default)
478 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
479 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
75d43ca0 480 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
481 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
482 could still contain some personal
483 information (default)
484 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
06167fbb 485 --get-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
277d6ff5 486 .info.json file. The comments are fetched
487 even without this option if the extraction
488 is known to be quick
d845622b 489 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
c4af7684
PH
490 (created with the "--write-info-json"
491 option)
492 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
493 jar in
6623ac34 494 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies (default)
495 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
496 can store some downloaded information
82674236 497 permanently. By default
6623ac34 498 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
499 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
82674236
S
500 YouTube player files (for videos with
501 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
8a51f564 502 may change
36f35428
PH
503 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
504 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 505
b31fdeed 506## Thumbnail Options:
1dc2726f 507 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
6623ac34 508 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
c76eb41b 509 (default)
1dc2726f 510 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
c4af7684
PH
511 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
512 formats
2b1bd292 513
732044af 514## Internet Shortcut Options:
8a51f564 515 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
516 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
517 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
518 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
519 OS caches the URL based on the file path
520 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
521 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 522
0744a815 523## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
1dc2726f 524 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
6c072e7d 525 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
c4af7684
PH
526 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
527 anything to disk
0cf05715 528 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Usefull
529 for extracting metadata even if the video
530 is not actually available for download
531 (experimental)
532 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
533 formats are found (default)
e167860c 534 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
535 related files (Alias: --no-download)
1dc2726f
PH
536 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
537 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
538 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
539 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
540 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
541 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
542 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
543 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
c4af7684 544 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
8a51f564 545 See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of
546 available keys
c4af7684
PH
547 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
548 for each command-line argument. If the URL
549 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
8a51f564 550 playlist information in a single line
c4af7684 551 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
8a51f564 552 JSON (video is still being downloaded)
553 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
e58c22a0 554 written as far as no errors occur, even if
555 -s or another simulation option is used
8a51f564 556 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
1dc2726f
PH
557 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
558 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
559 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
560 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
c4af7684
PH
561 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
562 to debug problems (very verbose)
563 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
564 files in the current directory to debug
565 problems
780083db 566 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 567
36f35428
PH
568## Workarounds:
569 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
1dc2726f 570 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
c4af7684 571 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
e167860c 572 information about the video (Currently
05a7ffb1 573 supported only for YouTube)
1dc2726f 574 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
c4af7684
PH
575 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
576 access is restricted to one domain
577 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45016689 578 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
c4af7684
PH
579 option multiple times
580 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
581 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
582 or fribidi executable in PATH
1cf376f5 583 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
584 during data extraction
c4af7684 585 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
e167860c 586 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
587 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
588 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
589 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
590 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
1cf376f5 591 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
592 subtitle download
36f35428 593
cfcec693 594## Video Format Options:
eb8a4433 595 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
596 for more details
597 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
598 "Sorting Formats" for more details
8a51f564 599 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
600 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
eb8a4433 601 Formats" for more details
602 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
c76eb41b 603 specified sort order (default), see
604 "Sorting Formats" for more details
605 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
606 into a single file
607 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
608 each output file (default)
609 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
610 into a single file
611 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
612 each output file (default)
da9be05e 613 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
614 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
615 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
616 containers irrespective of quality
617 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
618 containers (default)
e8e73840 619 --check-formats Check that the formats selected are
620 actually downloadable (Experimental)
535d7b68 621 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
bb6ac836 622 videos
c4af7684
PH
623 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
624 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
625 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
626 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
63ad4d43 627 --allow-unplayable-formats Allow unplayable formats to be listed and
e58c22a0 628 downloaded. All video post-processing will
63ad4d43 629 also be turned off
630 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Do not allow unplayable formats to be
631 listed or downloaded (default)
8ae7be3e
PH
632
633## Subtitle Options:
c76eb41b 634 --write-subs Write subtitle file
635 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
636 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
e167860c 637 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
638 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
639 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
1dc2726f 640 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
c4af7684
PH
641 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
642 preference, for example: "srt" or
643 "ass/srt/best"
c32b0aab 644 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
645 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
646 (Eg: --sub-langs en.*,ja) You can prefix
647 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
648 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
649 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
650 list of available language tags
6bcd846b 651
cfcec693 652## Authentication Options:
1dc2726f 653 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
c4af7684 654 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
7a5c1cfe 655 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
dc48a354 656 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
1dc2726f 657 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
29f7c58a 658 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
f5e008d1 659 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909d24dd 660 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
661 a list of available MSOs
f5e008d1
S
662 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
663 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
c74d1aa3 664 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
665 interactively
f5e008d1
S
666 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
667 operators
668
c76eb41b 669## Post-Processing Options:
c4af7684 670 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
e4172ac9 671 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
c4af7684 672 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
7d539ee1
S
673 "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or
674 "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without
675 -x
e4172ac9 676 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
677 value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for
678 VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
c4af7684 679 (default 5)
c76eb41b 680 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
29b6000e 681 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
682 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
683 target container does not support the
06167fbb 684 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
685 can specify multiple rules; eg.
686 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
687 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
c76eb41b 688 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
29b6000e 689 re-encoding is necessary. The supported
690 formats are the same as --remux-video
1b77b347 691 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
43820c03 692 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
45016689 693 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
694 to give the argument to the specified
8fa43c73 695 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
696 Merger, ExtractAudio, SplitChapters,
697 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
698 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
699 VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor, SponSkrub,
700 FixupStretched, FixupM4a and FixupM3u8. The
701 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
702 FFmpeg, FFprobe, and SponSkrub. You can
703 also specify "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the
704 arguments to the specified executable only
705 when being used by the specified
706 postprocessor. Additionally, for
707 ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be appended
708 to the prefix optionally followed by a
709 number to pass the argument before the
710 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
711 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
712 this option multiple times to give
e4172ac9 713 different arguments to different
5b1ecbb3 714 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
c76eb41b 715 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
6623ac34 716 after post-processing
c76eb41b 717 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
6623ac34 718 post-processing (default)
719 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
720 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
0be8314d
PH
721 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
722 webm and mkv videos)
c76eb41b 723 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
1dc2726f 724 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
6623ac34 725 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
1dc2726f 726 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
6623ac34 727 --no-add-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
73cd218f 728 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
729 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
730 for details
c4af7684
PH
731 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
732 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
733 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
734 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
735 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
736 default; fix file if we can, warn
737 otherwise)
e4172ac9 738 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
739 path to the binary or its containing
740 directory
c4af7684 741 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
9de3ea31 742 downloading and post-processing. Similar
743 syntax to the output template can be used
744 to pass any field as arguments to the
745 command. An additional field "filepath"
746 that contains the final path of the
747 downloaded file is also available. If no
748 fields are passed, "%(filepath)s" is
749 appended to the end of the command
e167860c 750 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
9fc41bcb 751 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
e167860c 752 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
8fa43c73 753 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
754 (currently supported: jpg)
72755351 755 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
756 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
757 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
758 to set the output filename for the split
759 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
760 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
761 (default)
6bcd846b 762
8a51f564 763## SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options:
7a5c1cfe 764[SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) is a utility to
8a51f564 765 mark/remove sponsor segments from downloaded YouTube videos using
766 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
767
768 --sponskrub Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections.
769 This is enabled by default if the sponskrub
770 binary exists (Youtube only)
c76eb41b 771 --no-sponskrub Do not use sponskrub
a9e7f546 772 --sponskrub-cut Cut out the sponsor sections instead of
773 simply marking them
6623ac34 774 --no-sponskrub-cut Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut
775 them out (default)
c76eb41b 776 --sponskrub-force Run sponskrub even if the video was already
777 downloaded
6623ac34 778 --no-sponskrub-force Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the
779 video was already downloaded (default)
c76eb41b 780 --sponskrub-location PATH Location of the sponskrub binary; either
781 the path to the binary or its containing
8a51f564 782 directory
a9e7f546 783
78895bd3 784## Extractor Options:
5ef7d9bd 785 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
d6e51845 786 errors (default is 3), or "infinite"
6623ac34 787 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
8a51f564 788 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
789 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
790 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
e409895f 791 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
792 discontinuities such as ad breaks
793 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
794 formats at discontinuities such as ad
795 breaks (default)
796 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Download the DASH manifests and related
797 data on YouTube videos (default)
798 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
799 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
800 related data on YouTube videos
801 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
802 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Download the HLS manifests and related data
803 on YouTube videos (default)
804 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
805 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest Do not download the HLS manifests and
806 related data on YouTube videos
807 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
17cb02d0 808
b7770046
U
809# CONFIGURATION
810
7a5c1cfe 811You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 812
0202b52a 8131. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe
P
8141. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
8151. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 8161. **User Configuration**:
817 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
818 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
819 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
820 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
821 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
822 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
823
7a5c1cfe
P
824 Note that `~` points to `C:\Users\<user name>` on windows. Also, `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined
8251. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf` or `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 826
7a5c1cfe 827For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
U
828```
829# Lines starting with # are comments
830
831# Always extract audio
832-x
833
834# Do not copy the mtime
835--no-mtime
836
837# Use this proxy
838--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
839
298f597b 840# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
841-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
U
842```
843
e2e43aea 844Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`.
b7770046 845
7a5c1cfe 846You 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 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
U
847
848### Authentication with `.netrc` file
849
7a5c1cfe 850You 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 your `$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
b7770046
U
851```
852touch $HOME/.netrc
853chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
854```
855After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
856```
857machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
858```
859For example:
860```
861machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
862machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
863```
7a5c1cfe 864To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046
U
865
866On Windows you may also need to setup the `%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
867```
868set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
869```
870
871# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
872
0202b52a 873The `-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
U
874
875**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
876
e58c22a0 877The 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 878
879It 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/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
880
881The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
e625be0d 8821. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. Eg: `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`. Note that the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
8831. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
8841. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. Eg: `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
8851. **Default**: A default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` seperator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
a439a3a4 886
887To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
888```
e625be0d 889%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 890```
de6000d9 891
e58c22a0 892Additionally, 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`, `infojson`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`. For example, `-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video.
e29663c6 893
894The available fields are:
b7770046
U
895
896 - `id` (string): Video identifier
897 - `title` (string): Video title
898 - `url` (string): Video URL
899 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
900 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 901 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U
902 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
903 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
904 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
905 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
906 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
907 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
908 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
909 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
910 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
911 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
912 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
913 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
dbbbe555 914 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH-mm-ss)
b7770046
U
915 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
916 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
917 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
918 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
919 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 920 - `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
U
921 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
922 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 923 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 924 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
c224251a 925 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
b7770046
U
926 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
927 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 928 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
b7770046
U
929 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
930 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
931 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
932 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
933 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
934 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
935 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
936 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
937 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
938 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
939 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
940 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
941 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
942 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
943 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
944 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
945 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
946 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
947 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
948 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
949 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
950 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
951 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
952 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
953 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
954 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
955
956Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
957
958 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
959 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
960 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
961
962Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
963
964 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
965 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
966 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
967 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
968 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
969 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
970 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
971
972Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
973
974 - `track` (string): Title of the track
975 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
976 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
977 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
978 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
979 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
980 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
981 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
982 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
983 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
984
b050d210 985Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 986
987 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
988 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
989 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
990 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
991
a820dc72 992Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 993
7a5c1cfe 994For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKcj`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
b7770046
U
995
996For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
997
998Output 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.
999
1000To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1001
91ebc640 1002The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046
U
1003
1004In 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:
1005
1006#### Output template and Windows batch files
1007
1008If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
1009
1010#### Output template examples
1011
de6000d9 1012Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
b7770046
U
1013
1014```bash
7a5c1cfe
P
1015$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1016youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1017
7a5c1cfe
P
1018$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1019youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
b7770046
U
1020
1021# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
7a5c1cfe 1022$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
b7770046 1023
b050d210 1024# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
7a5c1cfe 1025$ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
e29663c6 1026
b7770046 1027# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
7a5c1cfe 1028$ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
b7770046
U
1029
1030# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
7a5c1cfe 1031$ 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
1032
1033# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
7a5c1cfe 1034$ 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
U
1035
1036# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1037$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U
1038```
1039
1040# FORMAT SELECTION
1041
7a5c1cfe
P
1042By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1043This 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 1044
eff63539 1045The 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
U
1046
1047**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1048
a439a3a4 1049The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
b7770046
U
1050
1051You 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.
1052
1053You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1054
e094cec1 1055 - `all`: Select all formats
f8d4ad9a 1056 - `mergeall`: Select and merge all formats (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1057 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1058 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
909d24dd 1059 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1060 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1061 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1062 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1063 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1064 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1065 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1066 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1067 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
1068 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1069
e58c22a0 1070For 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 `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1071
1072You 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 1073
eb8a4433 1074If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
b7770046
U
1075
1076If 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`.
1077
e4172ac9 1078You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg. If `--no-video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, if `--no-audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1079
1080## Filtering Formats
1081
b7770046
U
1082You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1083
1084The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1085
1086 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1087 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1088 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1089 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1090 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1091 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1092 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1093 - `fps`: Frame rate
1094
1095Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1096
1097 - `ext`: File extension
1098 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1099 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1100 - `container`: Name of the container format
1101 - `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`)
1102 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1103 - `language`: Language code
b7770046
U
1104
1105Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
1106
e58c22a0 1107Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1108
e094cec1 1109Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1110
b7770046
U
1111Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
1112
eb8a4433 1113## Sorting Formats
1114
1115You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`. The available fields are:
1116
63be1aab 1117 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1118 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1119 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1120 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
dca3ff4a 1121 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
63be1aab 1122 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
a7191c6f 1123 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native` > `m3u8` > `http_dash_segments` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
155d2b48 1124 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
63be1aab 1125 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
eb8a4433 1126 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
63be1aab 1127 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is prefered.
1128 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
1129 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
eb8a4433 1130 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
63be1aab 1131 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1132 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1133 - `height`: Height of video
1134 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1135 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1136 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1137 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1138 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1139 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1140 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1141 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
eb8a4433 1142
e58c22a0 1143Note that any other **numerical** field made available by the extractor can also be used. All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
eb8a4433 1144
dca3ff4a 1145The fields `hasvid`, `ie_pref`, `lang` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `quality,res,fps,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1146
e58c22a0 1147If 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 1148
1149**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1150
eb8a4433 1151## Format Selection examples
b7770046
U
1152
1153Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1154
1155```bash
e58c22a0 1156# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1157# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
7a5c1cfe 1158$ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
909d24dd 1159
1160# Download best format that contains video,
1161# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
7a5c1cfe 1162$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
2af884ff 1163
1164# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1165$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1166
6fd35a11 1167# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1168# For this case, an output template should be used since
1169# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
7a5c1cfe 1170$ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
909d24dd 1171
f8d4ad9a 1172# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1173# and all audio-only formats into one file
1174$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1175
1176# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1177# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1178$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1179
6fd35a11 1180
1181# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1182# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1183
1184# Download the worst video available (old method)
7a5c1cfe 1185$ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
eb8a4433 1186
1187# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
7a5c1cfe 1188$ yt-dlp -S '+res'
eb8a4433 1189
1190# Download the smallest video available
7a5c1cfe 1191$ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
eb8a4433 1192
1193
909d24dd 1194
eb8a4433 1195# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
7a5c1cfe 1196$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
eb8a4433 1197
1198# Download the best video with the best extension
1199# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
7a5c1cfe 1200$ yt-dlp -S 'ext'
eb8a4433 1201
1202
909d24dd 1203
eb8a4433 1204# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1205# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1206$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
b7770046 1207
eb8a4433 1208# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1209# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1210$ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
b7770046 1211
eb8a4433 1212# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1213# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1214# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1215# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
7a5c1cfe 1216$ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
b7770046 1217
b7770046 1218
909d24dd 1219
eb8a4433 1220# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1221# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1222$ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
eb8a4433 1223
1224# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1225# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1226$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
eb8a4433 1227
1228# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1229$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
eb8a4433 1230
1231
909d24dd 1232
eb8a4433 1233# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1234# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1235$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1236
1237# Download best video available via the best protocol
1238# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
7a5c1cfe 1239$ yt-dlp -S 'proto'
eb8a4433 1240
1241
909d24dd 1242
eb8a4433 1243# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1244$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1245
1246# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1247# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1248$ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1249
1250# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1251# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1252$ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1253
1254
1255
1256# More complex examples
1257
e58c22a0 1258# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1259# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1260$ 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 1261
1262# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1263# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1264# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1265$ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
eb8a4433 1266
1267
909d24dd 1268
eb8a4433 1269# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1270# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1271# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1272$ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
b7770046 1273```
eb8a4433 1274
73cd218f 1275# MODIFYING METADATA
1276
b31fdeed 1277The metadata obtained the the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata FROM:TO`. The general syntax is to give the name of a field or a template (with similar syntax to [output template](#output-template)) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1278
1279Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
1280
1281You can also use this to change only 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", for example.
1282
1283## Modifying metadata examples
1284
1285Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1286
1287```bash
1288# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
02aabd45 1289$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
73cd218f 1290
1291# Regex example
02aabd45 1292$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
73cd218f 1293
1294# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
02aabd45 1295$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
73cd218f 1296
1297# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
02aabd45 1298$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
73cd218f 1299
1300```
1301
f74980cb 1302# PLUGINS
b7770046 1303
f74980cb 1304Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`. Currently only `extractor` plugins are supported. Support for `downloader` and `postprocessor` plugins may be added in the future. See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example.
b7770046 1305
7a5c1cfe 1306**Note**: `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`)
b7770046 1307
e167860c 1308# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1309
1310These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1311
f4536226 1312#### Not recommended
e58c22a0 1313While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
f4536226 1314
d9aa2332 1315 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 1316 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
e167860c 1317 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 1318 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
73cd218f 1319 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 1320 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1321 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 1322 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1323 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
f4536226 1324 --sponskrub-args ARGS --ppa "sponskrub:ARGS"
1325 --test Used by developers for testing extractors. Not intended for the end user
1326
1327
1328#### Old aliases
1329These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1330
1331 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1332 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1333 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1334 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1335 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1336 --load-info --load-info-json
1337 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 1338 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 1339 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1340 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 1341 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1342 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 1343 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 1344 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 1345 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 1346
1347#### No longer supported
1348These options may no longer work as intended
1349
1350 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1351 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1352 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1353 --no-call-home Default
1354 --include-ads No longer supported
1355 --no-include-ads Default
1356 --youtube-print-sig-code No longer supported
486fb179 1357
1358#### Removed
1359These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
1360
f4536226 1361 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1362 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1363 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1364 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1365
e167860c 1366
c2b5f311 1367# MORE
5bfa4862 1368For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the [original README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)