1 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
4 **youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
8 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
10 sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
11 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
13 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
15 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
16 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
18 Windows users can
[download a .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in their home directory or any other location on their
[PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29).
20 Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html .
23 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
24 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
25 2.6,
2.7, or
3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
26 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
27 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
30 -h, --help print this help text and exit
31 --version print program version and exit
32 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make
33 sure that you have sufficient permissions
34 (run with sudo if needed)
35 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to
36 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
37 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
38 playlist or the command line) if an error
40 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
41 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
42 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video
43 access is restricted to one domain
44 --add-header FIELD:VALUE specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
47 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs
49 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
51 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
52 an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
54 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
55 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
56 information about the video. (Currently
57 supported only for YouTube)
58 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
59 can store some downloaded information
60 permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME
61 /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the
62 moment, only YouTube player files (for
63 videos with obfuscated signatures) are
64 cached, but that may change.
65 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
66 --socket-timeout None Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
67 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
68 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
69 or fribidi executable in PATH
70 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
71 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
72 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
73 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
74 youtube-dl guess. The default value "error"
76 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
77 in the global configuration file /etc
78 /youtube-dl.conf: do not read the user
79 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf
80 (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
82 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
85 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is
1)
86 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
87 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or
89 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
91 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
92 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
93 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
94 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
96 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
97 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before
98 this date (i.e. inclusive)
99 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after
100 this date (i.e. inclusive)
101 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
103 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
105 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
106 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given
108 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
109 archive file. Record the IDs of all
110 downloaded videos in it.
111 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
113 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Try to download the DASH manifest on
114 YouTube videos (experimental)
117 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second
119 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is
10)
120 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
122 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer
123 size. By default, the buffer size is
124 automatically resized from an initial value
127 ## Filesystem Options:
128 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
129 --id use only video ID in file name
130 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
131 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from
00000
132 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to
133 get the title, %(uploader)s for the
134 uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
135 uploader nickname if different,
136 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
137 incremented number, %(ext)s for the
138 filename extension, %(format)s for the
139 format description (like "
22 -
1280x720" or
140 "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
141 the format (like Youtube's itags: "
137"),
142 %(upload_date)s for the upload date
143 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
144 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
145 video id, %(playlist)s for the playlist the
146 video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
147 position in the playlist and %% for a
148 literal percent. %(height)s and %(width)s
149 for the width and height of the video
150 format. %(resolution)s for a textual
151 description of the resolution of the video
152 format. Use - to output to stdout. Can also
153 be used to download to a different
154 directory, for example with -o '/my/downloa
155 ds/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
156 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in
157 %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
158 filename template or --auto-number option
160 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
161 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
163 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for
165 --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
166 (created with the "--write-json" option)
167 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
168 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files.
169 By default, youtube-dl will resume
170 downloads if possible.
171 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files
172 (restart from beginning)
173 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie
175 --no-part do not use .part files
176 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set
177 the file modification time
178 --write-description write video description to a .description
180 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
181 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation
183 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
185 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
186 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
187 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
188 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
190 --skip-download do not download the video
191 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
192 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
193 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
194 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
195 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
196 --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
197 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
198 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
199 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
200 See --output for a description of available
202 --newline output progress bar as new lines
203 --no-progress do not print progress bar
204 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
205 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
206 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems
208 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
209 files in the current directory to debug
211 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
213 ## Video Format Options:
214 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
215 preference using slashes: "-f
22/
17/
18".
216 "-f mp4" and "-f flv" are also supported.
217 You can also use the special names "best",
218 "bestvideo", "bestaudio", "worst",
219 "worstvideo" and "worstaudio". By default,
220 youtube-dl will pick the best quality.
221 --all-formats download all available video formats
222 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific
224 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
225 -F, --list-formats list all available formats
228 --write-sub write subtitle file
229 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube
231 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of
233 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
234 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt]
236 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download
237 (optional) separated by commas, use IETF
238 language tags like 'en,pt'
240 ## Authentication Options:
241 -u, --username USERNAME account username
242 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
243 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
244 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
246 ## Post-processing Options:
247 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files
248 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
250 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
251 "opus", or "wav"; best by default
252 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
253 insert a value between
0 (better) and
9
254 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like
256 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
257 necessary (currently supported:
258 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
259 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the
260 post-processing; the video is erased by
262 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the
263 post-processed files are overwritten by
265 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
267 --embed-thumbnail embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
268 --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
269 --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs
270 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
271 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
272 postprocessors (default)
273 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
278 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
`--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into
`/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or
`~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are
`%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and
`C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf`.
282 The
`-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in
`youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format
`%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
284 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
285 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
286 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
287 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
288 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
289 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
290 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
291 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
292 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
293 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
295 The current default template is
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
297 In 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:
299 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
300 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
301 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
302 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
306 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options
`--date`,
`--datebefore` or
`--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
308 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format
`YYYYMMDD`.
309 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
`(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
313 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last
6 months
314 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-
6months
316 # Download only the videos uploaded on January
1,
1970
317 $ youtube-dl --date
19700101
319 $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the
200x decade
320 $ youtube-dl --dateafter
20000101 --datebefore
20091231
324 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
326 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be
1080p or
720p in some cases, so you no longer need the
`-b` option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're interested in. In that case, simply request it with the
`-f` option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
328 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
330 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We're
[considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
332 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
334 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as
[vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or
[mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
336 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
338 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. Use the
`--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use
`--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
340 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
342 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July
2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with
`sudo youtube-dl --update`.
344 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
346 youtube requires an additional signature since September
2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with
`sudo youtube-dl --update`.
348 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
352 File "youtube-dl", line
2
353 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '
\x93' ...
355 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python
2.6 or
2.7.
357 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
359 Since June
2012 (#
342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to
`youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the
`__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run
`make youtube-dl`.
361 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
363 To run the exe you need to install first the
[Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
365 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
367 Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can
[download the builds](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html) or get them from their distribution.
369 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
373 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
375 python -m unittest discover
376 python test/test_download.py
379 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
387 ### Adding support for a new site
389 If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called
`yourextractor`):
391 1.
[Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
392 2. Check out the source code with
`git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
393 3. Start a new git branch with
`cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
394 4. Start with this simple template and save it to
`youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
397 from __future__ import unicode_literals
401 from .common import InfoExtractor
404 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
405 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[
0-
9]+)'
407 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/
42',
408 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first
10KiB of the video file',
412 'title': 'Video title goes here',
413 # TODO more properties, either as:
415 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
416 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
417 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
421 def _real_extract(self, url):
422 mobj = re.match(self._VALID_URL, url)
423 video_id = mobj.group('id')
425 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
426 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
427 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
432 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
436 5. Add an import in
[`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
437 6. Run
`python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done.
438 7. Have a look at
[`youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a
[detailed description of what your extractor should return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L38). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
439 8. If you can, check the code with
[pyflakes](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyflakes) (a good idea) and
[pep8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pep8) (optional, ignore E501).
440 9. When the tests pass,
[add](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-add.html) the new files and
[commit](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-commit.html) them and
[push](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-push.html) the result, like this:
442 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
443 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
444 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
445 $ git push origin yourextractor
447 10. Finally,
[create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
449 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
453 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues> . Unless you were prompted so or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email.
455 Please include the full output of the command when run with
`--verbose`. The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
457 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
459 When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
461 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
463 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may misread some parts.
465 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
467 - What the problem is
468 - How it could be fixed
469 - How your proposed solution would look like
471 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
473 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the *complete* output of youtube-dl when called with the -v flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
475 Site support requests **must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc . There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is *not* an example URL.
477 ### Are you using the latest version?
479 Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that you're up-to-date. About
20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature requests as well.
481 ### Is the issue already documented?
483 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or at https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version
2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
485 ### Why are existing options not enough?
487 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at
[the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#synopsis). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
489 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
491 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
493 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
495 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
497 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
499 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
501 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
503 Only post features that you (or an incapicated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
505 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
507 It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's own application. Please make sure that you are actually using youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
511 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
513 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.