4 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
7 **youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
10 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
11 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
12 2.6,
2.7, or
3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
13 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
14 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
17 -h, --help print this help text and exit
18 --version print program version and exit
19 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure
20 that you have sufficient permissions (run with
22 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to to
23 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
24 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
25 playlist or the command line) if an error occurs
26 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
27 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
28 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
29 is restricted to one domain
30 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
32 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
33 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy
34 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
35 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can
36 store downloaded information permanently. By
37 default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache
39 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
42 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is
1)
43 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
44 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
46 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
48 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
49 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
51 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
53 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
54 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
55 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
56 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
57 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given age
58 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not present in the archive
59 file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in
63 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g.
65 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is
10)
66 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
68 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
69 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
70 from an initial value of SIZE.
72 ## Filesystem Options:
73 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
74 --id use only video ID in file name
75 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
76 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from
00000
77 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
78 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
79 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
80 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
81 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
82 extension, %(format)s for the format description
83 (like "
22 -
1280x720" or "HD"),%(format_id)s for
84 the unique id of the format (like Youtube's
85 itags: "
137"),%(upload_date)s for the upload date
86 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
87 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
88 , %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is in,
89 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
90 playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
91 output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
92 a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
93 ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
94 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
95 when it is present in output filename template or
96 --auto-number option is given
97 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
98 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
99 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
100 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
101 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files. By
102 default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if
104 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
106 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
107 --no-part do not use .part files
108 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
109 file modification time
110 --write-description write video description to a .description file
111 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
112 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation file
113 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
115 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
116 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
117 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
119 --skip-download do not download the video
120 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
121 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
122 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
123 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
124 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
125 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
126 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
127 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information
128 --newline output progress bar as new lines
129 --no-progress do not print progress bar
130 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
131 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
132 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
134 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in
135 the current directory to debug problems
137 ## Video Format Options:
138 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
139 preference using slashes: "-f
22/
17/
18". "-f mp4"
140 and "-f flv" are also supported
141 --all-formats download all available video formats
142 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
144 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
145 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
149 --write-sub write subtitle file
150 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
151 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
153 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
154 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
156 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
157 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
160 ## Authentication Options:
161 -u, --username USERNAME account username
162 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
163 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
164 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
166 ## Post-processing Options:
167 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
168 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
169 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
170 "wav"; best by default
171 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
172 a value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for VBR
173 or a specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
174 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
175 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
176 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
177 processing; the video is erased by default
178 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
179 processed files are overwritten by default
180 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
182 --add-metadata add metadata to the files
186 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.conf`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are
`%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config` and
`C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf`.
190 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:
192 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
193 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
194 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
195 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
196 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
197 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
198 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
199 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
200 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
201 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
203 The current default template is
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
205 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:
207 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
208 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
209 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
210 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
214 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options
`--date`,
`--datebefore` or
`--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
216 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format
`YYYYMMDD`.
217 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
`(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
221 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-
6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last
6 months
222 $ youtube-dl --date
19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January
1,
1970
223 $ youtube-dl --dateafter
20000101 --datebefore
20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between
2000 and
2010
227 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
229 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.
231 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
233 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.
235 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
237 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as
[vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or
[mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
239 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
241 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.
243 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
245 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`.
247 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
249 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`.
251 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
255 File "youtube-dl", line
2
256 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '
\x93' ...
258 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python
2.6 or
2.7.
260 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
262 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`.
264 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
266 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).
270 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
272 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
276 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
280 * Your exact command line, like
`youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the
`&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
281 * If possible re-run the command with
`--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
282 * The output of
`youtube-dl --version`
283 * The output of
`python --version`
284 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu
11.04 x64" or "Windows
7 x64" is usually enough).
286 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.