1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
4 [](#readme)
6 [](#release-files "Release")
7 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 []
(https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
11 [](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
12 [](LICENSE "License")
13 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
14 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
18 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
20 yt-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
22 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
24 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
25 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
27 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
29 * [Release Files](#release-files)
30 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
32 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
33 * [General Options](#general-options)
34 * [Network Options](#network-options)
35 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
36 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
37 * [Download Options](#download-options)
38 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
39 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
40 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
41 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
42 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
43 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
44 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
45 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
46 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
47 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
48 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
49 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
51 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
52 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
54 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
58 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
60 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
62 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
63 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
64 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
65 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
66 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
67 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
69 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
74 * Based on **youtube-dl
2021.12.17 [commit/6508688](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/6508688e88c83bb811653083db9351702cd39a6a)** (
[exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21)) and **youtube-dlc
2020.11.11-
3 [commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
76 * **
[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
78 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
80 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--write-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
82 * **Youtube improvements**:
83 * All Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`,
`:ytnotif`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
84 * Search (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
85 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
86 * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
87 * Fix for
[n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
89 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
90 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded (
[except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
91 * Download livestreams from the start using
`--live-from-start` (experimental)
92 * Support for downloading stories (
`ytstories:<channel UCID>`)
94 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
96 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using
`--download-sections`
98 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
100 * **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
102 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
104 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
106 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
108 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See
[commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
110 * **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`)
112 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
114 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
116 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as
`--alias`,
`--print`,
`--concat-playlist`,
`--wait-for-video`,
`--retry-sleep`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
118 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--format`/
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple
`--config-locations`,
`--exec` at different stages, etc
120 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
122 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
124 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
126 ### Differences in default behavior
128 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
130 * The options
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
131 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
132 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [configuration](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
133 * 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`
134 * 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
135 * The default format selector is
`bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use
`-f bv+ba/b` or
`--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
136 * 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
137 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
138 * 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
139 * `--add-metadata` attaches the
`infojson` to
`mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with
`--write-info-json`. Use
`--no-embed-info-json` or
`--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
140 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using
`--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably,
`comment` field contains the
`webpage_url` and
`synopsis` contains the
`description`. You can [use
`--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use
`--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
141 * `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
142 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
143 * All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use
`--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
144 * 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
145 * Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to
`/video`. Append a
`/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent
`UU` playlist instead. For all other tabs, if the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also,
`/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use
`--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
146 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
147 * If
`ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use
`--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
148 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
149 * Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use
`--no-clean-infojson` or
`--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
150 * When
`--embed-subs` and
`--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just
`--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See
[#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info.
`--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
151 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use only system certificates, use
`--compat-options no-certifi`
152 * youtube-dl tries to remove some superfluous punctuations from filenames. While this can sometimes be helpfull, it is often undesirable. So yt-dlp tries to keep the fields in the filenames as close to their original values as possible. You can use
`--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
154 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
156 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
157 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
158 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
163 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
165 ### Using the release binary
167 You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
169 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
170 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
171 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
172 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
173 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
174 [](#release-files)
175 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
176 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
178 Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the
[source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
180 <!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
181 In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
184 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
185 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
189 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
190 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
194 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
195 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
199 ### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
201 You can install the
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
203 python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
206 You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
208 python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
211 If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
213 python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
216 Note that on some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
218 <!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
219 ### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
221 macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
224 brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
228 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
230 If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
232 If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run
`brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
234 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
241 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
242 [yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
243 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (
10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
249 [yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (
32-bit) binary
250 [yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with
`py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain
`pycryptodomex`/
`certifi`, needs VC++
14
251 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
252 [yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (
10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
258 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
259 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
260 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
261 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
264 Python versions
3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
266 <!-- Python
3.5+ uses VC++
14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
267 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 --x>
268 On windows,
[Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing
`MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
271 While all the other dependencies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
273 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for
[merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
274 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
275 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-
128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under
[BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
276 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
277 * [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For accessing the Gnome keyring while decrypting cookies of Chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
278 * [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or
[**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) -
[Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>
[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
279 * [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under
[MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
280 * [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr),
[**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or
[**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata on Linux. Licensed under
[MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt),
[LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and
[GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
281 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen/ffmpeg cannot. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
282 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
283 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or
[**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading
`rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
284 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
285 * [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated**
[sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
286 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
288 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
290 The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with \* included.
292 <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
293 **Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide
[custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for these issues at
[yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See
[the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
299 To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and any of yt-dlp's optional dependencies if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using
`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run
`pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the python used to build it.
301 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
302 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
305 Note 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
308 You will need the required build tools:
`python`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`,
`zip`,
`pytest`
309 Then simply run
`make`. You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
311 **Note**: In either platform,
`devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
313 You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a release
317 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
318 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
320 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
321 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
323 <!-- Auto generated -->
325 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
326 --version Print program version and exit
327 -U, --update Update this program to latest version
328 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
329 The download will be considered successful
330 even if the postprocessing fails
331 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
332 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
334 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
335 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
336 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
337 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
338 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
340 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor
341 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. Eg:
342 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
343 google videos for the search term "python".
344 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
345 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
346 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
347 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
348 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
349 possible instead of searching
350 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
351 except those given by --config-locations.
352 For backward compatibility, if this option
353 is found inside the system configuration
354 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
356 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
357 (default). When given inside a configuration
358 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
359 defined in the current file
360 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
361 either the path to the config or its
362 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
363 used multiple times and inside other
365 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
367 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
368 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
369 Currently only supported for YouTube
371 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
373 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
374 available. Pass the minimum number of
375 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
376 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
377 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
378 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
379 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
380 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
381 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
382 configurations by reverting some of the
383 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
384 default behavior" for details
385 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
386 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
387 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
388 according to the Python string formatting
389 mini-language. Eg: --alias get-audio,-X
390 "-S=aext:{
0},abr -x --audio-format {
0}"
391 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
392 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
393 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
394 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
395 output. Alias options can trigger more
396 aliases; so be carefull to avoid defining
397 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
398 alias may be triggered a maximum of
100
399 times. This option can be used multiple times
402 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
403 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
404 Eg: socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass
405 in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
407 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
408 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
409 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
410 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
413 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
414 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
415 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
416 is not present) is used for the actual
418 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
419 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
420 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
421 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
422 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
423 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
425 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
426 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
429 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
430 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
431 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
432 indices of the videos in the playlist
433 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
434 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
435 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
436 specify range: "--playlist-items
437 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos at
438 index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
439 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
441 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
443 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
444 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
445 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
446 Eg: --date today-
2weeks
447 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
448 this date. The date formats accepted is the
450 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
451 this date. The date formats accepted is the
453 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
454 field can be compared with a number or a
455 string using the operators defined in
456 "Filtering formats". You can also simply
457 specify a field to match if the field is
458 present, use "!field" to check if the field
459 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
460 conditions. Use a "
\" to escape "&" or
461 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
462 the filter matches if atleast one of the
463 conditions are met. Eg: --match-filter
464 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?
100 &
465 description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'" matches
466 only videos that are not live OR those that
467 have a like count more than
100 (or the like
468 field is not available) and also has a
469 description that contains the phrase "cats &
470 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
471 interactively ask whether to download each
473 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
474 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
475 to a video and a playlist
476 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
477 a video and a playlist
478 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
480 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
481 archive file. Record the IDs of all
482 downloaded videos in it
483 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
484 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
485 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
486 a file that is in the archive
487 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
488 a file that has been filtered out
489 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject
490 and --max-downloads act only on the current
492 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
493 terminates the entire download queue
494 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
495 the playlist is skipped
498 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
499 video that should be downloaded concurrently
501 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
503 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
504 below which throttling is assumed and the
505 video data is re-extracted (e.g.
100K)
506 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
508 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
509 error (default is
3), or "infinite"
510 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
511 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
512 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR An expression for the time to sleep between
513 retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by
514 the type of retry (file_access, fragment,
515 http (default)) to apply the sleep to. EXPR
516 can be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=
1]]
517 or exp=START[:END[:BASE=
2]]. This option can
518 be used multiple times to set the sleep for
519 the different retry types. Eg: --retry-sleep
520 linear=
1::
2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=
1:
20
521 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
522 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
523 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
524 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
525 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
526 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
527 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
528 downloading is finished
529 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
530 downloading is finished (default)
531 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
533 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
534 from an initial value of --buffer-size
536 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
537 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
538 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
539 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
540 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
542 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
543 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
545 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
546 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
548 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
549 allowing some players to play the video
550 while downloading, and reducing the chance
551 of file corruption if download is
552 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
554 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
555 videos. This is default when not downloading
557 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
558 the given regular expression. Time ranges
559 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
560 of chapters to download the specified range.
561 Eg: --download-sections "*
10:
15-
15:
00"
562 --download-sections "intro". Needs ffmpeg.
563 This option can be used multiple times to
564 download multiple sections
565 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
566 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
567 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
568 use it for. Currently supports native,
569 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
570 wget. You can use this option multiple times
571 to set different downloaders for different
572 protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c
573 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
574 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
575 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
576 (Alias: --external-downloader)
577 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
578 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
579 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
580 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
581 positions using the same syntax as
582 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
583 option multiple times to give different
584 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
585 --external-downloader-args)
587 ## Filesystem Options:
588 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
589 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
590 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
592 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
593 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
594 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
595 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
596 TYPES as --output are supported.
597 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
598 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
599 files are first downloaded to the temp path
600 and then the final files are moved over to
601 the home path after download is finished.
602 This option is ignored if --output is an
604 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
605 TEMPLATE" for details
606 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
607 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
608 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
609 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
610 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
612 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
613 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
614 using Windows (default)
615 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
616 extension) to the specified number of
618 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
619 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
620 option includes --no-continue
621 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
622 related files (default)
623 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
625 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
626 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
627 restart download of the entire file
628 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
629 into output file (default)
630 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
632 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
633 modification time (default)
634 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
635 the file modification time
636 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
637 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
638 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
639 (this may contain personal information)
640 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
641 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
642 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
643 --write-description etc. (default)
644 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
645 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
646 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
647 from the infojson. Note that it could still
648 contain some personal information (default)
649 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
650 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
651 infojson. The comments are fetched even
652 without this option if the extraction is
653 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
654 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
655 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
657 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
658 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
659 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
660 and dump cookie jar in
661 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
663 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
664 The name of the browser and (optionally) the
665 name/path of the profile to load cookies
666 from, separated by a ":". Currently
667 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
668 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
669 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
670 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
671 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
672 be (optionally) specified after the browser
673 name separated by a "+". Currently supported
674 keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring, kwallet
675 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
676 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
677 can store some downloaded information (such
678 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
679 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
681 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
682 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
684 ## Thumbnail Options:
685 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
686 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
687 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
688 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
689 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
691 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
692 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
693 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
694 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
695 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
696 OS caches the URL based on the file path
697 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
698 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
700 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
701 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
702 print the log to stderr
703 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
704 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
706 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
708 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
709 extracting metadata even if the videos are
710 not actually available for download
712 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
713 formats are found (default)
714 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
715 related files (Alias: --no-download)
716 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
717 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
718 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
719 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
720 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
721 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
722 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
723 used. This option can be used multiple times
724 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
725 Append given template to the file. The
726 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
727 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
728 output template. This option can be used
730 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
731 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
732 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
733 description of available keys
734 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
735 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
736 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
737 a playlist, the whole playlist information
738 is dumped in a single line
739 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
740 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
741 another simulation option is used (Alias:
742 --force-download-archive)
743 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
744 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
745 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
746 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
747 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
748 Template for progress outputs, optionally
749 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
750 "download-title:" (the console title),
751 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
752 The video's fields are accessible under the
753 "info" key and the progress attributes are
754 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
755 --console-title --progress-template
756 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
757 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
758 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
759 to debug problems (very verbose)
760 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
761 in the current directory to debug problems
762 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
765 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
766 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
767 that do not support RFC
5746 secure
769 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
770 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
771 information about the video (Currently
772 supported only for YouTube)
773 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
774 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
775 option multiple times
776 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
777 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
778 or fribidi executable in PATH
779 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
780 during data extraction
781 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
782 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
783 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
784 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
785 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
786 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
787 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
790 ## Video Format Options:
791 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
793 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
794 "Sorting Formats" for more details
795 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
796 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
797 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
798 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
799 specified sort order (default)
800 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
802 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
803 output file (default)
804 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
806 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
807 output file (default)
808 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
809 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
810 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
811 irrespective of quality
812 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
814 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
815 those that are actually downloadable
816 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
817 actually downloadable
818 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
820 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
821 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
822 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
823 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
824 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
825 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
828 --write-subs Write subtitle file
829 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
830 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
831 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
832 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
833 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
834 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
835 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
836 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
837 Eg: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
838 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
839 be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg:
840 --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the
841 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
842 the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-langs
843 all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list
844 of available language tags
846 ## Authentication Options:
847 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
848 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
849 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
850 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
851 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
852 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
853 either the path or its containing directory.
855 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
856 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
857 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
858 a list of available MSOs
859 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
860 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
861 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
863 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
864 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
865 format. May include the private key
866 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
867 Path to private key file for client
869 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
870 Password for client certificate private key,
871 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
872 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
874 ## Post-Processing Options:
875 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
876 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
877 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
878 used. (currently supported: best (default),
879 mp3, aac, m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac,
880 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
881 similar syntax as --remux-video
882 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
883 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
884 between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for VBR or a
885 specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
886 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
887 necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
888 flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, mp3, aac,
889 m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac, wav). If
890 target container does not support the
891 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
892 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
893 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
894 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
895 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
896 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
897 are the same as --remux-video
898 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
899 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
900 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
901 to give the argument to the specified
902 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
903 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
904 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
905 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
906 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
907 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
908 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
909 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
910 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
911 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
912 specified executable only when being used by
913 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
914 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
915 appended to the prefix optionally followed
916 by a number to pass the argument before the
917 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
918 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
919 this option multiple times to give different
920 arguments to different postprocessors.
922 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
923 after post-processing
924 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
925 post-processing (default)
926 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
927 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
928 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
930 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
931 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
932 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
933 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
934 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
935 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
936 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
937 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
938 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
939 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
940 (Alias: --add-chapters)
941 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
943 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
945 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
947 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
948 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
950 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
951 Replace text in a metadata field using the
952 given regex. This option can be used
954 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
955 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
956 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
957 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
958 (default; only when the videos form a single
959 show). All the video files must have same
960 codecs and number of streams to be
961 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
962 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
963 the output filename for the concatenated
964 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
965 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
966 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
967 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
968 default; fix file if we can, warn
969 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
971 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
972 path to the binary or its containing directory
973 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
974 when to execute it (after_move if
975 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
976 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
977 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
978 output template can be used to pass any
979 field as arguments to the command. After
980 download, an additional field "filepath"
981 that contains the final path of the
982 downloaded file is also available, and if no
983 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
984 to the end of the command. This option can
985 be used multiple times
986 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
987 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
988 (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
989 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
990 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
991 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
992 can specify multiple rules using similar
993 syntax as --remux-video
994 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
995 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
996 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
997 the output filename for the split files. See
998 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
999 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1000 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1001 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1002 same as --download-sections. This option can
1003 be used multiple times
1004 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1006 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1007 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1008 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1009 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1011 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1012 when cutting/splitting (default)
1013 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1014 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1015 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1016 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1017 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1018 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1019 The "when" argument determines when the
1020 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1021 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1022 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1023 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1024 "post_process" (after each video download;
1025 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1026 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1027 (after downloading and processing all
1028 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1029 of playlist). This option can be used
1030 multiple times to add different postprocessors
1032 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1033 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1034 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1035 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1037 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1038 for, separated by commas. Available
1039 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1040 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1041 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1042 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1043 with a "-" to exclude it. See [
1] for
1044 description of the categories. Eg:
1045 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1046 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1047 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1048 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1049 category is present in both mark and remove,
1050 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1051 available categories are the same as for
1052 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1053 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1055 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1056 An output template for the title of the
1057 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1058 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1059 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1060 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1061 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1062 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1063 --sponsorblock-remove
1064 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1065 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1067 ## Extractor Options:
1068 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1069 (default is
3), or "infinite"
1070 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1071 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1072 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1073 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1074 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1075 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1076 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1077 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1079 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1080 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1081 use this option multiple times to give
1082 arguments for different extractors
1086 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1088 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
1089 1. **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.
1090 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
1091 1. **User Configuration**:
1092 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1093 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1094 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1095 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1097 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1099 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to
`~/.config` if undefined. On windows,
`%APPDATA%` generally points to
`C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming` and
`~` points to
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`), or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1101 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1103 For 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:
1105 # Lines starting with # are comments
1107 # Always extract audio
1110 # Do not copy the mtime
1114 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1116 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1117 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1120 Note 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`.
1122 You can use
`--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If
`--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if
`--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
1124 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1126 You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with
`--username` and
`--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a
[`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a
`.netrc` file in
`--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
1129 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1131 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1133 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1137 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1138 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1140 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1142 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1146 The
`-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.
1148 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1149 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1150 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1152 The 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).
1154 It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to
[Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting). For example,
`%(NAME)s` or
`%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
1156 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1158 1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a
`.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using
`:`. Eg:
`%(tags.0)s`,
`%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`,
`%(id.3:7:-1)s`,
`%(formats.:.format_id)s`.
`%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use
`-j` to see such fields
1160 1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using
`+` and
`-` respectively. Eg:
`%(playlist_index+10)03d`,
`%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1162 1. **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`
1164 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. Eg:
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1166 1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can specified using a
`&` separator. If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty.
1168 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a
`|` separator. This overrides
`--output-na-template`. Eg:
`%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1170 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types
`diouxXeEfFgGcrs`,
`B`,
`j`,
`l`,
`q`,
`D`,
`S` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag
`#` for pretty-printing), a comma separated **l**ist (flag
`#` for
`\n` newline-separated), a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag
`#` to split a list into different arguments), to add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg:
10M) (flag
`#` to use
1024 as factor), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag
`#` for restricted), respectively
1172 1. **Unicode normalization**: The format type
`U` can be used for NFC
[unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (
`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag
`+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. Eg:
`%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1174 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1176 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1179 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon
`:`. The different file types supported are
`subtitle`,
`thumbnail`,
`description`,
`annotation` (deprecated),
`infojson`,
`link`,
`pl_thumbnail`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`,
`pl_video`. For example,
`-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg:
`--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1181 The available fields are:
1183 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1184 - `title` (string): Video title
1185 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1186 - `url` (string): Video URL
1187 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1188 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1189 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1190 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1191 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1192 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1193 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1194 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1195 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1196 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1197 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1198 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1199 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1200 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1201 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1202 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1203 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1204 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1205 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1206 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1207 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1208 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1209 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1210 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1211 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1212 - `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)
1213 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1214 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
1215 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1216 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1217 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1218 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1219 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1220 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1221 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
1222 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
1223 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1224 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1225 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1226 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1227 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1228 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1229 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1230 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1231 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1232 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
1233 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
1234 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1235 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1236 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1237 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1238 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1239 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1240 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1241 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1242 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1243 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1244 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1245 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1246 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1247 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1248 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1249 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1250 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1251 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1252 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1253 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1254 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1255 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1256 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1258 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1260 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1261 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1262 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1264 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1266 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1267 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1268 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1269 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1270 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1271 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1272 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1274 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1276 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1277 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1278 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1279 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1280 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1281 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1282 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1283 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1284 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1285 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1287 Available only when using
`--download-sections` and for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1289 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1290 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1291 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1292 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1294 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1296 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1297 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use
`--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
1298 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1299 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1300 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1301 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1304 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1306 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1307 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1308 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1309 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1310 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1311 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1313 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`yt-dlp test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a
`yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1315 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).
1317 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1319 For numeric sequences you can use
[numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example,
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
1321 Output 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.
1323 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1325 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1327 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.
1329 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1330 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1332 If 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"`.
1333 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1335 #### Output template examples
1338 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1339 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1341 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1342 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1344 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1345 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1347 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1348 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1350 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1351 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1353 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1354 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1356 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1357 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1359 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1360 $ 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"
1362 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1363 $ 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"
1365 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1366 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1367 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1369 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1370 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1372 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1373 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1378 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1379 This 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`.
1381 **Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to
`-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the
`-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1383 The 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.
1385 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1386 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1387 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1389 The 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.
1391 You 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.
1393 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1395 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1397 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1398 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1399 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1400 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1401 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1402 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1403 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1404 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
1405 - `w*
`, `worst*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1406 - `w
`, `worst
`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]
`
1407 - `wv
`, `worstvideo
`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]
`
1408 - `wv*
`, `worstvideo*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]
`
1409 - `wa
`, `worstaudio
`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]
`
1410 - `wa*
`, `worstaudio*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]
`
1412 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo
`. It is however recommended not to use `worst
` and related options. When your format selector is `worst
`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-S +size
` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps
` instead of `-f worst
`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1414 You 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.
1416 If 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.
1418 If 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
`.
1420 You 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.
1422 **Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1424 Unless `--video-multistreams
` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams
` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams
` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams
` will download and merge only `bestvideo
` and `bestaudio
`. `best
` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo
`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams
` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams
` will ignore `best
` and download only `bestaudio
`.
1426 ## Filtering Formats
1428 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=
720]"
` (or `-f "[filesize>
10M]"
`).
1430 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<
`, `<=
`, `>
`, `>=
`, `=
` (equals), `!=
` (not equals):
1432 - `filesize
`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1433 - `width
`: Width of the video, if known
1434 - `height
`: Height of the video, if known
1435 - `tbr
`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1436 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1437 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1438 - `asr
`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1441 Also filtering work for comparisons `=
` (equals), `^=
` (starts with), `$=
` (ends with), `*=
` (contains), `~=
` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1443 - `ext
`: File extension
1444 - `acodec
`: Name of the audio codec in use
1445 - `vcodec
`: Name of the video codec in use
1446 - `container
`: Name of the container format
1447 - `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
`)
1448 - `format_id
`: A short description of the format
1449 - `language
`: Language code
1451 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!
` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=
` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-
`.
1453 Note 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.
1455 Formats 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.
1457 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<
480]"
`.
1461 You can change the criteria for being considered the `best
` by using `-S
` (`--format-sort
`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...
`.
1463 The available fields are:
1465 - `hasvid
`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1466 - `hasaud
`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1467 - `ie_pref
`: The format preference
1468 - `lang
`: The language preference
1469 - `quality
`: The quality of the format
1470 - `source
`: The preference of the source
1471 - `proto
`: Protocol used for download (`https
`/`ftps
` > `http
`/`ftp
` > `m3u8_native
`/`m3u8
` > `http_dash_segments
`> `websocket_frag
` > `mms
`/`rtsp
` > `f4f
`/`f4m
`)
1472 - `vcodec
`: Video Codec (`av01
` > `vp9.2
` > `vp9
` > `h265
` > `h264
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` > other)
1473 - `acodec
`: Audio Codec (`flac
`/`alac
` > `wav
`/`aiff
` > `opus
` > `vorbis
` > `aac
` > `mp4a
` > `mp3
` > `eac3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
` > other)
1474 - `codec
`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec
`
1475 - `vext
`: Video Extension (`mp4
` > `webm
` > `flv
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, `webm
` is preferred.
1476 - `aext
`: Audio Extension (`m4a
` > `aac
` > `mp3
` > `ogg
` > `opus
` > `webm
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, the order changes to `opus
` > `ogg
` > `webm
` > `m4a
` > `mp3
` > `aac
`.
1477 - `ext
`: Equivalent to `vext,aext
`
1478 - `filesize
`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1479 - `fs_approx
`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1480 - `size
`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1481 - `height
`: Height of video
1482 - `width
`: Width of video
1483 - `res
`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1484 - `fps
`: Framerate of video
1485 - `hdr
`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV
` > `HDR12
` > `HDR10+
` > `HDR10
` > `HLG
` > `SDR
`)
1486 - `tbr
`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1487 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1488 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1489 - `br
`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr
`
1490 - `asr
`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1492 **Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
1494 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.
1496 The fields `hasvid
` and `ie_pref
` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force
`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:
12,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id
`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1498 Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2
`; i.e. `av1
` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:
12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
1500 If 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
`.
1502 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F
` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1504 ## Format Selection examples
1507 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1508 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1509 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1511 # Download best format that contains video,
1512 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1513 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1518 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1519 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1520 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1521 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1523 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1524 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1525 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1527 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1528 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1529 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1532 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1533 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1535 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1536 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1538 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1541 # Download the smallest video available
1542 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1546 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1547 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1549 # Download the best video with the best extension
1550 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1555 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1556 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1557 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1559 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1560 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1561 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1563 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1564 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1565 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1566 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1567 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1571 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1572 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1573 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1575 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1576 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1577 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1579 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1580 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1584 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1585 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1586 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1588 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1589 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1594 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1595 # or the best video if there is no such video
1596 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1598 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1599 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1600 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1602 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1603 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1604 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1608 # More complex examples
1610 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1611 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1612 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1614 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1615 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1616 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1617 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1621 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1622 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1623 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1624 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1627 # MODIFYING METADATA
1629 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata
` and `--replace-in-metadata
`
1631 `--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
1633 The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO
` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s
` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO
`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
1635 Note 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
`.
1637 This option also has a few special uses:
1639 * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls
` to the URL that you want to download. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)
` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1641 * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_
` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description
` field will be added to the `description
` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_
` prefix (Eg: `meta1_language
`). Any value set to the `meta_
` field will overwrite all default values.
1643 **Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1645 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1647 Metadata fields | From
1648 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1649 `title
` | `track
` or `title
`
1650 `date
` | `upload_date
`
1651 `description
`, `synopsis
` | `description
`
1652 `purl
`, `comment
` | `webpage_url
`
1653 `track
` | `track_number
`
1654 `artist
` | `artist
`, `creator
`, `uploader
` or `uploader_id
`
1657 `album_artist
` | `album_artist
`
1658 `disc
` | `disc_number
`
1660 `season_number
` | `season_number
`
1661 `episode_id
` | `episode
` or `episode_id
`
1662 `episode_sort
` | `episode_number
`
1663 `language
` of each stream | the format's `language
`
1665 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1668 ## Modifying metadata examples
1671 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1672 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1675 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1677 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1678 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1680 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1681 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1683 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1684 # handling multiple lines correctly
1685 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
1687 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1688 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1690 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1691 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1695 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1697 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS
`. `ARGS
` is a `;
` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2
`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"
`
1699 The following extractors use this feature:
1702 * `skip
`: One or more of `hls
`, `dash
` or `translated_subs
` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and auto-translated subtitles respectively
1703 * `player_client
`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web
`, `android
` and `ios
` with variants `_music
`, `_embedded
`, `_embedscreen
`, `_creator
` (Eg: `web_embedded
`); and `mweb
` and `tv_embedded
` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web
` is used, but `tv_embedded
` and `creator
` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com
` urls. You can use `all
` to use all the clients, and `default
` for the default clients.
1704 * `player_skip
`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs
` (skip client configs), `webpage
` (skip initial webpage), `js
` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
1705 * `include_live_dash
`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start
` (These formats don't download properly)
1706 * `comment_sort
`: `top
` or `new
` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1707 * `max_comments
`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread
`. Default is `all,all,all,all
`
1708 * E.g. `all,all,
1000,
10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,
100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
1709 * `innertube_host
`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests
1710 * e.g. `studio.youtube.com
`, `youtubei.googleapis.com
`
1711 * Note: Cookies exported from `www.youtube.com
` will not work with hosts other than `*.youtube.com
`
1712 * `innertube_key
`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1714 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1715 * `skip
`: One or more of `webpage
` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck
` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
1716 * `approximate_date
`: Extract approximate `upload_date
` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1719 * `language
`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese
`
1720 * `version
`: The video version to extract - `uncut
` or `simulcast
`
1723 * `language
`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp
`
1724 * `hardsub
`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS
`
1726 #### crunchyrollbeta
1727 * `format
`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls
` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls
`
1728 * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls
`, `adaptive_dash
`, `vo_adaptive_hls
`, `vo_adaptive_dash
`, `download_hls
`, `trailer_hls
`, `trailer_dash
`
1729 * `hardsub
`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None
` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None
`
1732 * `video_types
`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes
`, `movies
`, `clips
`, `trailers
`
1735 * `segment_duration
`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1737 #### youtubewebarchive
1738 * `check_all
`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails
`, `captures
`
1741 * `comment_sort
`: `hot
` (default), `you
` (cookies needed), `top
`, `new
` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1744 * `res
`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd
`, `hd
`, `fhd
`
1745 * `vcodec
`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264
`, `h265
`, `dvh265
`
1746 * `dr
`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr
`, `hdr10
`, `dv
`
1749 * `app_version
`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version
`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
1750 * `manifest_app_version
`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
1753 * `tab
`: Which tab to download. One of `new
`, `top
`, `videos
`, `podcasts
`, `streams
`, `stacks
`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams
`)
1756 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1758 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1763 Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py
`; where `<root-dir>
` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp
`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py
`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip
` version
1765 Plugins can be of `<type>
`s `extractor
` or `postprocessor
`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME
`.
1767 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1769 Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code
1771 If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1777 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1779 Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J
`, `--print
`, `--progress-template
`, `--exec
` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1781 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1784 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1786 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1787 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1791 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py
`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L180).
1793 **Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info
` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info
` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
1795 ## Embedding examples
1797 #### Extracting information
1803 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1805 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1807 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1808 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1810 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1811 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1813 #### Download using an info-json
1818 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1820 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1821 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1823 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1824 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1832 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1835 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1836 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1837 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1838 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1839 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1843 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1844 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1852 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1854 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1855 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1856 duration = info.get('duration')
1857 if duration and duration < 60:
1858 return 'The video is too short'
1861 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1864 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1865 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1868 #### Adding logger and progress hook
1873 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1876 def debug(self, msg):
1877 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1878 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1879 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1884 def info(self, msg):
1887 def warning(self, msg):
1890 def error(self, msg):
1894 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1896 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1897 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1901 'logger': MyLogger(),
1902 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1905 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1909 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
1914 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1916 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
1917 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
1918 def run(self, info):
1919 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1923 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1924 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1929 #### Use a custom format selector
1934 URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1936 def format_selector(ctx):
1937 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1938 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1940 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1941 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1943 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1944 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1945 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1947 # find compatible audio extension
1948 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1949 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1950 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1951 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1953 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
1955 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1956 'ext': best_video['ext'],
1957 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
1958 # Must be + separated list of protocols
1959 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
1964 'format': format_selector,
1967 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1971 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
1973 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1975 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1977 #### Almost redundant options
1978 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
1980 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
1981 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
1982 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
1983 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
1985 #### Redundant options
1986 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
1988 --get-description --print description
1989 --get-duration --print duration_string
1990 --get-filename --print filename
1991 --get-format --print format
1993 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1994 -e, --get-title --print title
1995 -g, --get-url --print urls
1996 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1997 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1998 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1999 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2000 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2001 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2004 #### Not recommended
2005 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2007 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2008 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2009 --all-formats -f all
2010 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2011 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2012 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
2013 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2014 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2015 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2016 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2017 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2018 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2019 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2020 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2021 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2022 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2023 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2026 #### Developer options
2027 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2029 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2030 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2031 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2032 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2033 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2037 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2039 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2040 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2041 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2042 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2043 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2044 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2045 --load-info --load-info-json
2046 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2047 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2048 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2049 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2050 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2051 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2052 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2053 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2054 --write-srt --write-subs
2055 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2057 #### Sponskrub Options
2058 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock
` options
2060 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2061 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2062 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2063 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2064 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2065 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2066 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2067 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2069 #### No longer supported
2070 These options may no longer work as intended
2072 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2073 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2074 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2075 --no-call-home Default
2076 --include-ads No longer supported
2077 --no-include-ads Default
2078 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2079 --no-write-annotations Default
2082 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2084 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2085 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2088 See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
2091 For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
projects / yt-dlp.git / blob