4 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
7 **youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
10 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
11 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
12 2.6,
2.7, or
3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
13 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
14 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
17 -h, --help print this help text and exit
18 --version print program version and exit
19 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure
20 that you have sufficient permissions (run with
22 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to to
23 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
24 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
25 playlist or the command line) if an error occurs
26 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
27 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
28 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
29 is restricted to one domain
30 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
32 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
33 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in an
34 empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection
35 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
36 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can
37 store some downloaded information permanently. By
38 default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache
39 /youtube-dl . At the moment, only YouTube player
40 files (for videos with obfuscated signatures) are
41 cached, but that may change.
42 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
43 --socket-timeout None Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
44 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack bidirectional
45 text support. Requires bidiv or fribidi
47 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For example
48 "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos from google
49 videos for youtube-dl "large apple". By default
50 (with value "auto") youtube-dl guesses.
53 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is
1)
54 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
55 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
57 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
59 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
60 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
62 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
64 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
65 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before this
67 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after this
69 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than COUNT
71 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than COUNT
73 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
74 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given age
75 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the archive
76 file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in
78 --include-ads Download advertisements as well (experimental)
81 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g.
83 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is
10)
84 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
86 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
87 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
88 from an initial value of SIZE.
90 ## Filesystem Options:
91 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
92 --id use only video ID in file name
93 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
94 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from
00000
95 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
96 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
97 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
98 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
99 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
100 extension, %(format)s for the format description
101 (like "
22 -
1280x720" or "HD"), %(format_id)s for
102 the unique id of the format (like Youtube's
103 itags: "
137"), %(upload_date)s for the upload
104 date (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
105 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video
106 id, %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is
107 in, %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
108 playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
109 output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
110 a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
111 ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
112 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
113 when it is present in output filename template or
114 --auto-number option is given
115 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
116 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
117 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
118 --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
119 (created with the "--write-json" option)
120 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
121 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files. By
122 default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if
124 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
126 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
127 --no-part do not use .part files
128 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
129 file modification time
130 --write-description write video description to a .description file
131 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
132 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation file
133 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
135 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
136 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
137 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
139 --skip-download do not download the video
140 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
141 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
142 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
143 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
144 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
145 --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
146 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
147 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
148 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information
149 --newline output progress bar as new lines
150 --no-progress do not print progress bar
151 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
152 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
153 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems (very
155 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in
156 the current directory to debug problems
158 ## Video Format Options:
159 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
160 preference using slashes: "-f
22/
17/
18". "-f mp4"
161 and "-f flv" are also supported. You can also use
162 the special names "best", "bestaudio", "worst",
164 --all-formats download all available video formats
165 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
167 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
168 -F, --list-formats list all available formats
171 --write-sub write subtitle file
172 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
173 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
175 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
176 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
178 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
179 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
182 ## Authentication Options:
183 -u, --username USERNAME account username
184 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
185 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
186 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
188 ## Post-processing Options:
189 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
190 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
191 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
192 "wav"; best by default
193 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
194 a value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for VBR
195 or a specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
196 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
197 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
198 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
199 processing; the video is erased by default
200 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
201 processed files are overwritten by default
202 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
204 --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
205 --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs (using
206 dublin core and xdg standards)
207 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
208 postprocessors (default)
209 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
214 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
`--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into
`/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or
`~/.config/youtube-dl.conf`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are
`%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and
`C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf`.
218 The
`-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in
`youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format
`%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
220 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
221 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
222 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
223 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
224 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
225 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
226 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
227 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
228 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
229 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
231 The current default template is
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
233 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:
235 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
236 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
237 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
238 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
242 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options
`--date`,
`--datebefore` or
`--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
244 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format
`YYYYMMDD`.
245 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
`(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
249 $ # Download only the videos uploaded in the last
6 months
250 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-
6months
251 $ # Download only the videos uploaded on January
1,
1970
252 $ youtube-dl --date
19700101
253 $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the
200x decade
254 $ youtube-dl --dateafter
20000101 --datebefore
20091231
258 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
260 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be
1080p or
720p in some cases, so you no longer need the
`-b` option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're interested in. In that case, simply request it with the
`-f` option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
262 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
264 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We're
[considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
266 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
268 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as
[vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or
[mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
270 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
272 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. Use the
`--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use
`--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
274 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
276 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July
2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with
`sudo youtube-dl --update`.
278 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
280 youtube requires an additional signature since September
2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with
`sudo youtube-dl --update`.
282 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
286 File "youtube-dl", line
2
287 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '
\x93' ...
289 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python
2.6 or
2.7.
291 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
293 Since June
2012 (#
342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to
`youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the
`__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run
`make youtube-dl`.
295 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
297 To run the exe you need to install first the
[Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
301 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
303 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
307 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues> . Unless you were prompted so or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email.
309 Please include the full output of the command when run with
`--verbose`. The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
311 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
313 When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
315 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
317 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may misread some parts.
319 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
321 - What the problem is
322 - How it could be fixed
323 - How your proposed solution would look like
325 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
327 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the *complete* output of youtube-dl when called with the -v flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
329 Site support requests must contain an example URL. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc . There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is *not* an example URL.
331 ### Are you using the latest version?
333 Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that you're up-to-date. About
20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature requests as well.
335 ### Is the issue already documented?
337 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or at https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version
2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
339 ### Why are existing options not enough?
341 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at
[the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#synopsis). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
343 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
345 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
347 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
349 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
351 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
353 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
355 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
357 Only post features that you (or an incapicated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
359 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
361 It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's own application. Please make sure that you are actually using youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.