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 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
25 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
26 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
27 is restricted to one domain
28 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
30 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
31 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy
32 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
33 --cache-dir None Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can
34 store downloaded information permanently. By
35 default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache
37 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
40 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is
1)
41 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
42 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
44 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
46 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
47 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
49 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
51 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
52 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
53 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
54 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
55 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given age
56 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not present in the archive
57 file. Record all downloaded videos in it.
60 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g.
62 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is
10)
63 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
65 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
66 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
67 from an initial value of SIZE.
69 ## Filesystem Options:
70 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
71 --id use only video ID in file name
72 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
73 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from
00000
74 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
75 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
76 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
77 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
78 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
79 extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
80 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
81 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
82 , %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is in,
83 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
84 playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
85 output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
86 a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
87 ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
88 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
89 when it is present in output filename template or
90 --autonumber option is given
91 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
92 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
93 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
94 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
95 -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
96 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
98 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
99 --no-part do not use .part files
100 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
101 file modification time
102 --write-description write video description to a .description file
103 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
104 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation file
105 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
107 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
108 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
109 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
111 --skip-download do not download the video
112 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
113 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
114 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
115 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
116 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
117 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
118 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
119 --newline output progress bar as new lines
120 --no-progress do not print progress bar
121 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
122 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
123 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
126 ## Video Format Options:
127 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specifiy the order of
128 preference using slashes: "-f
22/
17/
18". "-f mp4"
129 and "-f flv" are also supported
130 --all-formats download all available video formats
131 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
133 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
134 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
138 --write-sub write subtitle file
139 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
140 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
142 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
143 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
145 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
146 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
149 ## Authentication Options:
150 -u, --username USERNAME account username
151 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
152 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
153 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
155 ## Post-processing Options:
156 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
157 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
158 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
159 "wav"; best by default
160 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
161 a value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for VBR
162 or a specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
163 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
164 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
165 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
166 processing; the video is erased by default
167 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
168 processed files are overwritten by default
169 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
171 --add-metadata add metadata to the files
175 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`.
179 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:
181 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
182 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
183 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
184 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
185 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
186 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
187 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
188 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
189 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
190 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
192 The current default template is
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
194 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:
196 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
197 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
198 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
199 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
203 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options
`--date`,
`--datebefore` or
`--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
205 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format
`YYYYMMDD`.
206 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
`(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
210 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-
6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last
6 months
211 $ youtube-dl --date
19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January
1,
1970
212 $ youtube-dl --dateafter
20000101 --datebefore
20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between
2000 and
2010
216 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
218 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.
220 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
222 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.
224 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
226 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as
[vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or
[mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
228 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
230 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.
232 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
234 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`.
236 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
238 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`.
240 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
244 File "youtube-dl", line
2
245 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '
\x93' ...
247 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python
2.6 or
2.7.
249 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
251 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`.
253 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
255 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).
259 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
261 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
265 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
269 * Your exact command line, like
`youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the
`&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
270 * If possible re-run the command with
`--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
271 * The output of
`youtube-dl --version`
272 * The output of
`python --version`
273 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu
11.04 x64" or "Windows
7 x64" is usually enough).
275 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.