4 A command-line program to download videos from YouTube and many other [video platforms](supportedsites.md)
6 <!-- GHA doesn't have for-the-badge style
7 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions)
9 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
10 [](LICENSE)
11 []
(https://yt-dlp.readthedocs.io)
12 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
13 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
14 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
15 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
16 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
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 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
23 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
24 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
26 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
28 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
29 * [General Options](#general-options)
30 * [Network Options](#network-options)
31 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
32 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
33 * [Download Options](#download-options)
34 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
35 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
36 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
37 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
38 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
39 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
40 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
41 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
42 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
43 * [SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)
44 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
45 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
46 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
47 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
48 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
49 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
50 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
51 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
52 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
53 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
54 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
55 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
56 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
58 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
64 The major new features from the latest release of
[blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
66 * **
[SponSkrub Integration](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)**: You can use [SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) to mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the
[SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
68 * **[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 that what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
70 * **Merged with youtube-dl
[commit/379f52a](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/379f52a4954013767219d25099cce9e0f9401961)**: (v2021.06
.06) You get all the latest features and patches of
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
72 * **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 improvements are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
74 * **Youtube improvements**:
75 * All Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`) supports downloading multiple pages of content
76 * Search (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
77 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
78 * Partial workaround for throttling issue
79 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
80 * `255kbps` audio is extracted from youtube music if premium cookies are given
81 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded
83 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
85 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
87 * **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
89 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
91 * **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Spectrum MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius, zee5, mtv.it, wimtv, pluto.tv, niconico users, discoveryplus.in, mediathek, NFHSNetwork, nebula, ukcolumn, whowatch, MxplayerShow, parlview (au), YoutubeWebArchive, fancode, Saitosan, ShemarooMe, telemundo, VootSeries, SonyLIVSeries, HotstarSeries, VidioPremier, VidioLive, RCTIPlus, TBS Live, douyin, pornflip
93 * **Fixed extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, akamai, ina, rumble, tennistv, amcnetworks, la7 podcasts, linuxacadamy, nitter, twitcasting, viu, crackle, curiositystream, mediasite, rmcdecouverte, sonyliv, tubi, tenplay, patreon, videa, yahoo, BravoTV, crunchyroll playlist, RTP, viki
95 * **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
97 * **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`)
99 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
101 * **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`
103 * **Other new options**:
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--write-link`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
105 * **Improvements**: Multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
107 * **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
109 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
112 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
115 **PS**: Some of these changes are already in youtube-dlc, but are still unreleased. See [this](Changelog.md#unreleased-changes-in-blackjack4494yt-dlc) for details
117 If you are coming from
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl), the amount of changes are very large. Compare
[options](#options) and [supported sites](supportedsites.md) with youtube-dl's to get an idea of the massive number of features/patches [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) has accumulated.
119 ### Differences in default behavior
121 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc.
123 * The options
`--id`,
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
124 * `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
125 * 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`
126 * 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
127 * 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 prefered. Use
`-f bv+ba/b` or
`--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
128 * 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
129 * `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
130 * 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
131 * `--add-metadata` attaches the
`infojson` to
`mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with
`--write-infojson`. Use
`--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
132 * `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
133 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
134 * 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
135 * 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
136 * 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. 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
137 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
138 * 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
139 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
141 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
142 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
143 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
144 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
148 yt-dlp is not platform specific. So it should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS
150 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
151 * Download the binary from the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) (recommended method)
152 * Use
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp):
`python3 -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
153 * Use pip+git:
`python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp.git@release`
154 * Install master branch:
`python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp`
156 Note that on some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
158 UNIX users (Linux, macOS, BSD) can also install the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) one of the following ways:
161 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
162 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
166 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
167 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
171 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
172 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
176 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the provided release.
177 If you are using
`pip`, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program.
180 Python versions
3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
182 <!-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 -->
183 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.
185 While all the other dependancies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
186 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for
[merging seperate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. Licence [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
187 * [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the
[sponskrub options](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options). Licenced under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
188 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
189 * [**pycryptodome**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting various data. Licenced under
[BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
190 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licenced under
[BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
191 * [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licenced under
[MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
192 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
193 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
194 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or
[**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading
`rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
195 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licenced under
[BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
196 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
198 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
200 Note that the windows releases are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodome and websockets included.
205 To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodome, websockets)
207 python3 -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller mutagen pycryptodome websockets
209 Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, just run
`py pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the python used to build it.
211 You can also build the executable without any version info or metadata by using:
213 pyinstaller.exe yt_dlp\__main__.py --onefile --name yt-dlp
215 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
218 You will need the required build tools:
`python`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`,
`zip`,
`pytest`
219 Then simply run
`make`. You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
221 **Note**: In either platform,
`devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
225 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
227 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
228 <!-- Auto generated -->
231 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
232 --version Print program version and exit
233 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
234 sure that you have sufficient permissions
235 (run with sudo if needed)
236 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
237 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
238 (default) (Alias: --no-abort-on-error)
239 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
240 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
241 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
242 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
243 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
245 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
247 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
248 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
249 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
250 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
251 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
252 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
253 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
254 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
255 this is not possible instead of searching
256 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
257 except the one provided by --config-location.
258 When given inside a configuration
259 file, no further configuration files are
260 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
261 compatibility) if this option is found
262 inside the system configuration file, the
263 user configuration is not loaded
264 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
265 either the path to the config or its
267 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
269 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
270 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
271 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
272 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
273 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
274 with youtube-dl and youtube-dlc
275 configurations by reverting some of the
276 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
277 default behavior" for details
280 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
281 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
283 socks5://
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in an empty
284 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
285 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
286 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
287 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
288 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
291 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
292 some geo-restricted sites. The default
293 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
294 option is not present) is used for the
296 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
297 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
298 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
299 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
300 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
301 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
303 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
304 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
308 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
309 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
310 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
311 indices of the videos in the playlist
312 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
313 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
314 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
315 specify range: "--playlist-items
316 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
317 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
318 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
320 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
322 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
323 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
324 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
325 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
327 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
328 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
329 "(now|today)[+-][
0-
9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
330 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
331 this date. The date formats accepted is the
333 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
334 this date. The date formats accepted is the
336 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
338 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
340 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
341 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of available
342 keys) to match if the key is present, !key
343 to check if the key is not present,
344 key>NUMBER (like "view_count >
12", also
345 works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare
346 against a number, key = 'LITERAL' (like
347 "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works with
348 !=) to match against a string literal and &
349 to require multiple matches. Values which
350 are not known are excluded unless you put a
351 question mark (?) after the operator. For
352 example, to only match videos that have
353 been liked more than
100 times and disliked
354 less than
50 times (or the dislike
355 functionality is not available at the given
356 service), but who also have a description,
357 use --match-filter "like_count >
100 &
358 dislike_count <?
50 & description"
359 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
360 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
361 to a video and a playlist
362 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
363 a video and a playlist
364 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
366 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
367 archive file. Record the IDs of all
368 downloaded videos in it
369 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
370 a file that is in the archive
371 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
372 a file that has been filtered out
373 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
374 of the playlist is skipped
375 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
378 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
379 video that should be download concurrently
381 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
383 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
384 below which throttling is assumed and the
385 video data is re-extracted (e.g.
100K)
386 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
388 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
389 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
391 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
392 hlsnative and ISM (default)
393 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
394 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
395 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
396 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
397 downloading is finished
398 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
399 downloading is finished (default)
400 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
402 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
403 from an initial value of --buffer-size
405 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
406 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
407 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
408 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
409 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
411 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
412 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
414 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
415 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
417 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
418 allowing some players to play the video
419 while downloading, and reducing the chance
420 of file corruption if download is
421 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
423 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
424 videos. This is default when not
425 downloading live streams
426 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
427 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
428 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
429 use it for. Currently supports native,
430 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
431 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
432 this option multiple times to set different
433 downloaders for different protocols. For
434 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
435 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
436 http/ftp downloads, and the native
437 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
438 (Alias: --external-downloader)
439 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
440 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
441 the arguments separated by a colon ":". You
442 can use this option multiple times to give
443 different arguments to different downloaders
444 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
446 ## Filesystem Options:
447 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
448 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
449 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
451 -P, --paths TYPES:PATH The paths where the files should be
452 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
453 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
454 same types as --output are supported.
455 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
456 and "temp" paths. All intermediary files
457 are first downloaded to the temp path and
458 then the final files are moved over to the
459 home path after download is finished. This
460 option is ignored if --output is an
462 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
463 TEMPLATE" for details
464 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
465 fields in output filename template
467 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
468 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
470 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
472 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be windows compatible
473 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames windows compatible only if
474 using windows (default)
475 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
476 extension) to the specified number of
478 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
479 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
480 This option includes --no-continue
481 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
482 related files (default)
483 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
485 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
486 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
487 restart download of the entire file
488 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
489 into output file (default)
490 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
492 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
493 file modification time (default)
494 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
495 the file modification time
496 --write-description Write video description to a .description
498 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
499 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
500 (this may contain personal information)
501 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
502 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
503 .annotations.xml file
504 --no-write-annotations Do not write video annotations (default)
505 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
506 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
507 --write-description etc. (default)
508 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
509 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
510 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
511 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
512 could still contain some personal
513 information (default)
514 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
515 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
516 infojson. The comments are fetched even
517 without this option if the extraction is
518 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
519 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
520 extraction is known to be quick
521 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
522 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
523 (created with the "--write-info-json"
525 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
527 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
529 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
530 Load cookies from a user profile of the
531 given web browser. Currently supported
532 browsers are: brave|chrome|chromium|edge|fi
533 refox|opera|safari|vivaldi. You can specify
534 the user profile name or directory using
535 "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
536 "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
537 given, the most recently accessed one is
539 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
540 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
541 can store some downloaded information (such
542 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
543 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
545 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
546 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
548 ## Thumbnail Options:
549 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
550 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
552 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
553 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
556 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
557 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
558 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
559 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
560 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
561 OS caches the URL based on the file path
562 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
563 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
565 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
566 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
567 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
568 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
570 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Usefull
571 for extracting metadata even if the video
572 is not actually available for download
574 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
575 formats are found (default)
576 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
577 related files (Alias: --no-download)
578 -O, --print TEMPLATE Simulate, quiet but print the given fields.
579 Either a field name or similar formatting
580 as the output template can be used
581 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
582 See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of
584 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
585 for each command-line argument. If the URL
586 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
587 playlist information in a single line
588 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
589 JSON (video is still being downloaded)
590 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
591 written as far as no errors occur, even if
592 -s or another simulation option is used
593 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
594 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
595 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
596 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
597 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
598 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
599 to debug problems (very verbose)
600 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
601 files in the current directory to debug
603 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
606 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
607 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
608 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
609 information about the video (Currently
610 supported only for YouTube)
611 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
612 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
613 access is restricted to one domain
614 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
615 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
616 option multiple times
617 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
618 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
619 or fribidi executable in PATH
620 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
621 during data extraction
622 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
623 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
624 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
625 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
626 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
627 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
628 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
631 ## Video Format Options:
632 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
634 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
635 "Sorting Formats" for more details
636 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
637 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
638 Formats" for more details
639 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
640 specified sort order (default), see
641 "Sorting Formats" for more details
642 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
644 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
645 each output file (default)
646 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
648 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
649 each output file (default)
650 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
651 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
652 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
653 containers irrespective of quality
654 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
656 --check-formats Check that the formats selected are
657 actually downloadable
658 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats selected are
659 actually downloadable
660 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
662 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
663 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
664 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
665 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
666 --allow-unplayable-formats Allow unplayable formats to be listed and
667 downloaded. All video post-processing will
669 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Do not allow unplayable formats to be
670 listed or downloaded (default)
673 --write-subs Write subtitle file
674 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
675 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
676 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
677 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
678 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
679 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
680 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
681 preference, for example: "srt" or
683 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
684 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
685 (Eg: --sub-langs en.*,ja) You can prefix
686 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
687 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
688 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
689 list of available language tags
691 ## Authentication Options:
692 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
693 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
694 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
695 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
696 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
697 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
698 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
699 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
700 a list of available MSOs
701 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
702 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
703 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
705 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
708 ## Post-Processing Options:
709 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
710 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
711 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
712 to when -x is used. Currently supported
713 formats are: best (default) or one of
714 aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav
715 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
716 value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for
717 VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
719 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
720 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
721 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
722 target container does not support the
723 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
724 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
725 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
726 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
727 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
728 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
729 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
730 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
731 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
732 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
733 to give the argument to the specified
734 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
735 Merger, ExtractAudio, SplitChapters,
736 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
737 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
738 VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor, SponSkrub,
739 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
740 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
741 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
742 FFmpeg, FFprobe, and SponSkrub. You can
743 also specify "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the
744 arguments to the specified executable only
745 when being used by the specified
746 postprocessor. Additionally, for
747 ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be appended
748 to the prefix optionally followed by a
749 number to pass the argument before the
750 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
751 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
752 this option multiple times to give
753 different arguments to different
754 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
755 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
756 after post-processing
757 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
758 post-processing (default)
759 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
760 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
761 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
763 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
764 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
765 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
766 --embed-metadata Embed metadata including chapter markers
767 (if supported by the format) to the video
768 file (Alias: --add-metadata)
769 --no-embed-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
770 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
771 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
772 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
774 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
775 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
776 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
777 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
778 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
779 default; fix file if we can, warn
780 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
782 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
783 path to the binary or its containing
785 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
786 downloading and post-processing. Similar
787 syntax to the output template can be used
788 to pass any field as arguments to the
789 command. An additional field "filepath"
790 that contains the final path of the
791 downloaded file is also available. If no
792 fields are passed, "%(filepath)s" is
793 appended to the end of the command
794 --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
795 download. The syntax is the same as --exec
796 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
797 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
798 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
799 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
800 (currently supported: jpg|png)
801 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
802 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
803 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
804 to set the output filename for the split
805 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
806 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
809 ## SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options:
810 [SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) is a utility to
811 mark/remove sponsor segments from downloaded YouTube videos using
812 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
814 --sponskrub Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections.
815 This is enabled by default if the sponskrub
816 binary exists (Youtube only)
817 --no-sponskrub Do not use sponskrub
818 --sponskrub-cut Cut out the sponsor sections instead of
820 --no-sponskrub-cut Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut
822 --sponskrub-force Run sponskrub even if the video was already
824 --no-sponskrub-force Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the
825 video was already downloaded (default)
826 --sponskrub-location PATH Location of the sponskrub binary; either
827 the path to the binary or its containing
830 ## Extractor Options:
831 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
832 errors (default is
3), or "infinite"
833 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
834 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
835 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
836 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
837 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
838 discontinuities such as ad breaks
839 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
840 formats at discontinuities such as ad
842 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
843 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
844 use this option multiple times to give
845 arguments for different extractors
849 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
851 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
852 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.
853 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
854 1. **User Configuration**:
855 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
856 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
857 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
858 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
860 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
862 Note that
`~` points to
`C:\Users\<user name>` on windows. Also,
`%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to
`~/.config` if undefined
863 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
865 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:
867 # Lines starting with # are comments
869 # Always extract audio
872 # Do not copy the mtime
876 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
878 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
879 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
882 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`.
884 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 user and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if
`--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
886 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
888 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 your
`$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
891 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
893 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
895 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
899 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
900 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
902 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
904 On Windows you may also need to setup the
`%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
906 set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
911 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.
913 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
915 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).
917 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/2/library/stdtypes.html#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.
919 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
920 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)`,
`%(id.3:7:-1)s`. Note that the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use
`-j` to see such fields
921 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`
922 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`
923 1. **Default**: A default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a
`|` seperator. This overrides
`--output-na-template`. Eg:
`%(uploader|Unknown)s`
925 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
927 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
930 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`,
`infojson`,
`pl_thumbnail`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`. 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.
932 The available fields are:
934 - `id` (string): Video identifier
935 - `title` (string): Video title
936 - `url` (string): Video URL
937 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
938 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
939 - `description` (string): The description of the video
940 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
941 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
942 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
943 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
944 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
945 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
946 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
947 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
948 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
949 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
950 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
951 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
952 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
953 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
954 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
955 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
956 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
957 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
958 - `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)
959 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
960 - `live_status` (string): One of 'is_live', 'was_live', 'upcoming', 'not_live'
961 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
962 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
963 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
964 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
965 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
966 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
967 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
968 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
969 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
970 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
971 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
972 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
973 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
974 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
975 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
976 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
977 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
978 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
979 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
980 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
981 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
982 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
983 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
984 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
985 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
986 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
987 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
988 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
989 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
990 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
991 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
992 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
993 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
994 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
995 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
997 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
999 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1000 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1001 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1003 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1005 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1006 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1007 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1008 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1009 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1010 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1011 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1013 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1015 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1016 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1017 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1018 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1019 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1020 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1021 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1022 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1023 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1024 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1026 Available for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1028 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1029 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1030 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1031 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1033 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1035 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1036 - `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
1038 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. 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).
1040 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.
1042 For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example,
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
1044 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.
1046 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1048 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1050 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:
1052 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1054 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"`.
1056 #### Output template examples
1058 Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
1061 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1062 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
1064 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1065 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
1067 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1068 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
1070 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1071 $ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
1073 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1074 $ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
1076 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1077 $ 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/
1079 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1080 $ 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
1082 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1083 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1088 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1089 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`.
1091 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.
1093 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1095 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.
1097 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.
1099 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1101 - `all`: Select all formats
1102 - `mergeall`: Select and merge all formats (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1103 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1104 - `w*`,
`worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1105 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1106 - `w`,
`worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1107 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1108 - `wv`,
`worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec=none]`
1109 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1110 - `wv*`,
`worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1111 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1112 - `wa`,
`worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec=none]`
1113 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]`
1114 - `wa*`,
`worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec!=none]`
1116 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
`-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of
`-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1118 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.
1120 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.
1122 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`.
1124 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. 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`.
1126 ## Filtering Formats
1128 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1130 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
1132 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1133 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1134 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1135 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1136 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1137 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1138 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1141 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1143 - `ext`: File extension
1144 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1145 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1146 - `container`: Name of the container format
1147 - `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`)
1148 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1149 - `language`: Language code
1151 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
1153 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.
1155 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.
1157 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than
480 you can use
`-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
1161 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...`. The available fields are:
1163 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1164 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1165 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1166 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
1167 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
1168 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
1169 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (
`https`/
`ftps` >
`http`/
`ftp` >
`m3u8_native`/
`m3u8` >
`http_dash_segments`>
`websocket_frag` > other >
`mms`/
`rtsp` > unknown >
`f4f`/
`f4m`)
1170 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (
`av01` >
`vp9.2` >
`vp9` >
`h265` >
`h264` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` > other > unknown)
1171 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (
`opus` >
`vorbis` >
`aac` >
`mp4a` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts` > other > unknown)
1172 - `codec`: Equivalent to
`vcodec,acodec`
1173 - `vext`: Video Extension (
`mp4` >
`webm` >
`flv` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used,
`webm` is prefered.
1174 - `aext`: Audio Extension (
`m4a` >
`aac` >
`mp3` >
`ogg` >
`opus` >
`webm` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to
`opus` >
`ogg` >
`webm` >
`m4a` >
`mp3` >
`aac`.
1175 - `ext`: Equivalent to
`vext,aext`
1176 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
1177 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1178 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1179 - `height`: Height of video
1180 - `width`: Width of video
1181 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1182 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1183 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1184 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1185 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1186 - `br`: Equivalent to using
`tbr,vbr,abr`
1187 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1189 Note that any other **numerical** field made available by the extractor can also be used. 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.
1191 The fields
`hasvid`,
`ie_pref`,
`lang` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using
`--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used is:
`quality,res,fps,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1193 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`.
1195 **Tip**: You can use the
`-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1197 ## Format Selection examples
1199 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1202 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1203 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1204 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
1206 # Download best format that contains video,
1207 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1208 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
1213 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1214 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1215 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1216 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
1218 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1219 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1220 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1222 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1223 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1224 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
1227 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1228 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1230 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1231 $ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
1233 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1236 # Download the smallest video available
1237 $ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
1241 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1242 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
1244 # Download the best video with the best extension
1245 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1250 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1251 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1252 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
1254 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1255 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1256 $ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
1258 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1259 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1260 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1261 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1262 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
1266 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1267 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1268 $ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
1270 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1271 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1272 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
1274 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1275 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
1279 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1280 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1281 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1283 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1284 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1289 # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
1290 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1292 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1293 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1294 $ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
1296 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1297 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1298 $ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
1302 # More complex examples
1304 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1305 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1306 $ yt-dlp -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
1308 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1309 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1310 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1311 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
1315 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1316 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1317 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1318 $ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
1321 # MODIFYING METADATA
1323 The metadata obtained the the extractors can be modified by using
`--parse-metadata FROM:TO`. The general syntax is to give the name of a field or a template (with similar syntax to
[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.
1325 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`.
1327 This option also has a few special uses:
1328 * 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. You can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis", for example
1329 * 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
1331 ## Modifying metadata examples
1333 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1336 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1337 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
1340 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
1342 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1343 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
1345 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
1346 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
1350 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1352 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using
`--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`.
`ARGS` is a
`;` (semicolon) seperated string of
`ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg:
`--extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash,hls;player_client=android" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
1354 The following extractors use this feature:
1356 * `skip`:
`hls` or
`dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
1357 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from - one or more of
`web`,
`android`,
`ios`,
`web_music`,
`android_music`,
`ios_music`. By default,
`android,web` is used. If the URL is from
`music.youtube.com`,
`android,web,android_music,web_music` is used
1358 * `player_skip`:
`configs` - skip any requests for client configs and use defaults
1359 * `comment_sort`:
`top` or
`new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side).
1360 * `max_comments`: maximum amount of comments to download (default all).
1361 * `max_comment_depth`: maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths
1 or
2 (default).
1364 * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg:
`funimation:language=english,japanese`
1365 * `version`: The video version to extract -
`uncut` or
`simulcast`
1368 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of
`episodes`,
`movies`,
`clips`,
`trailers`
1370 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1375 Plugins are loaded from
`<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`. Currently only
`extractor` plugins are supported. Support for
`downloader` and
`postprocessor` plugins may be added in the future. See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example.
1377 **Note**:
`<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`)
1379 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1381 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1383 #### Not recommended
1384 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1386 --get-description --print description
1387 --get-duration --print duration_string
1388 --get-filename --print filename
1389 --get-format --print format
1391 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1392 -e, --get-title --print title
1393 -g, --get-url --print urls
1394 --all-formats -f all
1395 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
1396 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)
03d
1397 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
1398 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
1399 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1400 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
1401 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1402 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
1403 --sponskrub-args ARGS --ppa "sponskrub:ARGS"
1404 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1405 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1406 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1407 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
1408 --test Used by developers for testing extractors. Not intended for the end user
1409 --youtube-print-sig-code Used for testing youtube signatures
1413 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1415 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1416 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1417 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1418 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1419 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1420 --load-info --load-info-json
1421 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
1422 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
1423 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1424 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
1425 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1426 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
1427 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
1428 --write-srt --write-subs
1429 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
1431 #### No longer supported
1432 These options may no longer work as intended
1434 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1435 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1436 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1437 --no-call-home Default
1438 --include-ads No longer supported
1439 --no-include-ads Default
1442 These options were deprecated since
2014 and have now been entirely removed
1444 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1445 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1446 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1447 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1451 For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the
[original README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
projects / yt-dlp.git / blob