4 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
7 **youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
10 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
11 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
12 2.6,
2.7, or
3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
13 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
14 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
17 -h, --help print this help text and exit
18 --version print program version and exit
19 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure
20 that you have sufficient permissions (run with
22 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to to
23 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
24 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
25 playlist or the command line) if an error occurs
26 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
27 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
28 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
29 is restricted to one domain
30 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
32 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
33 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in an
34 empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection
35 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
36 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can
37 store downloaded information permanently. By
38 default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache
40 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
41 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack bidirectional
42 text support. Requires bidiv or fribidi
46 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is
1)
47 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
48 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
50 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
52 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
53 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
55 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
57 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
58 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
59 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
60 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than COUNT
62 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than COUNT
64 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
65 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given age
66 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the archive
67 file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in
71 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g.
73 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is
10)
74 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
76 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
77 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
78 from an initial value of SIZE.
80 ## Filesystem Options:
81 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
82 --id use only video ID in file name
83 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
84 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from
00000
85 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
86 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
87 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
88 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
89 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
90 extension, %(format)s for the format description
91 (like "
22 -
1280x720" or "HD"),%(format_id)s for
92 the unique id of the format (like Youtube's
93 itags: "
137"),%(upload_date)s for the upload date
94 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
95 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
96 , %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is in,
97 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
98 playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
99 output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
100 a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
101 ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
102 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
103 when it is present in output filename template or
104 --auto-number option is given
105 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
106 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
107 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
108 --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
109 (created with the "--write-json" option
110 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
111 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files. By
112 default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if
114 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
116 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
117 --no-part do not use .part files
118 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
119 file modification time
120 --write-description write video description to a .description file
121 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
122 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation file
123 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
125 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
126 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
127 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
129 --skip-download do not download the video
130 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
131 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
132 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
133 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
134 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
135 --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
136 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
137 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
138 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information
139 --newline output progress bar as new lines
140 --no-progress do not print progress bar
141 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
142 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
143 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
145 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in
146 the current directory to debug problems
148 ## Video Format Options:
149 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
150 preference using slashes: "-f
22/
17/
18". "-f mp4"
151 and "-f flv" are also supported
152 --all-formats download all available video formats
153 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
155 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
156 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
160 --write-sub write subtitle file
161 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
162 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
164 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
165 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
167 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
168 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
171 ## Authentication Options:
172 -u, --username USERNAME account username
173 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
174 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
175 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
177 ## Post-processing Options:
178 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
179 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
180 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
181 "wav"; best by default
182 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
183 a value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for VBR
184 or a specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
185 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
186 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
187 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
188 processing; the video is erased by default
189 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
190 processed files are overwritten by default
191 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
193 --add-metadata add metadata to the files
197 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
`--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into
`/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or
`~/.config/youtube-dl.conf`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are
`%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and
`C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf`.
201 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:
203 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
204 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
205 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
206 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
207 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
208 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
209 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
210 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
211 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
212 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
214 The current default template is
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
216 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:
218 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
219 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
220 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
221 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
225 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options
`--date`,
`--datebefore` or
`--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
227 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format
`YYYYMMDD`.
228 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
`(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
232 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-
6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last
6 months
233 $ youtube-dl --date
19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January
1,
1970
234 $ youtube-dl --dateafter
20000101 --datebefore
20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between
2000 and
2010
238 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
240 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.
242 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
244 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.
246 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
248 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as
[vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or
[mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
250 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
252 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.
254 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
256 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`.
258 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
260 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`.
262 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
266 File "youtube-dl", line
2
267 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '
\x93' ...
269 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python
2.6 or
2.7.
271 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
273 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`.
275 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
277 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).
281 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
283 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
287 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues> . Unless you were prompted so or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email.
289 Please include the full output of the command when run with
`--verbose`. The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
291 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
293 When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
295 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
297 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may misread some parts.
299 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
301 - What the problem is
302 - How it could be fixed
303 - How your proposed solution would look like
305 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
307 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the *complete* output of youtube-dl when called with the -v flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
309 Site support requests must contain an example URL. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc . There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is *not* an example URL.
311 ### Are you using the latest version?
313 Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that you're up-to-date. Ábout
20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature requests as well.
315 ### Is the issue already documented?
317 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or at https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version
2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
319 ### Why are existing options not enough?
321 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at
[the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#synopsis). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
323 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
325 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
327 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
329 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
331 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
333 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
335 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
337 Only post features that you (or an incapicated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.