4 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
7 **youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
10 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
11 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
12 2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
13 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
14 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
17 -h, --help print this help text and exit
18 --version print program version and exit
19 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure
20 that you have sufficient permissions (run with
22 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to to
23 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
24 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
25 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
26 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
27 is restricted to one domain
28 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
30 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
31 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy
32 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
33 --cache-dir None Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can
34 store downloaded information permanently. By
35 default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache
37 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
40 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
41 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
42 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
44 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
46 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
47 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
49 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
51 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
52 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
53 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
54 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
55 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given age
56 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not present in the archive
57 file. Record all downloaded videos in it.
60 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
61 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
62 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k)
64 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
65 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
66 from an initial value of SIZE.
68 ## Filesystem Options:
69 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
70 --id use only video ID in file name
71 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
72 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
73 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
74 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
75 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
76 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
77 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
78 extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
79 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
80 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
81 , %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is in,
82 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
83 playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
84 output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
85 a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
86 ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
87 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
88 when it is present in output filename template or
89 --autonumber option is given
90 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
91 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
92 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
93 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
94 -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
95 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
97 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
98 --no-part do not use .part files
99 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
100 file modification time
101 --write-description write video description to a .description file
102 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
103 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
105 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
106 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
107 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
109 --skip-download do not download the video
110 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
111 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
112 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
113 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
114 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
115 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
116 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
117 --newline output progress bar as new lines
118 --no-progress do not print progress bar
119 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
120 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
121 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
124 ## Video Format Options:
125 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specifiy the order of
126 preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18". "-f mp4"
127 and "-f flv" are also supported
128 --all-formats download all available video formats
129 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
131 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
132 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
136 --write-sub write subtitle file
137 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
138 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
140 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
141 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
143 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
144 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
147 ## Authentication Options:
148 -u, --username USERNAME account username
149 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
150 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
151 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
153 ## Post-processing Options:
154 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
155 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
156 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
157 "wav"; best by default
158 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
159 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
160 or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
161 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
162 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
163 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
164 processing; the video is erased by default
165 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
166 processed files are overwritten by default
167 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
172 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`.
176 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:
178 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
179 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
180 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
181 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
182 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
183 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
184 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
185 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
186 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
187 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
189 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
191 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:
193 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
194 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
195 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
196 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
200 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
202 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
203 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
207 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
208 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January 1, 1970
209 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between 2000 and 2010
213 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
215 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.
217 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
219 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.
221 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
223 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
225 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
227 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.
229 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
231 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`.
233 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
235 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`.
237 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
241 File "youtube-dl", line 2
242 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
244 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
246 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
248 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`.
250 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
252 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).
256 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
258 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
262 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
266 * Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
267 * If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
268 * The output of `youtube-dl --version`
269 * The output of `python --version`
270 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
272 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.