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
20 sure that you have sufficient permissions
21 (run with sudo if needed)
22 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example 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
27 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
28 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
29 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video
30 access is restricted to one domain
31 --add-header FIELD:VALUE specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
32 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
34 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs
36 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
38 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
39 an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
41 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
42 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
43 information about the video. (Currently
44 supported only for YouTube)
45 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
46 can store some downloaded information
47 permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME
48 /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the
49 moment, only YouTube player files (for
50 videos with obfuscated signatures) are
51 cached, but that may change.
52 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
53 --socket-timeout None Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
54 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
55 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
56 or fribidi executable in PATH
57 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
58 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
59 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
60 apple". By default (with value "auto")
62 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
63 in the global configuration file /etc
64 /youtube-dl.conf: do not read the user
65 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf
66 (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
70 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
71 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
72 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or
74 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
76 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
77 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
78 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
79 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
81 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
82 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before
83 this date (i.e. inclusive)
84 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after
85 this date (i.e. inclusive)
86 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
88 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
90 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
91 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given
93 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
94 archive file. Record the IDs of all
95 downloaded videos in it.
96 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
98 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Try to download the DASH manifest on
99 YouTube videos (experimental)
102 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second
104 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
105 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
107 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer
108 size. By default, the buffer size is
109 automatically resized from an initial value
112 ## Filesystem Options:
113 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
114 --id use only video ID in file name
115 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
116 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
117 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to
118 get the title, %(uploader)s for the
119 uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
120 uploader nickname if different,
121 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
122 incremented number, %(ext)s for the
123 filename extension, %(format)s for the
124 format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
125 "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
126 the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
127 %(upload_date)s for the upload date
128 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
129 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
130 video id, %(playlist)s for the playlist the
131 video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
132 position in the playlist and %% for a
133 literal percent. %(height)s and %(width)s
134 for the width and height of the video
135 format. %(resolution)s for a textual
136 description of the resolution of the video
137 format. Use - to output to stdout. Can also
138 be used to download to a different
139 directory, for example with -o '/my/downloa
140 ds/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
141 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in
142 %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
143 filename template or --auto-number option
145 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
146 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
148 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for
150 --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
151 (created with the "--write-json" option)
152 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
153 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files.
154 By default, youtube-dl will resume
155 downloads if possible.
156 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files
157 (restart from beginning)
158 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie
160 --no-part do not use .part files
161 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set
162 the file modification time
163 --write-description write video description to a .description
165 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
166 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation
168 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
170 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
171 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
172 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
174 --skip-download do not download the video
175 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
176 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
177 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
178 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
179 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
180 --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
181 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
182 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
183 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information
184 --newline output progress bar as new lines
185 --no-progress do not print progress bar
186 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
187 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
188 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems
190 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
191 files in the current directory to debug
193 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
195 ## Video Format Options:
196 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
197 preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18".
198 "-f mp4" and "-f flv" are also supported.
199 You can also use the special names "best",
200 "bestvideo", "bestaudio", "worst",
201 "worstvideo" and "worstaudio". By default,
202 youtube-dl will pick the best quality.
203 --all-formats download all available video formats
204 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific
206 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
207 -F, --list-formats list all available formats
210 --write-sub write subtitle file
211 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube
213 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of
215 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
216 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt]
218 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download
219 (optional) separated by commas, use IETF
220 language tags like 'en,pt'
222 ## Authentication Options:
223 -u, --username USERNAME account username
224 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
225 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
226 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
228 ## Post-processing Options:
229 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files
230 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
232 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
233 "opus", or "wav"; best by default
234 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
235 insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
236 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like
238 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
239 necessary (currently supported:
241 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the
242 post-processing; the video is erased by
244 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the
245 post-processed files are overwritten by
247 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
249 --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
250 --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs
251 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
252 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
253 postprocessors (default)
254 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
259 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/config`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and `C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf`.
263 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:
265 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
266 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
267 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
268 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
269 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
270 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
271 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
272 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
273 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
274 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
276 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
278 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:
280 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
281 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
282 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
283 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
287 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
289 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
290 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
294 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
295 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
297 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
298 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
300 $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
301 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
305 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
307 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.
309 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
311 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.
313 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
315 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
317 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
319 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.
321 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
323 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`.
325 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
327 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`.
329 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
333 File "youtube-dl", line 2
334 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
336 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
338 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
340 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`.
342 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
344 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).
346 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
348 Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can [download the builds](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html) or get them from their distribution.
350 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
354 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
356 python -m unittest discover
357 python test/test_download.py
360 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
368 ### Adding support for a new site
370 If you want to add support for a new site, copy *any* [recently modified](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/commits/master/youtube_dl/extractor) file in `youtube_dl/extractor`, add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py). Have a look at [`youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L38). Don't forget to run the tests with `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`! For a detailed tutorial, refer to [this blog post](http://filippo.io/add-support-for-a-new-video-site-to-youtube-dl/).
374 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.
376 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.
378 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
380 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):
382 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
384 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.
386 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
388 - What the problem is
389 - How it could be fixed
390 - How your proposed solution would look like
392 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.
394 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.
396 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.
398 ### Are you using the latest version?
400 Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that you're up-to-date. About 20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature requests as well.
402 ### Is the issue already documented?
404 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.
406 ### Why are existing options not enough?
408 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.
410 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
412 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).
414 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.
416 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
418 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.
420 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.
422 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
424 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.
426 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
428 It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's own application. Please make sure that you are actually using youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
432 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
434 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.