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
20 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
21 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
22 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
23 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k)
25 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
26 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
27 from an initial value of SIZE.
28 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
29 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
30 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
34 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
35 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
36 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
38 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
40 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
41 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
43 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
46 ## Filesystem Options:
47 -t, --title use title in file name
48 --id use video ID in file name
49 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
50 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
51 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
52 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
53 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
54 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
55 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
56 extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
57 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
58 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
59 and %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to
60 stdout. Can also be used to download to a
61 different directory, for example with -o '/my/dow
62 nloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
63 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
64 when it is present in output filename template or
65 --autonumber option is given
66 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
67 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
68 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
69 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
70 -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
71 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
73 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
74 --no-part do not use .part files
75 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
76 file modification time
77 --write-description write video description to a .description file
78 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
80 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
81 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
82 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
84 --skip-download do not download the video
85 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
86 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
87 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
88 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
89 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
90 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
91 --newline output progress bar as new lines
92 --no-progress do not print progress bar
93 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
94 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
95 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
98 ## Video Format Options:
99 -f, --format FORMAT video format code
100 --all-formats download all available video formats
101 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
103 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
104 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
106 --write-sub write subtitle file (currently youtube only)
107 --only-sub downloads only the subtitles (no video)
108 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
109 video (currently youtube only)
110 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
111 (currently youtube only)
112 --sub-format LANG subtitle format [srt/sbv] (default=srt)
113 (currently youtube only)
114 --sub-lang LANG language of the subtitles to download (optional)
115 use IETF language tags like 'en'
117 ## Authentication Options:
118 -u, --username USERNAME account username
119 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
120 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
122 ## Post-processing Options:
123 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
124 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
125 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
126 "wav"; best by default
127 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
128 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
129 or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
130 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
131 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
132 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
133 processing; the video is erased by default
134 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
135 processed files are overwritten by default
139 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`.
143 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:
145 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
146 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
147 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
148 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
149 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
150 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
151 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
152 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
154 The current default template is `%(id)s.%(ext)s`, but that will be switchted to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` (which can be requested with `-t` at the moment).
156 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:
158 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
159 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
160 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
161 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
165 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
167 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.
169 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
171 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.
173 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
175 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
177 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
179 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.
181 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
183 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`.
185 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
187 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`.
189 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
193 File "youtube-dl", line 2
194 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
196 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
198 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
200 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`.
202 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
204 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).
208 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
210 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
214 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
218 * 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.
219 * If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
220 * The output of `youtube-dl --version`
221 * The output of `python --version`
222 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
224 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.