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 fribidi executable in PATH
45 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
46 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
47 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
49 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
51 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
52 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
54 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
56 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
57 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
58 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
59 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
60 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given age
61 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the archive
62 file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in
66 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g.
68 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
69 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
71 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
72 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
73 from an initial value of SIZE.
75 ## Filesystem Options:
76 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
77 --id use only video ID in file name
78 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
79 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
80 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
81 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
82 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
83 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
84 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
85 extension, %(format)s for the format description
86 (like "22 - 1280x720" or "HD"),%(format_id)s for
87 the unique id of the format (like Youtube's
88 itags: "137"),%(upload_date)s for the upload date
89 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
90 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
91 , %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is in,
92 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
93 playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
94 output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
95 a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
96 ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
97 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
98 when it is present in output filename template or
99 --auto-number option is given
100 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
101 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
102 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
103 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
104 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files. By
105 default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if
107 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
109 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
110 --no-part do not use .part files
111 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
112 file modification time
113 --write-description write video description to a .description file
114 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
115 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation file
116 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
118 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
119 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
120 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
122 --skip-download do not download the video
123 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
124 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
125 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
126 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
127 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
128 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
129 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
130 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information
131 --newline output progress bar as new lines
132 --no-progress do not print progress bar
133 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
134 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
135 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
137 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in
138 the current directory to debug problems
140 ## Video Format Options:
141 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
142 preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18". "-f mp4"
143 and "-f flv" are also supported
144 --all-formats download all available video formats
145 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
147 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
148 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
152 --write-sub write subtitle file
153 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
154 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
156 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
157 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
159 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
160 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
163 ## Authentication Options:
164 -u, --username USERNAME account username
165 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
166 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
167 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
169 ## Post-processing Options:
170 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
171 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
172 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
173 "wav"; best by default
174 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
175 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
176 or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
177 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
178 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
179 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
180 processing; the video is erased by default
181 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
182 processed files are overwritten by default
183 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
185 --add-metadata add metadata to the files
189 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`.
193 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:
195 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
196 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
197 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
198 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
199 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
200 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
201 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
202 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
203 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
204 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
206 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
208 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:
210 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
211 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
212 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
213 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
217 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
219 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
220 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
224 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
225 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January 1, 1970
226 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between 2000 and 2010
230 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
232 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.
234 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
236 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.
238 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
240 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
242 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
244 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.
246 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
248 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`.
250 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
252 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`.
254 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
258 File "youtube-dl", line 2
259 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
261 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
263 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
265 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`.
267 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
269 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).
273 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
275 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
279 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
283 * 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.
284 * If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
285 * The output of `youtube-dl --version`
286 * The output of `python --version`
287 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
289 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.