iwara.tv extractors broken due to Cloudflare #13672
Description
Checklist
- I'm reporting that yt-dlp is broken on a supported site
- I've verified that I have updated yt-dlp to nightly or master (update instructions)
- I've checked that all provided URLs are playable in a browser with the same IP and same login details
- I've checked that all URLs and arguments with special characters are properly quoted or escaped
- I've searched known issues, the FAQ, and the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones. DO NOT post duplicates
- I've read about sharing account credentials and I'm willing to share it if required
Region
United States
Provide a description that is worded well enough to be understood
Summary
Since July 8, 2025, Iwara has implemented Cloudflare protection (likely Turnstile or Managed Challenge), which breaks yt-dlp’s ability to fetch metadata and download videos. This results in a JSONDecodeError, as Cloudflare returns HTML instead of JSON when the API endpoint is hit without a valid session.
Error output
[iwara] 7rr1s5u30B2RtG: Downloading JSON metadata
ERROR: [iwara] 7rr1s5u30B2RtG: 7rr1s5u30B2RtG: Failed to parse JSON (caused by JSONDecodeError("Expecting value in '': line 1 column 1 (char 0)"))
Analysis
- Iwara now uses Cloudflare's managed JS challenges, which the current extractor cannot bypass.
- The site no longer provides a traditional login cookie (
connect.sid,laravel_session, etc.). - Instead, login state is stored in
localStoragein the form of a Bearer token. - This token is used for all authenticated API calls via:
Authorization: Bearer <token> - Neither
--username/--passwordnor--cookiescan be used to bypass the new system. cf_clearancealone is insufficient.
Example video (NSFW) https://www.iwara.tv/video/7rr1s5u30B2RtG/darkside-or-marvel-rivals-hmv
Provide verbose output that clearly demonstrates the problem
- Run your yt-dlp command with -vU flag added (
yt-dlp -vU <your command line>) - If using API, add
'verbose': TruetoYoutubeDLparams instead - Copy the WHOLE output (starting with
[debug] Command-line config) and insert it below
Complete Verbose Output
(P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda) PS M:\Vids> yt-dlp --verbose https://www.iwara.tv/video/7rr1s5u30B2RtG/darkside-or-marvel-rivals-hmv
[debug] Command-line config: ['--verbose', 'https://www.iwara.tv/video/7rr1s5u30B2RtG/darkside-or-marvel-rivals-hmv']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out utf-8, error utf-8, screen utf-8
[debug] yt-dlp version stable@2025.06.30 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp [b01878449] (pip)
[debug] Python 3.12.7 (CPython AMD64 64bit) - Windows-11-10.0.26100-SP0 (OpenSSL 3.0.15 3 Sep 2024)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.3.1, ffprobe 4.3.1
[debug] Optional libraries: certifi-2024.08.30, requests-2.32.3, sqlite3-3.45.3, urllib3-2.2.3
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests
[debug] Extractor Plugins: PMVHavenVideoIE
[debug] Post-Processor Plugins: StashPP
[debug] Plugin directories: P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp_plugins
[debug] Loaded 1865 extractors
[iwara] Extracting URL: https://www.iwara.tv/video/7rr1s5u30B2RtG/darkside-or-marvel-rivals-hmv
[iwara] 7rr1s5u30B2RtG: Downloading JSON metadata
ERROR: [iwara] 7rr1s5u30B2RtG: 7rr1s5u30B2RtG: Failed to parse JSON (caused by JSONDecodeError("Expecting value in '': line 1 column 1 (char 0)")); please report this issue on https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues?q= , filling out the appropriate issue template. Confirm you are on the latest version using yt-dlp -U
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 752, in extract
ie_result = self._real_extract(url)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp\extractor\iwara.py", line 167, in _real_extract
video_data = self._download_json(
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1149, in download_content
res = getattr(self, download_handle.__name__)(url_or_request, video_id, **kwargs)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1114, in download_handle
return parse(self, content, video_id, transform_source=transform_source, fatal=fatal, errnote=errnote), urlh
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1102, in parse
return getattr(ie, parser)(content, *args, **kwargs)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1089, in _parse_json
self.__print_error('Failed to parse JSON' if errnote is None else errnote, fatal, video_id, ve)
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1072, in __print_error
raise ExtractorError(f'{video_id}: {errnote}', cause=err)
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp\utils\_utils.py", line 567, in decode
return super().decode(s)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\json\decoder.py", line 337, in decode
obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\json\decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1086, in _parse_json
return json.loads(
^^^^^^^^^^^
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\json\__init__.py", line 359, in loads
return cls(**kw).decode(s)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "P:\Assets\Scripting\yt-dlp-stash\yt-dlp-stash\.conda\Lib\site-packages\yt_dlp\utils\_utils.py", line 575, in decode
raise type(e)(f'{e.msg} in {s[e.pos - 10:e.pos + 10]!r}', s, e.pos)
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value in '': line 1 column 1 (char 0)