Some known common issues. Make sure to always check this before opening issues. Duplicates of these will be strictly treated as spam!

Useful issue tracker filters:

[Core Issues] [Site Issues] [YouTube issues] [Good issues for new devs]

Intractable issues

• [YouTube] This content isn't available, try again later. #11426
  • You are exceeding the rate limit. Refer to the wiki on how to avoid.
• Passing Youtube cookies doesn't seem to work; cookies are being invalidated quickly #8227
  • How to effectively export YouTube cookies
• [youtube] Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot. This helps protect our community #10128
  • Your IP has been blocked by YouTube while you are logged out. You can pass logged-in cookies; however, doing so may get your account blocked. The safer solution is to use a different IP.
  • To prevent this, try passing a PO Token, though it will not help if your IP is already blocked.
• [youtube] "Video unavailable" with cookies - YouTube blocking accounts from web #10085
  • Your account has been blocked by YouTube, or the video is not available in your region.
  • Avoid passing cookies, or add a sleep delay to each download.
• [Youtube] Immediate HTTP Error 403 on download #11868
  • Not to be confused with [YouTube] "HTTP Error 403: Forbidden" for ios m3u8 formats #13511, which is fixed

Recently solved bugs

Use nightly/master builds, pip install nightly or master, or wait for release

• [vimeo] "No video formats found!" with credentials, or "Failed to fetch android OAuth token: HTTP Error 400: Bad Request" #13822
• [TVer] "This video is available in Japan" with Japanese IP / HTTP Error 403: Forbidden #13874

Update to latest version

• [YouTube] version 2025.06.25 doesn't get Premium formats with cookies #13545
• [YouTube] "HTTP Error 403: Forbidden" for ios m3u8 formats #13511
• [YouTube] DRM on ALL videos with tv (TVHTML5) client #12563
• [Twitch] Regression: Failed to download m3u8 information: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden #13581
• [patreon:campaign] Unable to extract next.js data #13622
• [Hotstar] HTTP Error 503: Service Unavailable with cookies #11195
• [youtube] player fc2a56a5: nsig extraction failed: Some formats may be missing #13401
• [Patreon Video Download] Failed to download m3u8 information: HTTP Error 403 #13263
• [adobepass] --ap-mso HTTP Error 451: Unavailable For Legal Reasons #11811
• NBC Extractor gives 400 and 404 errors on recent URLs #12432
• [vimeo] An extractor error has occurred. (caused by KeyError('config_url')) #12974
• [YouTube] non-original audio tracks being returned/downloaded as default #11753

Bugs

• [YouTube] Unable to download video subtitles: HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests #13831
• [youtube] Extractor sometimes gives empty/generic title #13604
• [youtube] web only has SABR formats #12482
  • Try using PO Tokens with the mweb or web_creator player clients
• [youtube] "The following content is not available on this app" / no working formats found #13930
• [youtube:tab] Shorts playlists: Only 100 shorts are extracted from playlist #11130
• [Vimeo] HTTP Error 429/403 When Using Impersonate Target #10422
• [twitch] Cannot extract more than 100 VODs from a channel when providing cookies to yt-dlp #7058
  • Do not pass cookies to yt-dlp
• [facebook] Cannot parse data #4311
• [instagram:user] ERROR: Unable to extract data #4394
• [instagram] "General metadata extraction failed" / extractor needs better fallback(s) #7165
• --ap-mso DTV Broken: Unable to extract post url #2188
• [ytmusic] Parse metadata from music.youtube.com #622 / [Youtube] Can't download "Music Charts" at format 141 #5546
  • Metadata from youtube.com is used for ytmusic
• Twitch live streams have out of sync audio and lowered pitch #4280
  • Use --live-from-start or --fixup never
• Cannot download video from udemy #1164
• --trim-filenames fails to clip file name properly when there is a dot in a video title #2314
  • Use -o %(title).200B.%(ext)s
• [teachable] ERROR: Unable to find Video URL https://edu.ecomsuccess.pk/courses/enrolled/903296 #3564
• CeskaTelevize broken #6539
• iQIYI extractor can't find any video #2740
• [Viu] URLs are using generic extractor instead of Viu extractor #6482
• [abciview] [zee5] ERROR: Data must be padded to 16 byte boundary in CBC mode #3810
• [Ixigua] ERROR: Failed to get SSR_HYDRATED_DATA #5374
• Douyin always errors saying fresh cookies are needed, even when passing them #9667
• [TikTok] Intermittent "Unable to extract webpage video data" when downloading full channels #10919
• [tiktok] Intermittent "Unable to extract webpage video data" errors #12574
• [TikTok:live] The channel is not currently live (due to captcha challenge page) #9418
• [TikTok:live] Livestreams are mistaken as "not currently live" after JSON metadata request #11921
• [tiktok] API returns empty response #13134
• [vk] Failed to parse JSON (caused by JSONDecodeError("Expecting value in '': line 1 column 1 (char 0)")) #12970
• [BiliBili] No video formats found #12887

External issues

• ffmpeg can't seek in Youtube's iOS m3u8 streams / --download-sections only downloads audio #9552
  • Use -S proto:https or --extractor-args "youtube:player_client=default,-ios"
• --cookies-from-browser errors when Chrome/chromium-based browser is open in Windows #7271
  • Try after closing chrome completely OR
  • Launch chrome from command line w/ chrome.exe --disable-features=LockProfileCookieDatabase
  • Alternatively, you can install the ChomeCookieUnlock yt-dlp plugin
• --cookies-from-browser: WARNING: failed to decrypt with DPAPI / ERROR: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'decode' #10927
• [youtube] Is downloading a livestream in 1440p or 2160p no longer available? #11262
• [Youtube] 8k VR180 SBS videos no longer available #9903
  • Use --extractor-arg "youtube:player_client=android_vr,default"
• [Youtube] throttling and inconsistent speed in Russia #10443
  • Workarounds
• [Discord bot] Music stops in the middle #8854
• [youtube] Endless "Incomplete data received" when downloading playlist #10394
  • Don't use --extractor-retries infinite
• FFMPEG "Invalid data found when processing input" on live/post-live/dash videos (duplicate ftyp) #8641
  • Regression in ffmpeg 6.1. Upgrade to ffmpeg 6.1.1 or to master build revision N-112916 or later
• [youtube] "Invalid data found when processing input" / ffmpeg errors on HDR VP9 in mp4 #7541
  • ffmpeg bug. Upgrade to ffmpeg 7.0.1 or to the latest master build
• --mark-watched fails with urlopen error #8149
  • Disable pi-hole or whitelist s.youtube.com
• Chapter Embedding Results in Unnamed Chapters When Using Recent FFmpeg Builds #6859
  • ffmpeg regression. Use https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds or upgrade to 6.1.1 or newer
• yt-dlp is detected as a virus #25
  • It's a false positive. Complain to your vendor. There is nothing we can do
• Incomplete Data Recieved #1787
  • Broken from Youtube's side. If downloading comments, use -i to ignore the error
• Wrong year in metadata in M4A, MP4, FLAC format #3087
  • Workaround: --parse-metadata "%(release_year,upload_date).4s:(?P<meta_date>.+)"
• pyinstaller temp files are not cleaned up when using yt-dlp.exe with mpv #10294
• Long Start-Up Time for yt-dlp_macos #10425
• --download-sections / ffmpeg fails to seek in a 26+ hour long Twitch m3u8 #5372
• Using proxy and --download-sections/ ffmpeg fails with HTTP Error 400/401/403 #12915

FAQ

See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ

• Filename too long
  • -o %(title).200B.%(ext)s
• [Question] odd ba* format selection? #979 (comment)
  • Generally do not use ba*
• Fix playlist_index's inconsistent behavior #302
  • Check playlist_autonumber and --compat-option playlist-index
• yt-dlp python module not compiling with pyinstaller #3845
  • Use bundle/pyinstaller.py
• Subtitle file is not deleted after being embedded #630 (comment)
  • Use --compat-option no-keep-subs
• --download-sections/--sponsorblock-remove does not cut at exact point #4216 / YouTube Clip Downloads have unintented extra beginning part with no video #5080
  • Use --force-keyframes-at-cuts
• Duplicating pull request from youtube-dl to yt-dlp #4202
• How to check in browser if the video is DRM protected
• --cookies-from-browser for a chrome/firefox like browser or non-default install location #2903
• What are yt-dlp's error codes? #4262 (comment)
• Extractor option language for crunchyrollbeta #4640
• Ability to strip Emoji from downloaded file  #4836 / File names use "full-width" special characters: '？' vs '?' #5014
• [Youtube] Extract exact timestamps #1803
• [Feature Request] Crop to square thumbnail when embedding in MP3s #429 (comment)
• Download only videos with subtitles
  • --parse-metadata "%(subtitles.\:.0.ext|)s:^(?!\[\])(?P<has_subs>.)" -v --match-filter has_subs
• How do I rename previously-downloaded files with nothing but the youtube video ID? #5692
• Remove specific fields from info-json - [Suggestion] Redact formats in info json with an option #455 (comment)
• About subtitles in mp4 container - Convert webvtt subtitles in mp4 into useable format #5833 (comment)
• Find the API option for a CLI argument #5859 (comment)
  • Use https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py
• [YouTube] youtube:skip=translated_subs doesn't work for some videos. #3875
• Youtube bestvideo and vp9 preference. #1232 (comment)
• repo: git log broken by SSH signature #7322
• download comments into separate comments.json file #2372 (comment)
• How to force a conversion to a specific video codec? #7607 (comment)
• How to download youtube videos in mp4 format? #8880
• How do I properly pass my Soundcloud oauth token to yt-dlp? #12249 (comment)
• [youtube] 256kbps music formats not being extracted #12455 (comment)

PS: These are just the most common issues at the moment. Make sure to search for duplicates in general before opening issues. Looking at this is not an excuse to not search for other duplicates!