Youtube_dl : ERROR : YouTube said: Unable to extract video data

Question

I'm making a little graphic interface with Python 3 which should download a youtube video with its URL. I used the youtube_dl module for that. This is my code :

import youtube_dl # Youtube_dl is used for download the video

ydl_opt = {"outtmpl" : "/videos/%(title)s.%(ext)s", "format": "bestaudio/best"} # Here we give some advanced settings. outtmpl is used to define the path of the video that we are going to download

def operation(link):
    """
    Start the download operation
    """
    try:
        with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opt) as yd: # The method YoutubeDL() take one argument which is a dictionary for changing default settings
            video = yd.download([link]) # Start the download
        result.set("Your video has been downloaded !")
    except Exception:
        result.set("Sorry, we got an error.")

operation("https://youtube.com/watch?v=...")

When I execute my code, I get this error:

ERROR: YouTube said: Unable to extract video data

I saw here that it was because it doesn't find any video info, how can I resolve this problem?

Vulgate

You will get more traction with this question if you are able to boil it down a bit to the specific section that is throwing this error. I’m often worried about not including enough data but people are generally more likely to engage if its a simple question, versus something which at first glance looks like ‘do this for me’. I’m not casting any aspersions about you, but people will click, glance, and hit back on these quite a lot. – Goodden

Is the error raised for any video or a specific one? (I think I read somewhere on Reddit that this can happen because of the age-gate) – Peanuts

@SolebaySharp Sorry it's just because I was not sure if something external to youtube_db could block my program – Vulgate

@MinionJim I tested my program with multiple videos and always got the same error – Vulgate

I just tested your code and it works except for the fact that the url is wrong. Firstly, you misspelt https (you have htps) and second it should be /watch rather than ?watch so your operation call line would become operation("https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."). I assume this is just a typo with the question, but I hope this resolves it (I could not reproduce your error) – Peanuts

Sorry it was only typing errors. It doesn't resolve the problem. I think the problem come from the windows interpreter because when I try to run my program directly in the windows command, it tells me "No module named youtube_dl" while I already installed it ... – Vulgate

But I still don't know how to resolve this problem ... – Vulgate

Ok, I'm running out of ideas :-( Do you have multiple Python interpreters installed (this is more for the ImportError than a solution to the question)? Is it because your path starts with a forward-slash (again, I presume you substitute %(title) with something as Windows won't like that as a path)? EDIT: in the future please @ me so it shows in my SO inbox thing – Peanuts

@MinionJim No I'm only using python 3.8.3 – Vulgate

And the path starting with a slash (does removing it fix the issue)? – Peanuts

@MinionJim No same error ... – Vulgate

As long as you don't get errors when you type import youtube_dl in your python shell there should be no problems with import. Can you download the video using youtube-dl on the command line? And why do you pass the link as a list []? – Farron

use sudo youtube-dl link to download video . Use the sudo before youtube-dl command. – Alban

Answer 1

Updating youtube-dl helped me. Depending on the way you installed it, here are the commands:

• youtube-dl --update (self-update)
• pip install -U youtube-dl (via python)
• brew upgrade youtube-dl (macOS + homebrew)
• choco upgrade youtube-dl (Windows + Chocolatey)

Silberman

pip install -U youtube-dl – Brnaba

brew upgrade youtube-dl in my case. – Darwin

choco upgrade youtube-dl in my case – Aphonic

If you're coming from Ubuntu/debian, you may as well not rely on the apt repository and instead install by another means, as documented on the youtube-dl github: github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#installation – Electrocautery

Don't forget to run "youtube-dl --update" with writing "sudo" first, otherwise, you can get an error like: "ERROR: no write permissions on /usr/local/Cellar/youtube-dl/2020.03.24/bin/youtube-dl". It's caused by permission status, not by youtube-dl – Hutchinson

pip3 install iU youtube-dl for python3 – Thirzi

In my case I use home-manager. I declared: unstable = import (fetchGit { name = "nixpkgsDarwinSandbox"; url = "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs"; ref = "refs/heads/master"; rev = "31014c4a2888cd4f782b0cba246f3b8036d63b30"; }) {}; ... home.packages = with pkgs; [ unstable.youtube-dl ... ] – Bathsheb

Can also download an updated version here: https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/index.html – Pohl

@NormanBreau I normally find it is best to do the initial install with apt as that way all the dependancies install correctly, then you can use --update to allow it to work. – Mildred

youtube-dl: error: youtube-dl's self-update mechanism is disabled on Debian. while updating – Flabby

There is an up2date snap package that works for me on KDE Neon, so probably any Ubuntu based distribution. – Chainplate

i'm getting the error even after updating youtube-dl to the latest version! – Hiphuggers

@shripalmehta Try the new replacement fork yt-dlp. – Extemporaneous

Answer 2

For ubuntu users:

sudo apt purge youtube-dl 
sudo pip3 install youtube-dl
hash youtube-dl

Voyeurism

If you get error: "ERROR: ffprobe/avprobe and ffmpeg/avconv not found. Please install one." , you can simply resolve it with: sudo apt install ffmpeg – Ulla

A third command you might want: hash youtube-dl – Tyrothricin

@BrentBaccala This should be added in the answer. – Meltage

Again, this fails with the same error. – Treadmill

Answer 3

I had the same error on Ubuntu 20.04. I solved it by updating youtube-dl by downloading a .deb from: https://packages.debian.org/sid/all/youtube-dl/download

Though you can also get the update on youtube-dl's official site.

Sejm

please include your code solution as text rather than an image – Vereeniging

Answer 4

The only thing that worked for me on Ubuntu was to install using the Debian package / .deb file:

wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/y/youtube-dl/youtube-dl_2021.02.04.1-1_all.deb
sudo apt install ./youtube-dl_2021.02.04.1-1_all.deb

Gouache

@CharithJayasanka the .deb file gets updated every once and a while... just download & install the most recent one, such as (as of today) http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/y/youtube-dl/youtube-dl_2021.02.10-1_all.deb – Gouache

Answer 5

Install yt-dlp as an alternative to youtube-dl

Save yourself time and install yt-dlp instead using pip with python 3.7+:

python -m pip install -U yt-dlp

then

yt-dlp video_url -o /path/to/output.mp4

for example:

yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKCvphbCpPE -o ~/Videos/my_video.mp4

Why use yt-dlp?

Quoted from the package repo:

yt-dlp is a youtube-dl fork based on the now inactive youtube-dlc. The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project

Worked for me after nearly 1 painful hour of searching.

Festivity

Fails with the same error. So no. – Treadmill

@Treadmill have you uninstalled the previously installed youtube-dl? If you're on Ubuntu, try which youtube-dl to see if you still have youtube-dl installed. Use yt-dlp video_url? – Festivity

Tracked down the problem: the machine I was running it on is still using Python 3.6, and the latest, working versions of both yt-dlp & youtube-dl have dropped support for that version. I switched to a different machine with Python 3.8 & yt-dlp works. Haven't tried with youtube-dl, but since yt-dlp is behaving correctly I might not bother. – Treadmill

This worked. Many other solutions mentioned here failed for me. – Berezniki

Answer 6

Ubuntu Users:

The simplest & quickest way to solve this issue without running around and trying a thousand different solutions is to completely remove Youtube-dl and reinstall it using the .deb file & apt. First, purge it from your system.

sudo apt purge youtube-dl 

OR

sudo pip3 uninstall youtube-dl

Next, go HERE (http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/y/youtube-dl/youtube-dl_2021.12.17-1_all.deb) to download the .deb file. Once the file is downloaded, install using apt with the command below. This will solve your issue. Obviously you will make sure your version number & file name are correct.

sudo apt install ./youtube-dl_2021.12.17-1_all.deb

If this solution works for you PLEASE vote it up so that others can easily find it.

Peshawar

Answer 7

If you are using youtube-dl command line on MacOsx update using this command :

sudo youtube-dl --update

Lapstrake

Please add a comment instead of writing a new answer. Because it answered already by Manoj D Bhat, Dec 10 '20 at 8:30, 11 days before yours. – Hutchinson

Answer 8

If you have pip installed you can use it to update youtube-dl that helped me.

sudo pip install --upgrade youtube_dl

Waldemar

Answer 9

You could try adding a cookie file as some videos are age restricted. Use this plugin Chrome plugin Cookie.txt to download your cookies in a txt file then use these --cookies /path/to/cookies/file.txt flags not forgetting to put the right path to the file of your cookies.txt.

Sample:

youtube-dl -n --cookies ~/Downloads/cookies.txt https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=h7Ii7KKapig

Surce

Abrasive

your link [Chrome plugin Cookie.txt][chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookiestxt/… is dead – Motet

this wout do: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/get-cookiestxt/… – Motet

Is the -n option needed? Without it is not working... – Ascidium

ERROR: 0TYq9RjdYYU: YouTube said: Invalid parameters. – Brottman

Answer 10

The youtube-dl package is using python code and it's looking for the correct python version to run. If you have python3 then enter:

sudo sed -i '1s/python/python3/' /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

Friendship