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Jelle Glebbeek edited this page Mar 27, 2021 · 11 revisions

Index

No authentication

Trigger: ERROR: private video

Cause: This error occurs when ytdl tries to download a video that is private and or requires you to be logged in.

Solution: Try authenticating using cookies. For more info about this see the tutorial.

Private or non-existent playlist

Trigger: ERROR: The playlist does not exist

Cause: This error occurs when a playlist you are trying to download does not exist or is made private.

Solution: If you are certain the playlist exists you may have to authenticate using cookies. For more info about authentication see the tutorial.

Private or removed video

Trigger: metadata.formats is not iterable

Cause: This error occurs when ytdl returns an empty format header. This can mean that the video has not finished processing, is private or may not even exist.

Solution: If you are certain the video exists, wait for the video to finish processing or authenticate using cookies.

No connection could be made

Trigger: getaddrinfo failed

Cause: The service you are trying to download from is down. Or your internet/proxy connection may be down.

Solution: Try again at a later time, or fix your connection.

Unable to extract initial data

Trigger: ERROR: Unable to extract yt initial data

Cause: At this moment the cause of this error remains unknown. It just happens sometimes and may be a bug of ytdl.

Solution: Try to download the video again, it usually works on the 2nd try.

Too many requests (429)

Trigger: HTTP Error 429

Cause: The service has soft banned or ratelimited you. This can happen when you download too much videos in a short time. The ban usually lasts for no longer than 24 hours.

Solution: Wait for the ban to expire and take it easy next time. If you have a VPN you can also use this to circumvent the ban, although this is not recommended. After all you were softbanned/ratelimited with a reason.

Possible broken extractor (404)

Trigger: HTTP Error 404

Cause: The service you are trying to download from returned a HTTP 404 code. This usually means the extractor ytdl uses for this website is broken.

Solution: Wait for ytdl to fix the broken extractor. This app will automatically update to the latest version of ytdl.

URL not supported

Trigger: Unsupported URL

Cause: The URL you are trying to download is currently not support by ytdl and can't be downloaded as a result.

Solution: If you REALLY feel like ytdl should support the service you are trying to download from, you can open up an issue at their repository.

Incomplete video ID

Trigger: Incomplete YouTube ID

Cause: Work in progress.

Solution: Work in progress.

ffmpeg not found

Trigger: ffmpeg or avconv not found

Cause: Work in progress.

Solution: Work in progress.

Unhandled error

Trigger: ERROR:

Cause: Work in progress.

Solution: Work in progress.

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