Error Messages When Using YouTube DL

[SpongebobFan1994]

Every so often when I'm using YouTube DL, one of the videos will stop dead in it's tracks and will list "error" under it's status. While restarting the download sometimes helps, there are other times when it doesn't. Just now, I tried closing out YTDL, bringing it back up again, and restarting the download, but that didn't work either.

[kukamuumuka]

Have you upgraded youtube-dl ?

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sudo youtube-dl -U

https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html

[DAMIEN1307]

I do not use youtube-dl i use "clipgrab"...works flawlessly...DAMIEN

https://clipgrab.org/

https://clipgrab.org/support

[SpongebobFan1994]

Have you upgraded youtube-dl ?

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sudo youtube-dl -U

https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html

I upgraded it just now, and while I managed to get some videos redownloaded, others still end up with error messages

[SpongebobFan1994]

I do not use youtube-dl i use "clipgrab"...works flawlessly...DAMIEN

https://clipgrab.org/

https://clipgrab.org/support

I'll try that and see how it is in comparison

[Flemur]

I'll try that and see how it is in comparison

Check your version: if you installed thru the "software manager" or the rest of the package system, you'll have an old version.

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youtube-dl --version

should return 2020.07.28

If it doesn't return that, remove your installed version and then install youtube-dl from the instructions on their website.

[SpongebobFan1994]

I'll try that and see how it is in comparison

Check your version: if you installed thru the "software manager" or the rest of the package system, you'll have an old version.

Code: Select all

youtube-dl --version

should return 2020.07.28

If it doesn't return that, remove your installed version and then install youtube-dl from the instructions on their website.

Actually, it does say

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2020.07.28

[nicolaasjan]

Actually, it does say

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2020.07.28

At the moment there is an open issue about youtube-dl not handling restricted video's on YouTube.
See: https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/26152
Could that be your issue as well?

I have applied the - not yet implemented - fix to the source code and then compiled youtube-dl and that worked for the case mentioned above.

Otherwise you can always open an issue at:
https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues.

[SpongebobFan1994]

Actually, it does say

Code: Select all

2020.07.28

At the moment there is an open issue about youtube-dl not handling restricted video's on YouTube.
See: https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/26152
Could that be your issue as well?

I have applied the - not yet implemented - fix to the source code and then compiled youtube-dl and that worked for the case mentioned above.

Otherwise you can always open an issue at:
https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues.

None of the videos I've tried to download are restricted, so it can't be anything related to that

[nicolaasjan]

None of the videos I've tried to download are restricted, so it can't be anything related to that

1. Do you have ffmpeg (or avconv) and ffprobe (or avprobe) installed?

2. If you're using Linux Mint 20, then be aware that python2 is no longer installed by default (youtube-dl uses that by default, but can use python3 as well, if told so).
See also here.
The easiest way of solving that, is by making an alias in the file .bash_aliases in the /home folder:

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alias youtube-dl='python3 /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl'

And could you provide us a link to one of the failing video's?
Then I can see if it fails here or not.

[Pippin]

Do you use VPN?

[SpongebobFan1994]

None of the videos I've tried to download are restricted, so it can't be anything related to that

1. Do you have ffmpeg (or avconv) and ffprobe (or avprobe) installed?

2. If you're using Linux Mint 20, then be aware that python2 is no longer installed by default (youtube-dl uses that by default, but can use python3 as well, if told so).
See also here.
The easiest way of solving that, is by making an alias in the file .bash_aliases in the /home folder:

Code: Select all

alias youtube-dl='python3 /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl'

And could you provide us a link to one of the failing video's?
Then I can see if it fails here or not.

1) I just installed ffmpeg, but ffprobe wasn't listed in software manager. Do I need both?

2) I'm currently running 19.3

3) Here's one of the links: https://invidio.us/watch?v=v-WmQ-ebwxM. Because of YouTube has clearly fallen from grace, I now use alternative YouTube players, such as Invidious or HookTube. I'm not sure if those have something to do with this problem or not.

[BG405]

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[brian@BG-T440-MANJARO Downloads] $ youtube-dl https://invidio.us/watch?v=v-WmQ-ebwxM
[youtube] v-WmQ-ebwxM: Downloading webpage
WARNING: Requested formats are incompatible for merge and will be merged into mkv.
[download] Destination: Zombieland 2 is a Lazy, Unfunny, Cash Grab! - Junk Film Review-v-WmQ-ebwxM.f137.mp4
[download] 100% of 357.40MiB in 00:44
[download] Destination: Zombieland 2 is a Lazy, Unfunny, Cash Grab! - Junk Film Review-v-WmQ-ebwxM.f251.webm
[download] 100% of 27.79MiB in 00:03
[ffmpeg] Merging formats into "Zombieland 2 is a Lazy, Unfunny, Cash Grab! - Junk Film Review-v-WmQ-ebwxM.mkv"
Deleting original file Zombieland 2 is a Lazy, Unfunny, Cash Grab! - Junk Film Review-v-WmQ-ebwxM.f137.mp4 (pass -k to keep)
Deleting original file Zombieland 2 is a Lazy, Unfunny, Cash Grab! - Junk Film Review-v-WmQ-ebwxM.f251.webm (pass -k to keep)
[brian@BG-T440-MANJARO Downloads] $ youtube-dl --version
2020.06.16.1

.. older version works ...

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[brian@BG-T440-MANJARO Downloads] $ sudo youtube-dl -U
[sudo] password for brian:
Updating to version 2020.07.28 ...
Updated youtube-dl. Restart youtube-dl to use the new version.

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[brian@BG-T440-MANJARO Downloads] $ youtube-dl https://invidio.us/watch?v=v-WmQ-ebwxM -o updatetest.mp4
[youtube] v-WmQ-ebwxM: Downloading webpage
WARNING: Requested formats are incompatible for merge and will be merged into mkv.
[download] Destination: updatetest.f137.mp4
[download] 100% of 357.40MiB in 00:48
[download] Destination: updatetest.mp4.f251
[download] 100% of 27.79MiB in 00:03
[ffmpeg] Merging formats into "updatetest.mkv"
Deleting original file updatetest.f137.mp4 (pass -k to keep)
Deleting original file updatetest.mp4.f251 (pass -k to keep)

.. current version works as well. Same result.

This is just a FYI (for your information) and I will be testing this on a Mint system or two today to attempt to determine if it's a problem with that or something specific to your setup. I suspect the latter, due to it working on some content for you.

[nicolaasjan]

1) I just installed ffmpeg, but ffprobe wasn't listed in software manager. Do I need both?

2) I'm currently running 19.3

3) Here's one of the links: https://invidio.us/watch?v=v-WmQ-ebwxM. Because of YouTube has clearly fallen from grace, I now use alternative YouTube players, such as Invidious or HookTube. I'm not sure if those have something to do with this problem or not.

Info about ffmpeg in Synaptic package manager:

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FFmpeg is the leading multimedia framework, able to decode, encode, transcode,
mux, demux, stream, filter and play pretty much anything that humans and
machines have created. It supports the most obscure ancient formats up to the
cutting edge.

This package contains:
 * ffmpeg: a command line tool to convert multimedia files between formats
 * ffserver: a multimedia streaming server for live broadcasts
 * ffplay: a simple media player based on SDL and the FFmpeg libraries
 * ffprobe: a simple multimedia stream analyzer
 * qt-faststart: a utility to rearrange Quicktime files

So ffprobe will be included.

https://invidio.us/watch?v=v-WmQ-ebwxM downloads fine here.
I run 19.3 as well.
But I have the alias for the youtube-dl command in .bash_aliases to let it use python3:

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alias youtube-dl='python3 /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl'

You can run youtube-dl in debug mode like this:

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youtube-dl -v https://invidio.us/watch?v=v-WmQ-ebwxM

Then you will see where it fails at.