Video Down Loader Stopped Working [Solved]

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I've been using Video Loader for around six months or so to download YouTube videos for future reference. It was working fine a day or two ago but when I tried to download a video today, it kept failing, giving me this error message: "ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'youtube_dl'". I tried uninstalling it in the Software Manager, then reinstalling it; no joy. I tried doing a Timeshift restore back to a date before when I'm certain it was working. Still no joy. I tried installing "youtube dl" from the Software manager, again without any luck.

Now what?

Code: Select all

jeannie@Laptop1:~$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
  Host: Laptop1 Kernel: 5.4.0-51-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
  v: 7.5.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.8 wm: muffin 4.4.4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: System76 product: Serval v: serw11-b serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: System76 model: Serval v: serw11-b serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1.05.25-1 date: 07/10/2019 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 61.8 Wh condition: 78.4/79.9 Wh (98%) volts: 16.2/14.8 
  model: Notebook BAT type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Unknown 
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M525 
  serial: <filter> charge: 100% rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: 8-Core model: Intel Core i7-9700K bits: 64 type: MCP 
  arch: Kaby Lake rev: D L2 cache: 12.0 MiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 57600 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/4900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 
  3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 801 7: 800 8: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: nvidia v: 455.28 
  bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1f51 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~144Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce RTX 2060/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 455.28 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 200 Series PCH HD Audio vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:a2f0 
  Device-2: NVIDIA vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:10f9 
  Device-3: N/A type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
  bus ID: 1-5.3:7 chip ID: 21b4:0082 serial: <filter> 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-51-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2500 Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: alx v: kernel port: d000 bus ID: 6d:00.0 
  chip ID: 1969:e0b1 
  IF: enp109s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Intel Wireless-AC 9260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: d000 
  bus ID: 70:00.0 chip ID: 8086:2526 
  IF: wlp112s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 4.19 TiB used: 987.49 GiB (23.0%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 970 PRO 512GB 
  size: 476.94 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: 1B2QEXP7 
  scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 PRO 4TB size: 3.73 TiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 1B6Q scheme: GPT 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 452.31 GiB used: 37.84 GiB (8.4%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
  ID-2: swap-1 size: 15.91 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 45 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 1351 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot all main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mkusb-ppa-bionic.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mkusb/ppa/ubuntu bionic main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages tricia main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://la-mirrors.evowise.com/ubuntu bionic main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://la-mirrors.evowise.com/ubuntu bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://la-mirrors.evowise.com/ubuntu bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ bionic partner
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/system76-dev-stable-bionic.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76-dev/stable/ubuntu bionic main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teejeetech-aptik.list 
  1: deb https://packages.teejeetech.com/aptik/S7tBVjLBzw stable main
Info:
  Processes: 288 Uptime: 15m Memory: 15.46 GiB used: 1.72 GiB (11.1%) 
  Init: systemd v: 237 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.5.0 alt: 7 Shell: bash 
  v: 4.4.20 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.32 
jeannie@Laptop1:~$ 

[iironjade]

Most likely this is caused by YouTube wanting to stop people downloading for free. The Video Download Helper extension in Firefox also no longer works.

[Hoser Rob]

Actually streaming downloaders have always stopped working sometimes, streaming sites don't like people using them so they change protocols all the time. However, with Github being forced to remove youtube-dl, the situation seems to be getting worse.

[hereweare]

Expect more such joys now that Microsoft owns GitHub.

[Hoser Rob]

Expect more such joys now that Microsoft owns GitHub.

It'd be happening no matter who owned it, the action was taken by the RIAA. MS had nothing to so with it.

[DAMIEN1307]

The days of "free" youtube downloads even for just personal use are going to be pretty much over...Note that much of this was illegal copyright infringment to begin with...its just now catching up to them is all...DAMIEN

https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/3687

https://9to5google.com/2020/10/28/youtu ... -takedown/

The larger issue is that youtube-dl will likely cease to receive updates for the time being, and therefore, any changes made by YouTube or other video services could potentially cause the tool to no longer function. As youtube-dl is a fairly well-known and powerful tool, with over 72,000 stars on GitHub, it’s likely there are many other tools that rely on it for their YouTube-related capabilities.

Sounds like your downloader relied on youtube-dl.

[iironjade]

At least Pornhub still works (I'm told).

[MartyMint]

Look into youtube-dlc.
It looks like they're trying to pick up the slack.

https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/co ... youtubedl/

https://pypi.org/project/youtube-dlc/

[sjmathis]

In response to the original post: If you really need a copy of a video that's playing on your screen, there's always Screen Recorder (or something like that - I haven't tried it). If you're just after music, you can run Audacity in the background with it's recorder turned on, and when it's finished, you can clean it up, tweak it how ever you want, and then export it to your favorite format. A little more tedious than downloading, but not hard to do if you have the time.

With regard to the other comments, it seems to me that the folks using DCMA to kill software development that allows illegal behaviour are going too far with this latest effort. Next they will want to remove Transmission from Linux since it might permit the downloading of copyrighted material.

[nicolaasjan]

Look into youtube-dlc.
It looks like they're trying to pick up the slack.

As I said in the Chat section:

I've switched to youtube-dlc now.
Unfortunately that repo was also taken down, but restarted under a different name: yt-dlc.
https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc
It's actively maintained and has fixed a lot of issues youtube-dl had in the last months.
He removed the infringing parts from the source code too.

In the last few days it stopped working on e.g. Bandcamp and sometimes on YouTube as well (they are testing a new player...)
But when you build from the master branch yourself for now, it works OK again.

@Lady Fitzgerald

I tried installing "youtube dl" from the Software manager, again without any luck.

That one is so old, that it has become obsolete.

[rincewind256]

Or you could use JDownloader2:
https://jdownloader.org/de/download/index

Works with many "Tube-Pages"...

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks for the suggestions. I had someone suggest youtube-dl, who told me how to install and use it, and it's been working fine so far. I went to the github page to check out youtube-dlc and I can't make out heads nor tails of how to use that site to get a program. Can anyone tell me how to use github?

[nicolaasjan]

Thanks for the suggestions. I had someone suggest youtube-dl, who told me how to install and use it, and it's been working fine so far. I went to the github page to check out youtube-dlc and I can't make out heads nor tails of how to use that site to get a program. Can anyone tell me how to use github?

Read the Readme.
Installation

Easiest way:

Code: Select all

sudo wget https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/releases/latest/download/youtube-dlc -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc

If you have any further questions, you could go to the youtube-dl Subreddit:
https://reddit.com/r/youtubedl/

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks for the suggestions. I had someone suggest youtube-dl, who told me how to install and use it, and it's been working fine so far. I went to the github page to check out youtube-dlc and I can't make out heads nor tails of how to use that site to get a program. Can anyone tell me how to use github?

Read the Readme.
Installation

Easiest way:

Code: Select all

sudo wget https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/releases/latest/download/youtube-dlc -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc

If you have any further questions, you could go to the youtube-dl Subreddit:
https://reddit.com/r/youtubedl/

Thank you! Dummy me got confused by all that meaningless (to me) text at the top of the page and didn't look far enough down.

[nicolaasjan]

Thank you! Dummy me got confused by all that meaningless (to me) text at the top of the page and didn't look far enough down.

No problem!
GitHub can be rather intimidating, when you first encounter it.

But on the top part (at the right), there is a section "Releases", pointing to:
https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/releases
There you can find the executables as well.
But then you have to do everything manually:

1. Download youtube-dlc
2. Make it executable
3. Copy it to /usr/local/bin (as root)

Make sure you update regularly (caveat: the -U option to do so, doesn't yet work. See here).

Also, there have been several important issues, that are not yet resolved in the last release (most notably a fix for YouTube).
If you really want it fixed right now, your only option is to compile the executable from the so called "master branch"...
That might be too much for you (or not?)

If you want to try, make sure you have git and it's dependencies installed.

If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need

python
make (only GNU make is supported)
pandoc
zip
nosetests

Then make an empty directory (e.g. /home/git) and issue these commands to create a local copy of the source tree:

Code: Select all

git clone https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc.git
cd yt-dlc
make

That's all.
After that, the new youtube-dlc executable has been created and can be copied to /usr/local/bin

Screenshot

P.S.
Nice laptop you have there...
But:

$1,299 price tag for the base configuration, or $4,877 when you max out all the available options.

[phd21]

Hi "Lady Fitzgerald",

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

4K Video Downloader | Free Video Downloader for PС, macOS and Linux | 4K Download
https://www.4kdownload.com/products/pro ... downloader

[nicolaasjan]

Hi "Lady Fitzgerald",

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

4K Video Downloader | Free Video Downloader for PС, macOS and Linux | 4K Download
https://www.4kdownload.com/products/pro ... downloader

I have that one as well, but nowadays there is a 30 downloads a day limit...

IMHO youtube-dl(c) is much more versatile and you can even add it to your browsers right click menu with the help of the "Open With" extension (screenshot)

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Hi "Lady Fitzgerald",

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

4K Video Downloader | Free Video Downloader for PС, macOS and Linux | 4K Download
https://www.4kdownload.com/products/pro ... downloader

I have that one as well, but nowadays there is a 30 downloads a day limit...

IMHO youtube-dl(c) is much more versatile and you can even add it to your browsers right click menu with the help of the "Open With" extension (screenshot)

Dang! Up to 30 4k downloads a day? I though I was being extravagant doing an average of 1-3 1080 downloads a day. I feel so inadequate now. (I'm not putting you down, btw.) I don't really need 4k on the kinds of videos I download (almost entirely tutorials), not to mention none of my monitors support it.

I have both youtube-dl and youtube-dlc installed now and, so far, curiously enough, the only one to fail to download one video was dlc (dl worked just fine on that video; curious). Methinks I'll just keep using dl (if it ain't broke, don't fix it) and keep dlc as a backup.

The open with extension looks nice but and would be more convenient but it's for Firefox and I use Brave. I couldn't find anything similar for Brave (sniff, sniff).

[nicolaasjan]

Dang! Up to 30 4k downloads a day? I though I was being extravagant doing an average of 1-3 1080 downloads a day. I feel so inadequate now. (I'm not putting you down, btw.) I don't really need 4k on the kinds of videos I download (almost entirely tutorials), not to mention none of my monitors support it.

I have both youtube-dl and youtube-dlc installed now and, so far, curiously enough, the only one to fail to download one video was dlc (dl worked just fine on that video; curious). Methinks I'll just keep using dl (if it ain't broke, don't fix it) and keep dlc as a backup.

The open with extension looks nice but and would be more convenient but it's for Firefox and I use Brave. I couldn't find anything similar for Brave (sniff, sniff).

But the "Open With" extension is available for Chromium based browser as well.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... anlcbchlno

Regarding that failed download, I bet it will work with the next release of youtube-dlc.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...But the "Open With" extension is available for Chromium based browser as well.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... anlcbchlno

I couldn't see where it would list youtube-dl or dlc.