[youtube-dl] Download files from youtube.com or other video platforms

Oh dear...

Code: 
08/02/2026 16:34:01 - Starting queued download URL https://youtu.be/gjtjIQlBw9E Options  QID 16503
08/02/2026 16:35:11 - [youtube] gjtjIQlBw9E: Downloading webpage
08/02/2026 16:35:13 - [youtube] gjtjIQlBw9E: Downloading TVHTML5 API JSON
08/02/2026 16:35:14 - Caught error: WARNING: unable to extract player URL; please report this issue on https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues , using the appropriate issue template. Make sure you are using the latest version; see  https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/#user-content-installation  on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose option and include the complete output.
WARNING: [youtube] Cannot extract signature timestamp without player_url.
WARNING: unable to extract player URL; please report this issue on https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues , using the appropriate issue template. Make sure you are using the latest version; see  https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/#user-content-installation  on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose option and include the complete output.
ERROR: Sign in to confirm youre not a bot
08/02/2026 16:35:14 - -code 1 -level 0 -errorinfo {::qtube::dequeue /mod/webif/plugin/qtube/queue.hook 29 {exec youtube --newline https://youtu.be/gjtjIQlBw9E | awk {{print strftime("%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S -"), $0; fflush(); }} >@::aio.handle13} ::auto::runplugin {} 1 {::qtube::dequeue ::<reference.<queue__>.00000000000000000004> https://youtu.be/gjtjIQlBw9E} {} /mod/webif/lib/auto/deq 205 {::auto::runplugin qtube dequeue ::<reference.<queue__>.00000000000000000004> https://youtu.be/gjtjIQlBw9E}} -errorcode {CHILDSTATUS 18121 1}

Update: hold fire on that. I've discovered auto-update isn't working on that machine (for some reason), and I have a load of packages in need of updating (including youtube-dl).
 
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Tried the same on another machine with an up-to-date yt-dl (2025.11.21) and got this:

Code: 
08/02/2026 17:30:03 - Starting queued download URL https://youtu.be/gjtjIQlBw9E Options  QID 358537
Bus error
08/02/2026 17:30:08 - Caught error:
08/02/2026 17:30:08 - -code 1 -level 0 -errorinfo {::qtube::dequeue /mod/webif/plugin/qtube/queue.hook 32 {{queue exec} youtube --newline https://youtu.be/gjtjIQlBw9E 2>@::aio.handle16 | awk {{print strftime("%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S -"), $0; fflush(); }} >@::aio.handle16} ::auto::runplugin {} 1 {::qtube::dequeue ::<reference.<queue__>.00000000000000000004> https://youtu.be/gjtjIQlBw9E} {} /mod/webif/lib/auto/deq 205 {::auto::runplugin qtube dequeue ::<reference.<queue__>.00000000000000000004> https://youtu.be/gjtjIQlBw9E}} -errorcode {CHILDSTATUS 9733 138}
 
The 2025.11.26 version worked quite well until a couple of weeks ago. Now it can only get format 18, as a result of continued YT breakage per https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/yout...com-or-other-video-platforms.8462/post-180375.

2025.11.21, as we have here, should work similarly except for a bug with playlists and clumsy format listing of new codecs. For now, try -f 18 and put up with the "tiny" video.

The bus error message typically means a memory issue: maybe the swap file is missing or too small, maybe the system needs a restart.
 
/df said:
try -f 18
Click to expand...
That seems more successful, or at least has not failed immediately.

/df said:
The bus error message typically means a memory issue: maybe the swap file is missing or too small, maybe the system needs a restart.
Click to expand...
swapper is installed, what else can I say? I can't imagine why that would be so impactful so early in the process. However, I took your advice and rebooted.
 
Hi all,

Please could someone confirm they too can't get youtube-dl to work with this url

Code: 
youtube-dl https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9ldqx8
[dailymotion] Downloading Access Token
[dailymotion] x9ldqx8: Downloading media JSON metadata
[dailymotion] x9ldqx8: Downloading metadata JSON
[dailymotion] x9ldqx8: Downloading m3u8 information
WARNING: Failed to download m3u8 information: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden
ERROR: No video formats found; please report this issue on https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues , using the appropriate issue template. Make sure you are using the latest version; see  https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/#user-content-installation
 on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose option and include the complete output

Thanks
 
It doesn't work for me on a PC, nor with yt-dlp.
Presumably you need some credentials somehow.
 
Afraid the -f 18 didn't work

Code: 
youtube-dl -f 18 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9ldqx8
[dailymotion] Downloading Access Token
[dailymotion] x9ldqx8: Downloading media JSON metadata
[dailymotion] x9ldqx8: Downloading metadata JSON
[dailymotion] x9ldqx8: Downloading m3u8 information
WARNING: Failed to download m3u8 information: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden
ERROR: No video formats found; please report this issue on https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues , using the appropriate issue template. Make sure you are using the latest version; see  https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/#user-content-installation
 on how to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose option and include the complete output.


prpr said:
It doesn't work for me on a PC, nor with yt-dlp.
Presumably you need some credentials somehow.
Click to expand...
The actual url in chrome plays fine with no credentials so I'm a little puzzled.
 
Ah, i should rephrase that, it plays ok on my android chrome browser without credentials but on the pc it wants you to login
 
Aha, progress but anither issues. Youtube-dl is happy to download excerpts if i feed it the raw address

Code: 
https://vod3.cf.dmcdn.net/sec2(mCwMlocqlaMj44AnS4NZ8NnYfqigbHShj911IGyRM1XAcO_bb0LUYiusZE3pKICXKAF1arPoyT94eKWBUY4RxXNCRLM8B5-DsRYBC64F1yNDcSyoez6KN7kDJGavI8hHdLeZpd_6_IYftyUOHQLwvjTdxBg8lt82JYT3HUxPlcSlALZ_lcr61_HDXE9KK8vK)/frag(31)/video/049/801/580108940_mp4_h264_aac_hq_1.ts

Where simply incrementing the frag(31) number it will download.

So is there a way to tell youtube-dl to down load and splice all the fragments (hopefully seemlessly)?

UPDATE.... answering my own question - yes there is - I've found the m3u8 file so all is well :)
 
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rodp said:
So is there a way to tell youtube-dl to down load and splice all the fragments (hopefully seemlessly)?

UPDATE.... answering my own question - yes there is
Click to expand...
Care to tell everyone how then? (And "seamlessly")
 
prpr said:
Care to tell everyone how then? (And "seamlessly")
Click to expand...
i did a network inspection on chrome, refreshed the page and searched for m3u8 and found the url that had the playlist in which i then used with youtube-dl and low and behold it worked straight away and created one file. We'll see what happens creating a mp4 container but it says it's h.264 already so hopefully no transcoding required.
 
rodp said:
Please could someone confirm they too can't get youtube-dl to work with this url
Click to expand...
On an Android phone with a yt-dlp based app it is possible to access this file. The available formats are hls-480, hls-380 and hls-720. The default format starts downloading without problem.
 
This is a DailyMotion issue so the -f 18 YouTube work-around doesn't apply.

yt-dlp version 2025.08.11 shows the same behaviour as the latest yt-dl.

These PRs against the DM extractor have been merged subsequently:
Code: 
[ie/dailymotion] Fix extraction #15995 by bashonly was merged Feb 19, 2026
[ie/dailymotion] Support browser impersonation #15697 by bashonly was merged Jan 27, 2026
[ie/dailymotion] Fix extractor #15682 by bashonly was merged Jan 25, 2026
I expect that yt-dlp/yt-dlp#15697 is what makes it work in the latest yt-dlp. Probably oOur request for the data that lists the m3u8 manifest URLs is being blocked (WARNING), and so no media formats are found. However I'll check thatyt-dlp adds a work-around using fake headers, but that also fails, at least in laptop Linux.

DM and other sites can decide that your HTTPS isn't right and you're not allowed in ("TLS fingerprinting"); also, no trainers. This can be circumvented by using curl-impersonate. yt-dlp, which supports multiple network libraries, can do so by using curl_cffi to invoke curl-impersonate (if that dependency is installed). So too can any modern scraper, which makes the block pointless as well as stupid and in contravention of protocol. If they want to restrict access to their media CDN they should require a cookie passed from the main site.

Actually, the CF yt-dl is ahead of the master version in this respect, since it already uses an external program for network access. But curl-impersonate is not portable to the CF environment (happy to be proved wrong).
 
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/df said:
But curl-impersonate is not portable to the CF environment (happy to be proved wrong).
Click to expand...
Even ordinary Curl is no longer buildable any more since they switched to Openssl 3 after 8.17.0 (and with the previously mentioned problems building any more modern version of Openssl with our ancient tools..), so I doubt anybody will be proving you wrong.
 
Does anyone know what the magic command line options are to download BBC video programmes? I have an episode that I'm attempting to download and yt-dl has been running for over two hours now on the hummy, which does seem rather a long time for a programme listed as 50-something minutes. It will be the current release of yt-dl as i have automatic updates (and I can find nothing in the yt-dl log that gives a version number).
 
Oh dear, is that broken as well now?

How did you initiate it – qtube? Does "view log" (or whatever that button says) show nothing of interest? Running the download from the command line generally reveals more.
 
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