youtube-dlc(1)

NAME

youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms

SYNOPSIS

youtube-dlc [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]

DESCRIPTION

youtube-dlc is a command-line program to download videos from youtube.com many other video platforms (docs/supportedsites.md). It requires the Python interpreter, version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.

    youtube-dlc [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]

OPTIONS

Ctrl+F is your friend :D

  General Options:

-h, --help
    Print this help text and exit

--version
    Print program version and exit

-U, --update
    [BROKEN] Update this program to latest version. Make sure that you have sufficient permissions (run with sudo if needed)

-i, --ignore-errors
    Continue on download errors, for example to skip unavailable videos in a playlist (default) (Alias: --no-abort-on-error)

--abort-on-error
    Abort downloading of further videos if an error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)

--dump-user-agent
    Display the current browser identification

--list-extractors
    List all supported extractors

--extractor-descriptions
    Output descriptions of all supported extractors

--force-generic-extractor
    Force extraction to use the generic extractor

--default-search PREFIX
    Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos from google videos for youtube-dl "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when guessing). "error" just throws an error. The default value "fixup_error" repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if this is not possible instead of searching

--ignore-config
    Disable loading any configuration files except the one provided by --config- location. When given inside a configuration file, no further configuration files are loaded. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if this option is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded

--config-location PATH
    Location of the main configuration file; either the path to the config or its containing directory

--flat-playlist
    Do not extract the videos of a playlist, only list them

--flat-videos
    Do not resolve the video urls

--no-flat-playlist
    Extract the videos of a playlist

--mark-watched
    Mark videos watched (YouTube only)

--no-mark-watched
    Do not mark videos watched

--no-colors
    Do not emit color codes in output

  Network Options:

--proxy URL
    Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme. For example socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection

--socket-timeout SECONDS
    Time to wait before giving up, in seconds

--source-address IP
    Client-side IP address to bind to

-4, --force-ipv4
    Make all connections via IPv4

-6, --force-ipv6
    Make all connections via IPv6

  Geo Restriction:

--geo-verification-proxy URL
    Use this proxy to verify the IP address for some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the option is not present) is used for the actual downloading

--geo-bypass
    Bypass geographic restriction via faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header

--no-geo-bypass
    Do not bypass geographic restriction via faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header

--geo-bypass-country CODE
    Force bypass geographic restriction with explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code

--geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK
    Force bypass geographic restriction with explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation

  Video Selection:

--playlist-start NUMBER
    Playlist video to start at (default is 1)

--playlist-end NUMBER
    Playlist video to end at (default is last)

--playlist-items ITEM_SPEC
    Playlist video items to download. Specify indices of the videos in the playlist separated by commas like: "--playlist-items 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can specify range: "--playlist-items 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13

--match-title REGEX
    Download only matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)

--reject-title REGEX
    Skip download for matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)

--max-downloads NUMBER
    Abort after downloading NUMBER files

--min-filesize SIZE
    Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)

--max-filesize SIZE
    Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)

--date DATE
    Download only videos uploaded in this date. The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)( s)?"

--datebefore DATE
    Download only videos uploaded on or before this date. The date formats accepted is the same as --date

--dateafter DATE
    Download only videos uploaded on or after this date. The date formats accepted is the same as --date

--min-views COUNT
    Do not download any videos with less than COUNT views

--max-views COUNT
    Do not download any videos with more than COUNT views

--match-filter FILTER
    Generic video filter. Specify any key (see "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of available keys) to match if the key is present, !key to check if the key is not present, key>NUMBER (like "comment_count > 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare against a number, key = 'LITERAL' (like "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works with !=) to match against a string literal and & to require multiple matches. Values which are not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (?) after the operator. For example, to only match videos that have been liked more than 100 times and disliked less than 50 times (or the dislike functionality is not available at the given service), but who also have a description, use --match-filter "like_count > 100 & dislike_count <? 50 & description"

--no-match-filter
    Do not use generic video filter (default)

--no-playlist
    Download only the video, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist

--yes-playlist
    Download the playlist, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist

--age-limit YEARS
    Download only videos suitable for the given age

--download-archive FILE
    Download only videos not listed in the archive file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in it

--break-on-existing
    Stop the download process when encountering a file that is in the archive

--break-on-reject
    Stop the download process when encountering a file that has been filtered out

--no-download-archive
    Do not use archive file (default)

--include-ads
    Download advertisements as well (experimental)

--no-include-ads
    Do not download advertisements (default)

  Download Options:

-r, --limit-rate RATE
    Maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)

-R, --retries RETRIES
    Number of retries (default is 10), or "infinite"

--fragment-retries RETRIES
    Number of retries for a fragment (default is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)

--skip-unavailable-fragments
    Skip unavailable fragments for DASH, hlsnative and ISM (default) (Alias: --no- abort-on-unavailable-fragment)

--abort-on-unavailable-fragment
    Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable- fragments)

--keep-fragments
    Keep downloaded fragments on disk after downloading is finished

--no-keep-fragments
    Delete downloaded fragments after downloading is finished (default)

--buffer-size SIZE
    Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K) (default is 1024)

--resize-buffer
    The buffer size is automatically resized from an initial value of --buffer-size (default)

--no-resize-buffer
    Do not automatically adjust the buffer size

--http-chunk-size SIZE
    Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default is disabled). May be useful for bypassing bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver (experimental)

--playlist-reverse
    Download playlist videos in reverse order

--no-playlist-reverse
    Download playlist videos in default order (default)

--playlist-random
    Download playlist videos in random order

--xattr-set-filesize
    Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with expected file size

--hls-prefer-native
    Use the native HLS downloader instead of ffmpeg

--hls-prefer-ffmpeg
    Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS downloader

--hls-use-mpegts
    Use the mpegts container for HLS videos, allowing to play the video while downloading (some players may not be able to play it)

--external-downloader NAME
    Use the specified external downloader. Currently supports aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie, wget

--downloader-args NAME:ARGS
    Give these arguments to the external downloader. Specify the downloader name and the arguments separated by a colon ":". You can use this option multiple times (Alias: --external-downloader-args)

  Filesystem Options:

-a, --batch-file FILE
    File containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as comments and ignored

-P, --paths TYPE:PATH
    The paths where the files should be downloaded. Specify the type of file and the path separated by a colon ":". All the same types as --output are supported. Additionally, you can also provide "home" and "temp" paths. All intermediary files are first downloaded to the temp path and then the final files are moved over to the home path after download is finished. This option is ignored if --output is an absolute path

-o, --output [TYPE:]TEMPLATE
    Output filename template, see "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details

--output-na-placeholder TEXT
    Placeholder value for unavailable meta fields in output filename template (default: "NA")

--autonumber-start NUMBER
    Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s (default is 1)

--restrict-filenames
    Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames

--no-restrict-filenames
    Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in filenames (default)

-w, --no-overwrites
    Do not overwrite any files

--force-overwrites
    Overwrite all video and metadata files. This option includes --no-continue

--no-force-overwrites
    Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite related files (default)

-c, --continue
    Resume partially downloaded files/fragments (default)

--no-continue
    Do not resume partially downloaded fragments. If the file is unfragmented, restart download of the entire file

--part
    Use .part files instead of writing directly into output file (default)

--no-part
    Do not use .part files - write directly into output file

--mtime
    Use the Last-modified header to set the file modification time (default)

--no-mtime
    Do not use the Last-modified header to set the file modification time

--write-description
    Write video description to a .description file

--no-write-description
    Do not write video description (default)

--write-info-json
    Write video metadata to a .info.json file (this may contain personal information)

--no-write-info-json
    Do not write video metadata (default)

--write-annotations
    Write video annotations to a .annotations.xml file

--no-write-annotations
    Do not write video annotations (default)

--write-playlist-metafiles
    Write playlist metadata in addition to the video metadata when using --write-info- json, --write-description etc. (default)

--no-write-playlist-metafiles
    Do not write playlist metadata when using --write-info-json, --write-description etc.

--get-comments
    Retrieve video comments to be placed in the .info.json file

--load-info-json FILE
    JSON file containing the video information (created with the "--write-info-json" option)

--cookies FILE
    File to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in

--no-cookies
    Do not read/dump cookies (default)

--cache-dir DIR
    Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can store some downloaded information permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only YouTube player files (for videos with obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that may change

--no-cache-dir
    Disable filesystem caching

--rm-cache-dir
    Delete all filesystem cache files

--trim-file-name LENGTH
    Limit the filename length (extension excluded)

  Thumbnail Images:

--write-thumbnail
    Write thumbnail image to disk

--no-write-thumbnail
    Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)

--write-all-thumbnails
    Write all thumbnail image formats to disk

--list-thumbnails
    Simulate and list all available thumbnail formats

  Internet Shortcut Options:

--write-link
    Write an internet shortcut file, depending on the current platform (.url, .webloc or .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS

--write-url-link
    Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The OS caches the URL based on the file path

--write-webloc-link
    Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut

--write-desktop-link
    Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut

  Verbosity / Simulation Options:

-q, --quiet
    Activate quiet mode

--no-warnings
    Ignore warnings

-s, --simulate
    Do not download the video and do not write anything to disk

--skip-download
    Do not download the video

-g, --get-url
    Simulate, quiet but print URL

-e, --get-title
    Simulate, quiet but print title

--get-id
    Simulate, quiet but print id

--get-thumbnail
    Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL

--get-description
    Simulate, quiet but print video description

--get-duration
    Simulate, quiet but print video length

--get-filename
    Simulate, quiet but print output filename

--get-format
    Simulate, quiet but print output format

-j, --dump-json
    Simulate, quiet but print JSON information. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of available keys

-J, --dump-single-json
    Simulate, quiet but print JSON information for each command-line argument. If the URL refers to a playlist, dump the whole playlist information in a single line

--print-json
    Be quiet and print the video information as JSON (video is still being downloaded)

--force-write-archive
    Force download archive entries to be written as far as no errors occur,even if -s or another simulation switch is used (Alias: --force-download-archive)

--newline
    Output progress bar as new lines

--no-progress
    Do not print progress bar

--console-title
    Display progress in console titlebar

-v, --verbose
    Print various debugging information

--dump-pages
    Print downloaded pages encoded using base64 to debug problems (very verbose)

--write-pages
    Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in the current directory to debug problems

--print-traffic
    Display sent and read HTTP traffic

-C, --call-home
    [Broken] Contact the youtube-dlc server for debugging

--no-call-home
    Do not contact the youtube-dlc server for debugging (default)

  Workarounds:

--encoding ENCODING
    Force the specified encoding (experimental)

--no-check-certificate
    Suppress HTTPS certificate validation

--prefer-insecure
    Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve information about the video. (Currently supported only for YouTube)

--user-agent UA
    Specify a custom user agent

--referer URL
    Specify a custom referer, use if the video access is restricted to one domain

--add-header FIELD:VALUE
    Specify a custom HTTP header and its value, separated by a colon ":". You can use this option multiple times

--bidi-workaround
    Work around terminals that lack bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv or fribidi executable in PATH

--sleep-interval SECONDS
    Number of seconds to sleep before each download when used alone or a lower bound of a range for randomized sleep before each download (minimum possible number of seconds to sleep) when used along with --max-sleep-interval

--max-sleep-interval SECONDS
    Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep before each download (maximum possible number of seconds to sleep). Must only be used along with --min-sleep-interval

--sleep-subtitles SECONDS
    Enforce sleep interval on subtitles as well

  Video Format Options:

-f, --format FORMAT
    Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION" for more details

-S, --format-sort SORTORDER
    Sort the formats by the fields given, see "Sorting Formats" for more details

--format-sort-force
    Force user specified sort order to have precedence over all fields, see "Sorting Formats" for more details

--no-format-sort-force
    Some fields have precedence over the user specified sort order (default), see "Sorting Formats" for more details

--video-multistreams
    Allow multiple video streams to be merged into a single file

--no-video-multistreams
    Only one video stream is downloaded for each output file (default)

--audio-multistreams
    Allow multiple audio streams to be merged into a single file

--no-audio-multistreams
    Only one audio stream is downloaded for each output file (default)

--all-formats
    Download all available video formats

--prefer-free-formats
    Prefer free video formats over non-free formats of same quality

-F, --list-formats
    List all available formats of requested videos

--list-formats-as-table
    Present the output of -F in tabular form (default)

--list-formats-old
    Present the output of -F in the old form (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)

--youtube-include-dash-manifest
    Download the DASH manifests and related data on YouTube videos (default) (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)

--youtube-skip-dash-manifest
    Do not download the DASH manifests and related data on YouTube videos (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)

--youtube-include-hls-manifest
    Download the HLS manifests and related data on YouTube videos (default) (Alias: --no- youtube-skip-hls-manifest)

--youtube-skip-hls-manifest
    Do not download the HLS manifests and related data on YouTube videos (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)

--merge-output-format FORMAT
    If a merge is required (e.g. bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg, webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required

  Subtitle Options:

--write-subs
    Write subtitle file

--no-write-subs
    Do not write subtitle file (default)

--write-auto-subs
    Write automatically generated subtitle file (YouTube only)

--no-write-auto-subs
    Do not write automatically generated subtitle file (default)

--all-subs
    Download all the available subtitles of the video

--list-subs
    List all available subtitles for the video

--sub-format FORMAT
    Subtitle format, accepts formats preference, for example: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"

--sub-lang LANGS
    Languages of the subtitles to download (optional) separated by commas, use --list- subs for available language tags

  Authentication Options:

-u, --username USERNAME
    Login with this account ID

-p, --password PASSWORD
    Account password. If this option is left out, youtube-dlc will ask interactively

-2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR
    Two-factor authentication code

-n, --netrc
    Use .netrc authentication data

--video-password PASSWORD
    Video password (vimeo, youku)

  Adobe Pass Options:

--ap-mso MSO
    Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for a list of available MSOs

--ap-username USERNAME
    Multiple-system operator account login

--ap-password PASSWORD
    Multiple-system operator account password. If this option is left out, youtube-dlc will ask interactively

--ap-list-mso
    List all supported multiple-system operators

  Post-Processing Options:

-x, --extract-audio
    Convert video files to audio-only files (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)

--audio-format FORMAT
    Specify audio format: "best", "aac", "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without -x

--audio-quality QUALITY
    Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)

--remux-video FORMAT
    Remux the video into another container if necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If target container does not support the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You can specify multiple rules; eg. "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.

--recode-video FORMAT
    Re-encode the video into another format if re-encoding is necessary. The supported formats are the same as --remux-video

--postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS
    Give these arguments to the postprocessors. Specify the postprocessor/executable name and the arguments separated by a colon ":" to give the argument to the specified postprocessor/executable. Supported postprocessors are: SponSkrub, ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor, EmbedSubtitle, Metadata, Merger, FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8, SubtitlesConvertor and EmbedThumbnail. The supported executables are: SponSkrub, FFmpeg, FFprobe, and AtomicParsley. You can use this option multiple times to give different arguments to different postprocessors. You can also specify "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the specified executable only when being used by the specified postprocessor. You can use this option multiple times (Alias: --ppa)

-k, --keep-video
    Keep the intermediate video file on disk after post-processing

--no-keep-video
    Delete the intermediate video file after post-processing (default)

--post-overwrites
    Overwrite post-processed files (default)

--no-post-overwrites
    Do not overwrite post-processed files

--embed-subs
    Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4, webm and mkv videos)

--no-embed-subs
    Do not embed subtitles (default)

--embed-thumbnail
    Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art

--no-embed-thumbnail
    Do not embed thumbnail (default)

--add-metadata
    Write metadata to the video file

--no-add-metadata
    Do not write metadata (default)

--parse-metadata FIELD:FORMAT
    Parse additional metadata like title/artist from other fields. Give field name to extract data from, and format of the field seperated by a ":". Either regular expression with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the output template can also be used. The parsed parameters replace any existing values and can be use in output templateThis option can be used multiple times. Example: --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a title like "Coldplay - Paradise". Example (regex): --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P.+?)"

--xattrs
    Write metadata to the video file's xattrs (using dublin core and xdg standards)

--fixup POLICY
    Automatically correct known faults of the file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the default; fix file if we can, warn otherwise)

--ffmpeg-location PATH
    Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the path to the binary or its containing directory

--exec CMD
    Execute a command on the file after downloading and post-processing, similar to find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'

--convert-subs FORMAT
    Convert the subtitles to other format (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)

  SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options:

SponSkrub (https://github.com/pukkandan/SponSkrub) is a utility to mark/remove sponsor segments from downloaded YouTube videos using SponsorBlock API (https://sponsor.ajay.app)

--sponskrub
    Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections. This is enabled by default if the sponskrub binary exists (Youtube only)

--no-sponskrub
    Do not use sponskrub

--sponskrub-cut
    Cut out the sponsor sections instead of simply marking them

--no-sponskrub-cut
    Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut them out (default)

--sponskrub-force
    Run sponskrub even if the video was already downloaded

--no-sponskrub-force
    Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the video was already downloaded (default)

--sponskrub-location PATH
    Location of the sponskrub binary; either the path to the binary or its containing directory

  Extractor Options:

--allow-dynamic-mpd
    Process dynamic DASH manifests (default) (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)

--ignore-dynamic-mpd
    Do not process dynamic DASH manifests (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)

CONFIGURATION

You can configure youtube-dlc by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:

1.  Main Configuration: The file given by --config-location

2.  Portable Configuration: yt-dlp.conf or youtube-dlc.conf in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (<root dir>/youtube_dlc/__main__.py), the root directory is used instead.

3.  Home Configuration: yt-dlp.conf or youtube-dlc.conf in the home path given by -P "home:<path>", or in the current directory if no such path is given

4.  User Configuration:

    •   %XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config (recommended on Linux/macOS)

    •   %XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf

    •   %APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config (recommended on Windows)

    •   %APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt

    •   ~/yt-dlp.conf

    •   ~/yt-dlp.conf.txt If none of these files are found, the search is performed again by replacing yt-dlp with youtube-dlc. Note that ~ points to C:\Users\<user name> on windows. Also, %XDG_CONFIG_HOME% defaults to ~/.config if undefined

5.  System Configuration: /etc/yt-dlp.conf or /etc/youtube-dlc.conf

For example, with the following configuration file youtube-dlc will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory:

    # Lines starting with # are comments
    # Always extract audio
    -x
    # Do not copy the mtime
    --no-mtime
    # Use this proxy
    --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
    # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
    -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s

Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there must be no whitespace after - or --, e.g. -o or --proxy but not - o or -- proxy.

You can use --ignore-config if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular youtube-dlc run. If --ignore-config is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of user and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if --ignore-config is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.

  Authentication with .netrc file

You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with --username and --password) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every youtube-dlc execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a .netrc file (https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a .netrc file in your $HOME and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:

    touch $HOME/.netrc
    chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc

After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where extractor is the name of the extractor in lowercase:

    machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>

For example:

    machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
    machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password

To activate authentication with the .netrc file you should pass --netrc to youtube-dlc or place it in the configuration file.

On Windows you may also need to setup the %HOME% environment variable manually. For example:

    set HOME=%USERPROFILE%

OUTPUT TEMPLATE

The -o option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while -P option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.

tl;dr: navigate me to examples.

The basic usage of -o is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in youtube-dlc -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video". However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to python string formatting operations (https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting). For example, %(NAME)s or %(NAME)05d. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations. Date/time fields can also be formatted according to strftime formatting (https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it inside the parantheses seperated from the field name using a >. For example, %(duration>%H-%M-%S)s.

Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files seperately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template seperated by a colon ":". The different filetypes supported are subtitle|thumbnail|description|annotation|infojson|pl_description|pl_infojson. For example, -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s' will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video.

The available fields are:

•   id (string): Video identifier

•   title (string): Video title

•   url (string): Video URL

•   ext (string): Video filename extension

•   alt_title (string): A secondary title of the video

•   display_id (string): An alternative identifier for the video

•   uploader (string): Full name of the video uploader

•   license (string): License name the video is licensed under

•   creator (string): The creator of the video

•   release_date (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released

•   timestamp (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available

•   upload_date (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)

•   uploader_id (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader

•   channel (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on

•   channel_id (string): Id of the channel

•   location (string): Physical location where the video was filmed

•   duration (numeric): Length of the video in seconds

•   duration_string (string): Length of the video (HH-mm-ss)

•   view_count (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform

•   like_count (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video

•   dislike_count (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video

•   repost_count (numeric): Number of reposts of the video

•   average_rating (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage

•   comment_count (numeric): Number of comments on the video

•   age_limit (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)

•   is_live (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video

•   start_time (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL

•   end_time (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL

•   format (string): A human-readable description of the format

•   format_id (string): Format code specified by --format

•   format_note (string): Additional info about the format

•   width (numeric): Width of the video

•   height (numeric): Height of the video

•   resolution (string): Textual description of width and height

•   tbr (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s

•   abr (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s

•   acodec (string): Name of the audio codec in use

•   asr (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz

•   vbr (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s

•   fps (numeric): Frame rate

•   vcodec (string): Name of the video codec in use

•   container (string): Name of the container format

•   filesize (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance

•   filesize_approx (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes

•   protocol (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download

•   extractor (string): Name of the extractor

•   extractor_key (string): Key name of the extractor

•   epoch (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file

•   autonumber (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at --autonumber-start

•   playlist (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video

•   playlist_index (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist

•   playlist_id (string): Playlist identifier

•   playlist_title (string): Playlist title

•   playlist_uploader (string): Full name of the playlist uploader

•   playlist_uploader_id (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader

Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:

•   chapter (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to

•   chapter_number (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to

•   chapter_id (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to

Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:

•   series (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to

•   season (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to

•   season_number (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to

•   season_id (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to

•   episode (string): Title of the video episode

•   episode_number (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season

•   episode_id (string): Id of the video episode

Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:

•   track (string): Title of the track

•   track_number (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc

•   track_id (string): Id of the track

•   artist (string): Artist(s) of the track

•   genre (string): Genre(s) of the track

•   album (string): Title of the album the track belongs to

•   album_type (string): Type of the album

•   album_artist (string): List of all artists appeared on the album

•   disc_number (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to

•   release_year (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released

Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with --output-na-placeholder (NA by default).

For example for -o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s and an mp4 video with title youtube-dlc test video and id BaW_jenozKcj, this will result in a youtube-dlc test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4 file created in the current directory.

For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example, %(view_count)05d will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in 00042.

Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.

To use percent literals in an output template use %%. To output to stdout use -o -.

The current default template is %(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s.

In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the --restrict-filenames flag to get a shorter title:

  Output template and Windows batch files

If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (%) by doubling, so that -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s" should become -o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s". However you should not touch %'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: -o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s".

  Output template examples

Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.

    $ youtube-dlc --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
    youtube-dlc test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4    # All kinds of weird characters
    $ youtube-dlc --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
    youtube-dlc_test_video_.mp4          # A simple file name
    # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
    $ youtube-dlc -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
    # Download YouTube playlist videos in seperate directories according to their uploaded year
    $ youtube-dlc -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
    # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
    $ youtube-dlc -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
    # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
    $ youtube-dlc -u user -p password -P '~/MyVideos' -o '%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
    # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
    $ youtube-dlc -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
    # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
    $ youtube-dlc -o - BaW_jenozKc

FORMAT SELECTION

By default, youtube-dlc tries to download the best available quality if you don't pass any options. This is generally equivalent to using -f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best. However, if multiple audiostreams is enabled (--audio-multistreams), the default format changes to -f bestvideo+bestaudio/best. Similarly, if ffmpeg is unavailable, or if you use youtube-dlc to stream to stdout (-o -), the default becomes -f best/bestvideo+bestaudio.

The general syntax for format selection is --f FORMAT (or --format FORMAT) where FORMAT is a selector expression, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.

tl;dr: navigate me to examples.

The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with -f 22 you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using --list-formats or -F. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.

You can also use a file extension (currently 3gp, aac, flv, m4a, mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. -f webm will download the best quality format with the webm extension served as a single file.

You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:

•   b*, best*: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.

•   w*, worst*: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.

•   b, best: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]

•   w, worst: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]

•   bv, bestvideo: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to best*[acodec=none]

•   wv, worstvideo: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to worst*[acodec=none]

•   bv*, bestvideo*: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to best*[vcodec!=none]

•   wv*, worstvideo*: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to worst*[vcodec!=none]

•   ba, bestaudio: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to best*[vcodec=none]

•   wa, worstaudio: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to worst*[vcodec=none]

•   ba*, bestaudio*: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to best*[acodec!=none]

•   wa*, worstaudio*: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to worst*[acodec!=none]

For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use -f worstvideo. It is however recomended to never actually use worst and related options. When your format selector is worst, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use -f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps instead of -f worst. See sorting formats for more details.

If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example -f 22/17/18 will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.

If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g. -f 22,17,18 will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature: -f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio.

You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using -f <format1>+<format2>+... (requires ffmpeg installed), for example -f bestvideo+bestaudio will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg. If --no-video-multistreams is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, if --no-audio-multistreams is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, -f bestvideo+best+bestaudio will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But -f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams will download and merge only bestvideo and bestaudio. best is ignored since another format containing a video stream (bestvideo) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. -f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams will download and merge both formats while -f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams will ignore best and download only bestaudio.

  Filtering Formats

You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in -f "best[height=720]" (or -f "[filesize>10M]").

The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons <, <=, >, >=, = (equals), != (not equals):

•   filesize: The number of bytes, if known in advance

•   width: Width of the video, if known

•   height: Height of the video, if known

•   tbr: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s

•   abr: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s

•   vbr: Average video bitrate in KBit/s

•   asr: Audio sampling rate in Hertz

•   fps: Frame rate

Also filtering work for comparisons = (equals), ^= (starts with), $= (ends with), *= (contains) and following string meta fields:

•   ext: File extension

•   acodec: Name of the audio codec in use

•   vcodec: Name of the video codec in use

•   container: Name of the container format

•   protocol: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (http, https, rtsp, rtmp, rtmpe, mms, f4m, ism, http_dash_segments, m3u8, or m3u8_native)

•   format_id: A short description of the format

•   language: Language code

Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation ! in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. !*= (does not contain).

Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the video hoster. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.

Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (?) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so -f "[height <=? 720][tbr>500]" selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s.

Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use -f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'.

  Sorting Formats

You can change the criteria for being considered the best by using -S (--format-sort). The general format for this is --format-sort field1,field2.... The available fields are:

•   hasvid: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream

•   hasaud: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream

•   ie_pref: The format preference as given by the extractor

•   lang: Language preference as given by the extractor

•   quality: The quality of the format. This is a metadata field available in some websites

•   source: Preference of the source as given by the extractor

•   proto: Protocol used for download (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8-native > m3u8 > http-dash-segments > other > mms/rtsp > unknown > f4f/f4m)

•   vcodec: Video Codec (av01 > vp9 > h265 > h264 > vp8 > h263 > theora > other > unknown)

•   acodec: Audio Codec (opus > vorbis > aac > mp4a > mp3 > ac3 > dts > other > unknown)

•   codec: Equivalent to vcodec,acodec

•   vext: Video Extension (mp4 > webm > flv > other > unknown). If --prefer-free-formats is used, webm is prefered.

•   aext: Audio Extension (m4a > aac > mp3 > ogg > opus > webm > other > unknown). If --prefer-free-formats is used, the order changes to opus > ogg > webm > m4a > mp3 > aac.

•   ext: Equivalent to vext,aext

•   filesize: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.

•   fs_approx: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests

•   size: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize

•   height: Height of video

•   width: Width of video

•   res: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.

•   fps: Framerate of video

•   tbr: Total average bitrate in KBit/s

•   vbr: Average video bitrate in KBit/s

•   abr: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s

•   br: Equivalent to using tbr,vbr,abr

•   asr: Audio sample rate in Hz

Note that any other numerical field made available by the extractor can also be used. All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a +. Eg: +res prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a prefered value for the fields, seperated by a :. Eg: res:720 prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For codec and ext, you can provide two prefered values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: +codec:avc:m4a (equivalent to +vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a) sets the video codec preference to h264 > h265 > vp9 > vp8 > h263 > theora and audio codec preference to mp4a > aac > vorbis > opus > mp3 > ac3 > dts. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using ~ as the delimiter. Eg: filesize~1G prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.

The fields hasvid, ie_pref, lang, quality are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using --force-format-sort. Apart from these, the default order used is: res,fps,codec:vp9,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id. Note that the extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.

If your format selector is worst, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all repects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use -f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps.

Tip: You can use the -v -F to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).

  Format Selection examples

Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.

    # Download and merge the best best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
    # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
    $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv+ba/b'
    # Download best format that contains video,
    # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
    $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv*+ba/b'
    # Same as above
    $ youtube-dlc
    # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
    # For this case, an output template should be used since
    # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
    $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
    # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
    # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but better result
    # Download the worst video available (old method)
    $ youtube-dlc -f 'wv*+wa/w'
    # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
    $ youtube-dlc -S '+res'
    # Download the smallest video available
    $ youtube-dlc -S '+size,+br'
    # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
    $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
    # Download the best video with the best extension
    # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
    $ youtube-dlc -S 'ext'
    # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
    # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
    $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
    # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
    # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
    $ youtube-dlc -S 'height:480'
    # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
    # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
    # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
    # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
    $ youtube-dlc -S 'res:480'
    # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
    # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
    $ youtube-dlc -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
    # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
    # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
    $ youtube-dlc -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
    # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
    $ youtube-dlc -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
    # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
    # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
    $ youtube-dlc -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
    # Download best video available via the best protocol
    # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
    $ youtube-dlc -S 'proto'
    # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
    $ youtube-dlc -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
    # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
    # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
    $ youtube-dlc -S 'codec:h264'
    # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
    # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
    $ youtube-dlc -S '+codec:h264'
    # More complex examples
    # Download the best video no better than 720p prefering framerate greater than 30,
    # or the worst video (still prefering framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
    $ youtube-dlc -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
    # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
    # or the video with the smallest resolution available  if there is no such video,
    # prefering larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
    $ youtube-dlc -S 'res:720,fps'
    # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
    # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
    # prefering better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
    $ youtube-dlc -S '+res:480,codec,br'

PLUGINS

Plugins are loaded from <root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py. Currently only extractor plugins are supported. Support for downloader and postprocessor plugins may be added in the future. See <ytdlp_plugins> for example.

Note: <root-dir> is the directory of the binary (<root-dir>/youtube-dlc), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (<root dir>/youtube_dlc/__main__.py)

MORE

For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the original README (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)