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1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
2 <div align="center">
4 [](#readme)
6 [](#installation "Installation")
7 [](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 [](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10 [](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
11 [](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
12 [](LICENSE "License")
13 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
14 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
17 </div>
18 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
20 yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
22 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
24 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
25 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
26 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
27 * [Release Files](#release-files)
28 * [Update](#update)
29 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
30 * [Compile](#compile)
31 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
32 * [General Options](#general-options)
33 * [Network Options](#network-options)
34 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
35 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
36 * [Download Options](#download-options)
37 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
38 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
39 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
40 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
41 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
42 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
43 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
44 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
45 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
46 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
47 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
48 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
49 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
50 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
51 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
52 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
54 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
58 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
60 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
61 * [PLUGINS](#plugins)
62 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
63 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
64 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
65 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
66 * [CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL](#changes-from-youtube-dl)
67 * [New features](#new-features)
68 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
69 * [Deprecated options](#deprecated-options)
70 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
71 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
72 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
73 * [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
74 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
75 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
78 # INSTALLATION
80 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
81 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
82 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
83 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
84 [](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
85 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
86 [](#release-files)
87 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
88 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
90 You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
93 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
94 ## RELEASE FILES
96 #### Recommended
98 File|Description
99 :---|:---
100 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
101 [yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
102 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
104 #### Alternatives
106 File|Description
107 :---|:---
108 [yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
109 [yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
110 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
111 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
112 [yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
113 [yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
114 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
115 [yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
116 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
118 #### Misc
120 File|Description
121 :---|:---
122 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
123 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
124 [SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
125 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
126 [SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
128 The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
129 Example usage:
130 ```
131 curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
132 gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
133 gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
134 ```
135 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
137 **Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
140 ## UPDATE
141 You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
143 If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
145 For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
147 <a id="update-channels"></a>
149 There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
151 * `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
152 * The `nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The `nightly` releases are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the `yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's `--pre` flag).
153 * The `master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
155 When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
156 `--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
158 You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
160 Example usage:
161 * `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
162 * `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
163 * `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
164 * `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.09.24`
166 **Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
167 ```
168 # To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
169 yt-dlp --update-to nightly
171 # To install nightly with pip:
172 python3 -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp[default]
173 ```
175 ## DEPENDENCIES
176 Python versions 3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
178 <!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
179 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
180 On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
181 -->
183 While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
185 ### Strongly recommended
187 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
189 There are bugs in ffmpeg that cause various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
191 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the Python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
193 ### Networking
194 * [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
195 * [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or [**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) - [Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
196 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
197 * [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
199 #### Impersonation
201 The following provide support for impersonating browser requests. This may be required for some sites that employ TLS fingerprinting.
203 * [**curl_cffi**](https://github.com/yifeikong/curl_cffi) (recommended) - Python binding for [curl-impersonate](https://github.com/lwthiker/curl-impersonate). Provides impersonation targets for Chrome, Edge and Safari. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/yifeikong/curl_cffi/blob/main/LICENSE)
204 * Can be installed with the `curl_cffi` group, e.g. `pip install yt-dlp[default,curl_cffi]`
205 * Only included in `yt-dlp.exe`, `yt-dlp_macos` and `yt-dlp_macos_legacy` builds
208 ### Metadata
210 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
211 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
212 * [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Mac** and **BSD**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
214 ### Misc
216 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
217 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
218 * [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage)\* - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
219 * Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
221 ### Deprecated
223 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
224 * [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
225 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
226 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
228 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
230 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
232 If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
235 ## COMPILE
237 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
238 To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). The executable will be built for the same CPU architecture as the Python used.
240 You can run the following commands:
242 ```
243 python3 devscripts/install_deps.py --include pyinstaller
244 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
245 python3 -m bundle.pyinstaller
246 ```
248 On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
250 `python -m bundle.pyinstaller` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
252 **Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
254 **Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **instead of** using `python -m bundle.pyinstaller` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
256 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
257 You will need the build tools `python` (3.8+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
259 After installing these, simply run `make`.
261 You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
263 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
265 While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and needs VC++14** on the target computer to run.
267 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python (if it is not already installed) and you can run the following commands:
269 ```
270 py devscripts/install_deps.py --include py2exe
271 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
272 py -m bundle.py2exe
273 ```
275 ### Related scripts
277 * **`devscripts/install_deps.py`** - Install dependencies for yt-dlp.
278 * **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
279 * **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
280 * **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
281 * **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
283 Note: See their `--help` for more info.
285 ### Forking the project
286 If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
288 # USAGE AND OPTIONS
290 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
291 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
293 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
294 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
296 <!-- Auto generated -->
297 ## General Options:
298 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
299 --version Print program version and exit
300 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
301 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
302 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
303 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
304 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
305 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
306 details. Supported channels: stable,
307 nightly, master
308 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
309 The download will be considered successful
310 even if the postprocessing fails
311 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
312 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
313 playlist (default)
314 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
315 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
316 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
317 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
318 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
319 extractors and exit
320 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
321 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
322 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
323 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
324 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
325 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
326 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
327 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
328 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
329 google videos for the search term "python".
330 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
331 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
332 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
333 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
334 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
335 possible instead of searching
336 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
337 except those given to --config-locations.
338 For backward compatibility, if this option
339 is found inside the system configuration
340 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
341 (Alias: --no-config)
342 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
343 (default). When given inside a configuration
344 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
345 defined in the current file
346 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
347 either the path to the config or its
348 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
349 used multiple times and inside other
350 configuration files
351 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
352 only list them
353 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
354 (default)
355 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
356 Currently only supported for YouTube
357 (Experimental)
358 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
359 (default)
360 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
361 available. Pass the minimum number of
362 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
363 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
364 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
365 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
366 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
367 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
368 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
369 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
370 "no_color" (use non color terminal
371 sequences). Can be used multiple times
372 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
373 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
374 configurations by reverting some of the
375 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
376 default behavior" for details
377 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
378 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
379 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
380 according to the Python string formatting
381 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
382 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
383 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
384 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
385 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
386 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
387 output. Alias options can trigger more
388 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
389 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
390 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
391 times. This option can be used multiple times
393 ## Network Options:
394 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
395 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
396 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
397 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
398 direct connection
399 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
400 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
401 --impersonate CLIENT[:OS] Client to impersonate for requests. E.g.
402 chrome, chrome-110, chrome:windows-10. Pass
403 --impersonate="" to impersonate any client.
404 --list-impersonate-targets List available clients to impersonate.
405 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
406 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
407 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
408 default for security reasons.
410 ## Geo-restriction:
411 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
412 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
413 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
414 is not present) is used for the actual
415 downloading
416 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
417 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
418 "default" (only when known to be useful),
419 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
420 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
422 ## Video Selection:
423 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
424 to download. You can specify a range using
425 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
426 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
427 Use negative indices to count from the right
428 and negative STEP to download in reverse
429 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
430 playlist of size 15 will download the items
431 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
432 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
433 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
434 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
435 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
436 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
437 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
438 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
439 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
440 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
441 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
442 this date. The date formats accepted is the
443 same as --date
444 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
445 this date. The date formats accepted is the
446 same as --date
447 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
448 field can be compared with a number or a
449 string using the operators defined in
450 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
451 specify a field to match if the field is
452 present, use "!field" to check if the field
453 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
454 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
455 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
456 the filter matches if atleast one of the
457 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
458 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
459 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
460 only videos that are not live OR those that
461 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
462 field is not available) and also has a
463 description that contains the phrase "cats &
464 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
465 interactively ask whether to download each
466 video
467 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
468 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
469 download process when a video is rejected
470 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
471 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
472 to a video and a playlist
473 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
474 a video and a playlist
475 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
476 age
477 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
478 archive file. Record the IDs of all
479 downloaded videos in it
480 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
481 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
482 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
483 a file that is in the archive
484 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
485 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
486 reset per input URL
487 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
488 terminates the entire download queue
489 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
490 the playlist is skipped
492 ## Download Options:
493 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
494 video that should be downloaded concurrently
495 (default is 1)
496 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
497 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
498 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
499 below which throttling is assumed and the
500 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
501 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
502 "infinite"
503 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
504 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
505 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
506 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
507 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
508 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
509 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
510 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
511 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
512 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
513 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
514 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
515 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
516 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
517 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
518 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
519 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
520 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
521 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
522 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
523 downloading is finished
524 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
525 downloading is finished (default)
526 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
527 (default is 1024)
528 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
529 from an initial value of --buffer-size
530 (default)
531 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
532 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
533 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
534 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
535 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
536 (experimental)
537 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
538 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
539 received. This disables n_entries,
540 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
541 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
542 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
543 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
544 expected file size
545 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
546 allowing some players to play the video
547 while downloading, and reducing the chance
548 of file corruption if download is
549 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
550 live streams
551 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
552 videos. This is default when not downloading
553 live streams
554 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
555 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
556 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
557 timestamps are calculated from the end.
558 "*from-url" can be used to download between
559 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
560 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
561 be used multiple times to download multiple
562 sections, e.g. --download-sections
563 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
564 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
565 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
566 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
567 use it for. Currently supports native,
568 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
569 wget. You can use this option multiple times
570 to set different downloaders for different
571 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
572 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
573 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
574 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
575 (Alias: --external-downloader)
576 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
577 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
578 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
579 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
580 positions using the same syntax as
581 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
582 option multiple times to give different
583 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
584 --external-downloader-args)
586 ## Filesystem Options:
587 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
588 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
589 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
590 comments and ignored
591 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
592 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
593 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
594 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
595 TYPES as --output are supported.
596 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
597 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
598 files are first downloaded to the temp path
599 and then the final files are moved over to
600 the home path after download is finished.
601 This option is ignored if --output is an
602 absolute path
603 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
604 TEMPLATE" for details
605 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
606 --output (default: "NA")
607 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
608 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
609 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
610 filenames (default)
611 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
612 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
613 using Windows (default)
614 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
615 extension) to the specified number of
616 characters
617 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
618 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
619 option includes --no-continue
620 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
621 related files (default)
622 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
623 (default)
624 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
625 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
626 restart download of the entire file
627 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
628 into output file (default)
629 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
630 output file
631 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
632 modification time (default)
633 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
634 the file modification time
635 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
636 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
637 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
638 (this may contain personal information)
639 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
640 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
641 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
642 --write-description etc. (default)
643 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
644 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
645 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
646 filenames from the infojson (default)
647 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
648 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
649 infojson. The comments are fetched even
650 without this option if the extraction is
651 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
652 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
653 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
654 --no-get-comments)
655 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
656 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
657 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
658 and dump cookie jar in
659 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
660 (default)
661 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
662 The name of the browser to load cookies
663 from. Currently supported browsers are:
664 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
665 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
666 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
667 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
668 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
669 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
670 be given with their respective seperators.
671 By default, all containers of the most
672 recently accessed profile are used.
673 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
674 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
675 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
676 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
677 store some downloaded information (such as
678 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
679 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
680 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
681 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
683 ## Thumbnail Options:
684 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
685 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
686 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
687 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
688 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
690 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
691 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
692 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
693 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
694 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
695 OS caches the URL based on the file path
696 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
697 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
699 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
700 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
701 print the log to stderr
702 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
703 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
704 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
705 anything to disk
706 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
707 options are used
708 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
709 extracting metadata even if the videos are
710 not actually available for download
711 (experimental)
712 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
713 formats are found (default)
714 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
715 related files (Alias: --no-download)
716 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
717 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
718 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
719 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
720 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
721 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
722 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
723 used. This option can be used multiple times
724 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
725 Append given template to the file. The
726 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
727 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
728 output template. This option can be used
729 multiple times
730 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
731 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
732 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
733 description of available keys
734 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
735 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
736 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
737 a playlist, the whole playlist information
738 is dumped in a single line
739 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
740 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
741 another simulation option is used (Alias:
742 --force-download-archive)
743 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
744 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
745 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
746 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
747 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
748 Template for progress outputs, optionally
749 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
750 "download-title:" (the console title),
751 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
752 The video's fields are accessible under the
753 "info" key and the progress attributes are
754 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
755 --console-title --progress-template
756 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
757 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
758 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
759 to debug problems (very verbose)
760 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
761 in the current directory to debug problems
762 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
764 ## Workarounds:
765 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
766 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
767 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
768 renegotiation
769 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
770 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
771 information about the video (Currently
772 supported only for YouTube)
773 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
774 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
775 option multiple times
776 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
777 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
778 or fribidi executable in PATH
779 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
780 during data extraction
781 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
782 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
783 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
784 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
785 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
786 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
787 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
788 subtitle download
790 ## Video Format Options:
791 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
792 for more details
793 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
794 "Sorting Formats" for more details
795 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
796 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
797 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
798 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
799 specified sort order (default)
800 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
801 into a single file
802 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
803 output file (default)
804 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
805 into a single file
806 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
807 output file (default)
808 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
809 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
810 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
811 irrespective of quality
812 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
813 containers (default)
814 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
815 those that are actually downloadable
816 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
817 actually downloadable
818 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
819 downloadable
820 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
821 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
822 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
823 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
824 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
825 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
827 ## Subtitle Options:
828 --write-subs Write subtitle file
829 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
830 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
831 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
832 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
833 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
834 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
835 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
836 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
837 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
838 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
839 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
840 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
841 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
842 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
843 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
844 of available language tags
846 ## Authentication Options:
847 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
848 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
849 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
850 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
851 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
852 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
853 either the path or its containing directory.
854 Defaults to ~/.netrc
855 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
856 for an extractor.
857 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
858 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
859 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
860 a list of available MSOs
861 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
862 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
863 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
864 interactively
865 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
866 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
867 format. May include the private key
868 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
869 Path to private key file for client
870 certificate
871 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
872 Password for client certificate private key,
873 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
874 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
876 ## Post-Processing Options:
877 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
878 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
879 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
880 used. (currently supported: best (default),
881 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
882 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
883 similar syntax as --remux-video
884 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
885 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
886 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
887 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
888 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
889 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
890 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
891 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
892 wav). If target container does not support
893 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
894 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
895 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
896 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
897 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
898 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
899 are the same as --remux-video
900 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
901 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
902 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
903 to give the argument to the specified
904 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
905 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
906 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
907 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
908 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
909 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
910 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
911 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
912 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
913 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
914 specified executable only when being used by
915 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
916 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
917 appended to the prefix optionally followed
918 by a number to pass the argument before the
919 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
920 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
921 this option multiple times to give different
922 arguments to different postprocessors.
923 (Alias: --ppa)
924 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
925 after post-processing
926 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
927 post-processing (default)
928 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
929 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
930 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
931 webm and mkv videos)
932 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
933 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
934 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
935 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
936 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
937 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
938 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
939 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
940 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
941 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
942 (Alias: --add-chapters)
943 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
944 --no-add-chapters)
945 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
946 mkv/mka video files
947 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
948 to the video file
949 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
950 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
951 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
952 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
953 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
954 (default: pre_process)
955 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
956 Replace text in a metadata field using the
957 given regex. This option can be used
958 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
959 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
960 (default: pre_process)
961 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
962 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
963 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
964 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
965 (default; only when the videos form a single
966 show). All the video files must have same
967 codecs and number of streams to be
968 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
969 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
970 the output filename for the concatenated
971 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
972 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
973 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
974 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
975 default; fix file if we can, warn
976 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
977 already exists)
978 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
979 path to the binary or its containing directory
980 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
981 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
982 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
983 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
984 after_move). Same syntax as the output
985 template can be used to pass any field as
986 arguments to the command. If no fields are
987 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
988 to the end of the command. This option can
989 be used multiple times
990 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
991 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
992 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
993 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
994 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
995 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
996 can specify multiple rules using similar
997 syntax as --remux-video
998 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
999 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1000 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1001 the output filename for the split files. See
1002 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1003 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1004 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1005 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1006 same as --download-sections. This option can
1007 be used multiple times
1008 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1009 (default)
1010 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1011 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1012 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1013 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1014 around the cuts
1015 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1016 when cutting/splitting (default)
1017 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1018 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1019 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1020 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1021 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1022 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1023 The "when" argument determines when the
1024 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1025 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1026 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1027 "video" (after --format; before
1028 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1029 video download), "post_process" (after each
1030 video download; default), "after_move"
1031 (after moving video file to it's final
1032 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1033 and processing all formats of a video), or
1034 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1035 can be used multiple times to add different
1036 postprocessors
1038 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1039 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1040 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1041 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1043 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1044 for, separated by commas. Available
1045 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1046 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1047 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1048 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1049 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1050 for description of the categories. E.g.
1051 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1052 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1053 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1054 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1055 category is present in both mark and remove,
1056 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1057 available categories are the same as for
1058 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1059 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
1060 chapter are not available
1061 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1062 An output template for the title of the
1063 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1064 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1065 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1066 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1067 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1068 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1069 --sponsorblock-remove
1070 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1071 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1073 ## Extractor Options:
1074 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1075 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1076 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1077 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1078 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1079 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1080 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1081 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1082 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1083 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1084 (default)
1085 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1086 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1087 can use this option multiple times to give
1088 arguments for different extractors
1090 # CONFIGURATION
1092 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1094 1. **Main Configuration**:
1095 * The file given to `--config-location`
1096 1. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1097 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1098 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
1099 1. **Home Configuration**:
1100 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given to `-P`
1101 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
1102 1. **User Configuration**:
1103 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
1104 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1105 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1106 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
1107 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1108 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1109 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1110 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1111 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1112 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
1114 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
1115 1. **System Configuration**:
1116 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1117 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1118 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1120 E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
1121 ```
1122 # Lines starting with # are comments
1124 # Always extract audio
1125 -x
1127 # Do not copy the mtime
1128 --no-mtime
1130 # Use this proxy
1131 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1133 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1134 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1135 ```
1137 **Note**: 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`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
1139 You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp 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 home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
1141 ### Configuration file encoding
1143 The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1145 If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
1147 ### Authentication with netrc
1149 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 yt-dlp 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 `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
1150 ```
1151 touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1152 chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
1153 ```
1154 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1155 ```
1156 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1157 ```
1158 E.g.
1159 ```
1160 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1161 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1162 ```
1163 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1165 The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1167 As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
1169 E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1170 ```
1171 yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1172 ```
1175 ### Notes about environment variables
1176 * Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1177 * yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1178 * If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1179 * On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1180 * On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
1182 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1184 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.
1186 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1187 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1188 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1190 The simplest usage of `-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is _not_ recommended and could break some post-processing).
1192 It may however also 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/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
1194 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1196 1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
1198 1. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using `+`, `-` and `*`. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1200 1. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
1202 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1204 1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
1206 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1208 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
1210 1. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [Unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1212 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1213 ```
1214 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1215 ```
1217 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. E.g. `-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. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1219 <a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"></a>
1221 **Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
1223 The available fields are:
1225 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1226 - `title` (string): Video title
1227 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1228 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1229 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1230 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1231 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1232 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1233 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1234 - `uploader_url` (string): URL to the video uploader's profile
1235 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1236 - `creators` (list): The creators of the video
1237 - `creator` (string): The creators of the video; comma-separated
1238 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1239 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1240 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1241 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1242 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
1243 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1244 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1245 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1246 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1247 - `channel_url` (string): URL of the channel
1248 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1249 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
1250 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1251 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1252 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1253 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1254 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
1255 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1256 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1257 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1258 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1259 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
1260 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1261 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1262 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1263 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1264 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1265 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1266 - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
1267 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1268 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1269 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1270 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1271 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1272 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
1273 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1274 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1275 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1276 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1277 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
1278 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1279 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1280 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1281 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1282 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1283 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1284 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1285 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1286 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1287 - `categories` (list): List of categories the video belongs to
1288 - `tags` (list): List of tags assigned to the video
1289 - `cast` (list): List of cast members
1291 All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
1293 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1295 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1296 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1297 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1299 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1301 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1302 - `series_id` (string): Id of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1303 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1304 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1305 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1306 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1307 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1308 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1310 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1312 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1313 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1314 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1315 - `artists` (list): Artist(s) of the track
1316 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track; comma-separated
1317 - `genres` (list): Genre(s) of the track
1318 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track; comma-separated
1319 - `composers` (list): Composer(s) of the piece
1320 - `composer` (string): Composer(s) of the piece; comma-separated
1321 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1322 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1323 - `album_artists` (list): All artists appeared on the album
1324 - `album_artist` (string): All artists appeared on the album; comma-separated
1325 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1327 Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1329 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1330 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1331 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1332 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1334 Available only when used in `--print`:
1336 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1337 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
1338 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1339 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1340 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1341 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1343 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
1345 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1347 Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1349 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1350 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1351 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
1352 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1353 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1354 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1355 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
1357 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1359 **Note**: 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).
1361 **Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1363 For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
1365 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.
1367 To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1369 The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1371 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.
1373 #### Output template examples
1375 ```bash
1376 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1377 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1379 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1380 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1382 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1383 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1385 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1386 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1388 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1389 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1391 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1392 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1394 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1395 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1397 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1398 $ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
1400 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1401 $ yt-dlp -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"
1403 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1404 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1405 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1407 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1408 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1410 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1411 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1412 ```
1414 # FORMAT SELECTION
1416 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1417 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 yt-dlp to stream to `stdout` (`-o -`), the default becomes `-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
1419 **Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to `-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the `-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1421 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.
1423 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1424 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1425 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1427 The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. 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.
1429 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.
1431 You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1433 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1435 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1436 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1437 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1438 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1439 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1440 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1441 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1442 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
1443 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1444 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1445 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
1446 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1447 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
1448 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
1450 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to 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 `-S +size` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1452 You can select the n'th best format of a type by using `best<type>.<n>`. For example, `best.2` will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, `bv*.3` will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.
1454 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; e.g. `-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.
1456 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`.
1458 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1460 **Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1462 Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` 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 only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
1464 ## Filtering Formats
1466 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
1468 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1470 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1471 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
1472 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1473 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1474 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
1475 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1476 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1477 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1478 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1479 - `fps`: Frame rate
1480 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1481 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1483 Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1485 - `url`: Video URL
1486 - `ext`: File extension
1487 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1488 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1489 - `container`: Name of the container format
1490 - `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`)
1491 - `language`: Language code
1492 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1493 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1494 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1495 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1496 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
1498 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-`.
1500 **Note**: 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 website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
1502 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 "bv[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. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
1504 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
1506 ## Sorting Formats
1508 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...`.
1510 The available fields are:
1512 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1513 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
1514 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1515 - `lang`: The language preference
1516 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1517 - `source`: The preference of the source
1518 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1519 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1520 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
1521 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
1522 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1523 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
1524 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
1525 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1526 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
1527 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1528 - `height`: Height of video
1529 - `width`: Width of video
1530 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1531 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1532 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
1533 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
1534 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1535 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1536 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1537 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
1538 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1540 **Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
1542 All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `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 preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `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. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1544 The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1546 Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
1548 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 respects. 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`.
1550 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1552 ## Format Selection examples
1554 ```bash
1555 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1556 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1557 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1559 # Download best format that contains video,
1560 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1561 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1563 # Same as above
1564 $ yt-dlp
1566 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1567 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1568 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1569 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1571 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1572 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1573 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1575 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1576 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1577 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1580 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1581 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1583 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1584 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1586 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1587 $ yt-dlp -S "+res"
1589 # Download the smallest video available
1590 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1594 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1595 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1597 # Download the best video with the best extension
1598 # (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1599 $ yt-dlp -S "ext"
1603 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1604 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1605 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1607 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1608 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1609 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1611 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1612 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1613 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1614 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1615 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1619 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1620 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1621 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1623 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1624 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1625 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1627 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1628 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1632 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1633 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1634 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1636 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1637 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1638 $ yt-dlp -S "proto"
1642 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1643 # or the best video if there is no such video
1644 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1646 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1647 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1648 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1650 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1651 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1652 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1656 # More complex examples
1658 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1659 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1660 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1662 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1663 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1664 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1665 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1669 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1670 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1671 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1672 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1673 ```
1675 # MODIFYING METADATA
1677 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
1679 `--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [Python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
1681 The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [Python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
1683 Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
1685 This option also has a few special uses:
1687 * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)"` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1689 * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
1691 **Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1693 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1695 Metadata fields | From
1696 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1697 `title` | `track` or `title`
1698 `date` | `upload_date`
1699 `description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1700 `purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1701 `track` | `track_number`
1702 `artist` | `artist`, `artists`, `creator`, `creators`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1703 `composer` | `composer` or `composers`
1704 `genre` | `genre` or `genres`
1705 `album` | `album`
1706 `album_artist` | `album_artist` or `album_artists`
1707 `disc` | `disc_number`
1708 `show` | `series`
1709 `season_number` | `season_number`
1710 `episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1711 `episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1712 `language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1714 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1717 ## Modifying metadata examples
1719 ```bash
1720 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1721 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1723 # Regex example
1724 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1726 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1727 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1729 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1730 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
1732 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1733 # handling multiple lines correctly
1734 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
1736 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1737 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1739 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1740 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
1742 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1743 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1745 ```
1747 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1749 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
1751 Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1753 The following extractors use this feature:
1755 #### youtube
1756 * `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
1757 * `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
1758 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
1759 * `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
1760 * `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
1761 * `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1762 * `max_comments`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread`. Default is `all,all,all,all`
1763 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
1764 * `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1765 * `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
1766 * `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1767 * `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
1769 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1770 * `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
1771 * `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1773 #### generic
1774 * `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1775 * `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
1776 * `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
1777 * `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
1779 #### funimation
1780 * `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1781 * `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1783 #### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
1784 * `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
1785 * `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1787 #### vikichannel
1788 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
1790 #### niconico
1791 * `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1793 #### youtubewebarchive
1794 * `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1796 #### gamejolt
1797 * `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1799 #### hotstar
1800 * `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1801 * `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1802 * `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1804 #### niconicochannelplus
1805 * `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1807 #### tiktok
1808 * `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
1809 * `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1810 * `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1812 #### rokfinchannel
1813 * `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
1815 #### twitter
1816 * `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
1818 #### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
1819 * `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1821 #### twitch
1822 * `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
1824 #### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1825 * `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1827 #### nflplusreplay
1828 * `type`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game`, `full_game_spanish`, `condensed_game` and `all_22`. You can use `all` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
1830 #### jiosaavn
1831 * `bitrate`: Audio bitrates to request. One or more of `16`, `32`, `64`, `128`, `320`. Default is `128,320`
1833 **Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1835 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1838 # PLUGINS
1840 Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. **Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code!**
1842 Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1843 - Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1844 - Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1845 - Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1848 Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
1850 In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1852 yt_dlp_plugins/
1853 extractor/
1854 myplugin.py
1855 postprocessor/
1856 myplugin.py
1858 yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
1860 See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1862 ## Installing Plugins
1864 Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1866 1. **Configuration directories**:
1867 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1868 * **User Plugins**
1869 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1870 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1871 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
1872 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1873 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1874 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1875 * **System Plugins**
1876 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1877 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1878 2. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
1879 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1880 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1882 3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
1883 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
1884 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
1885 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1886 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1889 `.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1890 * e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
1892 Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
1894 ## Developing Plugins
1896 See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
1898 All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
1900 To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
1902 If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
1904 See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
1906 # EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1908 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1910 Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J`, `--print`, `--progress-template`, `--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1912 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1914 ```python
1915 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1917 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1918 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1919 ydl.download(URLS)
1920 ```
1922 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
1924 **Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
1926 ## Embedding examples
1928 #### Extracting information
1930 ```python
1931 import json
1932 import yt_dlp
1934 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1936 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1937 ydl_opts = {}
1938 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1939 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1941 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1942 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1943 ```
1944 #### Download using an info-json
1946 ```python
1947 import yt_dlp
1949 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1951 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1952 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1954 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1955 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1956 ```
1958 #### Extract audio
1960 ```python
1961 import yt_dlp
1963 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1965 ydl_opts = {
1966 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1967 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1968 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1969 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1970 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1971 }]
1972 }
1974 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1975 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1976 ```
1978 #### Filter videos
1980 ```python
1981 import yt_dlp
1983 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1985 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1986 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1987 duration = info.get('duration')
1988 if duration and duration < 60:
1989 return 'The video is too short'
1991 ydl_opts = {
1992 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1993 }
1995 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1996 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1997 ```
1999 #### Adding logger and progress hook
2001 ```python
2002 import yt_dlp
2004 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2006 class MyLogger:
2007 def debug(self, msg):
2008 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
2009 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2010 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2011 pass
2012 else:
2013 self.info(msg)
2015 def info(self, msg):
2016 pass
2018 def warning(self, msg):
2019 pass
2021 def error(self, msg):
2022 print(msg)
2025 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2026 def my_hook(d):
2027 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2028 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2031 ydl_opts = {
2032 'logger': MyLogger(),
2033 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2034 }
2036 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2037 ydl.download(URLS)
2038 ```
2040 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
2042 ```python
2043 import yt_dlp
2045 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2047 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
2048 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
2049 def run(self, info):
2050 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2051 return [], info
2054 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2055 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2056 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
2057 ydl.download(URLS)
2058 ```
2061 #### Use a custom format selector
2063 ```python
2064 import yt_dlp
2066 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2068 def format_selector(ctx):
2069 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
2070 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
2072 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2073 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2075 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2076 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2077 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2079 # find compatible audio extension
2080 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2081 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2082 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2083 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2085 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2086 yield {
2087 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2088 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2089 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2090 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2091 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2092 }
2095 ydl_opts = {
2096 'format': format_selector,
2097 }
2099 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2100 ydl.download(URLS)
2101 ```
2104 # CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL
2106 ### New features
2108 * Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@be008e6**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/be008e657d79832642e2158557c899249c9e31cd) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
2110 * **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
2112 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
2114 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
2116 * **YouTube improvements**:
2117 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
2118 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
2119 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
2120 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
2121 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
2123 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
2125 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
2127 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
2129 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
2131 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
2133 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
2135 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
2137 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
2139 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
2141 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
2143 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
2145 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
2147 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
2149 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
2151 * **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
2153 * **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
2155 See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
2157 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
2159 ### Differences in default behavior
2161 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
2163 * yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.8+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
2164 * The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
2165 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
2166 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
2167 * The default [output template](#output-template) is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use `--compat-options filename`
2168 * The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
2169 * The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
2170 * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
2171 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
2172 * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
2173 * `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
2174 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
2175 * `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like `--playlist-reverse` and `--playlist-items`. See [#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use `--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
2176 * The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
2177 * Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
2178 * YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
2179 * Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
2180 * The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
2181 * If `ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use `--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
2182 * Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
2183 * Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
2184 * When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
2185 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
2186 * yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
2187 * ~~yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [aria2c](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is~~
2188 * yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
2189 * yt-dlp versions between 2021.11.10 and 2023.06.21 estimated `filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in [f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in [0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use `--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
2190 * yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as `requests`. Use `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
2191 * The sub-modules `swfinterp`, `casefold` are removed.
2193 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
2195 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
2196 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2197 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2198 * `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
2199 * `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options 2023,playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress,prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`
2200 * `--compat-options 2023`: Currently does nothing. Use this to enable all future compat options
2202 ### Deprecated options
2204 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2206 #### Almost redundant options
2207 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2209 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2210 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2211 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2212 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2214 #### Redundant options
2215 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2217 --get-description --print description
2218 --get-duration --print duration_string
2219 --get-filename --print filename
2220 --get-format --print format
2221 --get-id --print id
2222 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2223 -e, --get-title --print title
2224 -g, --get-url --print urls
2225 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2226 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2227 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2228 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2229 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
2230 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2231 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2232 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2233 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2234 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2235 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2236 --no-colors --color no_color
2238 #### Not recommended
2239 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2241 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2242 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2243 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2244 --all-formats -f all
2245 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2246 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2247 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2248 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2249 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2250 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2251 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2252 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2253 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2254 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2255 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2256 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2257 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2258 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2259 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2260 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2261 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2262 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
2264 #### Developer options
2265 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2267 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2268 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2269 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2270 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2271 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2273 #### Old aliases
2274 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2276 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2277 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2278 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2279 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2280 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2281 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2282 --load-info --load-info-json
2283 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2284 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2285 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2286 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2287 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2288 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2289 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2290 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2291 --write-srt --write-subs
2292 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2294 #### Sponskrub Options
2295 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
2297 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2298 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2299 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2300 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2301 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2302 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2303 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2304 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2306 #### No longer supported
2307 These options may no longer work as intended
2309 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2310 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2311 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2312 --no-call-home Default
2313 --include-ads No longer supported
2314 --no-include-ads Default
2315 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2316 --no-write-annotations Default
2317 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2319 #### Removed
2320 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2322 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2323 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2326 # CONTRIBUTING
2327 See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
2329 # WIKI
2330 See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information