Download YouTube (or any) videos with yt-dlp
Table of Contents
Installations #
Linux and Mac #
For the Linux elitists and Apple users, you can use the command line and
install it with your package manager. I.e. sudo apt install yt-dlp
You can also download the lastest release for your OS.
Windows #
Windows users can also download the
yt-dlp.exe release
file.
Or better yet, ditch the old way of downloading anything and use tools like
Chocolatey (learn more about
Chocolatey from my previoius
post)
choco install yt-dlp
Update #
If you need the latest version of yt-dlp (E.g. stable release distro user),
you can get the lastest version of yt-dlp by downloading the latest
release
file or run:
yt-dlp --update
Usage #
Basic: Downloading a video #
yt-dlp "LINK"
# Example
yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
Common Usage #
| Command | Function |
|---|---|
yt-dlp --yes-playlist "LINK" |
Download a playlist of videos |
yt-dlp --extract-audio "LINK" |
Download only the audio |
yt-dlp --extract-audio --yes-playlist "LINK" |
Download a playlist of audios |
yt-dlp --extract-audio --yes-playlist -o "%(playlist_index)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" "LINK" |
Download a playlist of audios with filename in the pattern of “01-filename.mp3” |
Useful Options #
| Option | Function |
|---|---|
--ignore-errors |
Not interrupting the download when encountered errors |
--recode-video mkv |
Change the format of your downloaded video/audio (mkv here) (require ffmpeg) |
--geo-bypass |
Bypass geographic restrictions |
--playlist-items 4-20 |
Only download certain videos from a playlist (4th to 20th here) |
Numbered playlist download #
yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" "LINK"
This command will download and output your file as ordered in the playlist. Credit to Iman Mohamadi
Need help? #
How do I know all these options? Remember the manual is your friend. Hence, people often says RTFM, they just reminding you to Read That Friendly Manual. If you need any help, try the manual first before searching them online.
yt-dlp --help
Background #
yt-dlp is a fork of youtube-dl, which is a popular YouTube video downloader
in the command line. You can think of yt-dlp as the enhanced version of her
predecessor.
Despite the name, they are used to download videos from all kinds of
websites. Use list-extractors to know which platform is supported.
Why yt-dlp over youtube-dl? #
youtube-dl can be very slow and a lot of times, painfully so.
Most of the time I get less than 100Kb/s when using it. With yt-dlp, in the
same environment and WiFi network, I get at least a few Mb/s. The difference is
night and day.