youtube-dl --help
Usage: youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
Options:
General Options:
-h, --help Print this help text and exit
--version Print program version and exit
-U, --update Update this program to latest version.
Make sure that you have sufficient
permissions (run with sudo if needed)
-i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example
to skip unavailable videos in a playlist
--abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in
the playlist or the command line) if an
error occurs
--dump-user-agent Display the current browser
identification
--list-extractors List all supported extractors
--extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
extractors
--force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
extractor
--default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs.
For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two
videos from google videos for youtube-dl
"large apple". Use the value "auto" to
let youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to
emit a warning when guessing). "error"
just throws an error. The default value
"fixup_error" repairs broken URLs, but
emits an error if this is not possible
instead of searching.
--ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When
given in the global configuration file
/etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the
user configuration in ~/.config/youtube-
dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-
dl/config.txt on Windows)
--config-location PATH Location of the configuration file;
either the path to the config or its
containing directory.
--flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
only list them.
--mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
--no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube
only)
--no-color Do not emit color codes in output
Network Options:
--proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS
proxy. To enable experimental SOCKS
proxy, specify a proper scheme. For
example socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass
in an empty string (--proxy "") for
direct connection
--socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in
seconds
--source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
-4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
-6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
Geo Restriction:
--geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address
for some geo-restricted sites. The
default proxy specified by --proxy (or
none, if the options is not present) is
used for the actual downloading.
--geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
(experimental)
--no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
(experimental)
--geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-2 country code (experimental)
Video Selection:
--playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
--playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is
last)
--playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download.
Specify indices of the videos in the
playlist separated by commas like:
"--playlist-items 1,2,5,8" if you want
to download videos indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in
the playlist. You can specify range:
"--playlist-items 1-3,7,10-13", it will
download the videos at index 1, 2, 3, 7,
10, 11, 12 and 13.
--match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
caseless sub-string)
--reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex
or caseless sub-string)
--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
--min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
--max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than
SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
--date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this
date
--datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or
before this date (i.e. inclusive)
--dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or
after this date (i.e. inclusive)
--min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less
than COUNT views
--max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more
than COUNT views
--match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key
(see the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of
available keys) to match if the key is
present, !key to check if the key is not
present, key > NUMBER (like
"comment_count > 12", also works with
>=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare against a
number, key = 'LITERAL' (like "uploader
= 'Mike Smith'", also works with !=) to
match against a string literal and & to
require multiple matches. Values which
are not known are excluded unless you
put a question mark (?) after the
operator. For example, to only match
videos that have been liked more than
100 times and disliked less than 50
times (or the dislike functionality is
not available at the given service), but
who also have a description, use
--match-filter "like_count > 100 &
dislike_count --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL
refers to a video and a playlist.
--yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers
to a video and a playlist.
--age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the
given age
--download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
archive file. Record the IDs of all
downloaded videos in it.
--include-ads Download advertisements as well
(experimental)
Download Options:
-r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per
second (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
-R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
"infinite".
--fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment
(default is 10), or "infinite" (DASH,
hlsnative and ISM)
--skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments (DASH,
hlsnative and ISM)
--abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading when some fragment is
not available
--keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
downloading is finished; fragments are
erased by default
--buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or
16K) (default is 1024)
--no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer
size. By default, the buffer size is
automatically resized from an initial
value of SIZE.
--http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M)
(default is disabled). May be useful for
bypassing bandwidth throttling imposed
by a webserver (experimental)
--playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse
order
--playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
--xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
expected file size (experimental)
--hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
ffmpeg
--hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
downloader
--hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
allowing to play the video while
downloading (some players may not be
able to play it)
--external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
Currently supports aria2c,avconv,axel,cu
rl,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
--external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
downloader
Filesystem Options:
-a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-'
for stdin)
--id Use only video ID in file name
-o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the
"OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for all the info
--autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for
%(autonumber)s (default is 1)
--restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
filenames
-w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
-c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded
files. By default, youtube-dl will
resume downloads if possible.
--no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files
(restart from beginning)
--no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
into output file
--no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to
set the file modification time
--write-description Write video description to a
.description file
--write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json
file
--write-annotations Write video annotations to a
.annotations.xml file
--load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video
information (created with the "--write-
info-json" option)
--cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump
cookie jar in
--cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where
youtube-dl can store some downloaded
information permanently. By default
$XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache
/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
YouTube player files (for videos with
obfuscated signatures) are cached, but
that may change.
--no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
--rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
Thumbnail images:
--write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
--write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to
disk
--list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available
thumbnail formats
Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
--no-warnings Ignore warnings
-s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not
write anything to disk
--skip-download Do not download the video
-g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
-e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
--get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
--get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
--get-description Simulate, quiet but print video
description
--get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
--get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output
filename
--get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
-j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON
information. See the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
for a description of available keys.
-J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON
information for each command-line
argument. If the URL refers to a
playlist, dump the whole playlist
information in a single line.
--print-json Be quiet and print the video information
as JSON (video is still being
downloaded).
--newline Output progress bar as new lines
--no-progress Do not print progress bar
--console-title Display progress in console titlebar
-v, --verbose Print various debugging information
--dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using
base64 to debug problems (very verbose)
--write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
files in the current directory to debug
problems
--print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
-C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for
debugging
--no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for
debugging
Workarounds:
--encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding
(experimental)
--no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
--prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to
retrieve information about the video.
(Currently supported only for YouTube)
--user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
--referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the
video access is restricted to one domain
--add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its
value, separated by a colon ':'. You can
use this option multiple times
--bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
bidirectional text support. Requires
bidiv or fribidi executable in PATH
--sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
download when used alone or a lower
bound of a range for randomized sleep
before each download (minimum possible
number of seconds to sleep) when used
along with --max-sleep-interval.
--max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized
sleep before each download (maximum
possible number of seconds to sleep).
Must only be used along with --min-
sleep-interval.
Video Format Options:
-f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT
SELECTION" for all the info
--all-formats Download all available video formats
--prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a
specific one is requested
-F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
videos
--youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
related data on YouTube videos
--merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is
required
Subtitle Options:
--write-sub Write subtitle file
--write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle
file (YouTube only)
--all-subs Download all the available subtitles of
the video
--list-subs List all available subtitles for the
video
--sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
preference, for example: "srt" or
"ass/srt/best"
--sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
(optional) separated by commas, use
--list-subs for available language tags
Authentication Options:
-u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
-p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
-2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
-n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
--video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
Adobe Pass Options:
--ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso
for a list of available MSOs
--ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
--ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account
password. If this option is left out,
youtube-dl will ask interactively.
--ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
operators
Post-processing Options:
-x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
(requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe
or avprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
"flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis",
or "wav"; "best" by default; No effect
without -x
--audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality,
insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
(worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate
like 128K (default 5)
--recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
necessary (currently supported:
mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
--postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the
postprocessor
-k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the
post-processing; the video is erased by
default
--no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files;
the post-processed files are overwritten
by default
--embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for
mp4, webm and mkv videos)
--embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover
art
--add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
--metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song
title / artist from the video title. The
format syntax is the same as --output.
Regular expression with named capture
groups may also be used. The parsed
parameters replace existing values.
Example: --metadata-from-title
"%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a title
like "Coldplay - Paradise". Example
(regex): --metadata-from-title
"(?P
.+?) - (?P.+)"</p>
<p>
--xattrs Write metadata to the video file's</p>
<p>
xattrs (using dublin core and xdg</p>
<p>
standards)</p>
<p>
--fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of</p>
<p>
the file. One of never (do nothing),</p>
<p>
warn (only emit a warning),</p>
<p>
detect_or_warn (the default; fix file if</p>
<p>
we can, warn otherwise)</p>
<p>
--prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running</p>
<p>
the postprocessors (default)</p>
<p>
--prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running</p>
<p>
the postprocessors</p>
<p>
--ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;</p>
<p>
either the path to the binary or its</p>
<p>
containing directory.</p>
<p>
--exec CMD Execute a command on the file after</p>
<p>
downloading, similar to find's -exec</p>
<p>
syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}</p>
<p>
/sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'</p>
<p>
--convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format</p>
<p>
(currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)</p>
<p>
<br></p>
