Have you ever wanted to download a video from YouTube? Perhaps you only need to extract the audio from the video, but didn’t need the video? Youtube-dl is a command-line utility that allows you to download video (or audio) from a variety of supported video websites
Installation
The quickest way to to install FFmpeg is through Homebrew in Terminal.
brew install youtube-dl
Next, you will need to install FFmpeg to help with the video encoding process.
brew install ffmpeg
Youtube-dl has a vast number of configuration options, which are beyond the scope of this blog post. However, below are the options I found the most useful
Download a video from YouTube
Using the string below will pull the best-uploaded video and audio file from YouTube and merge both files together.
youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best' "<Video-URL>"
Extracting audio
Extracting just the audio is fairly straightforward, just enter the text string below. The –embed-thumbnail command is optional and works with the mp3 file format. You can replace mp3 with other audio formats such as flac.
youtube-dl -f bestaudio --extract-audio --embed-thumbnail --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 "<Video-URL>"
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 SOCKS proxy, specify a
proper scheme. For example
socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an
empty string (--proxy "") for direct
connection
--socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in
seconds
--source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
-4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
-6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
Geo Restriction:
--geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address
for some geo-restricted sites. The
default proxy specified by --proxy (or
none, if the option is not present) is
used for the actual downloading.
--geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via
faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
--no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction
via faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
--geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction
with explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-2 country code
--geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction
with explicitly provided IP block in
CIDR notation
Video Selection:
--playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
--playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is
last)
--playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download.
Specify indices of the videos in the
playlist separated by commas like: "--
playlist-items 1,2,5,8" if you want to
download videos indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in
the playlist. You can specify range: "
--playlist-items 1-3,7,10-13", it will
download the videos at index 1, 2, 3,
7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
--match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
caseless sub-string)
--reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles
(regex or caseless sub-string)
--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
--min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
--max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than
SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
--date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this
date
--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 <? 50 & description" .
--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
--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,c
url,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), one URL per line. Lines
starting with '#', ';' or ']' are
considered as comments and ignored.
--id Use only video ID in file name
-o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the
"OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for all the info
--output-na-placeholder PLACEHOLDER Placeholder value for unavailable meta
fields in output filename template
(default is "NA")
--autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for
%(autonumber)s (default is 1)
--restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
filenames
-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, 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/avconv and
ffprobe/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<artist>.+?) - (?P<title>.+)"
--xattrs Write metadata to the video file's
xattrs (using dublin core and xdg
standards)
--fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of
the file. One of never (do nothing),
warn (only emit a warning),
detect_or_warn (the default; fix file
if we can, warn otherwise)
--prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running
the postprocessors
--prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running
the postprocessors (default)
--ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
either the path to the binary or its
containing directory.
--exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
downloading and post-processing,
similar to find's -exec syntax.
Example: --exec 'adb push {}
/sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
--convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
(currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
